6 December 2025

The East London Mosque & London Muslim Centre hosted on Thursday the official launch of Muslim Europe: A Journey in Search of a Fourteen Hundred Year History, the new book by local award-winning author, historian and travel writer, Tharik Hussain. The evening brought together worshippers, students, writers, journalists, community leaders and publishers for a powerful exploration of a Europe “we were never taught about,” and a reminder that Muslims have been part of the continent’s story for over 1400 years (according to the Islamic calendar).

Chaired by the Mosque’s Engagement Officer, Nathan Musa Gubbins, the programme combined a heartfelt author talk, audience Q&A and a busy book-signing, with support from Brick Lane Bookshop, who managed a steady queue of readers keen to have their copies signed.

Before the main talk, East London Mosque CEO, Junaid Ahmed, welcomed guests and presented Tharik with a jar of honey produced by the Mosque’s own rooftop beehives – a small symbol of the community’s commitment to caring for Allah’s creation and sharing its blessings, and in turn, Tharik presented the Mosque he grew up with, with a signed copy of his book and a sign framed print of the cover.

Discover the book

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“To show just how long Muslims have been European”

In his keynote presentation, Tharik set out the vision and urgency behind Muslim Europe.

He explained that while his earlier book Minarets in the Mountains showcased living indigenous Muslim communities in the Balkans, this new work goes “right back to the beginning” of Europe’s Muslim story:

Muslim Europe, then, was about going right back to the beginning. Firstly, to show just how long Muslims have been European, and crucially, how significant we have been in constructing what we might call modern Europe… and to make clear that Europe is not a Judaeo-Christian construct as some would have you think but actually, if anything, it is Abrahamic.

The book traces a journey through the Mediterranean – from Cyprus to Sicily, Malta, Portugal and Spain – uncovering the “hidden or neglected Muslim history of Europe” in places often missing from mainstream narratives.

Tharik described how, as he researched, he became increasingly troubled by what he called Europe’s “Islamic amnesia” – the systematic neglect of Muslim contributions from popular histories, schoolbooks and national stories:

A quick audit of popular histories of Europe made it clear one of the reasons was their continued negligence and omission of Europe’s 1400-year Muslim history. Omissions that reinforced the growing claim by the far right… that Muslims are foreign and alien to Europe, always have been, and therefore always will be.

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From Cyprus to Cordoba: A Europe we were never taught

With the aid of images, Tharik took the audience on a whirlwind tour of some of the places featured in the book, deliberately focusing on stories that rarely make it into mainstream accounts.

On Cyprus, he shared one of the discoveries that most shocked him during his research:

I was absolutely baffled to discover the small island of Cyprus at the very edge of Europe… was the final resting place of Sahabah, nay, an actual member of the Prophet Muhammad’s family.

Within that history lies the extraordinary story of Islam’s first navy, founded ahead of the Muslim arrival to Cyprus:

One of the most important moments in Muslim history is the construction of its first navy, which has to happen in order to enter Europe. The creation of this navy is what allows Muslims to eventually dominate what was known as a ‘Bahr ar-Rum’ or the Sea of the Romans.

From there, he moved to Malta, where almost no historic mosques or palaces remain, yet the legacy survives in the language:

Maltese today is a semitic language made up mostly of an ancient European Arabic known today as siculo-Arabic but written in Latin script … And this is absolutely crucial because it shows that even when the physical heritage has been destroyed, intangible cultural and linguistic legacy can still remain.

In Sicily and Spain, where some aspects of Muslim history are better known, Tharik highlighted how that legacy is often re-branded, minimised or told only through a Christian or post-Christian eurocentric lens. Popular myths of “reconquest” and figures like Santiago Matamoros (St James the “Muslim-killer”) still shape European identities in ways that, he argues, embed prejudice:

These are mythologies and legends… symptomatic of the kinds of narratives and myths we find across Europe that have contributed to what I have described in the book as an anti-Muslim DNA running through the core of the modern European identity.

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Beyond social media snippets

Tharik also reflected on how Muslim audiences often encounter this history today – in short, viral posts that rarely connect the dots:

Many of us come across snippets almost daily on our social media… about this hidden piece of Islamic history here and another piece over there… we get excited, maybe experience a bit of pride, a sense of injustice that it’s been hidden. But then… we swipe and move on to the next fleeting moment on our screens.

Muslim Europe is his answer to that problem; a sustained, carefully researched narrative that “stitches together” these fragments into a single, accessible history, showing that Islam has been integral to Europe’s development, not a late or foreign arrival.

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A timely book for a difficult moment

Speaking after the talk, East London Mosque CEO Junaid Ahmed reflected on why hosting this official launch felt so important:

At a time when Muslims across Europe are being told they don’t belong, ‘Muslim Europe’ could not be more timely. Tharik’s work shows, with care and evidence, that Muslims are not guests on this continent – we are part of its foundations. This is exactly the kind of scholarship and storytelling our community needs right now, and we are honoured that its journey into the world began here at the East London Mosque.

He added:

As a Mosque, we are committed not only to worship and welfare, but also to knowledge – to challenging harmful narratives with truth, and to giving our young people the confidence that their faith and their European identity are not in conflict. This book is a powerful resource in that effort.

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Community, conversation and a long signing queue

The evening concluded with a lively Q&A, where audience members asked about school curricula, Islamophobia, heritage tourism and how Muslims in Britain can better preserve and share their own histories.

Inside the hall, the signing table remained busy long after the event concluded as readers queued with fresh copies of Muslim Europe – almost 100 copies were sold on the night – some even brought along their copies of Minarets in the Mountains for Tharik to sign, which he was only too happy to do. Children and elders alike stopped to greet Tharik, congratulate him and offer dua for the success of the book.

In his closing thanks, Tharik paid tribute to his editor, publishing team, agent and – very movingly – to his family, acknowledging the “lonely journey” that serious writing can sometimes feel like, and the support that made it possible.

For East London Mosque and London Muslim Centre, the launch was a chance to centre a different story of Europe from the heart of one of its most diverse Muslim communities; a story in which mosques, scholars, sailors, farmers and ordinary believers have always been part of the European landscape.

As the doors closed and the last guests drifted out onto Whitechapel Road clutching their signed copies, one message from the evening lingered: Europe’s past is far more Muslim than most of us were ever taught and understanding that history is essential to building a more just, confident and hopeful future.

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