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570
Birth of Muhammad
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Jan 1, 610
Muhammad's First Revelation
Gabriel found Muhammad in a cave and came to him telling to recite. He did this three times because of Muhammad's inability to recite, and he eventually uttered the first five verses of the 96th chapter of Surah. -
Period: Jan 1, 610 to Jan 1, 622
Muhammad preaches to Mecca
During this time, he was not very successful. -
Jan 1, 622
Hijra
Muhammad's followers fleed to Medina. -
Jan 1, 630
Mecca Captured
Muslims finally capture Mecca in 630. They also began some Islamic practices and they cleansed the Ka'ba. -
Period: Nov 9, 630 to
Growth of Islam
Islam continued to grow after 1830, but for the sake of this presentation, I stopped there to span between major topics. -
Period: to
France Ruled Algeria
Algeria was a French Colony until 1962 when it became free. -
Period: to
France Ruled Tunisia
Tunisia was a French colony until 1956 when it became free. -
Period: to
France Ruled Morocco
Morocco was a French colony until it became free in 1956. -
WWI Draft
The French army drafted 300 colonial North Africans for the Great War, or WWI. Many of them died of disease. This was the major event that began the migration of Musims into France. -
80,000 drafted soldiers stayed
More than 80,000 of the soldiers stayed in France. Others were sent home. This was the first major migration of Muslims into France. -
First Mosque in Paris
The presence of the +80,000 soldiers was recognized and the government funded the construction of a Great Mosque in Paris. The construction of the mosque contradicted the law against government funding for religious institutions from 1905. -
Traveling limitations dropped
Léon Blum, a socialist in charge of government, lifted all of the traveling limitations allowing the North African Muslims to enter France. -
WWII Draft
About 100,000 Muslims were drafted to the Free French Army in Italy, and many of them stayed in France afterwards. -
Period: to
War for Algerian Independence
250,000 soldiers were drafted from North African colonies to fight against Algerian rebels in the Harkis. France lost, and left the majority of the soldiers to be tortured and killed. 20,000 came to live in France, however. WIth their families, that number was more like 75,000. -
Period: to
Industrial Revolution
Between 1962 and 1974, half a million North African migrant workers were immigrated, mostly from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. -
Algerian victors were allowed to become French citizens.
Oddly enough, people from Algeria after their independence were still allowed to become French citizens. 127,000 were added to the Muslim population in France during the year 1967. -
Population probably exceeded 1 million
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Period: to
Valery Giscard d'Estaing
When Valery Giscard d'Estaing became president in May of 1973, he tried to reverse this upward trend in the French Muslim population. He failed miserably, because within his reign, the population of French Muslims grew to 2 million from North Africa. -
Natural Growth
Since the time when Mitterand became president in 1981, the population of French Muslims grew, but less from immigration and more from natural growth within the country. Mitterand did, however, try to limit the amount of illegal immigrants entering France. It is different in France than in the U.S. because, while we have a very diverse population as well, many of the diverse populations are still Christians (being Hispanic and Black). In France, the major minority is a different faith.
