Muslim Roma

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Romani people
Flag of the Romani people
Costume of a Romani woman (most likely Muslim Roma).
Muslim Roma in Bosnia (around 1900)

Muslim Roma or Muslim Gypsies are Romani people who adopted Islam. Romanies have usually adopted the predominant religion of the host country. Islam among Romanies is historically associated with life of Romanies within the Ottoman Empire. Correspondingly, significant cultural minorities of Muslim Roma are found in Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Egypt, Kosovo, Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria (by mid-1990s estimates, Muslim Roma in Bulgaria constituted about 40% of Roma in Bulgaria.[1]), Romania (a very small Muslim Romani group exist in the Dobruja region of Romania, comprising 1% of the country's Romani population)[2]), Croatia (45% of the country's Romani population[3]), Southern Russia, Greece (a small part of Muslim Roma concentrated in Thrace), Crimea and the Caucasus. Because of the relative ease of migration in modern times, Muslim Roma may be found in other parts of the world as well.

After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the parts where Islam is no longer a dominant religion Muslim Roma have found themselves under double discrimination, both on ethnic (Antiziganism) and religious grounds.[4]

Muslim Roma throughout Southern Europe call themselves Horahane Roma ("Turkish Roma", also spelled as Khorakhane, Xoraxane, Kharokane, Xoraxai, etc.) and are colloquially referred to as Turkish Roma or Turkish Gypsies in the host countries.

Victims of Nazism[edit]

In Nazi Germany and its territories, the German-language version "Muselmann" became concentration camp slang for a starving prisoner, it most likely refers to the Muslim Roma victims.

See also[edit]


  1. ^ Gerd Nonneman, Tim Niblock, Bogdan Szajkowski (Eds.) (1996) "Muslim Communities in the New Europe", ISBN 0-86372-192-3
  2. ^ Ana Oprişan, George Grigore, "The Muslim Gypsies in Romania", in International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM) Newsletter 8, September 2001, p.32; retrieved June 2, 2007
  3. ^
  4. ^ Peter G. Danchin, Elizabeth A. Cole (Eds.) (2002) "Protecting the Human Rights of Religious Minorities in Eastern Europe", ISBN 0-231-12475-9

Further reading[edit]