Introduction
Islam is becoming a popular religion in the world today after having spread all over the world and slowly becoming an acceptable religion. Islam is most dominant in Asia and the Arab world. However, in the last century, Islam has found its way into Europe. This paper will describe and highlight the history of Islam in brief and expound on how it has spread to Europe in the last century.
Islam first became a religion about 1400 hundreds years ago in the regions near Persia and Byzantine (Ezzati, 2002). It was born in the Middle East but as a small religion, its followers had to embrace other cultural norms to survive hostility and keep the religion alive. During the reign of Prophet Mohammad, Islam spread slowly and peacefully.
However, after the death of the Prophet, there was a division between the Muslim world, and the Prophet’s mission of peaceful spread of Islam abandoned when his successors formed army troops and began conquering territories (Ezzati, 2002). These troops conquered regions and converted every one under their rule to Islam. The troops acquired big territories and formed empires. The empires succeeded each other until in the late 18th century when colonialists from Europe destroyed them.
These Empires included; Umayyad, Abbasids, Fatimids, Ghaznavids, Seljuqs, Safavids, Mughlas and Ottomans. The arrangement of the dynasties is in a chronological order of their existence and their power. Umayyad is the first and most powerful followed by the rest respectively (Malik, 2004). However, these empires did not conquer Europe. Actually, it is due to this fact that the remaining part will discuss how Islam found its way into Europe.
Channels of Spread
Islam spread throughout Europe in the last century through various channels, such as education and trade (Pauly, 2004). Islam merchants from the Muslim World travelled in merchandise ships to Europe. These merchants on arrival in Europe spread their faith to the European citizens who were willing to hear them and later converted them into Islam.
These merchants being trade partners with Europe had the permission to build temporary mosques at the places they stayed when they were on trade missions. By doing this, they slowly spread Islam in Europe as they traded into the deepest parts of Europe (Pauly, 2004).
The other major channel through which Islam was spread was through education and science (Abicht, 2008). This was because of the first university built in the Muslim world that made the West become eager to acquire this knowledge.
This university taught majorly Muslim contents and the Europeans who came to learn, also leant about the Muslim faith and would later spread it and teach the faith to the rest of Europe. Europe later built universities and gave scholarships to most of the Muslims students who upon arriving in Europe spread the faith to the other students.
Apart from the above mentioned major channels, Islam developed rapidly in Europe after the First World War in 1924 (Ezzati, 2002). Islam rapidly developed during this period because it was during this time that most of the Europeans had occupied the Muslim World. Most Europeans who occupied the Muslim World assimilated the Islam culture and on return to Europe spread the Islam religion to the others left behind in Europe (Abicht, 2008).
The other major way through which Islam has spread into Europe was through immigration (Pauly, 2004). Many Muslims migrated to Europe especially in the late 1950s throughout the 1960s to date. These Muslim immigrants went to Europe to pursue higher education or in search of better jobs. Later on, they acquired citizenship in the European nations.
These immigrants later brought their families with them and the Muslim population has rapidly being growing in Europe (Malik, 2004). Some of the Muslims present in Europe today, first went there as asylum seekers. The Muslim culture and religion allows polygamy, so the husbands have several wives. This culture also allows girls to be married at very early ages promoting their fertility rates. Due to their high fertility rates, their population has greatly being increasing.
The religion also has good cultural values, which are appealing to almost anyone who has interest in the religion. Therefore, after settling in Europe and continuing to practice their religion and culture, some of their Christians neighbors were pleased with the religion and converted to it. Additionally, some people converted to the religion out of sheer eagerness. As such, the religion has been spreading all over the region.
In the early 19th century when Islam was young in Europe, the Christians began worrying leading to the break of Christians and formation of various Christian denominations especially the Protestants and Roman Catholics. The Protestants went ahead and split even further forming amongst them various denominations (Abicht, 2008). The division among the Christians left many Christians at that time confused on which side to follow. Islam emerging at this time gave a perfect opportunity for the confused Christians to convert into Islam.
The main reason was that Islam advocates for one religion, which worships one Supreme Being who is Allah. This message reached the confused Christians who had questions as to why the Christians were splitting yet they worshipped one God. At the time of this confusion, Islam was the only religion to opt for. Many people converted to Islam during this period. The converts influenced their close associates to convert into Islam too, and this is among the many reasons and major ways that Islam spread in Europe in the last century (Malik, 2004).
The other major reasons as to why Islam has spread rapidly in Europe over the last century are the changes in the Christian worshiping styles. During the introduction of Christianity, virtues were highly regarded and people were morally upright although not perfect. The Christians heard the teachings of the Quran, compared them with those of the Bible, and found them similar and they were left confused again, as to why Christianity was becoming more secular.
Christianity was becoming a religion of only going to the church rather than practicing what the bible taught. This questions and realization by many Christians made them think otherwise about Christianity. These Christians realized that Islam entailed and practiced what it taught and in a search for a better religion, which was pure and more moral and holy; the Christians found themselves converting to Islam (Ezzati, 2002).
Islam remains as the symbol for perfect architectural work because every component of this religion supports each other resulting to a religion of great balance and composition. In addition, it practices everything it teaches and postulates. These facts about Islam have attracted many Christians and pagans who have become converts and followers of the religion. The reason many people are converting to Islam is their knowledge of what Islam has to offer and the lack of confinement by culture since there is freedom of choice (Pauly, 2004).
