Islam in Portugal

Portugal is an overwhelmingly Christian majority country, with adherents of Islam being a small minority. According to the 2021 census, Muslims represent around 0.4% of the total population of the country. However, many centuries back, Islam was a major religion in the territory of modern-day Portugal, beginning with the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. Today, due to secular nature of the Constitution of Portugal, Muslims are free to convert, practice their religion, and build mosques. The Muslim community perceives itself as thoroughly integrated into Portugal and believes that the country provides conducive conditions for smooth integration.

According to the 1991 census recorded by Instituto Nacional de Estatística (the National Statistical Institute of Portugal), there were 9,134 Muslims in Portugal, about 0.09% of the total population. The majority of Muslims in the country are Sunni, followed by approximately 20,000 to 22,000 Shia Muslims, 65% of them are Ismaili. Most of the Muslim population in the 1990s originated from the former Portuguese overseas provinces of Portuguese Guinea and Portuguese Mozambique with most of the latter having their origin in former Portuguese India. The majority of the Muslims currently living in Portugal are from Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau, with the remaining population coming from the Maghreb, the Middle East (including Syria), and Bangladesh.