Everything about Islam In Greece totally explained
» This article is about Islam in Greece in general. For information regarding the only explicitly recognized minority in Greece, see Muslim minority of Greece.
Islam in Greece is represented by a number of autochthonous and immigrant communities.
Autochthonous Muslims in Greece
The indigenous Muslim population in Greece isn't homogeneous since it consists of different ethnic, linguistic, and social backgrounds which often overlap. The Muslim faith is the creed of several autochthonous ethnic groups living in the present territory of
Greece, namely the
Pomaks, ethnic
Turks, certain
Roma groups, and
Greek Muslims, who embraced the Muslim faith mainly in the 17th and 18th centuries. The country's Muslim population decreased significantly as a result of the
1923 population exchange agreement between
Greece and
the new Turkish Republic, which also uprooted approximately 1.5 million Greeks from
Asia Minor.
The term
Muslim minority (Μουσουλμανική μειονότητα) refers to an
Islamic religious, linguistic and ethnic
minority in
western Thrace, a part of north-east Greece. In
1923, under the terms of the
Treaty of Lausanne, the
Muslims living in Greece were required to immigrate to Turkey; whereas, the
Christians living in Turkey were required to immigrate to Greece in an "
Exchange of Populations". The Muslims of Thrace and the Christians of
Istanbul and the islands of
Gökçeada and
Bozcaada (Imvros and Tenedos) were the only populations not exchanged.
For more information on this community, see Muslim minority of Greece.
According to most estimates, about half of the autochthonous Greek Muslims consider themselves ethnically Turkish. The rest are Slavic speaking
Pomaks and
Roma. Relics of the
Ottoman Empire, this community resides mainly in
Western Thrace, where they were allowed to remain under the terms of the
1923 Treaty of Lausanne. In the town of
Komotini, it makes up almost 40 percent of the total population, whereas in the town of
Xanthi it makes up 23 percent of the population. There is also a small Muslim community in some of the
Dodecanese islands which, as part of
Italy between
1912 and
1947 were not subjected to the exchange of the population between Turkey and Greece in 1923. They number about 4,000, most of whom espouse a Turkish identity and speak Turkish. The community is strongest on the island of
Kos, and in particular the village of
Platanos. The
Pomaks are mainly located in compact villages in
Western Thrace's
Rhodope Mountains. While the Greek
Roma community is predominantly
Greek Orthodox, the Roma in Thrace are mainly Muslim.
Immigrant Muslims in Greece
The first immigrants of Islamic faith, mostly
Palestinian Arabs, arrived in the early
1970s from the
Middle East, and are concentrated in the country's two main urban centres,
Athens and
Thessaloniki. Since
1990, there has been an increase in the numbers of immigrant Muslims from various countries of the Middle East, as well as from
Pakistan,
India and
Bangladesh. However, the bulk of the immigrant Muslim community has come from
the Balkans, specifically from
Albania and
Albanian communities in the
Republic of Macedonia, and other former
Yugoslav republics. Since the collapse of
communism in
Eastern Europe in the early 90s,
Albanian workers started immigrating to Greece, taking low wage jobs in search of economic opportunity, and bringing over their families to settle in cities like
Athens and
Thessaloniki. An official 2001 census listed 443,550 Albanian nationals
(External Link
) residing in Greece; not counting undocumented residents and
Macedonian Albanians.
The majority of the immigrant Muslim community resides in Athens. In recognition of their religious rights, the Greek government approved the building of a mosque in
July 2006. In addition, the Greek Orthodox Church has donated 300,000 square feet, worth an estimated $20 million, in west Athens for the purpose of a Muslim cemetery.
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