Anti-Labor critics mislead with claims about Australia teaching Islam in schools

"So it appears that Islam will be promoted in schools and universities and all places of education," reads an X post shared on July 19, 2026.

It includes a video of Australia's Minister for Multicultural Affairs Anne Aly, who was part of a July 18 press conference announcing the government's response to combat Islamophobia. 

"Islamophobia in Australia isn't new. Muslim Australians of my generation will tell you that we've lived with it for most of our lives. But for the first time in my life, there is a government that's talking about it," she says in the video snippet. 

"The 35 recommendations that we are responding to in this report go right across government, particularly in places like educational institutions, universities and schools."

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Screenshot of the misleading post captured on August 3, 2026, with an orange X added by AFP

The recommendations Aly mentioned are from a report released in September 2025 by Australia's Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia Aftab Malik, in which he laid out what the government could do to confront Islamophobia, hate and prejudice in Australian society (archived here and here).

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese held a press conference 10 months later on July 18, alongside Malik, Aly and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, to announce the government's response (archived link). 

These include establishing an Islamophobia Education Taskforce, funding mental health and wellbeing help for local organisations, supporting Muslim communities through grants that have a focus on Muslim women, and to create an "information hub" to improve understanding of Islamophobia (archived here and here).

But social media users criticised the government's response.

A Facebook user claimed children "will now be (subjected) to COMPULSORY Islamic indoctrination to combat the nebulous claims of 'islamophobia'." 

An X user accused the centre-left party in a post shared more than 230 times of using the funding to "build more Mosques and teach Islam to all children at schools". 

There is no evidence, however, that the government is planning to teach Islam in schools or make it compulsory for children, and the education mentioned in the government's response is more centred around making people more aware of racism and discrimination (archived link). 

"Addressing Islamophobia in the education system, as well as identifying opportunities in the system to build knowledge and capability around religious and cultural tolerance, can replace harmful stereotypes and historical biases with factual knowledge, empathy and critical thinking," reads the official government report released on July 18.

It added that there are "opportunities to build interfaith and intercultural understanding across the Australian community".

While there will be grant opportunities for a variety of purposes focused on Muslim women and youth, as well as for cross-cultural exchanges, "none of these grant opportunities are designed to facilitate the construction of mosques", a spokesperson from the Home Affairs Department told AFP in an August 5 email (archived link). 

Teaching resources

When it comes to the Australian curriculum, there are ways for "students to learn to empathise with others, respect differing perspectives and build self-awareness, a sense of belonging and identity", said an Education Department spokesperson in a July 31 email, adding that a review will be done to "identify opportunities to strengthen racial and religious tolerance" (archived link).

In addition, the department's efforts to combat Islamophobia appear to be intertwined with its drive to stamp out antisemitism, under the broader umbrella of rooting out racism and discrimination.

"The Australian Government is developing a Social Cohesion Framework for schools to support safe, inclusive, and respectful learning environments and strengthen schools' capacity to prevent and respond to racism, faith-based discrimination and other forms of discrimination, including antisemitism and Islamophobia," the spokesperson said. 

They added that the government established on June 30 the Social Cohesion Education Hub, an online platform providing free "resources to support educators in addressing antisemitism and other forms of racism and discrimination, and strengthening social cohesion in schools and early childhood settings" (archived link).

The hub offers courses online, uploaded by a variety of sources like the government or the Sydney Jewish Museum, that tackle topics like countering antisemitism and racism, and educating kids about bullying. The courses include lesson plans, slides, and helpful links to pictures to show to students. 

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Screenshots of courses on the Social Cohesion Information Hub captured on August 4, 2026, by AFP

The spokesperson added that the Islamophobia Education Taskforce is in the process of being established, with implementation timeframes still to come.

'Poorly understood religion'

Halim Rane, a professor of Islamic studies at Griffith University, said some Australian high schools already teach about various world religions -- including Islam -- as part of their history classes, but it remains "one of the most poorly understood religions" (archived link). 

"A lot of the discourse conflates the religion of Islam with political ideology -- broadly referred to as Islamism, political Islam, Islamist politics -- but the two are not the same. There's a distinction between a religion and a political ideology," he told AFP by phone on August 5.

"Zionism is not Judaism. White nationalism is not Christianity, and Islamist political ideology is not Islam. The conflation of a religion with a political ideology has become a source of Islamophobia."

The education from the government would be "a distinction between the religion and what might be done in the name of the religion by political actors", he said, calling it "commendable that the government is addressing the education deficit".

But Rane said that there is still "an inequality" between the government's response in tackling Islamophobia and antisemitism -- adding while the government is helping Muslims cope with the experience of Islamophobia, it is actively seeking to eliminate antisemitism (archived link).

AFP has previously debunked claims targeting the ruling Labor Party.