In 2010, there were an estimated 5,900 Muslims in Slovakia representing fewer than 0.1% of the country's population.[1] Since 2014, Slovakia is no longer the only EU member state that does not have a mosque.[2]
Decades after the Hungarian defeat of Mohacs (1526) Turkish troops controlled Štúrovo (Párkány) and other parts of today's southern central Slovakia and encouraged the Protestant Christian groups while Habsburg Austrian troops occupied and recatholized the northern and western parts. Later on the Turks seized some further territories in southern central Slovakia and pillaged in territories up to Nitra. Finally, however, when the Turks lost the Battle of Vienna and the Ottoman vassal Emeric Thököly was defeated in Slovakia, between 1687 and 1699 Turkish Ottoman rule in Hungary was finally broken.
In November 2016, Slovakia passed legislation to effectively block Islam from gaining official status as a religion in the country.[3] The law allowed religious denominations with at least 50,000 adherents to gain state rights, preventing the nation's Muslim population of 5,000 people certain rights.[4] In 2022, the Public Defender of Rights (ombudsperson) stated that the registration requirements were unreasonable, discriminatory, and unnecessary; the Ministry of Culture refused to initiate a legal change.[5]
In the 2021 census, 3,862 persons self-identified themselves as Muslim, though representatives of the Muslim community estimated their number at 6,000.[6] Slovakia currently has seven mosques within its territory.[7] In 2000, a dispute about the building of an Islamic center in Bratislava erupted: the capital's mayor refused such attempts of the Slovak Islamic Waqfs Foundation.
The Cordoba Culture Center (Kultúrne Centrum Culture Center Córdoba) is a place of worship for Muslims in Slovakia, located on Obchodná street in Bratislava. It is the only place of Muslim worship in the country under Islamic foundation in Slovakia. The musalla or prayer room is not open for Fajr prayer and, therefore, is not officially considered a mosque. Friday sermon is held in Arabic, English, and Slovak, and starts Friday at 01:00 pm. The center is small but can hold a congregation for prayers and includes a wooden podium that is used for jumu'ah or Friday sermons. There are no decoration with elaborated patterns as it is situated in a commercial area adjacent to businesses and shops. The Kultúrne Centrum Córdoba has tried to attain an official mosque permit from the government, but had its proposal rejected.[8]