"Muslims were trading with original Australians for centuries before Cook invaded.

"Muslims were trading with original Australians for centuries before Cook invaded.

Quick history lesson for anyone screaming that Islam is “taking over Australia”.

Because this might shock you, Muslims were trading with Indigenous Australians long before Captain Cook ever tripped over the place.

Let’s do a timeline, since vibes clearly aren’t working.

Pre-1600s to early 1700s

Muslim sailors from Makassar, in today’s Indonesia, are already navigating to northern Australia. These were skilled seafarers running seasonal trading voyages, not lost fishermen. They came in praus, timed with monsoon winds, year after year.

Circa 1700 to 1907

For roughly 200 years, Macassan Muslim traders regularly visited Arnhem Land and surrounding coasts. That is two centuries of sustained contact. They harvested trepang (sea cucumbers) and traded with Aboriginal communities. This wasn’t chaos. It was organised commerce.

What did that look like?

Indigenous Australians provided labour, local knowledge, and access to coastal sites. Macassans traded goods, including metal tools. Tamarind trees, which are not native to Australia, still grow near old Macassan camp sites. Rock art depicts Macassan boats

Northern Indigenous languages contain Macassan loanwords. That’s not “infiltration”. That’s a working international trade relationship.

1770

Captain Cook shows up. And let’s be clear, he didn’t “discover” anything. Indigenous Australians had been living here for over 60,000 years, and Muslim traders had been visiting for generations before Cook planted a flag and started the paperwork for dispossession.

So no, Islam didn’t arrive after white settlement. It predates it.

1906 to 1907

The newly formed Australian Government bans Macassan trepang trading. The last recorded prau visit happens around this time. Not because anything went wrong, but because White Australia policy didn’t like brown people turning up without permission.

Now fast forward.

1860s to 1930s

Enter the Afghan cameleers. Muslims from regions now known as Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northern India. They didn’t arrive to conquer anything. They arrived because colonial Australia couldn’t function without them.

They:

Opened inland transport routes

Supplied remote towns

Helped build infrastructure across the outback

They also built places of worship.

1888–1889

The Adelaide Mosque is built. It still stands today and is widely recognised as the oldest surviving mosque in Australia. So let’s recap before anyone loses the plot.

Muslims:

Were trading with Indigenous Australians at least 70 years before Captain Cook arrived

Maintained peaceful economic relationships for around 200 years. Helped build inland Australia. Built mosques over 130 years ago.

Did all of this without trying to “take over” anything

And yet somehow, in 2025, people are acting like Islam just showed up last Tuesday with a master plan. If Muslims wanted to take over Australia, they’ve had centuries to do it. Boats, access, trade routes, relationships, no border force, no passports. And what did they do?

They traded sea cucumbers.

Meanwhile, the actual invasion everyone forgets to mention is the one that wiped out cultures, stole land, and rewrote history books to make racism sound respectable.

This isn’t about facts anymore.

It’s about fear.

And fear loves an audience that never checks dates.

Argue with the timeline