Islam and Muslims in the West: History and Current Demographics

Abstract

This chapter provides an introduction to the history of Islam in the West and an overview of current demographics of Muslim communities in various Western countries. It sets the scene for the subject matter of this book through a discussion of the nature and the socio-historical context of interactions between Arabo-Islamic and Western-Christian civilisations. This chapter contests the highly influential perspectives of Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington regarding an inevitable clash of civilisations between Islam and the West and expresses broad agreement with the views of Richard Bulliet that Islamic and Christian civilisations are far more complementary than they are contradictory both in historic and contemporary contexts. However, the challenge that segments of Islam, specifically those that espouse an Islamist agenda, pose to the realisation of co-existence between Islam and the West are addressed in subsequent chapters.