Re:The First Muslims in England
by dogma1138 on Tuesday March 29, 2016 @06:57PM
(#11385652)
It doesn't the first Mosque in the UK was built in 1889 in Bath.
Before the immigration waves form N. Africa and the Middle East the vast majority of British Muslims were from British India.
There were very few Mosques in western Europe at the time and they were virtually non prior to the late 19th century, Switzerland didn't had a single mosque till the 1960's, the first Mosque in Sweden was built in 1984.
While Europe has had some Muslim population it was quite different than the current one, most of it was aristocracy and upper middle class in Britain, France, Italy and Spain which was quite detached from the current form of Islam which is heavily influenced by modern Wahhabism and the post Ottoman Muslim Brotherhood movements.
Other than those communities the few other Muslim communities which were present in Western Europe at the time were mostly from the Baltic states which had a population of Muslims in the forms of Tattars which also as detached from what one would expect from Islam today as possible.
Before the immigration waves form N. Africa and the Middle East the vast majority of British Muslims were from British India. There were very few Mosques in western Europe at the time and they were virtually non prior to the late 19th century, Switzerland didn't had a single mosque till the 1960's, the first Mosque in Sweden was built in 1984.
While Europe has had some Muslim population it was quite different than the current one, most of it was aristocracy and upper middle class in Britain, France, Italy and Spain which was quite detached from the current form of Islam which is heavily influenced by modern Wahhabism and the post Ottoman Muslim Brotherhood movements.
Other than those communities the few other Muslim communities which were present in Western Europe at the time were mostly from the Baltic states which had a population of Muslims in the forms of Tattars which also as detached from what one would expect from Islam today as possible.