ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Muslims in Europe and North America in both historical and contemporary times. It discusses various aspects of Muslim-minority communities and includes examples of Muslim travellers to western countries. The chapter examines in what ways Muslim perceptions of the West have been coloured by the experience of actually witnessing life in places with an ethos that either reflects or stems from Christian teachings. The development of an urban and bureaucratic Muslim culture was clearly situated in a context that had its base in the periods of Hellenistic and Late Antiquity, which included Christian, Jewish and Persian traditions. Several normative Islamic sources point to the fact that Muslims who live in a non-Islamic society should perform a hijra and leave the so-called corrupted land. An example of a Muslim intellectual who travelled to the West is found in the writings of the Egyptian scholar Sayyid Qutb.
