Islam in Montenegro refers to adherents, communities and religious institutions of Islam in Montenegro. It is the second largest religion in the country, after Christianity. According to the 2011 census, Montenegro's 118,477 Muslims make up 20% of the total population.[2] Montenegro's Muslims belong mostly to the Sunni branch. According to the estimate by the Pew Research Center, Muslims have a population of 130,000 (20.3%) as of 2020.
In the 15th century the Montenegrin ruler Ivan Crnojević (1465–1490) was at war with the infiltrating Venetians. Unable to maintain war on both fronts, the Ottoman Empire had conquered much of Montenegro's territory and introduced Islam. Ivan's third son Staniša Crnojević was the first prominent Montenegrin of the Muslim faith, and since then Islam was not an uncommon religion to the Crnojević Montenegrin ruling dynasty.
Staniša Crnojević took up the name Skenderbeg Crnojević and ruled from his capital in Shköder from 1513 to 1530. He is well known as one of the most prominent Muslim administrators of Slavic origin in the northern reaches of the Ottoman Empire during the reign of SultanSelim I. Staniša Crnojević is known to have commanded an army of approximately 3000 Akıncı. He also maintained a correspondence with neighboring contemporaries, such as Gazi Husrev-beg.
others (under 100 members per community) and ethnically undeclared
Geographical distribution
There are large regional differences in the distribution of the Muslim population. The Rožaje Municipality, for example, is almost exclusively inhabited by adherents of Islam, while there are no Muslims living in the Plužine Municipality.
Đečević, Mehmed; Vuković-Ćalasan, Danijela; Knežević, Saša (2017). "Re-designation of Ethnic Muslims as Bosniaks in Montenegro: Local Specificities and Dynamics of This Process". East European Politics and Societies and Cultures. 31 (1): 137–157. doi:10.1177/0888325416678042.
