Islam in Europe

Islam in Europe
by percentage of country population[1]
  90–100%
  70–90%
  50–70%
Bosnia and Herzegovina
  30–40%
North Macedonia
  10–20%
  5–10%
  4–5%
  2–4%
  1–2%
  < 1%

Islam is the second-largest religion in Europe after Christianity.[2] Although the majority of Muslim communities in Western Europe formed recently,[3] there are centuries-old Muslim communities in the Balkans, Caucasus, Crimea, and Volga region.[4][5][6][7] The term "Muslim Europe" is used to refer to the Muslim-majority countries in the Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Turkey)[8] and parts of countries in Eastern Europe with sizable Muslim minorities (Bulgaria, Montenegro, North Macedonia,[9] and some republics of Russia) that constitute large populations of indigenous European Muslims,[4][5][6][8] although the majority are secular.[4][5][8][10]

Islam expanded into the Caucasus through the Muslim conquest of Persia in the 7th century and entered Southern Europe after the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in the 8th–10th centuries; Muslim political entities existed firmly in what is today Spain, Portugal, Sicily, and Malta during the Middle Ages.[11] The Muslim populations in these territories were either converted to Christianity or expelled by the end of the 15th century by the indigenous Christian rulers (see Reconquista).[11] The Ottoman Empire further expanded into Southeastern Europe and consolidated its political power by invading and conquering huge portions of the Serbian Empire, Bulgarian Empire, and the remaining territories of the Byzantine Empire in the 14th and 15th centuries.[11] Over the centuries, the Ottoman Empire gradually lost almost all of its European territories, until it was defeated and eventually collapsed in 1922. Islam spread in Eastern Europe via the conversion of the Volga Bulgars, Cuman-Kipchaks, and later the Golden Horde and its successor khanates, with its various Muslim populations called "Tatars" by the Russians. Historically significant Muslim populations in Europe include the Ashkali and Balkan Egyptians, Gorani, Torbeshi, Pomaks, Bosniaks, Chechens, Muslim Albanians, Ingushs, Greek Muslims, Vallahades, Muslim Romani people, Balkan Turks, Turkish Cypriots, Cretan Turks, Yörüks, Volga Tatars, Crimean Tatars, Lipka Tatars, Kazakhs, Gajals, and Megleno-Romanians.[7][10][12]

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, large numbers of Muslims immigrated to Western Europe.[3][13] By 2010, an estimated 44 million Muslims were living in Europe (6%), including an estimated 19 million in the EU (3.8%).[14] They are projected to comprise 8% or 58 million by 2030.[14] Islam in Europe is often the subject of intense discussion and political controversies sparked by events such as Islamist terrorist attacks in European countries,[15][16][17][18] The Satanic Verses controversy,[19] the cartoons affair in Denmark,[17] debates over Islamic dress,[19] and growing support for right-wing populist movements and parties that view Muslims as a threat to indigenous European culture and liberal values.[18][19] Such events have also fueled ongoing debates regarding the topics of globalization, multiculturalism, nativism Islamophobia, relations between Muslims and other religious groups, and populist politics.[13][18][19][20]

