Lithuania

ENThe most recent official census, in 2001, included a question on reli- gious identity and gave the following figures: 2,860 Sunni Muslims (no data on Shi’is are available), or 0.1% of the total population, of whom 1,679 (or 58.7%) were ethnic Tatars, 362 (12.6%) Azeris, 185 Lithuanians and 74 Russians. Tatars have been living in Lithuania (especially the eastern part of today’s Republic of Lithuania) since the fourteenth century when they started settling in what was the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, primarily as mercenaries and political immigrants. They were given land by the Lithuanian rulers whom they served. Although over time Lithuanian Tatars lost their mother tongue, they retained their religion and survived as a distinct ethno-cultural yet well integrated group. Most of the other Muslims in Lithuania are descendants of immigrants from the Muslim Central Asian and Caucasian republics who settled in Lithuania during the Soviet period. In the official census, a substantial number (around half of Tatars and Azeris) of Lithuania’s inhabitants with Muslim back- grounds did not indicate their affiliation to Islam, but can potentially be considered nominal Muslims. This applies particularly to Azeris, traditionally Shi’is, who might have chosen not to identify with Sunnis but might nonetheless be practising. By 2010, the number of Muslims in Lithuania must have increased due to immigration (around 1,000, mainly Chechens [Department of Migration data]) and conversion (between 200 and 300, mainly through marriage).