Islam in Portugal

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.

History

From 711 to 722, all the territory of what is now Portugal and then the Visigothic Kingdom was invaded by the Arabic Umayyad Caliphate and subsequent Moorish Sultanates of Arabic, Arabised and Berber people. By the year 1000, Islamic rule was still prevalent in much of what is now Portugal, namely south of the Mondego river, and later, for many more decades, across the Alentejo and Algarve regions of what is modern Portugal. During the period of Muslim rule, western Iberia was called Gharb Al-Andalus (the west of Al-Andalus). Over the course of Portuguese Reconquista the Christian military forces retook almost all of former Lusitania and the Muslim Arab and Berber military forces retreated to Algarve in the 1200s and were defeated during the course of the 13th century. However, their presence in Andalusia, a neighboring Spanish region, would stay strong for another 250 years. This presence has left some cultural heritage in Portugal, such as Islamic art and Arabic-inspired toponyms and words. The town of Mértola, in the Alentejo, possesses the only partial remains in the country of an early medieval mosque, changed and converted into a Catholic church (Church of Nossa Senhora da Anunciação) after the Reconquista.

The Islamic Community of Lisbon was formed in March 1968 by a group of Muslim university students who, at the time, were studying in the Portuguese capital. But even before the constitution of the community, in 1966, a committee composed of ten elements (five Muslims and five Christians) asked the Lisbon City Council for a plot of land to build a mosque. The Community, in its beginning, was mostly made up of families from the ex-colonies that went to Portugal after the Carnation Revolution on 25 April 1974, namely Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau, as well as some people from North Africa (Morocco and Algeria), Pakistan, Bangladesh and members of the several embassies of Arab countries accredited in Portugal. Only later, in September 1977, a piece of land on Avenida José Malhoa was ceded.

The laying of the first stone took place in January 1979 and the inauguration of the first phase of construction took place on 29 March 1985. By then, the community was already estimated at more than four thousand people (1981 Census), mostly from the former Portuguese colonies. 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 0.1% of the total population. As of 2021, the community is estimated at 65 thousand people (many from the Maghreb and the Middle East, notably from Syria and Iraq, as well as from Afghanistan and Bangladesh among other countries) and spreads over several parts of Portugal, most prominently within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, Porto Metropolitan Area, and Algarve.

On 17 October 2025 the parliament of Portugal approves a ban on face veils for "gender or religious" reasons and making it punishable by up to 2000 euros. The bill, promoted by right wing party Chega, is up for decision to President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who can approve, veto, or refer the bill to the Constitutional Court for review. On August 19, 2026 it was reported that Portugal's president has enacted the law banning face coverings in public.