Islam in Israel
[1] Most of this figure is represented by the Arab citizens of Israel,[2] who are the country's largest ethnic minority, but there is a notable non-Arab Muslim populace, such as that of the Circassians.
[3] In recent years, the average age at marriage has risen, and Muslim women hold more degrees than their male counterparts.
[4] During the time of Ottoman rule, Palestine had a large Muslim majority and a number of religious minority communities, mainly Christians and Jews.
Muslim minorities, such as Alevi, Twelver Shia, Alawi and Druze had no official recognition and were at times persecuted.
Both the Millet system and the Status Quo principle continued to be upheld by the British Mandate authorities (1922–48).
The British also introduced the office of Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and appointed Haj Amin al-Husseini (1895–1974) to this position.
During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, more than 80 percent of the Arab Palestinian population in Israel fled or were expelled from their towns and villages, including a large section of the economic, political, cultural, and religious elite of the Muslim society.
Only one member of the Supreme Muslim Council, Tahir at-Tabari, remained in the Israeli-held part of Palestine.
[8] Similarly, the Evangelical Episcopal Church in Israel and the Baháʼí Faith were also recognized in 1970 and 1971, respectively, as Millet communities.
[11] In 1961 the government finally passed the Qadi law, which established a nine-member Appointment Committee, of whom five members should be Muslims by religion.
The small Circassian community is composed of Sunni Muslims uprooted from the North Caucasus in the late 19th century.
[21] The city of Haifa in Israel acts as the Middle East headquarters of the reformist Ahmadiyya Islamic movement.
There is a strong community of Sufis in several parts of the country, and Sufism has garnered attention from non-Muslim Israelis.
During the British rule in Mandatory Palestine, there were seven Shia Twelver majority villages in northern Israel, near the border with Lebanon.
38% of Muslims report having experienced at least one incident of discrimination within 12 months, including being questioned by security officials (17%), being prevented from traveling (15%), physically threatened or attacked (15%), or having suffered property damage (13%) because of their religion.
The survey also asked about positive interactions, slightly more than a quarter (26%) of Arab Muslims saying a Jew has expressed concern or sympathy toward them in the past year because of their religious identity.
[16] Jewish public opinion is divided on whether Israel can serve as a homeland for Jews while also accommodating the country’s Arab minority.
Nearly half (48%) of Israeli Jews say Arabs should be expelled or transferred from Israel, including roughly one-in-five Jewish adults who strongly agree with this position.
