Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- PART I THE ONSET OF WESTERN DOMINATION C. 1800 TO C. 1919
- PART II INDEPENDENCE AND REVIVAL C. 1919 TO THE PRESENT
- 11 Turkey from the rise of Atatürk
- 12 West Asia from the First World War
- 13 Egypt from 1919
- 14 Sudan from 1919
- 15 North Africa from the First World War
- 16 Saudi Arabia, southern Arabia and the Gulf states from the First World War
- 17 Iran from 1919
- 18 Central Asia and the Caucasus from the First World War
- 19 Afghanistan from 1919
- 20 South Asia from 1919
- 21 South-East Asia from 1910
- 22 Africa south of the Sahara from the First World War
- 23 Islam in China from the First World War
- 24 Islam in the West
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
24 - Islam in the West
from PART II - INDEPENDENCE AND REVIVAL C. 1919 TO THE PRESENT
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2011
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- PART I THE ONSET OF WESTERN DOMINATION C. 1800 TO C. 1919
- PART II INDEPENDENCE AND REVIVAL C. 1919 TO THE PRESENT
- 11 Turkey from the rise of Atatürk
- 12 West Asia from the First World War
- 13 Egypt from 1919
- 14 Sudan from 1919
- 15 North Africa from the First World War
- 16 Saudi Arabia, southern Arabia and the Gulf states from the First World War
- 17 Iran from 1919
- 18 Central Asia and the Caucasus from the First World War
- 19 Afghanistan from 1919
- 20 South Asia from 1919
- 21 South-East Asia from 1910
- 22 Africa south of the Sahara from the First World War
- 23 Islam in China from the First World War
- 24 Islam in the West
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
Muslims represent a permanent, expanding and diverse element in the populations of most Western states. But contrary to popular perceptions, Islam’s presence in Europe goes back some 1,400 years, and it is claimed that Muslims were among the earliest visitors to North America, accompanying Spanish explorers. In Europe the main difference today is between the Balkan Muslims, who have their beginning in Ottoman conquests and migration from the fourteenth century onwards, and those who have migrated to Western Europe more recently. In the United States growing evidence exists of African Muslims being brought there as slaves, while in the twentieth century many African-Americans converted to Islam. Far smaller numbers arrived in Australia and New Zealand, largely for economic reasons, from the 1850s onwards.
These substantial Muslim populations have significant implications for the societies in which they live. Their distinct religious and cultural practices fuel an array of reactions, but responses to their presence in general betray little awareness that Islam has long been part of European history, just as Judaism and, more emphatically, Christianity have been. Instead of ‘Christian Europe’, the continent could be viewed as having been fashioned by these three world faiths with common origins in the Middle East. Islam, thus, is no more a usurper of Christian Europe than Christianity was of Judaic and ‘pagan’ traditions previously. All, it could be argued, are equally entitled to be recognised as part of the European or Western heritage, and not simply as the ‘Other’.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The New Cambridge History of Islam , pp. 686 - 716Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
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