According to the US Religious Freedom Report of 2006 there are about 2000 North Africans currently living in Andorra

Andorra

Andorra , officially the Principality of Andorra , also called the Principality of the Valleys of Andorra, , is a small landlocked country in southwestern Europe, located in the eastern Pyrenees mountains and bordered by Spain and France. It is the sixth smallest nation in Europe having an area of...

 (out of 72,000) and they are the largest Muslim group in the country. The Muslims are split between two groups, one more fundamentalist.

Institutions

The Muslim community has an Islamic Cultural Center which provides about 50 students with Arabic lessons. The government and the Muslim community have not yet agreed on a system which would enable the schools to give such lessons.

There is no specifically built mosque

Mosque

A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...

 in Andorra and the government refuses to allocate land for such a project, saying there are not enough low-priced lands. In 2003 the local imam, Mohamed Raguig, turned Bishop Joan Martí Alanis

Joan Martí Alanis

Joan Martí i Alanis was a former Bishop of Urgell and hence former co-Prince of Andorra. He was Bishop of Urgell from 1971 to 2003. He was a co-signatory, along with François Mitterrand, of Andorra's new constitution in 1993....

 asking for either land from the Church in order to build a mosque or for space inside a church to be used as a mosque.

History

At around 700, the Muslims conquered the area from the Visigoths, through the Segre valley. The Muslims did not really stay in Andorra, rather using it as a shortcut to get to Toulouse

Toulouse

Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

, Narbonne

Narbonne

Narbonne is a commune in southern France in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. It lies from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Once a prosperous port, it is now located about from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea...

, Carcassone and Nîmes

Nîmes

Nîmes is the capital of the Gard department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France. Nîmes has a rich history, dating back to the Roman Empire, and is a popular tourist destination.-History:...

.

The Battle of Poitiers

Battle of Tours

The Battle of Tours , also called the Battle of Poitiers and in Battle of the Court of the Martyrs, was fought in an area between the cities of Poitiers and Tours, located in north-central France, near the village of Moussais-la-Bataille, about northeast of Poitiers...

 and the Battle of Roncesvalles marked the end of those expeditions to the other part of the Pyrenees

Pyrenees

The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...

.

According to Antoni Filter i Rossell in his history book the Manual Digest (1748), in 788, 5000 Andorrans, led by Marc Almugàver came to Charlemagne's assistance in the Vall de Carol in fighting the Muslims. After the battle, Charlemagne gave his protection to Andorra and declared them as a sovereign people.