The other reason why Islam has been spreading all over Europe is because of its simplicity (Ezzati, 2002). Islam has a very simple doctrine that calls for the belief in one God creator of heaven and earth. Islam has simple instructions to humankind. it encourages mankind to utilize his God given powers to observe and make intellect decisions. These simple instructions have attracted many to the faith in Europe especially in the last century.
The other reason why many people in Europe converted to Islam in the last century is after realization of the truth. After the Christian missionaries failed to conquer most of the Asian world, which was mostly Islam, they had to come back to Europe with the false information that Islam had spread by the use of the sword, the reason for the claim, is because of the major territories the Islamic empires had ruled.
These missionaries had claimed that after conquering these territories, the people had to choose between Islam and death and as a result, they chose Islam. However, in the last century, people have become more educated and have read more about Islamic history.
As such, they have realized that their empires were just like many other empires that existed in the world at that time and that converting to Islam was out of an individual’s choice. This revelation has removed and erased all the worries and fears that people had about Islam and the large numbers of converts see the result, especially in the last century.
It is also important in this discussion to mention other channels that have lead to the rapid spread of Islam in Europe and especially North Europe, not initially invaded by any Muslims. These channels are three and considered to be among the fundamental factors that have facilitated the spread of Islam throughout Europe.
As mentioned earlier, immigration of Muslims was among the major factors, but immigration has resulted to three major channels that include Islamic organizations, Public Mosques, and infamous underground movements (Abicht, 2008). First, I will begin with the organization groups. Once the Muslim immigrants came into Europe, their population was minimal, and there were no mosques around them. This was in the early 1920s after World War 1 (Pauly, 2004).
In an effort to preserve their religion, these Muslim immigrants formed small religious groups, which members could meet and worship together. It was in the estates where these immigrants stayed that the creation of these groups took place. However, the estate groups were not as influential in the spread of Islam as the Campus Islamic Preaching Organizations later formed in the late 1930s by the offspring’s of the immigrants (Ezzati, 2002).
The few Muslim students who would invite other campus students to go and listen to their summons organized these preaching organizations in campus. The preaching groups would get involved in public debates with the Christian organizations and debate on the virtues and vices of their faith. The engagement in these debates made many campus students familiar with the religion, and the true meaning of a believer.
Having in mind that peers, the conversion of some of the campus students, influence many campus students had impact on some of their friends who would later convert to Islam. Later in life, the students did not leave the religion at campus but adopted into their families and when they had their own families their children were born as Muslims and the trend has developed in that manner and Muslims who were native converts were slowly occupying most of Europe.
The other channel that Islam spread over the last century in Europe was through public mosques (Malik, 2004). After acquiring citizenship of the various countries they had migrated to, the immigrants had to worship and as a result, they built public mosques in which they would worship. The Muslims would worship three times a day in their Mosques, as a requirement by the religion. In the mosque, the Sheik would preach and teach the faithful of what is required of them.
These teachings not only taught the Muslim faithful but everyone who wanted to hear them also had the opportunity. It is true to note that in the early 1980s mosques had become a common phenomenon in Europe and that they were flooded with many youths. Although most of the youths were Muslims, some Christians always accompanied them to go, hear, and see what their friends believed in. These mosques also had external speakers and the message of the preacher heard within a clear range of distance.
Even the passersby could hear and learn a little from the religion. The students who visited the mosques realized that it was not only a source of religious and spiritual nourishment but also a source of knowledge because some important scientific discussions went on there.
This information spread among people, the non-Muslims would find themselves visiting the Mosques, and eventually they became converts. Those who passed near the mosques, heard the message, got touched and later converted to Islam and these are the simple ways that Islam was spread all over Europe in the last century.
Lastly, there were the underground Muslim movements that assisted in the spread Islam (Malik, 2004). The immigrant Muslims formed underground movements to spread Islam in secret, through Europe. The reason they formed such movements were for fear of persecution from the governments that mostly comprised of Christian leaders. The campus students formed these organizations and wanted to spread Islam but feared expulsion from their campus.
This was also because Christians owned most of the universities during this time, and the Christian leaders were against Islam. These underground movements moved from place to place spreading Islam and converting all those who were willing to embrace the religion. These underground movements played a significant role in the spread of Islam in Europe in the last century.
Conclusion
Although Islam has evenly spread in Europe over the last century, it is important to know that it has not been an easy journey. There have been major obstacles and pullbacks that have made the spread quite slow. Some of the Muslim converts are becoming more secular, but in an effort to curb this, the religion is becoming more civilized dropping the cultures that oppressed its followers, especially women. The Muslim religion today is advocating for the empowerment of its women followers.
Islam has been associated with terrorism and this has hindered its spread, but the strong stand of the Muslim faithful and making it clear that the Quran and Islam do not advocate for terrorism have led to its success. However, despite all these pullbacks, the religion is still spreading at a first rate and it is now widely spread in Europe. Recent statistics have shown that about 53 million people of the total population in Europe today are Muslims and this is only an approximation (Abicht, 2008).
Reference List
Abicht, L. (2008). Islam & Europe: Challenges and opportunities. Belgium: Leuven University Press.
Ezzati, A. (2002). The spread of Islam: The contributing factors. London: Islamic College for Advanced Studies Press.
Malik, J. (2004). Muslims in Europe: From the margin to the centre. Münster: LIT.
Pauly, R. J. (2004). Islam in Europe: integration or marginalization? Aldershot [Hampshire: Ashgate.