View source for Islam in Iceland

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[[File:FistaMoskaIslandi.png|thumb|Muslim culture Centre of Iceland is located at second floor in a house called ''Ýmishúsið'' in [[Reykjavík]].]] 

'''Islam in Iceland''' is a minority religion. The [[Pew Research Center]] estimated that the number of Muslims in Iceland was below its 10,000 minimum threshold,{{clarify|date=May 2022|reason=Threshold for what? PRC's definition of minor/major?}} and official statistics put the figure at under 1,300, or 0.33% out of the total population of 385,230.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projection-table/|title=Religious Composition by Country, 2010-2050|date=2015-04-02|website=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project|access-date=2017-04-20}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://px.hagstofa.is/pxenpxen/pxweb/en/Samfelag/Samfelag__menning__5_trufelog/MAN10001.px/|title=Populations by religious and life stance organizations 1998-2018|website=PX-Web|access-date=2019-01-15|archive-date=2016-01-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160113072746/https://px.hagstofa.is/pxenpxen/pxweb/en/Samfelag/Samfelag__menning__5_trufelog/MAN10001.px/|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{Islam by country}}In 2011, Icelandic Muslims attracted the interest of [[Al Jazeera Media Network|Al Jazeera]]; the channel planned a documentary dealing with Muslims in Iceland and New Zealand. Al Jazeera was interested in how [[Ramadan]] is honored in the higher latitudes where the night without sun and the sun is 24/7 can be of unusual length when compared to the majority-Muslim lands.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/Al_Jazeera_Shoots_Documentary_on_Icelandic_Muslims_0_381183.news.aspx|title=Al Jazeera Shoots Documentary on Icelandic Muslims|date=17 Aug 2011|newspaper=Iceland Review|access-date=17 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130612051034/http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/Al_Jazeera_Shoots_Documentary_on_Icelandic_Muslims_0_381183.news.aspx|archive-date=12 June 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==History==
The earliest mention of [[Iceland]] in [[Muslim]] sources originates in the works of [[Muhammad al-Idrisi]] (1099–1165/66) in his famous ''[[Tabula Rogeriana]]'', which mentions Iceland's location in the [[North Sea]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2017}}

The long-distance trading and raiding networks of the [[Viking]]s will have meant that various Icelanders, like the Norwegians [[Rögnvald Kali Kolsson]] or [[Harald Hardrada]], came into direct contact with the Muslim world during the Middle Ages;<ref>Neil Price, 'The Vikings in Spain, North Africa and the Mediterranean', in ''The Viking World'', ed. by Stefan Brink and Neil Price (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), pp. 462--69.</ref> indirect connections are best attested by finds of Arabic coins in Iceland, as also widely in the Viking world.<ref>E.g. the hoard found at the farm Keta in Skefilsstaðhreppur: Fedir Androshchuk and
Ragnheiður Traustadóttir, 'A Viking Age Spearhead from Kolkuós', Hólarannsóknin Framvinduskýrsla 6 (2004), https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Viking_Age_Spearheads.</ref>

Following Iceland's conversion to Christianity around 1000, some Icelanders encountered the Islamic world through pilgrimage, for example to Jerusalem, of the kind described by Abbot Nikulás Bergsson in his ''[[Leiðarvísir og borgarskipan]]''.{{Citation needed|date=April 2017}}

From around the late thirteenth century, a fantastical version of the Islamic world is prominent in medieval Icelandic [[Chivalric sagas|romance]], partly inspired by Continental narratives influenced by the Crusades. Although this image generally characterises the Islamic world as 'heathen', and repeats the misconceptions of Islam widespread in the medieval West,<ref>Martin, John Stanley, 'Attitudes to Islam from the ''Chansons de geste'' to the ''Riddarasögur''<nowiki/>', ''Parergon'', n. s. 8.2 (1990), 81-95. {{doi| 10.1353/pgn.1990.0001}}</ref> it also varies substantially from text to text, sometimes, for example, associating the Islamic world with great wealth, wisdom, or chivalry.<ref>Sverrir Jakobsson, ''Við og veröldin: Heimsmynd Íslendinga 1100-1400'' (Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan, 2005), pp. 130-60. Cf. Sheryl Elizabeth McDonald Werronen, 'Transforming Popular Romance on the Edge of the World: ''Nítíða saga'' in Late Medieval and Early Modern Iceland' (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Leeds, 2013), pp. 150--56; Bjørn Bandlien, 'Muslims in ''Karlamagnúss saga'' and ''Elíss saga ok Rósamundar'' ' and Geraldine Barnes, 'Byzantium in the ''riddarasögur'' ', in ''Á austrvega: Saga and East Scandinavia. Preprint Papers of the 14th International Saga Conference, Uppsala, 9th–15th August 2009''. Eds. Agneta Ney, Henrik Williams, and Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist. Institutionen för humaniora och samhällsvetenskaps skriftserie 14. Gävle: Gävle UP, 2009. 1.85–91 and 1.92–98, http://www.saga.nordiska.uu.se/preprint {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180219035927/http://www.saga.nordiska.uu.se/preprint/ |date=2018-02-19 }}.</ref> Romance continued to serve as a medium for Icelanders to contemplate Islam in the post-medieval period, for example in [[Jón Oddsson Hjaltalín|Jón Oddsson Hjaltalín's]] eighteenth-century romance ''[[Fimmbræðra saga]]'', which combined traditional storytelling with Continental Enlightenment scholarship.

