Islam in the Netherlands in the context of "European Islam"

Religion in the Netherlands was dominated by Christianity between the 10th and 20th centuries. In the late 19th century, roughly 60% of the population was Calvinist and 35% was Catholic. Also, until The Holocaust, there was a noticeable Jewish minority. Since World War II, there has been a significant decline in Catholic and especially Protestant Christianity, with Protestantism declining to such a degree that Catholicism became the foremost form of the Christian religion. The majority of the Dutch population is secular; however, historic societal pillarisation (verzuiling) based on religious lines continue to influence parts of Dutch society. Relatively sizable Muslim and Hindu minorities also exist.

Islam is the second-largest religion in Europe after Christianity. Although the majority of Muslim communities in Western Europe formed as a result of immigration, there are centuries-old indigenous European Muslim communities in the Balkans, Caucasus, Crimea, and Volga region. The term "Muslim Europe" is used to refer to the Muslim-majority countries in the Balkans and the Caucasus (Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Turkey) and parts of countries in Central and Eastern Europe with sizable Muslim minorities (Bulgaria, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and some republics of Russia) that constitute large populations of indigenous European Muslims, although the majority are secular.

Islam expanded into the Caucasus through the Muslim conquest of Persia in the 7th century and entered Southern Europe after the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in the 8th–10th centuries; Muslim political entities existed firmly in what is today Spain, Portugal, Sicily, and Malta during the Middle Ages. The Muslim populations in these territories were either converted to Christianity or expelled by the end of the 15th century by the indigenous Christian rulers (see Reconquista). The Ottoman Empire expanded into Southeastern Europe and consolidated its political power by invading and conquering huge portions of the Serbian and Bulgarian empires, and the remaining territories of the region, including the Albanian and Romanian principalities, and the kingdoms of Bosnia, Croatia, and Hungary between the 14th and 16th centuries. Over the centuries, the Ottoman Empire gradually lost its European territories. Islam was particularly influential in the territories of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo, and has remained the dominant religion in these countries.

Hinduism is the third largest religious group in the Netherlands, after Christianity and Islam; representing about 1.0% of the Dutch population in 2019. After the United Kingdom's and Italy's, the Netherlands' is the third largest Hindu community in Europe. There are between 200,000 – 240,000 Hindus currently living in the Netherlands, the vast majority of whom migrated from Suriname – a former Dutch colony in South America. There are also sizable populations of Hindu immigrants from South Asia and Caribbean countries as well as a smaller number of Western adherents of Hinduism-oriented new religious movements.

Islam is the most popular religion in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was introduced to the local population in the 15th and 16th centuries as a result of the Ottoman conquest of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Muslims make the largest religious community in Bosnia and Herzegovina at around 51% of the population.

Islam in Montenegro refers to adherents, communities and religious institutions of Islam in Montenegro. It is the second largest religion in the country, after Christianity. According to the 2011 census, Montenegro's 118,477 Muslims make up 19.11% of the total population. Montenegro's Muslims belong mostly to the Sunni branch. In 2023, Montenegro's 124,668 Muslims made up 19.99% of the total population.

Islam in Georgia (Georgian: ისლამი საქართველოში, romanized: islami sakartveloshi) was introduced in 654 when an army sent by the Third Caliph of Islam, Uthman, conquered Eastern Georgia and established Muslim rule in Tbilisi. Currently, Muslims constitute approximately 9.9% of the Georgian population. According to other sources, Muslims constitute 10-11% of Georgia's population.

In July 2011, the Parliament of Georgia passed new law allowing religious minority groups with "historic ties to Georgia" to register. The draft of the law specifically mentions Islam and four other religious communities.

Islam is a major religious minority in the Russian Federation, which has the largest Muslim population in Europe. According to the US Federal Research Division 1998 reference book, Muslims in Russia numbered about 19% of the religious population.

Recognized under the law and by Russian political leaders as one of Russia's traditional religions, Islam is a part of Russian historical heritage, and is subsidized by the Russian government. The position of Islam as a major Russian religion, alongside Orthodox Christianity, dates from the time of Catherine the Great, who sponsored Islamic clerics and scholarship through the Orenburg Assembly.

Islam arrived in Albania mainly during the Ottoman period when the majority of Albanians over time converted to Islam under Ottoman rule. Following the Albanian National Awakening (Rilindja) tenets and the de-emphasis of religious tradition in Albania, all governments in the 20th century pursued a secularization policy, most aggressively under the People's Socialist Republic of Albania, which actively persecuted Muslims. Due to this policy, Islam, as with all other faiths in the country, underwent radical changes. Decades of state atheism, which ended in 1991, brought a decline in the religious practice of all traditions. The post-communist period and the lifting of legal and other government restrictions on religion allowed Islam to revive through institutions that generated new infrastructure, literature, educational facilities, international transnational links and other social activities.

According to the 2023 census, Islam is the largest religion, with a 50.67% majority of Albanians identifying as Muslim, including 1,101,718 (45.86%) Sunni Muslims, and 115,644 (4.81%) Bektashi Muslims.

Islam in Kosovo has a long-standing tradition dating back to the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. Before the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, the entire Balkan region had been Christianized by both the Western and Eastern Roman Empire. From 1389 until 1912, Kosovo was officially governed by the Muslim Ottoman Empire and a high level of Islamization occurred among Catholic and Orthodox Albanians, mainly due to Sufi orders and socio-political opportunism. Both Christian and Muslim Albanians intermarried and some lived as "Laramans", also known as Crypto-Christians. During the time period after World War II, Kosovo was ruled by secular socialist authorities in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). During that period, Kosovars became increasingly secularized. After the end of the communist period, religion had a revival in Kosovo. Today, 95.6% of Kosovo's population are Sunni Muslims, most of whom are ethnic Albanians. There are also non-Albanian speaking Muslims, who define themselves as Bosniaks, Gorani and Turks.

Islam in Kosovo is predominantly Hanafi Sunni, the most widespread tradition in the Balkans. Additionally, Kosovo has Sufi orders, particularly the Bektashi order, which blends elements of Shia and Sufi traditions. Other Sufi brotherhoods, such as the Halveti and Kadiri orders, also exist. According to a 2012 study by the Pew Research Center, 58% of muslims in Kosovo are non-denominational Muslims, which is practicing Islam without strict adherence to a particular sect or school of thought.