Muslims in Europe

An estimated 13 to 15 million Muslims are living in Europe today (not counting those living in the Russian Federation and the Balkan states). This number is difficult to determine more precisely because of illegal immigration and the lack of census data regarding a person's religious background; also, leaders of pro-and anti-Muslim causes inflate the numbers to advance their agendas. The majority of Muslims in Europe today came as labor migrants and their dependents to the prospering post-World War II economies of western Europe. More recently, with the arrival of asylum seekers, refugees, professionals, and students, the pool has diversified in both work background and country of origin.

Identification of Muslim immigrants primarily by their religion rather than by their ethnic and national origin is itself a relatively recent phenomenon, in both official debates and scholarly inquiry. Moreover, public discourse today often represents Muslims in Europe as a homogeneous group, when, in fact, the members of the community are rather diverse in terms of ethnicity, language, and culture, as well as individual adherence to Islam. While there has never been such a large number of Muslims in Europe, their presence in European history is not a new phenomenon, but rather started with Muslim [Page 926]rule in the Iberian Peninsula in medieval times; Muslims were also among colonial subjects in the context of European colonization of Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. In the 20th century, a significant proportion of Muslim migrants to France, Great Britain, and the Netherlands came as a result of decolonization. Thus, these countries are home to some of the largest groups of Muslim communities today. Due to labor migration, significant numbers of Muslims (mostly from Turkey) have also settled in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, and Sweden. This entry traces the history of the Muslim population in Europe and discusses some current issues.