Muslim groups in Iceland report 2,393 members

Four Muslim religious associations in Iceland had a combined 2,393 members as of October 1, up 225, or just over 10 per cent, since December 1 last year, according to figures from Registers Iceland reported by mbl.is.

The largest is the Muslim Institute of Iceland, with 1,007 members. The Muslim Cultural Centre has 708, the Association of Muslims in Iceland has 668, and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Iceland has 10, unchanged from a year earlier.

Iceland’s National Church remains the country’s largest religious group, with 224,161 registered members. Its membership rose by 105, or 0.05 per cent, over the same 10-month period.

The Muslim Institute of Iceland, the largest of the four associations, is based at Skógarhlíð 20 in Reykjavík, a building that previously housed the Reykjavík Men’s Choir. The association was in the news this week after Pakistani religious leader Muhammad Taqi Usmani gave a religious lecture at one of its gatherings. A caption accompanying the report said Usmani celebrated the Taliban’s seizure of power in Afghanistan five years ago.

Usmani has defended the death penalty for apostasy and stoning as a punishment under Islamic law, among other positions. The association’s chair, Karim Askari, did not respond to questions about its position on Usmani’s teachings.

The Muslim Cultural Centre was founded in 2009 after a split from the Association of Muslims in Iceland. Salmann Tamimi, who led the latter association at the time, said in 2010 that people who later worked within the cultural centre had been expelled over extremism, fanaticism and religious aggression. Ahmad Seddeq, then a religious leader at the centre, became controversial in 2013 after saying in a RÚV interview that homosexuality encouraged child abductions. He later said his comments had been taken out of context.

The Muslim Cultural Centre is based at Skútuvogur 1H in Reykjavík. Its prayer centre, Masjid al-Nur, is at Ármúli 38. The Association of Muslims in Iceland, founded in 1997 by Tamimi and others, belongs to the Sunni branch of Islam and operates the prayer centre. The association recently made news after Reykjavík City revoked a land allocation it had received long ago for a planned mosque, which was never built.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is part of an international Islamic movement founded in India in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, whom its followers regard as the promised messiah. Followers of the movement have faced persecution in several countries, including Pakistan.