Islam in Belgium Islam in Belgium Islam in Belgium is a minority religion and the second largest religion in the country after Christianity. The exact number of Muslims in Belgium is unknown but various sources estimate that 4.0% to 6.5% of the country's population adheres to Islam. The first registered presence of Islam in Belgium was in 1829, but most Belgian Muslims are first-, second-, or third-generation immigrants that arrived after the 1960s. The first registered presence of Islam in Belgium was in 1829, a year prior to the country’s independence in 1830. A report by the Turkish consul in Antwerp estimated roughly
Belgium during the Leopold period. In 1908, this outcry led the Belgian state to assume responsibility for the government of the colony, henceforth called the Belgian Congo. A Belgian commission in 1919 estimated that Congo's population was half what it was in 1879. Germany invaded Belgium in August 1914 as part of the Schlieffen Plan to attack France, and much of the Western Front fighting of World War I occurred in western parts of the country. The opening months of the war were known as the Rape of Belgium due to German excesses. Belgium assumed control of the German colonies of