Perhaps the earliest known example of Muslims coming to Iceland occurred in 1627, when the [[Netherlands|Dutch]] [[Muslim]] [[Jan Janszoon]] and his [[Barbary pirates]] raided portions of Iceland, including the southwest coast, [[Vestmannaeyjar]], and the eastern fjords.<ref name="NielsenAkgönül2010">{{cite book|author1=Jørgen Nielsen|author2=Samim Akgönül|author3=Ahmet Alibaši?|author4=Brigitte Maréchal |author5=Christian Moe|title=Yearbook of Muslims in Europe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=068flHho1NEC&pg=PA251|access-date=9 September 2012|date=11 November 2010|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-18475-6|pages=251–}}</ref> This event is known in Icelandic history as the ''Tyrkjaránið'' (the "[[Turkish Abductions]]"). An estimated 400-800 Icelanders were sold into slavery.

Islam started to gain presence in Icelandic culture around the 1970s, partly through immigration from the Islamic world (for example [[Salmann Tamimi]]) and partly through Icelanders' exposure to Islamic culture while travelling (for example [[Ibrahim Sverrir Agnarsson]]). Some of the immigrants simply came of their own accord; others came as refugees, including groups from [[Kosovo]].<ref>Heimir Björnsson, 'Hvaða átt til Mekka? Stofnun trúfélags múslima á Íslandi, þróun þess og starf á Íslandi og barátta gegn fordómum' (unpublished BA thesis, University of Iceland), pp. 8-9. http://skemman.is/item/view/1946/2283; [https://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2006/71385.htm International Religious Freedom Report 2006]</ref> The [[Quran]] was first translated into Icelandic in 1993, with a corrected edition in 2003.<ref>''Kóran'', trans. by Helgi Hálfdánarson, second edn, Reykjvík, 2003.</ref>

==Demographics==
[[File:MuInIce2012.png|right|thumb|Members of Muslim Associations in Iceland as a function of time]]

[[Salmann Tamimi]] estimates that when he came to Iceland in 1971 there were perhaps seven Muslims living there.<ref name="Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir 2014 p. 66">Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir, 'To a Mosque on a Magic Carpet', ''Iceland Review'', 52.1 (2014), 64--68 (p. 66).</ref> As of 2013, however,

*"Muslim Association of Iceland" (Félag múslima á Íslandi) has 465 members.
*"The Islamic Cultural Centre of Iceland" (Menningarsetur múslima á Íslandi) has 305 members.<ref name="US">[http://hagstofan.is/?PageID=2593&src=/temp/Dialog/varval.asp?ma=MAN10001%26ti=Mannfj%F6ldi+eftir+tr%FAf%E9l%F6gum+1998%2D2012++++++++++%26path=../Database/mannfjoldi/Trufelog/%26lang=3%26units=Fj%F6ldi ''Mannfjöldi eftir trúfélögum 1998-2012 '']. Hagstofan.is {{in lang|is}}</ref>

The first generation of Muslims born in Iceland probably began with people like Salmann's own children, such as Yousef Ingi Tamimi (b. 1988).<ref>Viðar Þorsteinsson and Yousef Ingi Tamimi, 'Maður verður að hafa húmor fyrir sjálfum sér: Viđar Þorsteinsson og Yousef Ingi Tamimi ræða saman', in ''Íslam með afslætti'', ed. by Auður Jónsdóttir and Óttar Martin Norðfjörð, Afbók, 4 ([Reykjavík]: Nýhil, 2008), pp. 142-51 (p. 143).</ref> Iceland's Muslim population is of diverse origins, including people born in the Arab world, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Africa, and Iceland.<ref name="skemman.is">Heimir Björnsson, 'Hvaða átt til Mekka? Stofnun trúfélags múslima á Íslandi, þróun þess og starf á Íslandi og barátta gegn fordómum' (unpublished BA thesis, University of Iceland), p. 13. http://skemman.is/item/view/1946/2283.</ref>

