Irina Vainovski-Mihai1

1 Muslim Populations

The first Muslim communities in Romania were formed (mainly in northern Dobrudja and along the lower Danube) in the fourteenth century when Ottoman rule was established in the region. Dobrudja remained part of the Ottoman Empire for five centuries. After the Russian-Romanian-Ottoman War (1877), Romania gained its inde- pendence and the Treaty of Berlin (1878) acknowledged Dobrudja as a Romanian territory. As a result of the economic and political conditions in the early twentieth century, Turks and migrated massively from Dobrudja to Turkey.2 Since its establishment as an independent state, the constitutions of Romania and special laws have guaranteed the rights of certain religious groups, in addition to Orthodox Christians, who represent the majority of the population. The law on religious denominations issued in 1923 lists the Muslim faith among the recognised ‘historical faiths’.3 The establishment of the Communist regime (1948) introduced many formal changes with regard to the recognition of religious denominations, but put them under strict state control. Between 1948 and 1989, the Communist state acted systematically to impose atheism and limit the impact of religious creeds. After 1959, education in the Tatar and Turkish lan- guages was gradually eliminated and in 1967 the Muslim Theological Seminary was closed. Today, the majority of Muslim communities live in Dobrudja and are mainly made up of the historical ethnic groups.

1 Irina Vainovski-Mihai is Lecturer in Arabic Literature at Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University, Bucharest. She holds a degree in Arabic language and literature and a PhD. in Philology. She has published studies in Arab literature, comparative literature and intercultural stereotyping. 2 Bara, Maria, “Relaţii interetnice dintre creştinii ortodocşi şi musulmani în Dobro- gea. Studiu de caz: şi Cobadin (Muslim-Orthodox Christian interethnic relations in Dobrudja. A case study: Medgidia and Cobadin)”, Philologica Jassyensia, vol. 2, no. 1 (2006), pp. 93–104 (94). 3 Gillet, Oliver, Religie şi naţionalism (Religion and Nationalism) (Bucharest: Com- pania, 2001), p. 6. 460 irina vainovski-mihai

The most recent official census (2002) recorded 67,257 Muslims (0.3% of the total population of Romania), of whom 31,118 were ethnic Turks, 23,641 Tatars, and 3,310 .4 As regards levels of edu- cation, out of the total Muslim population over the age of ten (i.e., 57,687 individuals), 2,637 have a university degree.5 The main Muslim ethnic groups, the Turks and the Tatars, follow Sunni Islam. In the official census, a relatively small number of Turks and Tatars declared themselves to belong to religions other than Islam, to be atheists or to have no religion (980 Turks out of 32,098, and 294 Tatars out of 23,641).6 The total number of Muslim families is 16,807, out of which there are 12,584 families in which both spouses are Muslims.7 By 2009, the number of Muslims in Romania should have increased slightly due to immigration from Middle Eastern coun- tries, and conversion (mainly consequent on marriage). Updated esti- mates for 2008 vary: 70,000 according to the Muftiate in Romania, with 87% living in the south-eastern county of Constantza,8 approxi- mately 67,300 according to the State Secretariat for Religious Affairs (Secretariatul de Stat pentru Culte),9 and up to 213,440 in other esti- mates.10 After the fall of the Communist regime in 1989, new Mus- lim groups appeared in major cities such as Bucharest, Iasi, Cluj and Timisoara. These groups are made up of Middle Eastern businessmen, former students who studied in Romania before 1989, and refugees. They are mostly Palestinians, Kurds (from northern Iraq and south- eastern Turkey), Iraqis, Syrians, Lebanese and Jordanians. These new

4 National Institute of Statistics figures available at http://www.insse.ro/cms/files/ RPL2002INS/vol4/tabele/t5.pdf, accessed 25 November 2010. 5 National Institute of Statistics figures available at http://www.insse.ro/cms/files/ RPL2002INS/vol4/tabele/t13.pdf, accessed 25 November 2010. 6 National Institute of Statistics figures available at http://www.insse.ro/cms/files/ RPL2002INS/vol4/tabele/t5.pdf, accessed 25 November 2010. 7 National Institute of Statistics figures available at http://www.insse.ro/cms/files/ RPL2002INS/vol4/tabele/t30.pdf, accessed 25 November 2010. 8 Figures from the Muftiate in Romania, available at http://www.muftiyat.ro/ comunitatea, accessed 25 November 2010. 9 Figures from the Ministry of Culture, Religious Affairs and National Patrimony, State Secretariat for Religious Affairs available at http://www.culte.ro/DocumenteHtml. aspx?id=1745, accessed 25 November 2010. 10 “Muslim population statistics”, appendix in Esposito, John, and Kalin, Ibrahim (eds.), The 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World (Washington DC: Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, 2009), pp. 174–181 (179).