Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: A. H. Johns and A. Saeed, “Muslims 

in Australia: The Building of a Community.” In Muslim 

Minorities in the West, Visible and Invisible, edited by 

Yvonne Haddad and Jane I. Smith, 192–216 (Walnut 

Creek, Calif.: Altamira Press, 2002); Abdullah Saeed, 

Australian Muslims: Their Beliefs, Practices and Institu-

tions (Melbourne: Department of Immigration and 

Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, Australian Mul-

ticultural Foundation, University of Melbourne, 2004). 

Available online. URL: www.amf.net.au/PDF/religion-

CulturalDiversity/Resource_Manual.pdf. Accessed on 

December 27, 2005; Wafia Omer and Kirsty Allen, “The 

Muslims in Australia.” In A Yearbook of Australian Reli-

gious Organizations, edited by Peter Bentley and Philip 

J. Hughes, 114–115 (Kew, Victoria: Christian Research 

Association, 1997).

authority

Authority is the basis by which power is legiti-

mately used to bring about compliance and obedi-

ence. In secular terms, it is often connected with 

how leaders and governments justify their right 

not only to exist, but also to rule others with their 

consent. In a hereditary monarchy, for example, 

authority is vested in the person of the king and 

his dynasty. In a liberal 

democracy

, authority 

is vested in the people, who then consent to be 

legally subject to those they elect to governmen-

tal office. In either case, the exercise of authority 

displaces the need to rely upon only brute force to 

obtain compliance. Max Weber (d. 1920), one of 

the founders of modern sociology, identified three 

basic types of authority that are generally accepted 

by modern scholars: 1) traditional authority based 

on the sanctity of the past, 2) charismatic author-

ity involving the sanctity of individuals, and 3) 

rational-legal authority involving bureaucratic 

organizations. These three ideal types of authority