Irina Vainovski-Mihai1
1 Muslim Populations
The first Muslim communities in Romania were formed (mainly in north- ern 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 independence and the Treaty of Berlin (1878) acknowledged Dobrudja as part of Romanian territory. As a result of the economic and political conditions in the early twentieth century, Turks and Tatars migrated massively from Dobrudja to Turkey. While the census of 1879 recorded Muslims as representing 56% of the population in the Dobrudjan county of Constantza, the census of 1909 indicates that the percentage had dropped to 10.8%.2 Since its establish- ment 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 adopted in 1923 lists the Muslim faith among the recognised ‘historical faiths’.3 The establishment of the Com- munist 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 on society.
1 Irina Vainovski-Mihai is Associate Professor in Arabic Literature at Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University, Bucharest. She holds a degree in Arabic language and literature and a Ph.D. in Philology. She has published studies in Arab literature, comparative literature and intercultural stereotyping. 2 Schmidt-Rösler, Andrea, “Dobrudscha”, in Weithmann, Michael (ed.), Der ruhelose Balkan. Die Konfliktregionen Südosteuropas (Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1993), pp. 94–106 (101), quoted in Bara, Maria, “Relaţii interetnice dintre creştinii ortodocşi şi musulmani în Dobrogea. Studiu de caz: Medgidia şi Cobadin (Muslim-Orthodox Christian interethnic relations in Dobrudja. A case study: Medgidia and Cobadin)”, Philologica Jassy- ensia, vol. 2, no. 1 (2006), pp. 93–104 (95). 3 Gillet, Oliver, Religie şi naţionalism (Religion and Nationalism) (Bucharest: Compania, 2001), p. 6. 532 irina vainovski-mihai
After 1959, education in the Tatar and Turkish languages 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. The census which took place in 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 Romanians.4 As regards levels of education, out of the total Muslim pop- ulation over the age of ten (i.e., 57,687 individuals), 2,637 were recorded by the census of 2002 as having a university degree.5 The data from the most recent census (October 2011) are still under review, but according to provisional interpretations, out of the total population (of 19,043 million) 28,226 persons declared themselves to be ethnic Turks and 20,464 to be Tatars.6 In light of the same data, 26,179 persons have Turkish as their mother tongue and 18,143 Tatar.7 The preliminary results of this last cen- sus include Muslims in the category of “other religions,” with a number of less than 85,000 adherents.8 The main Muslim ethnic groups, Turks and Tatars, follow Sunni Islam. In the census of 2002, a relatively small number of Turks and Tatars declared themselves to belong to religions other than Islam, to be athe- ists or to have no religion (980 Turks out of 32,098, and 294 Tatars out of 23,641).9 According to the same statistics, the total number of Mus- lim families was 16,807, out of which there were 12,584 families in which both spouses were Muslims.10 Although the total number of Muslims in Romania should have increased slightly due to immigration from Middle Eastern countries and conversion (mainly as a consequence of marriage),
4 National Institute of Statistics figures available at www.insse.ro/cms/files/RPL2002INS/ vol4/tabele/t5.pdf, accessed 4 February 2013. 5 National Institute of Statistics figures available at www.insse.ro/cms/files/RPL2002INS/ vol4/tabele/t13.pdf, accessed 4 February 2013. 6 Provisional census results available on the census webpage of the National Institute of Statistics at www.recensamantromania.ro/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Comunicat_ DATE_PROVIZORII_RPL_2011_.pdf, accessed 4 February 2013. 7 Provisional census results available on the census webpage of the National Insti- tute of Statistics at www.recensamantromania.ro/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/TS5.pdf, accessed 4 February 2013. 8 Provisional census results available on the census webpage of the National Insti- tute of Statistics at www.recensamantromania.ro/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/TS7.pdf, accessed 4 February 2013. 9 National Institute of Statistics figures available at www.insse.ro/cms/files/RPL2002 INS/vol4/tabele/t5.pdf, accessed 4 February 2013. 10 National Institute of Statistics figures available at www.insse.ro/cms/files/RPL2002INS/ vol4/tabele/t30.pdf, accessed 4 February 2013.