  1. ^ "Religious Composition by Country, 2010-2050". Pew Research Center. 12 April 2015. Retrieved 22 October 2017.
  2. ^ "Global religious futures Europe". Archived from the original on 2022-12-12. Retrieved 2019-08-07.
  3. ^ a b Cesari, Jocelyne (January–June 2002). "Introduction - "L'Islam en Europe: L'Incorporation d'Une Religion"". Cahiers d'Études sur la Méditerranée Orientale et le monde Turco-Iranien (in French). 33. Paris: Éditions de Boccard: 7–20. doi:10.3406/CEMOT.2002.1623. S2CID 165345374. Retrieved 21 January 2021 – via Persée.fr.
  4. ^ a b c Cesari, Jocelyne, ed. (2014). "Part III: The Old European Land of Islam". The Oxford Handbook of European Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 427–616. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199607976.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-960797-6. LCCN 2014936672. S2CID 153038977.
  5. ^ a b c Clayer, Nathalie (2004). "Les musulmans des Balkans Ou l'islam de "l'autre Europe"/The Balkans Muslims Or the Islam of the "Other Europe"". Religions, pouvoir et société: Europe centrale, Balkans, CEI. Le Courrier de Pays de l'Est (in French). 5 (1045). Paris: La Documentation française: 16–27. doi:10.3917/cpe.045.0016. ISSN 0590-0239 – via Cairn.info.
  6. ^ a b Bougarel, Xavier; Clayer, Nathalie (2013). Les musulmans de l'Europe du Sud-Est: Des Empires aux États balkaniques. Terres et gens d'islam (in French). Paris: IISMM - Karthala. pp. 1–20. ISBN 978-2-8111-0905-9 – via Cairn.info.
  7. ^ a b Popović, Alexandre; Rashid, Asma (Summer–Autumn 1997). "The Muslim Culture In The Balkans (16th–18th Centuries)". Islamic Studies. 36 (2/3, Special Issue: Islam In The Balkans). Islamic Research Institute (International Islamic University, Islamabad): 177–190. eISSN 2710-5326. ISSN 0578-8072. JSTOR 23076193.
  8. ^ a b c Raudvere, Catharina (2019). "Between Religiosity, Cultural Heritage, and Politics: Sufi-Oriented Interests in Contemporary Bosnia and Herzegovina". In Malik, Jamal; Zarrabi-Zadeh, Saeed (eds.). Sufism East and West: Mystical Islam and Cross-Cultural Exchange in the Modern World. Studies on Sufism. Vol. 2. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. pp. 233–258. doi:10.1163/9789004393929_011. ISBN 978-90-04-39392-9. LCCN 2019004608.
  9. ^ Macnamara, Ronan (January 2013). "Slavic Muslims: The forgotten minority of Macedonia". Security and Human Rights. 23 (4). Leiden: Brill Publishers/Martinus Nijhoff Publishers on behalf of the Netherlands Helsinki Committee: 347–355. doi:10.1163/18750230-99900038. eISSN 1875-0230. ISSN 1874-7337.
  10. ^ a b Ismaili, Besa (2013). "Kosovo". In Nielsen, Jørgen S.; Akgönül, Samim; Alibašić, Ahmet; Racius, Egdunas (eds.). Yearbook of Muslims in Europe. Vol. 5. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. pp. 369–381. doi:10.1163/9789004255869_025. ISBN 978-90-04-25586-9. ISSN 1877-1432.
  11. ^ a b c Buturović, Amila (2009) [2006]. "Part V: Islamic Cultural Region – European Islam". In Juergensmeyer, Mark (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Global Religions. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 437–446. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195137989.003.0043. ISBN 978-0-19-513798-9. LCCN 2006004402. S2CID 161373775.
  12. ^ Kahl, Thede (2006). Mylonas, Harris (ed.). "The Islamization of the Meglen Vlachs (Megleno-Romanians): The Village of Nânti (Nótia) and the "Nântinets" in Present-Day Turkey". Nationalities Papers. 34 (1). Cambridge University Press: 71–90. doi:10.1080/00905990500504871. ISSN 0090-5992. S2CID 161615853.
  13. ^ a b Hamming, Tore (October–November 2023). Cruickshank, Paul; Hummel, Kristina (eds.). "The Beginning of a New Wave? The Hamas-Israel War and the Terror Threat in the West" (PDF). CTC Sentinel. 16 (10). West Point, New York: Combating Terrorism Center: 27–33. Retrieved 6 December 2023.
  14. ^ a b Pew 2011.
  15. ^ William E. Shepard; FranÇois Burgat; James Piscatori; Armando Salvatore (2009). "Islamism". In John L. Esposito (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195305135. The term "Islamism/Islamist" has come into increasing use in recent years to denote the views of those Muslims who claim that Islam, or more specifically, the Islamic sharīʿah, provides guidance for all areas of human life, individual and social, and who therefore call for an "Islamic State" or an "Islamic Order." [...] Today it is one of the recognized alternatives to "fundamentalist", along with "political Islam" in particular. [...] Current terminology usually distinguishes between "Islam," [...] and "Islamism", referring to the ideology of those who tend to signal openly, in politics, their Muslim religion. [...] the term has often acquired a quasi-criminal connotation close to that of political extremism, religious sectarianism, or bigotry. In Western mainstream media, "Islamists" are those who want to establish, preferably through violent means, an "Islamic state" or impose sharīʿah (Islamic religious law)—goals that are often perceived merely as a series of violations of human rights or the rights of women. In the Muslim world, insiders use the term as a positive reference. In the academic sphere, although it is still debated, the term designates a more complex phenomenon.
  16. ^ Wainwright, Rob. "TE-SAT 2010 EU TERRORISM SITUATION AND TREND REPORT" (PDF). Europol. doi:10.2813/12525. Retrieved January 14, 2024.
  17. ^ a b Aydınlı, Ersel (2018) [2016]. "The Jihadists after 9/11". Violent Non-State Actors: From Anarchists to Jihadists. Routledge Studies on Challenges, Crises, and Dissent in World Politics (1st ed.). London and New York: Routledge. pp. 110–149. ISBN 978-1-315-56139-4. LCCN 2015050373.
  18. ^ a b c Kallis, Aristotle (2018). "Part I: Ideology and Discourse – The Radical Right and Islamophobia". In Rydgren, Jens (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of the Radical Right. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 42–60. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190274559.013.3. ISBN 9780190274559. LCCN 2017025436.
  19. ^ a b c d Allievi, Stefano (2003). "Relations and Negotiations: Issues and Debates on Islam". In Allievi, Stefano; Maréchal, Brigitte; Dassetto, Felice; Nielsen, Jørgen S. (eds.). Muslims in the Enlarged Europe: Religion and Society (PDF). Muslim Minorities. Leiden: Brill Publishers. pp. 331–368. ISBN 978-90-04-13201-6. ISSN 1570-7571. LCCN 2003049569. S2CID 142974009.
  20. ^ Goodwin, Matthew J.; Cutts, David; Jana-Lipinski, Laurence (September 2014). "Economic Losers, Protestors, and Islamophobes or Xenophobes? Predicting Public Support for a Counter-Jihad Movement". Political Studies. 64. SAGE Publications on behalf of the Political Studies Association: 4–26. doi:10.1111/1467-9248.12159. ISSN 1467-9248. LCCN 2008233815. OCLC 1641383. S2CID 145753701.