AHC: Make some or all of these countries as Muslim as their inhabitants think

For South Africa, could a "Nation of Islam" style movement emerge there?

No, the histories are very different. Islam has always been present in South Africa, but it would never be associated with Blackness in the way that it was in the US.

The Nation of Islam movement in the US was based on the idea that converting from Christianity to Islam was somehow restoring their culture pre-slavery. Black South Africans were never Muslim. Islam in South Africa is almost exclusively a Coloured or Indian religion. It was imported to South Africa during the colonial period.
 
No, the histories are very different. Islam has always been present in South Africa, but it would never be associated with Blackness in the way that it was in the US.

The Nation of Islam movement in the US was based on the idea that converting from Christianity to Islam was somehow restoring their culture pre-slavery. Black South Africans were never Muslim. Islam in South Africa is almost exclusively a Coloured or Indian religion. It was imported to South Africa during the colonial period.
Now that I think on it, that is where the "k-word" came from.
 
France:

The Vichy French mount a stronger resistance forcing the Free French to rely more on Algerian and west African manpower to liberate France. Out of gratitude, France extends full citizenship rights to veterans and immediate family members following the end of the Second World War. Impetus for decolonization is rather less than OTL and thus France retains a significant chunk of territory in Africa.

India

No Muslim League. Pakistan and Bangladesh become a part of India.

Singapore

The newly independent government, in order to commit to racial harmony, decides to import Arab and Indian Muslim labor to their shores.

Russia

Have the Soviet Union survive.

Belgium

In order to develop the colony, the Belgians send agents to the Dutch East Indies to acquire laborers. The Indonesians in the Belgian Congo in a few decades have a demographic presence analogous to the Indians in Fiji. The Congo remains part of Belgium to the current day.

South Africa

As part of their schizo racial policy, Muslims are considered honorary whites by the apartheid government and encouraged to settle in the predominately black parts of South Africa.

Germany, italy and Netherlands

A combination of D-Day being a complete failure and the Germans committing to using chemical weapons. The United States unleashes the first atomic bombs on Germany, killing hundreds of thousands to millions of people. During the reconstruction process, Germany brings in more Turkish laborers than IOTL. As for the Netherlands, have them retain significant portions of the Dutch East Indies. Re: Italy, have them remain neutral in the Second World War and keep Libya. Libyans migrate to metropolitan Italy en masse looking for work and have a presence similar to the Puerto Ricans in the continental USA.

United States and Canada

Don't know how to make this work.

Sweden, United Kingdom and Spain

Same here.

Brazil

Somehow the Maronites and other Christians in the Levant do not emigrate but the Muslims do. Perhaps mostly the Druze and Alawites.
or Italy to keep Albania + Kosovo would increase muslim population in Italy.
 

Osman Aga

Banned
View attachment 635152
Your POD can be either pre- or post-1900. (To get it started: I suppose a different Parition could leave India 28% Muslim, Central Asian Republics deciding not to secede could leave a USSR--with the name changed to Russia after Ukraine, etc. leave--more heavily Muslim than it is, etc.)
Other than the fact that I am legit surprised that Brazilians think there are 24 million Muslims in Brazil...

For some countries these numbers are plain impossible. I'll try to look for the possible countries...
1. Spain has some possibilities if they keep Northern Morocco with increased immigration from the Maghreb (8-13%)
2. France keeps Algeria (35-40%) and Comores
3. India is never divided though the percentage would be a bit higher than 28% (I'd estimate between 33 and 38%)
4. Russia keeps Kazakhstan (Russia has like 15% Muslims, so the remaining 9% can come from Kazakhstan, it would end up like 20-25%...)
5. Netherlands keeps some smaller islands with larger populations in Indonesia who refused to join Indonesia, as well as Suriname (Suriname has like 15-20% Muslim population). I'd say 12-16% is max...
6. Italy keeps Libya and Libya experiences a population boom up to 15 million people with 10 million being native Libyans. Added by more Muslim migrants to Italy Proper

Singapore, Belgium, South Africa, Germany, Great Britain, US, Canada, Sweden, Brazil can only get half of their estimates at max. This is true increased immigrations and even from earlier periods (For Canada, US, Brazil, South Africa)
 
12% perception from brazilians is quite strange. I could understand 2-4%, or even 5% to round it up, but 12% is quite wild.
 

CalBear

Moderator
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I'm struggling to figure out how U.S. citizens could imagine that one in six Americans are Muslim.

Truly baffled.

BTW: Compliments to everyone in this thread on keeping the discussion in-bounds for post-1900.
 
Ignoring the butterfly murder in the below:

I think the easiest way for Western Europe to have such a high Muslim population is the Reconquista failing in Spain, such that Iberia remains majority Muslim into the Renaissance and establishes major colonies in South Africa and Brazil (though Christian Netherlands and France gobble up much of it). Sometime in the modern era it succumbs to an atheistic, alt-communist-type ideology and emigres scatter northward and across the Atlantic.. A Nation of Islam-style movement is more popular in both Brazil and North America as a result of this.

A Russian Empire that goes capitalist on the other hand, would presumably have the demographic boom last longest in interior Central Asia... resulting in the relative growth of the Muslim population.

India with Pakistan and Bangladesh is just about 30% Muslim - so keeping India together under a looser federal structure would do it, though I think that's also a pre-1900 POD given the acrimony that arose a century ago. Probably more Pakistanis and Bengals would secularize without the ethnoreligious identity evolving to contrast with India.
 
Why is France convinced 1/3 of the population is Muslim? At that point it's a decent majority is Muslim.

Granted their not the worst, as South Africa for some reason think's close to a forth of their population is Islamic, with less than 2% is just bizarre.

My pods would the Saudis, having a great deal of interests in South Africa during the cold war with Angola, try a spread their faith as another bulwark against communism in which ends up spreading among the black population.

Singapore has a few decades of charismatic preacher's who do really well spreading their faith?

Not sure about the rest, populations converting and faith are hard pods to write.

Still it's a interesting study of how people are perceived.
 
Why is France convinced 1/3 of the population is Muslim? At that point it's a decent majority is Muslim.

Granted their not the worst, as South Africa for some reason think's close to a forth of their population is Islamic, with less than 2% is just bizarre.

My pods would the Saudis, having a great deal of interests in South Africa during the cold war with Angola, try a spread their faith as another bulwark against communism in which ends up spreading among the black population.

Singapore has a few decades of charismatic preacher's who do really well spreading their faith?

Not sure about the rest, populations converting and faith are hard pods to write.

Still it's a interesting study of how people are perceived.
Lots of folks extrapolate trends from their own environment. Folks who live in cities thtink that if 1/3 of their city/neighborhood is Muslim then it has to be the same everywhere but actually it is not
 
Lots of folks extrapolate trends from their own environment. Folks who live in cities thtink that if 1/3 of their city/neighborhood is Muslim then it has to be the same everywhere but actually it is not
Yeah but what's up with Brazil? Are there any cities in Brazil with even a 1+ percent Muslim population there?
 
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