Anti-Muslim bias hinders migration, says terror expert

The Australian’s analysis published in a magezine, Australia tends to take non-Muslims over Muslims, even from countries where the majority of people are Muslim.Both major parties insist the trend towards non-Muslim ­migration, apparent since at least 2001.

Pro­fessor Hassan said, “I am sure part of the explanation favours skill migration, but it is difficult to accept that these trends are entirely due to the skill-driven migration program. There may be biased operating which does not favour Muslims.”

Professor Hassan said he wanted to “believe our migration intake is bias-free” but his study suggested that Australia tends to take non-Muslims over Muslims.

This may be because non-Muslims in Muslim-majority countries — are more likely to want to ­migrate.

Research showed Australia’s immigrants from Iran and Iraq were “non-Muslims. These two countries are 99 per cent Muslims.’’

“Pakistan is 95 per cent Muslims but 84 per cent of (Australia’s Pakistani) immigrants are Muslim, and a similar trend applies to ­Afghanistan".

“But what surprised me was that Egypt and Indonesia are 88 per cent Muslim but  12 per cent from Egypt and 17 per cent from Indonesia are Muslim migrants.

“Malaysia is 65 per cent Muslim but only 5.3 per cent migrants were Muslims. Out of 340,604 migrants from India, only 10,125 or 3 per cent were Muslims whereas 14 per cent of the Indian population is Muslim.

“There may be bias operating which does not favour Muslims.”

The Australian last week published research that suggests that Australia is taking fewer than 600 Lebanese Muslims a year; and that Muslims from elsewhere in the Middle East are struggling to grab more than a few hundred of the available places.