Western Muslims

Western Muslims are Muslims who reside in the West. Ever since the rise of Islam, Muslims have lived in parts of the West alongside Jews and Christians. Until the twentieth century, very few Muslims had ever lived in Western Europe, with the main exceptions being southern Italy, Ottoman Greece, and Al-Andalus, the period of Islamic rule of the Iberian Peninsula (i.e. what is now Spain and Portugal). The scientific and literary accomplishments of this period are often seen as an important influence on the development of the Renaissance.

Western Muslims appeared during the time when Spain and other countries were conquered by Muslims.

The numbers of Western Muslims greatly decreased after the completion of the Reconquista, as non-Christians were forced to convert to Catholicism or leave the Iberian Peninsula during the persecutions of the Spanish Inquisition of the 15th century. For centuries afterwards, there were very few Muslims to be found in the West until the 20th Century, when Muslim populations began to expand throughout the West, mostly due to large-scale immigration, but also due to conversion by non-Muslims.

External links

* http://www.danielpipes.org/article/3184 Converts to Terrorism by Daniel Pipes New York Sun December 6, 2005
* http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/bmh/bmh.htm - British Muslim Heritage, articles by indigenous British Muslims.
* http://www.islamia-pri.brent.sch.uk/british_muslims.html - A history of Islam in Britain, including biographies and pictures of early British converts to Islam.
* http://www.islamia-pri.brent.sch.uk/mrbritmuslims.html - Pictures of several early converts to Islam within the British Isles.
* http://www.theamericanmuslim.org - The American Muslim (TAM), an organization specializing for American Muslim, by convert Safiya Godlas.
* http://store.talkislam.com/b8032.html - Western Muslims and the Future of Islam written by Tariq Ramadan, book.
* http://www.arabia.pl/english - Islam in Europe. Arab issues, culture, politics and society.
* http://www.islamicamagazine.com/issue-19/shaping-islam-in-america.html - Profiles of 10 Young Muslim Leaders in America - from Islamica Magazine.