Islam in Finland
| 90–100% | |
| 70–80% | Kazakhstan |
| 50–70% |
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| 30–50% | North Macedonia |
| 10–20% | |
| 5–10% |
|
| 4–5% |
|
| 2–4% |
|
| 1–2% |
|
| < 1% |
| Islam by country |
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 Islam portal |
Islam is a minority religion in Finland. The first Muslims were Tatars who immigrated mainly between 1870 and 1920.[2] After that there were decades with generally a small number of immigration in Finland. Since the late 20th century the number of Muslims in Finland has increased rapidly due to immigration. Nowadays, there are dozens of Islamic communities in Finland, but only a minority of Muslims have joined them. Pew Research Center estimates that in 2016 about 2.7% of Finland's 5.5 million population is Muslim. The real percentage is said to be 1.8% if counting together all language groups. In the high migration scenario, Finland's Muslim population could grow to 15% by 2050 which would equal almost a million Muslims in Finland.[3]
Baltic Tatars[]
The Baltic Tatars arrived in Finland as merchants and soldiers at the end of the 19th century. They were sunni muslims and spoke one of the turkic languages. They were later joined by other family members and formed the first Islamic congregation, the (Finnish: Suomen Islam-seurakunta), which was founded in 1925 after Finland had become independent from Russia and in 1922 passed a law on religious freedom. In practice, this society only accepts people from Tatar origin, or Turkic origin in general, as members, excluding non-Turkic speaking Muslims. The Finnish Tatars's Islamic congregations have a total of about 1,000 members these days.[4][5] By and large, Tartars remained the only Muslims in Finland until the start of the 1960s.[5]
Modern immigration[]
By the early 1980s, several hundred Muslims predominantly from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) had immigrated as students, laborers and spouses. In 1987 they formed the association.[5]
Due to the number of immigrants and refugees, the number of Muslims in Finland rose considerably in the early 1990s, predominantly they were from the aforementioned MENA countries as well as Somalia and the Balkans. Soon new immigrants established their own mosques and societies. In 1996 these groups came together to form a cooperative organ - the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Finland. It is estimated that approximately 1,000 Finns have converted to Islam. The vast majority of these are women who have married Muslim men.[4][5]
By 2003, the number of Muslims had increased to 20 000 and there were about 30 mosques. The majority of Muslims were Sunni as well as some Shia refugees from Iraq.[5]
Like most countries in Western Europe, Muslims tend to live in the larger cities of Finland like Helsinki, Tampere, Oulu and Turku.[5]
Hundreds of Muslim asylum seekers and refugees from Iraq and Afghanistan convert to Christianity after having had their first asylum application rejected by the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri), in order to re-apply for asylum on the grounds of religious persecution.[6]
In 2018, the Minister of Justice Antti Häkkänen ruled out the use of Islamic law in Finland.[7]
Islamic societies[]
| Name | Registered | Home | Members |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1925 | Helsinki | 567 | |
| 1987 | Helsinki | 1 097 | |
| 1995 | Helsinki | 1 817 | |
| 1998 | Tampere | 837 | |
| 1998 | Helsinki | 575 | |
| 2000 | Oulu | 361 | |
| 2001 | Vantaa | 486 |
There are dozens of independent Islamic societies in Finland. The oldest one is Finnish Islamic Association which was established in 1925. It has about 700 members of whom all are Tatars. The society has mosques in Helsinki, Tampere and Lahti. The only building established only as mosque in Finland is Järvenpää Mosque.[citation needed]
The was established in 1987. Its members are mainly Arabs, but also Finnish converts. The society has a mosque and Koran school in Helsinki. The is currently the biggest society with almost 2,000 members. Furthermore, there are a dozen other Islamic societies in Helsinki region, some of them are not officially registered.[citation needed]
