The Goan Muslims are a minority community who follow Islam in the Indian coastal state of Goa, some are also present in the union territory of Damaon, Diu & Silvassa.
The Portuguese called them Mouros because they (and the Spaniards) were in contact with the Moors, people of predominantly Muslim Maghreb country, who had conquered and colonised the Iberian peninsula for centuries.
After the Bahmani Sultanate collapsed the Adil Shahis of Bijapur took over, making Velha Goa their ancillary capital.
[10] Afonso de Albuquerque took the help of Timoji and defeated the ruling Bijapur king Yusuf Adil Shah during the Portuguese conquest of Goa.
One of its primary targets were crypto-Muslims of North African origin who had immigrated to Goa from the Iberian peninsula following the Portuguese conquest.
[13] Native Goan Muslims are concentrated in the Novas Conquistas regions of Sattari, Bicholim, Sanguem, Ponda, Betul, Salcete, Tiswadi, Canacona, Pilar, Old Goa, Bardez and some areas of the coast of Vasco Da Gama.
[15] Goan Muslims are bilingual (speaking Konkani outside the home); mostly are educated in Portuguese,[16][17] and they use the Perso-Arabic and Devanagari scripts for written communication.
Anti-Muslim riots broke out after a local Hindu mob demolished a madrassa on 2–3 March 2006, which had been constructed by Muslim immigrants from Karnataka on the outskirts of Sanvordem-Curchorem.
The anti-Muslim violence, which continued for three days before the Central Industrial Security Force stepped in, saw property worth crores of rupees destroyed.