Attitudes in Europe towards Islam are varied and complex in nature. Different countries had different experiences with Islam and these experiences later affected how Islam was seen and how it is perceived and treated today. In various places and various times, Islam was seen either as a threat or as an exotic possibility.
History
Early History
Islam came to Europe in various ways, through Muslim armies, Muslim explorers and traders, and less directly, through Arabic manuscripts and scientific research.
Western Europe
The Great Mosque of Paris.
Islam came to Europe shortly after the new religion's inception. Muslim forces started attacking Sicily in 652.
Islam's first real success in European conquests came in 711 during the Umayyad conquest of Hispania, when Muslim forces invaded the Iberian Peninsula in what the conquerors named Al-Andalus and which included what is now Spain and Portugal. Muslim forces also pushed into southern France but were turned back at the Battle of Tours in 732. In the 9th century Muslim forces conquered several bases in southern France, from where they pushed into what is now Switzerland in various excursions.[1]
Sicily and parts of southern Italy were conquered by the Arabs in 827 and held until the 11th century.
Muslim rule in Al-Andalus endured until the Reconquista of 1492;[2] the last Muslims were expelled from Spain by 1614. Al-Andalus, reaching at times up until the north of the Iberian peninsula, has been estimated to have had a Muslim majority from the 10th century.[3]
At the same time, the Netherlands reached out to Morocco for help protecting their sea routes. In December 24, 1610 Sultan Zidan Abu Maali signed a treaty with the Dutch agreeing on a common alliance against Spain and the Barbary pirates. The two nations signed a treaty recognising free commerce between the Netherlands and Morocco, and allowing the sultan to purchase ships, arms and munitions from the Dutch. This was the first-ever official treaty between a European country and a non-Christian nation.
Eastern Europe
The Banya Bashi Mosque in Bulgaria
Reminiscent to their campaigns in Western Europe, Muslim forces attacked Eastern Europe in the brief period following the establishment of Islam, with Constantinople being attacked in 674. However, initial attempts at conquering the city failed.
In the early 10th century Volga Bulgaria accepted Islam as the state religion. Ibn Fadlan was dispatched by the Abbasid Caliph al-Muqtadir in 922/3 to establish relations and bring qadis and teachers of Islamic law (sharia) to Volga Bulgaria, as well as help in building a fort and a mosque.
There are accounts of the trade connections between the Muslims and the Rus, apparently Vikings who made their way East towards current day Russia. On his way to Volga Bulgaria Ibn Fadlan brings detailed reports of the Rus and says that some have converted to Islam. "They are very fond of pork and many of them who have assumed the path of Islam miss it very much." The Rus had also relished their nabidh, a fermented drink Ibn Fadlan often mentioned as part of their daily fare.[4]
The Golden Horde began its conquest of present day Russia and Ukraine in the 13th century. Despite the fact that they weren't Muslim at the time, the Mongols adopted Islam as their state religion in the early 14th century. More than half[5] of the European portion of Russia and Ukraine, were under suzerainty of Muslim Tatars and Turks from the 13th century to the 15th century.
The Ottoman Empire began its conquest of the European portion of the Byzantine Empire in the 14th century and completed its conquest in 1453 with the fall of Constantinople, establishing Islam as a major religion in the region. The Ottoman Empire continue to stretch northwards, taking Hungary in the 15th century, and reaching as far north as the Ukraine in the mid-17th century (Peace of Buczacz). Ottoman control in Europe ended with the Ottoman defeat in the Great Turkish War. In the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699), the Ottoman empire gave up its control in Central Europe and right now there is tow europian muslim nations in eastern europe which are bosniaks and albanians ,According to the UN Development Programme's Human Development Report 2002, Muslims constitute 58 percent of the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is estimated at around 4.4 million. This estimate from 2001 was made by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and in albania It is estimated that 70% of Albanians in the Republic of Albania are Muslim, 99% in the Province of Kosovo and 90% of the albanians in the Republic of Macedonia are believed to be Muslim.(CIA Factbook 2007) , in general there is 3 countries in eastern europe which have muslim majority (albania,azerbaijan and bosnia and herzegovina) and sometimes kazakhistan considered as an europian country which is predominantly muslim and also there is an islamic regions in balkans like kosovo and sanjak region which divided between serbia and montenegro and also there is balkan countries which have sizeble muslim minorities such as bulgaria (muslims statistics rang from 12%:20) and macedonia in which muslims make the majority in the western part of the country and also statistics vary form 34%:45% althought some albanians claim that they make up to 50% of the population right now.
