Short answer
No. Christianity began in the Middle East, among Jews who spoke Aramaic (the language of Jesus' people). Jesus was born, lived and taught there, and he never went to Europe. He said he was sent only to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel". Abraham came from Ur, and Moses was born in Egypt. So every prophet a Western Christian honours was a man of the Middle East. Where a faith began cannot make it true or false. What matters is whether God (﷾) said it. Islam is not foreign to Europe either. Muslims have lived in Europe for about thirteen centuries, and whole peoples native to Europe, in the Balkans and in Russia, are Muslim. Islam's answer is that east and west both belong to God (﷾), and the Prophet (ﷺ) was sent to all mankind.
Full explanation
Where Christianity began
Jesus was a Jew of Galilee. He was circumcised on the eighth day. He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath as his custom was. He spoke Aramaic, the language of his people, and the Gospels keep some of his Aramaic words. The first churches were in Jerusalem and Antioch, and the name Christian was first used at Antioch, in Syria. The fair-haired, blue-eyed Jesus of later European paintings shows how artists imagined him, not how he looked.
A historian of early Judaism and Christianity at King's College London. She notes that the Gospels never describe Jesus' appearance, traces the familiar long-haired, bearded, robed figure to later Christian art, above all Byzantine images of Christ enthroned, and argues that he most likely looked like other Judaean men of his day: dark hair, brown eyes and olive to brown skin.
“And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.”
“And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.”
“And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise.”
“And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.”
Sent to Israel, not to Europe
By his own words, Jesus was not sent to Europe either. When he sent out the twelve, he told them not to go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans. He told them to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. A woman of Canaan once begged for his help, and he answered her not a word. He told his disciples he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He did heal her daughter in the end, but only after saying that his mission was to Israel. The faith later became the state religion of Rome and spread across Europe. It went to the very nations he told the twelve to pass by.
“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.”
“But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
Truth has no passport
Some turn the question round: Islam came from Arabia, so why should a Westerner follow it? A statement about God (﷾) is true or false wherever it is spoken. Abraham set out with his father from Ur of the Chaldees. Moses was born in Egypt and received the law at Sinai. Jesus never saw Europe. So the Western Christian already follows a faith from the Middle East. The real question is whether he follows the last message God (﷾) sent, or an earlier one that has been changed.
“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.”
East and west belong to God (﷾)
The Qur'an settles the question of place in one verse. East and west belong to God (﷾), and wherever you turn, He is there. Righteousness, it says, is not turning your face east or west. It is faith in God (﷾) and doing good. God (﷾) made people into nations and tribes so that they would know one another. The most honoured of them in His sight is the most righteous.
“To Allah belong the east and the West: Whithersoever ye turn, there is the presence of Allah. For Allah is all-Pervading, all-Knowing.”
“It is not righteousness that ye turn your faces Towards east or West; but it is righteousness- to believe in Allah and the Last Day, and the Angels, and the Book, and the Messengers; to spend of your substance, out of love for Him, for your kin, for orphans, for the needy, for the wayfarer, for those who ask, and for the ransom of slaves; to be steadfast in prayer, and practice regular charity; to fulfil the contracts which ye have made; and to be firm and patient, in pain (or suffering) and adversity, and throughout all periods of panic. Such are the people of truth, the Allah-fearing.”
“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).”
The prophet sent to everyone
The Qur'an calls Jesus "a messenger to the Children of Israel". In one report, the Prophet (ﷺ) described Jesus, whom he saw in a dream, as a man of brown complexion. That limit to one nation did not apply to the Prophet (ﷺ) himself. He said every prophet before him was sent to his own nation only, but he was sent to all mankind. The Qur'an says the same: he was sent to all people, to give good news and to warn. A European who wants a prophet sent to him has one.
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.
