Beginnings of the Muslim Religious Community in Former Czechoslovakia

Historically, the Czech experience with Islam was mainly influenced by the ‘Turkish Menace’ (the 150-year Ottoman presence in Hungary, including land which later became southern Slovakia, and the two Ottoman sieges of Vienna in 1529 and 1683). Due to its geographical location and the nature of its historical development, however, the territory of historical Czech Lands (Bohemia and Moravia) never actually had direct contact with Islamic civilization