Northern Europe
The Malmö Mosque in Sweden
King Offa, the 8th century British king, minted coins with Islamic inscriptions in Arabic.
Vikings are known to have traveled both East and South, raiding Muslim holdings in Europe on the one hand, and establishing trade on the other.
In 884 the a Viking raiding expedition got to the Iberian peninsula. In Muslim Spain they attacked Lisbon, Cadiz, Algeciras and North Africa. On their way back home, the Norse sailed along the Guadalquivir river and plundered Seville, destroying the city walls and burning the local mosque.
Troops sent from Cordoba by Abd ar-Rahman II arrived a week later and defeated the Viking raiders, capturing and hanging 500 of them.
The Vikings called the Arab blamenn (blue men). Muslim sources tell of some "mayus" (pagans), who got lost in Spain, converted to Islam, married and opened a cheese farm in Isla Menor, where they produced the best cheese of the region.[6]
Remnants of trade with Arab lands were found in Scandinavia, with about 100,000 dirham coins, most deposited between the years 900 and 1000, being unearthed in Sweden. Other hoards have been found in Scandinavia, the Baltic and Russia, with coins being minted all over the Muslim empire.
There are a number of accounts of gift exchanges between the Muslim sultan of Tunis and the Norwegian King Håkon Håkonsson in the 1260s.
In the early 17th century, Ottoman Barbary pirates led by Dutch Muslim convert Murat Reis the Younger attacked Northern Europe coastal towns, reaching as far north as Iceland. In 1621 pirates staged a raid on Iceland, taking about 400 captives. The raid later became famous as "The Turkish abductions". In that same year they also captured the Island of Lundy in the Bristol Channel, and it subsequently served as base for Ottoman forces in the Atlantic Ocean. Another noteworthy attack was the Sack of Baltimore, Ireland in 1631.
Modern History
Colonial Era
During the late 19th century and into the 20th century numerous European countries colonized countries with a majority-wise or large Muslim populations. The United Kingdom colonized Egypt, Palestine, Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia, and the Indian sub-continent. France colonized North Africa, Lebanon and Syria. Portugal, Spain and Italy also held colonies in North Africa, while the Netherlands colonized Indonesia. This brought the European population into contact with Muslim populations, both as the army and civil administration in these new colonies, and with Muslim immigrants who came to the colonizing country in order to study and learn about the new European methods.
Post-Colonial Era
After the colonies achieved independence the European countries enabled immigration from their former colonies.
In the 1960s and early 1970s guest workers were brought over by the governments of France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Scandinavia.
Once the European countries imposed an immigration ban, the type of immigration shifted. Today most Muslim immigrants come either as asylum seekers or as part of family reunification. Many of the second generation migrants marry spouses from their former homeland. Some countries have tried to cut down on such immigration by passing strict laws, such as the Danish 24 year rule.
Islam in European Culture
Orientalism
Islam perked interest among European scholars, setting off the movement of Orientalism. The founder of modern Islamic studies in Europe was Ignác Goldziher, who started studying Islam in the late 19th century.
Architecture
Islamic architecture influenced European architecture in various ways (for example, the Türkischer Tempel in Vienna).
Muslim Populations in Europe
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Map showing the percentage of Muslims in European countries.
The Muslim population in Europe is very diverse. In general, Eastern Europe and Balkans (notably Russia, Bulgaria, Albania, Bosnia, Montenegro, Cyprus and the Republic of Macedonia) have Muslim minorities with roots dating back several hundred years, while Western Europe's Muslim population is composed mainly of new immigrants which have arrived starting from the 1960s (especially in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden). In many countries, Islam is the largest minority religion.
Some European cities, such as Marseille in France and Rotterdam in the Netherlands, now have Muslim populations of 25 percent. In others, like Paris, Brussels, London and Copenhagen, Denmark, the figure is in excess of 10 percent.[7] Moscow is home to an estimated 1.5 million Muslims.[8] Europe’s Muslim population (without Russia) has tripled over the last 30 years, to about 23 million, and experts predict it will double again by 2020. In 2005, EU had an overall net gain from international migration of +1.8 million people. This accounts for almost 85 percent of Europe’s total population growth in 2005. Birth rates in Muslim communities in Europe are about three times higher than in European non-Muslim communities.[9]
Immigrants have come to Europe from across the Muslim world, with different nationalities focusing on different countries. The United Kingdom has a high percentage of Muslims from the Indian sub-continent; France has many Muslims from its former colonies in North Africa; Belgium and the Netherlands have Muslims mostly from Morocco and Turkey; Germany has a large Turkish population; Norway has a large Pakistani and Somali population and Sweden has many Iraqi immigrants.