“"And (appoint him) a messenger to the Children of Israel, (with this message): "'I have come to you, with a Sign from your Lord, in that I make for you out of clay, as it were, the figure of a bird, and breathe into it, and it becomes a bird by Allah's leave: And I heal those born blind, and the lepers, and I quicken the dead, by Allah's leave; and I declare to you what ye eat, and what ye store in your houses. Surely therein is a Sign for you if ye did believe;”
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.
“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.”
Islam in Europe for thirteen centuries
Muslims ruled in Spain (al-Andalus) from 711 until the fall of Granada in 1492. For centuries they ruled most of the peninsula. They ruled Sicily from the ninth century until the Norman conquest in the late eleventh. The Ottomans, Muslim rulers based in Turkey, ruled much of the Balkans from the 1350s. The Volga Bulgars, a people of the Volga river in Russia, accepted Islam in 922. That was sixty-six years before Kievan Rus' (the medieval state centred on Kyiv) was baptised in 988. It was more than four centuries before Lithuania became Christian in 1387. Europe's universities taught Ibn Sina's Canon of Medicine, in Latin translation, into the seventeenth century. Ibn Sina was a Muslim doctor of the eleventh century. The words "algebra" and "algorithm" both come from the Muslim mathematician al-Khwarizmi. In 2016 about 25.8 million Muslims lived in the European Union (then including Britain), Norway and Switzerland. Today most people in Kosovo, and about half the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, are Muslims whose peoples have lived there for centuries. In Albania about half the people described themselves as Muslim at the 2023 census. Tatars, Bashkirs and Chechens are Muslim peoples native to Russia.
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.
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.
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.
Verse by verse
Matthew 28:19 — Gospel of Matthew, chapter 28, verse 19
“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:”
Cited for
Jesus' last command sent the faith to all nations, so Europe received it by his own will.
The response
Acts shows the first believers acting on Jesus' words to Israel. Those scattered from Jerusalem after Stephen's death preached "to none but unto the Jews only". Only some of them, at Antioch, spoke to the Grecians. Even Peter, the leading disciple, still held it unlawful to enter a Gentile's house until he was given a vision. When he did enter, the believers in Jerusalem took him to task for it. The disciples did not baptise with the threefold name of this verse either. In Acts, people are baptised in the name of Jesus Christ or of the Lord Jesus. During his ministry Jesus' words were plain: he was sent only to Israel.
Where it lands — The early church first preached to Jews only, as Jesus had in his ministry. Muhammad (ﷺ) is the prophet who said he himself was sent to all mankind.
Perspectives
Mainstream Christian
Christianity belongs to no single region. After the resurrection Jesus sent his disciples to teach all nations, so its spread through Europe and the world fulfilled his command.
In Matthew 28:19 Jesus tells his disciples to teach all nations.
Rebuttal
Matthew 28:19 does say "all nations". Yet Acts shows those scattered from Jerusalem preaching "to none but unto the Jews only". Peter held it unlawful to enter a Gentile's house until he was given a vision. If Jesus had plainly sent them to all nations, Peter would not have needed a vision. The believers in Jerusalem would not have taken him to task. The men who heard Jesus did not understand him that way. During his ministry he said he was sent only to Israel. The Prophet (ﷺ) is the one who said he himself was sent to all mankind.
The Islamic perspective
Christianity and Islam both came from the Middle East, and where a faith began settles nothing. What matters is whether God (﷾) sent it. Jesus said he was sent to Israel. The Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) was sent to all mankind, and east and west alike belong to God (﷾).
Jesus lived as a Jew among Jews. He was circumcised on the eighth day, went to the synagogue on the Sabbath and spoke Aramaic.
Jesus said he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He told the twelve not to go to the Gentiles.
Abraham, the father of the prophets, set out from Ur of the Chaldees in Mesopotamia.
The Prophet (ﷺ) said every earlier prophet was sent to his own nation only, and he to all mankind.
The Qur'an states that east and west belong to God (﷾). Righteousness, it says, is faith and good deeds, not facing east or west.
Islam has been part of Europe for about thirteen centuries. It runs from al-Andalus in 711 to the native Muslim peoples of the Balkans today.