Experience of Muslims in Eastern Europe

The chapter addresses the evolution of Islamic presence and Muslim experiences in two dozen post-socialist countries collectively comprising the region of Eastern Europe. In the first part, it traces the arrival of Islam and settlement of Muslims in this part of Europe through intermittent waves of migration, conversion, and conquest, their historical status, and governance of Islam in such empires as the Russian and Ottoman and later the communist-ruled USSR, SFRY, and other states. It then proceeds to the analysis of the contemporary situation of Muslims in the region through the prism of common phenomena, like forms and levels of religiosity among region’s Muslims, (re)institutionalization of Islam in post-socialist Eastern European states, depopulation of the Muslim segment through emigration, assimilation and other natural causes, radicalization of certain segments of national Muslim populations, (re)emergence of Islamophobia on the part of non-Muslim populations, and securitization of Islam by national governments and other actorsRegionistikos katedraVytauto Didžiojo universiteta