Most of mosques are multilingual, but the most commonly used languages are usually English and Finnish. Religious services are held in Arabic.[citation needed]
Demographics[]
The population of Muslims in Finland from 2008 to 2018 ,according to the Statistics Finland:[9]
| Year | Population |
|---|---|
| 2008 | 40.000 |
| 2010 | 45.000 |
| 2012 | 50.000 |
| 2014 | 60,237 |
| 2016 | 110.000 |
| 2018 | 136.000 |
Muslim majority ethnic groups by language[]
Numbers are based on the Statistics Finland (language, 2019).[10]
- Arabic language (30,467)
- Somali language (20,997)
- Kurdish language (14,327)
- Persian language (12,090)
- Albanian language (10,391)
- Turkish language (7,739)
- Bengali language (3,599)
- Urdu language (2,983)
- Bosnian language (2,322)
- Punjabi language (1,028)
- Chechen language (636)
- Uzbek language (604)
- Indonesian language (589)
- Azerbaijani language (467)
- Turkmen language (447)
Total: 102,696
Terrorism and radicalisation[]
The ICCT report from April 2016 showed that at least 70 individuals had left Finland to enter the conflict zone and the majority joined jihadist groups in Syra and Iraq. They started leaving in the 2012-13 time spand and the male-female ratio was about 80-20%.[11]
The first Islamist terrorist attack in Finland was the 2017 Turku attack where Abderrahman Bouanane, a failed asylum seeker from Morocco, stabbed two women to death and wounded eight other people in his stabbing attack.[12]
Islamic militants constituted the majority of those under surveillance by the Finnish Security Intelligence Service (SUPO) in 2020 and Finland is portrayed as an enemy state in Islamic State propaganda. The militant Islamist networks in Finland are multiethnic and span across generations, where the third generation of a number of Muslim immigrant families are radicalised. This leads to Muslim children growing up in a radicalized environment. The Foreign fighters in the Syrian and Iraqi Civil Wars movement has amplified transnational contacts for the Islamist movements in Finland. A number of militants have arrived from the conflict zone in Syria and the Al-Hawl refugee camp and constitute both a short and long term security threat.[13][14]
Gallery[]
6 Islamic, 15 English, and 76 German coins, latest coin dates from 1006-1029 - National Museum of Finland
Main building of the Finnish-Islamic Congregation in Helsinki.
See also[]
- Finnish Islamic Party
- History of Islam in the Arctic and Subarctic regions
References[]
- ^ "Religious Composition by Country, 2010-2050". Pew Research Center. 12 April 2015. Retrieved 22 October 2017.
- ^ Mason, Robert (2016-04-08). Muslim Minority-State Relations: Violence, Integration, and Policy. Springer. ISBN 978-1-137-52605-2.
- ^ "Muslim Population Growth in Europe". pewforum.org.
- ^ a b The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland: Other Churches and Religions in Finland Archived 2010-10-05 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c d e f "Sök - Uppslagsverket Finland". uppslagsverket.fi. Retrieved 2021-11-21.
- ^ "Stort finländskt fenomen - hundratals muslimer blir kristna". 4 October 2017. Archived from the original on 21 April 2018.
- ^ "Justice Minister: "No room in Finland for Sharia law"". News. 2018-05-22. Retrieved 2021-12-03.
- ^ Uskonnot.fi (In Finnish) Keyword "islam". 16.8.2010
- ^ https://www.statista.com/statistics/533055/annual-number-of-individuals-identifying-as-muslim-in-finland/
- ^ [1][permanent dead link]
- ^ "The Foreign Fighters Phenomenon in the European Union". The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism - The Hague (ICCT). April 2016. p. 44. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
- ^ Rosendahl, Jussi (2018-06-15). "Knife attacker sentenced to life by a Finnish court". Reuters. Retrieved 2021-04-04.
- ^ "Terrorhotbedömning". Skyddspolisens årsbok (in Swedish). Retrieved 2021-04-04.
- ^ "Den radikala islamistiska terrorismen efter kalifatet". Skyddspolisens årsbok (in Swedish). Retrieved 2021-04-04.
External links[]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Islam in Finland. |
- Report on Islam: Finnish Islam arises slowly (in Finnish).
- Finnish Islamic Congregation (in Finnish).
- Some of the mosques in Finland (map)
- Islam in Finland