==Organisations==

===Muslim Association of Iceland===
The Muslim Association of Iceland (''Félag múslima á Íslandi'') was founded in 1997 by [[Salmann Tamimi]], a Palestinian immigrant; it was officially recognised on February 25.<ref>Heimir Björnsson, 'Hvaða átt til Mekka? Stofnun trúfélags múslima á Íslandi, þróun þess og starf á Íslandi og barátta gegn fordómum' (unpublished BA thesis, University of Iceland), p. 6. http://skemman.is/item/view/1946/2283.</ref> Since 2010 the chair has been [[Ibrahim Sverrir Agnarsson]].<ref name="Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir 2014 p. 65">Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir, 'To a Mosque on a Magic Carpet', ''Iceland Review'', 52.1 (2014), 64--68 (p. 65).</ref> As of 2014, the association has 465 members. More than half were born in Iceland; perhaps 40-50 were born to non-Muslim parents.<ref name="Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir 2014 p. 65"/>

The Muslim Association of Iceland currently runs the [[Reykjavík Mosque]], a [[Sunni]] mosque on the third floor of an office building in Ármúli 38, Reykjavík.<ref name="US" /> It has two [[imam]]s and offers daily and nightly prayers attended by a mix of local Icelanders and visiting Muslims. It also offers weekly Friday prayers for [[Jumu'ah]]. In 2000 the Muslim Association applied to purpose-build a mosque in Reykjavík; after a long process, permission for building was granted on July 6, 2013.<ref>Kári Tulinius, 'So What Is This Reykjavík Mosque I Keep Hearing About?', ''The Reykjavík Grapevine'', 8.8.2013, http://www.grapevine.is/Features/ReadArticle/So-What-Is-This-Reykjavik-Mosque-I-Keep-Hearing-About {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140415103154/http://www.grapevine.is/Features/ReadArticle/So-What-Is-This-Reykjavik-Mosque-I-Keep-Hearing-About |date=2014-04-15 }}.</ref>

Prayers are said in Arabic, but English and Icelandic are also widely used due to the diverse nature of the congregation. The Association regularly runs courses in both Arabic and Icelandic. On Saturdays there are Quran lessons for kids of different ages.<ref name="skemman.is"/>

===Islamic Cultural Centre of Iceland===
The [[Islamic Culture Centre of Iceland]] (''Menningarsetur múslima á Íslandi'') was founded in 2008 by [[Karim Askari]], originally from Morocco, and as of 2014 has 305 members.<ref name="Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir 2014 p. 65"/> The Centre hired Ahmad Seddeeq, originally from Egypt, as Imam in 2011.<ref>Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir, 'To a Mosque on a Magic Carpet', ''Iceland Review'', 52.1 (2014), 64--68 (p. 67).</ref>

The Islamic Cultural Centre of Iceland runs a mosque in Ýmishúsið on Skógarhlíð in Reykjavík.<ref>Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir, 'To a Mosque on a Magic Carpet', ''Iceland Review'', 52.1 (2014), 64--68 (pp. 65-66).</ref>

==Discrimination==
One of the main researchers on Icelandic attitudes to racial and religious groups, Kristín Loftsdóttir, has found that many Icelanders exhibit [[Opposition to immigration|anti-immigrant]] discourses linked with Islamophobia in ways parallel those in other European countries, despite Iceland having an often completely different history of contact with Islamic cultures.<ref>Kristín Loftsdóttir. 2012b. 'Belonging and the Icelandic Others: Situating Icelandic Identity in a Postcolonial Context', in ''Whiteness and Postcolonialism in the Nordic Region: Exceptionalism, Migrant Others and National Identities'', ed. by Kristín Loftsdóttir and Lars Jensen (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012), pp. 56-72 (p. 63).</ref> Many public expressions of Islamophobia have in the second decade of the twenty-first century been focused on opposition to the creation of a purpose-built [[Reykjavík Mosque|Reykjavík mosque]]. Opposition to Islam is often presented in terms of support for gender equality, a discourse which in Kristín's assessment is 'used as a way to dwell on the criticism of Muslims in general, and to the glory of European societies'.<ref>Kristín Loftsdóttir. 2012a. Whiteness is from Another World: Gender, Icelandic International Development and Multiculturalism. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 19(1), 41–54 (p. 47). See also Þorgerður H. Þorvaldsdóttir, 'The Gender-Equal North: Icelandic Images of Femininity and Masculinity', in ''Iceland and Images of the North'', ed. by Sumarliði R. Ísleifsson (Québec: Presses de l'Université du Québec, 2011), pp. 405-34 (pp. 410-11).</ref> [[Óttar M. Norðfjörð|Óttar M. Norðfjörð's]] 2010 novel ''[[Örvitinn eða; Hugsjónamaðurinn]]'' satirises Islamophobic attitudes.<ref>'Fávitinn, Ofvitinn, Örvitinn og Óttar M. Norðfjörð: Strákur Karlsson heldur út í heim', Morgunblaðið, 3 March 2010, http://www.mbl.is/greinasafn/grein/1324420/.</ref>

