History of the Australian Islamic College

History

The Australian Islamic College (previously named the Muslim Community School) opened its doors in February 1986. The school was established with the aim of providing the best quality of academic education based on a framework of Islamic ethos and values. With a modest network of only 2 teachers and 50 students, the College has grown from strength to strength with approximately 2000 students and just over 250 teachers and supporting staff in 2004.

The Thornlie College of the Australian Islamic College opened in 1990 with its Technological Center being developed in 1994. Our first northern College was established in Dianella in 1996 and a new extended building on the school ground was opened in March 2003 to accommodate for the increasing number of primary students.

Our most recent addition has been the Kewdale College, which was purchased in 2000 to cater for the increasing number of high school students. The College offers Kindergarten through to year 12.

Mr Abdallah Magar is the Founder and current Director and Administrator of the College. In his own words, Mr Magar says;

"After coming to Australia in 1966, I continually tried to establish Weekend Islamic Classes. We tried to run classes in a room at the Perth mosque but this was not fully successful. A few years later I was present at a funeral where the deceased person had left behind 3 children, roughly aged 11 (girl), 15 (boy) and 16 (girl). When I went to visit these children the next day I was troubled to find that the elder children had their boyfriend/girlfriends there. I wondered how could I possibly speak to them and console them from an Islamic point of view when these children were so far away from Islam. They would have been unable even to utter any prayer for their deceased parent. This made me think that if this family had moved so far from Islam, there must be many other families like that. After the weekend classes attempt and this incident, I realised that the only way to stop the Muslim youth from losing their Islamic identity was to have a comprehensive Islamic education system with an Islamic environment. An Islamic Environment meant somewhere where the students lived and breathed the Islamic way of life, they were not merely exposed to it for a few hours a week. The outcome of this environment would be full academic achievement, protection from social diseases coupled with success in the Hereafter by being saved from the hellfire."