Short answer
Yes. Islam has been part of Europe for about thirteen centuries. Muslims ruled in Spain from 711 until 1492, and for centuries over most of it. They ruled Sicily from the ninth century until 1091. The Ottomans ruled the Balkans for centuries. The Bulgars of the Volga officially took Islam in 922, sixty-six years before Kievan Rus', the forerunner of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, was baptised. Many of Europe's Muslims today are native peoples, not newcomers. More than nine in ten people in Kosovo are Muslim, and about half in Bosnia and in Albania. Europe also learned from Muslim scholars, such as Ibn Sina in medicine and al-Khwarizmi in mathematics. Christianity also came from the Middle East, and Jesus never set foot in Europe. Islam's answer is simple: truth has no passport, and the Prophet (ﷺ) was sent to all mankind.
Full explanation
Thirteen centuries of Islam in Europe
Muslims ruled in Spain from 711 until the fall of Granada in 1492. They called it al-Andalus. In Sicily, Palermo fell to them in 831. They held the island until the Norman conquest was completed in 1091. The Ottomans crossed into the Balkans in the 1350s and ruled there for centuries. In the far east of Europe, the Bulgars of the Volga officially accepted Islam in 922. That was sixty-six years before Kievan Rus' was baptised in 988. Kievan Rus' was the forerunner of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. It was also more than four centuries before Lithuania became Christian in 1387.
A political history of al-Andalus, from the Muslim conquest of 711 to the fall of Granada in 1492.
A history of the Muslims of Sicily and southern Italy, from the conquest of Sicily that began in 827, through the Muslim rule of the island, to the Norman conquest completed in the late eleventh century.
Ibn Fadlan, secretary of an embassy sent by the caliph al-Muqtadir, describes the journey from Baghdad to the king of the Volga Bulgars, who had asked for teachers of Islam. The embassy reached him in 922, the date usually given for the Volga Bulgars' official adoption of Islam.
Records the baptism of Prince Vladimir of Kiev and the mass baptism of the people of Kiev in the Dnieper, under the year 988.
Native Muslim peoples of Europe
In 2016 about 25.8 million Muslims lived in the European Union, Norway and Switzerland. That is about one person in twenty. Many of Europe's Muslims are not newcomers at all. Kosovo's 2024 census counted 93.5 per cent of its people as Muslim. Bosnia and Herzegovina's 2013 census counted 50.7 per cent. In Albania in 2023, 45.9 per cent called themselves Muslim and 4.8 per cent Bektashi. The Bektashi are a Sufi order, a spiritual brotherhood within Islam. Together that is about half. In Russia, the Tatars, the Bashkirs, the Chechens and the peoples of Dagestan are Muslim peoples native to their lands. And Istanbul, the old Ottoman capital, lies partly in Europe.
Estimates that in mid-2016 about 25.8 million Muslims lived in the 28 countries of the European Union plus Norway and Switzerland, about 4.9 per cent of the population.
The 2024 census recorded about 93.5 per cent of Kosovo's residents as Muslim.
At the 2013 census, 50.7 per cent of the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina gave their religion as Islam.
At the 2023 census, 45.9 per cent of residents described themselves as Muslim and a further 4.8 per cent as Bektashi, a Sufi order within Islam.
What Europe learned from Muslim scholars
In the twelfth century Gerard of Cremona put the Canon of Medicine of Ibn Sina (Avicenna), a Persian doctor of the eleventh century, into Latin. European universities taught from it into the seventeenth century. Thomas Aquinas, the Christian thinker of the thirteenth century, called Ibn Rushd (Averroes) of Cordoba simply "the Commentator" on Aristotle. Even Dante, the Italian poet of about 1300 and no friend of Islam, named Avicenna and Averroes among the great minds of the past. He put them beside Aristotle, Hippocrates and Galen. The word algebra comes from al-jabr, in the title of the book on equations of al-Khwarizmi, a ninth-century mathematician in Baghdad. The word algorithm comes from the Latin form of his name. The Book of Optics of Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), an eleventh-century scientist in Cairo, shaped how Europe studied light for centuries. Fibonacci, an Italian mathematician, learned the Hindu-Arabic numerals as a boy in Bugia, a Muslim port in North Africa. These are the numbers 0 to 9 that we use today. His Liber Abaci of 1202 taught them to Europe.
A history of science in the medieval Muslim world. It covers al-Khwarizmi's algebra, Ibn al-Haytham's optics and Ibn Sina's medicine, and how their work reached Europe in Latin translation.
“Galen, Hippocrates, and Avicenna, Averroes, who the great Comment made.”
Leonardo of Pisa says that his father, a customs official for Pisan merchants at Bugia in North Africa, had him taught the nine Indian figures there as a boy, and that he wrote the book to teach this method to the Latin world.
Christianity is not a European religion either
Christianity began among Jews in Roman Palestine. Jesus prayed in a Semitic language and never saw Europe. In one report, the Prophet (ﷺ) saw Jesus in a dream and described him as a man of brown complexion with lank hair. So the fair-haired Jesus of European paintings is Europe painting itself. Abraham and Moses were not Europeans either. Abraham set out from Ur of the Chaldees, and Moses was born in Egypt and received the law at Sinai. Jesus said he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He told his twelve disciples not to go to the Gentiles, the people who are not Jews. Years later the disciple Peter still needed a vision before he would even enter a Gentile's house. The command to teach all nations in Matthew 28:19 is answered on the page "Was Jesus sent to all nations, or only to Israel?" The religion that later spread across Europe went to the very peoples he told his disciples not to go to. So a European who turns from Islam because it came from the East already follows a religion from the same East.
“But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
“These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
“And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.”
“And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.”
Ibn Umar reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) described a dream in which, while going round the Ka'ba, he saw a man of brown complexion (adam in Arabic) with straight hair, water dripping from his head, and was told that this was the son of Mary.
Truth has no passport
A statement about God (﷾) is true or false wherever it is spoken. The Qur'an says that east and west both belong to God (﷾). It says He made mankind into nations and tribes so that they may know one another, not so that one may look down on another. It says the Prophet (ﷺ) was sent to all people. He said that every earlier prophet was sent to his own nation only, but he was sent to all mankind. A European who wants a prophet sent to him has one.
“To Allah belong the east and the West: Whithersoever ye turn, there is the presence of Allah. For Allah is all-Pervading, all-Knowing.”
“O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise (each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things).”
“We have not sent thee but as a universal (Messenger) to men, giving them glad tidings, and warning them (against sin), but most men understand not.”
Jabir ibn Abdullah reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) named five things given to him that no prophet before him was given. The last of them: every earlier prophet was sent to his own nation only, but he was sent to all mankind.
Perspectives
What historians record
Islam has been part of Europe's history, peoples and learning for about thirteen centuries.
Muslims ruled in Spain from 711 to 1492 and in Sicily from the ninth century until 1091.
The Volga Bulgars accepted Islam in 922, before Kievan Rus' was baptised in 988.
Kosovo, Bosnia and Albania have native Muslim populations of about half or more.
About 25.8 million Muslims lived in the European Union, Norway and Switzerland in 2016.
Europe learned medicine, philosophy, algebra, optics and the Hindu-Arabic numerals from Muslim scholars and Muslim lands.
The Islamic perspective
The Prophet (ﷺ) was sent to all mankind, east and west. Where a religion began says nothing about whether it is true.
The Qur'an teaches that east and west belong to God (﷾). It says nations exist so that people may know one another.
The Qur'an and the words of the Prophet (ﷺ) teach that he was sent to all mankind. Every earlier prophet was sent to his own nation only.
Christianity began in the Middle East. Jesus said he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.