Islam in Spain
Spain is a Christian majority country, with Islam being a minority religion, practised mostly by immigrants from Muslim majority countries, and their descendants.
Islam was a major religion on the Iberian Peninsula, beginning with the Umayyad conquest of Hispania and ending (at least overtly) with its prohibition by the modern Spanish state in the mid-16th century and the expulsion of the Moriscos in the early 17th century, an ethnic and religious minority of around 500,000 people.[2] Although a significant proportion of the Moriscos returned to Spain, or avoided expulsion, the practice of Islam had faded into obscurity by the 19th century[3] after many years of crypto-Muslims practicing their faith in secret.
While the 2022 official estimation of Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS) indicates that 2.8% of the population of Spain has a religion other than Catholicism,[4] according to an unofficial estimation of 2020 by the Union of Islamic Communities of Spain (UCIDE) the Muslim population in Spain represents the 4.45% of the total Spanish population as of 2019, of whom 42% were Spanish citizens (most of them with foreign family origins), 38% Moroccans, and 20% of other nationalities.[5] In 2024 according to the Islamic Commission of Spain, there are 2.5 million Muslims in Spain, which is about 5.32 percent of the population of 47 million Spaniards. The number of converts, as per the commission, has increased to an estimated 10 times in the past three decades.[6]
Attitudes towards Muslims[edit]
Survey published in 2019 by the Pew Research Center found that 54% of Spaniards had a favourable view of Muslims, whereas 42% had an unfavourable view.[79]