Abstract

When one speaks about Islam in Europe, one generally has in mind the presence of Muslims migrants in Western Europe or the ancient past of al-Andalus. One refers rarely to the long-lasting presence of Muslims in the southeastern part of the continent since the fourteenth century and the beginning of the Ottoman conquest of the region. Yet, today three Balkan states have a (relative or absolute) Muslim majority: Albania (with 1,950,000, that is, 70 percent of the total population), Bosnia-Herzegovina (1,800,000, 45 percent), and Kosovo, which proclaimed its independence in 2008 (1,600,000, 90 percent). There are also sizeable groups of Muslims in Macedonia (700,000, 30 percent), Bulgaria (900,000, 12 percent), and Montenegro (100,000, 16 percent), and less sizeable but significant groups in Greece (450,000, 4 percent), Serbia (250,000, 4 percent), Slovenia (50,000, 2.5 percent), Croatia (60,000, 1.5 percent), and Romania (70,000, 0.3 percent), all these figures being only estimates.