Many Muslims in Iceland prefer not to join a formal organisation, considering their relationship with God a personal one.<ref name="Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir 2014 p. 66"/>

==Religious organisation affiliation==
{{Update section|date=May 2025}}{{col-begin}}
{{col-2}}
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: right;"
|+colspan="4"|Muslim Association of Iceland (1 January)<ref name="auto">{{Cite web
|url       = http://www.statice.is/?PageID=1180&src=https://rannsokn.hagstofa.is/pxen/Dialog/varval.asp?ma=MAN10001%26ti=Populations+by+religious+and+life+stance+organizations+1998%2D2015+++%26path=../Database/mannfjoldi/Trufelog/%26lang=1%26units=Number
|title     = Populations by religious organizations 1998–2015
|publisher = [[Statistics Iceland]]
|location  = Reykjavík, Iceland}}</ref>
!Year
!Population
!Muslim Association
!%
!±
|-
|1998
|{{ispop|1998}}
|78
|0.03
|0.00 {{Steady}}
|-
|1999
|{{ispop|1999}}
|89
|0.03
|0.00 {{Steady}}
|-
|2000
|{{ispop|2000}}
|134
|0.05
|0.02 {{Increase}}
|-
|2001
|{{ispop|2001}}
|165
|0.06
|0.01 {{Increase}}
|-
|2002
|{{ispop|2002}}
|179
|0.06
|0.00 {{Steady}}
|-
|2003
|{{ispop|2003}}
|229
|0.08
|0.02 {{Increase}}
|-
|2004
|{{ispop|2004}}
|292
|0.10
|0.02 {{Increase}}
|-
|2005
|{{ispop|2005}}
|318
|0.11
|0.01 {{Increase}}
|-
|2006
|{{ispop|2006}}
|340
|0.11
|0.00 {{Steady}}
|-
|2007
|{{ispop|2007}}
|352
|0.11
|0.00 {{Steady}}
|-
|2008
|{{ispop|2008}}
|373
|0.12
|0.01 {{Increase}}
|-
|2009
|{{ispop|2009}}
|404
|0.13
|0.01 {{Increase}}
|-
|2010
|{{ispop|2010}}
|373
|0.12
|0.01 {{Decrease}}
|-
|2011
|{{ispop|2011}}
|370
|0.12
|0.00 {{Steady}}
|-
|2012
|{{ispop|2012}}
|419
|0.13
|0.01 {{Increase}}
|-
|2013
|{{ispop|2013}}
|465
|0.14
|0.01 {{Increase}}
|-
|2014
|{{ispop|2014}}
|481
|0.15
|0.01 {{Increase}}
|-
|2015
|{{ispop|2015}}
|486
|0.15
|0.00 {{Steady}}
|}
{{col-2}}
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: right;"
|+colspan="4"|Muslim Cultural Centre in Iceland (1 January)<ref name="auto"/>
!Year
!Population
!Muslim Cultural Centre
!%
!±
|-
|2010
|{{ispop|2010}}
|218
|0.07
|0.00 {{Steady}}
|-
|2011
|{{ispop|2011}}
|274
|0.09
|0.02 {{Increase}}
|-
|2012
|{{ispop|2012}}
|275
|0.09
|0.00 {{Steady}}
|-
|2013
|{{ispop|2013}}
|305
|0.09
|0.00 {{Steady}}
|-
|2014
|{{ispop|2014}}
|360
|0.11
|0.02 {{Increase}}
|-
|2015
|{{ispop|2015}}
|389
|0.12
|0.01 {{Increase}}
|}
{{col-end}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Islam|Iceland}}
*[[Religion in Iceland]]
*[[Islam in the Arctic]]
*[[Islam in Europe]]
*[[Islam by country]]
*[[European Islam]]
*[[Bahá'í Faith in Iceland]]
*[[Iceland–Palestine relations]]
*[[Reykjavík Mosque]]
*[[Islam]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
*[http://islam.is islam.is] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209170008/https://www.islam.is/ |date=2021-02-09 }}

{{Islam in Europe}}
{{Religion in Iceland}}
{{World topic|prefix=Islamophobia in|noredlinks=y|title=Islamophobia by country}}

[[Category:Islam in Iceland| ]]