Establishing Islam in Sweden: The First Tatar Community and Muslim Congregation and Their Sources

Abstract

This article focuses on the history and establishment of the first Muslim congregation and organisationin Sweden, Turk-Islam Föreningen i Sverige för Religion och Kultur (Turk-Islamic Associationfor Religion and Culture), which was founded in the late 1940s by a small group of immigrants andrefugees of Tatar and Turkish origin. The community has been the object of earlier research (seeSvanberg & Westerlund 1999; Ståhlberg & Svanberg 2016; Sorgenfrei 2018) but the following isa first attempt to describe the historical background of the Tatars in Sweden through systematicarchival work. The article thus aims at being also an orientation to the archival and private sourcesof the group and their organization and to point out some topics of interest for further research.