Today, the only remaining majority-Muslim regions in Europe are Kosovo, and Albania within Europe and a few Russian republics in Northern Caucasus and the Volga region. The Muslim-dominated Sandžak of Novi Pazar is divided between Serbia and Montenegro.
According to the German Central Institute Islam Archive, the total number of Muslims in Europe in 2006 was about 53 million and in the European Union about 16 million.[10]
Relations between Muslims and non-Muslims in Europe
In some cases, relations between Europeans and Muslims are tense today. Intolerance of Western values and liberties by Muslims and reactionary tendencies of Europeans inflame social tensions.
Various debates have developed, especially over the past few years, focusing on the relation between Islamic values, the freedom of religion, and different western norms and values.
Freedom of speech debate
In recent years the debate over freedom of speech in Europe has intensified, especially in relation to what can or cannot be said about the Muslim religion.
Various Europeans have been threatened after voicing their criticism of Islam. In the Netherlands, movie director Theo van Gogh was killed by Mohammed Bouyeri,a Dutch Muslim. Bouyeri left a letter on the body threatening Western governments, Jews and Dutch Muslim critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who was van Gogh's partner in creating the film Submission, which criticized Islam's treatment of women.
Another case in the freedom of speech debate was the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper, published cartoons of Muhammad as a way of showing defiance against Muslim-related censorship. The cartoons caused an uproar in the Muslim world, leading to attacks against Danish and Norwegian embassies in some countries. Several newspapers across Europe reprinted the cartoons as a way of taking a stand in the debate.
British-Indian writer Salman Rushdie spent the best part of a decade in hiding after a fatwa calling for his execution was issued in response to his novel The Satanic Verses.
Muslim dress debate
A growing Muslim identity and a wish to assert that identity by many, especially young, Muslims has led to a debate about the viability of Muslim dress in Europe. The major point of contention are the different female forms of clothing, such as the face veil (niqab) and over-cloak (abaya); see List of types of sartorial hijab. Note that the Arabic word hijab refers to modest behaviour in general, and pertains to men and women, but it is sometimes used in other languages to describe the Muslim headscarf.
Different countries approach the issue differently. For example, France has banned the hijab in the public education system (French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools), while other countries, such as Sweden, see the wearing of the hijab as a basic right derived from the freedom of religion[11]. Muslim feminists take different positions on this.
Women's rights debate
This debate about women's rights is related to the debate about Muslim dress, but is much wider and involves many subjects which are culturally inherent to the new Muslim immigrants. It includes such topics as honor killings, forced marriage and female genital mutilation, as well as topics that have been addressed by European feminist organizations in their own struggle for equality, such as a women's right to education and work.
- Weaver v NATFHE (now part of the UCU) Race/sex discrimination case. An Industrial (Employment) Tribunal in the UK decided that a trade union were justified in not assisting a(Muslim) woman complaining of racist/sexist harassment because the accused male would lose his job. The Employment Appeal Tribunal upheld the decision, which then applied to all trades unions. Also known as the Bournville College Racial Harassment Issue.
Sharia
In several countries, such as Sweden[12] and the United Kingdom[13], Muslim groups had asked to apply Islamic inheritance, marriage and divorce laws. Such requests have brought up considerable controversy in those countries.
In 2004 Europe's first bank to offer Sharia compliant financial services, the Islamic Bank of Britain, opened its doors in Britain.[14] Other countries which have Islamic banking institutions are Albania, Denmark, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland and Ireland.
Terrorism
While in some places Islamic terrorism can be considered part of a national struggle (ie, Russia and Bosnia), in other places Islamic terror had hit in the past few years as part of a struggle against "The West". Terror attacks have taken place in Spain in 2004 and in the United Kingdom in 2005.
Suspects accused of Islamic terrorist activity have been arrested in Germany[16], the Czech Republic[17], Spain[18], Portugal[19], France[20], Italy[21], Belgium[22], the Netherlands[23], Denmark[24], Norway[25], Sweden[26], Serbia[27], Bulgaria[28], Romania[29], and Cyprus[30].
Future of Islam in Europe
European Muslims and academics have brought up various opinions on the future of Islam in Europe. The general opinion is that Islam will remain a fixed part of the new European culture. Bernard Lewis says that the only question is whether Europe will be Islamized, or whether European Muslims would create their own branch of Islam, a European Islam which will merge the values and ethics of both cultures. [31]
