Islam remains illegal in Europe

I don't know what all this facepalm crap is - I don't consider the OP trollish at all. Muslims, other than diplomats, and even then not until the mid-19th c, and occasionally a few merchants, were not welcome in Europe, period. Even the Ottomans generally appointed Christians to diplomatic posts in Europe.

It's a legitimate question.

There was a sizebsble Muslim Tatar minority in Poland-Lithuania. There were Tatar regiments in Polish Army up untill the last patrition :confused:
 
There was a sizebable Muslim Tatar minority in Poland-Lithuania. There were Tatar regiments in Polish Army up untill the last patrition :confused:

Yes, Poland-Lithuania was more than just a bit exception, I guess. Still that most of Europe behaved like what Pasha has described. In general, it's even arguable that virtually any individual muslim presence was generally treated as if it was illegal in Europe....
 
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Susano

Banned
I don't know what all this facepalm crap is - I don't consider the OP trollish at all. Muslims, other than diplomats, and even then not until the mid-19th c, and occasionally a few merchants, were not welcome in Europe, period. Even the Ottomans generally appointed Christians to diplomatic posts in Europe.

It's a legitimate question.

But there was no outright ban. Well, except for those countries who expelled their mulsims, but that did require a larger muslim population to begin with. As it was, Muslism would not be received well in most European states, and before Enlightment hit wouldnt be able to build mosques or anything, but being Muslim itself was not illegal in the majority of states.
 

Deleted member 5719

Re Muslims in Britain

Muslim Laskars were in the UK in the 1700's, definitely by 1750. There is no record of official mosques, but it seems likely unofficial mosques existed in London and Bristol.

The first modern wave of Muslim immigration was Yemenis from 1860, primarily in London and Cardiff, where they built an official mosque in 1860.
 
But there was no outright ban. Well, except for those countries who expelled their mulsims, but that did require a larger muslim population to begin with. As it was, Muslism would not be received well in most European states, and before Enlightment hit wouldnt be able to build mosques or anything, but being Muslim itself was not illegal in the majority of states.

We agreed that the term was one of convenience to describe a more or less pan-European phenomenon that differed in detail from place to place.

If being Muslim was not in itself illegal in much of Europe, this was because it was irrelevant. There were simply no Muslims - they were not welcome. That is why much of the Ottoman diplomatic corps stationed in Europe was Greek or Armenian. And it was illegal in many places. The terms of Serbia's autonomy, for example, was that Muslims were banned from settling there.

I find a lot in the Wiki article about Islam in Germany dubious. I don't doubt that there were a handful Ottoman Muslims serving in the Prussian army, but a 1,000-man Bosniacorps in 1760? Have you ever even heard of such a thing? It would have had a large impact on both Prussia and the Ottoman Empire.
 
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