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The Muslim percentage in Macedonia generally decreased from 1904 to 1961 but began to rise again due to high fertility rate among Muslim families, reaching 33.33% in 2002. According to the census of 2021, the share of Muslims was 32.17% of the total (resident) population, which was slightly lower compared to 33.33% in the census of 2002.
Most Albanians and some ethnic Macedonians converted to Islam. These Macedonian Muslims or Torbeši generally retained their Macedonian culture and customs while many were assimilated as Turks. [9] By the 19th Century most of the cities were primarily populated by Muslims. [9] The Šarena Džamija in Tetovo is a legacy of the country's Ottoman ...
North Macedonia (/ ˌ m æ s ɪ ˈ d oʊ n i ə / MASS-ih-DOH-nee-ə), [c] officially the Republic of North Macedonia, [d] is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe.It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo [e] to the northwest and Serbia to the north. [8]
However, it is unlikely that this high minority TFR has continued since then in North Macedonia, as Balkan fertility elsewhere (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo) has dropped sharply toward the European average. A more recent survey [29] pegs Muslim fertility in North Macedonia at 1.7, versus 1.5 for non-Muslims.
A controversy broke out in 1995 when the Albanian-dominated Meshihat or council of the Islamic community in North Macedonia declared that Albanian was the official language of Muslims in Macedonia. The decision prompted protests from the leaders and members of the Macedonian Muslim community.
North Macedonia's candidacy to join the EU was met with optimism in 2005, but 19 years on, it has made little progress, in part because of opposition from EU members Greece and Bulgaria.
Since then, the grand mufti was titled Sheykhul-Islam and was considered the highest religious authority within the Ottoman Empire. However, every region inhabited by Muslims had its own mufti, who was in lower position than the Sheykhul-Islam. After the First World War, North Macedonia was under the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
Between the 15th and the 20th centuries, during Ottoman rule, a number of Orthodox Macedonian Slavs converted to Islam. Today in the Republic of North Macedonia, they are regarded as Macedonian Muslims, who constitute the second largest religious community of the country.