Wikipedia:Collaboration of the week/Islam in Europe

Islam in Europe

 * Nominated on 18:28, 17 February 2006 (UTC); needs 6 votes by February 24 2006.

This is certainly a hot-topic nowadays, and a full, unbiased description would be nice. We have Islam in France, Islam in the Netherlands, Islam in the United Kingdom, and several others, but not for Europe as a whole.

Support:
 * 1) – Quadell (talk) (bounties) 18:28, 17 February 2006 (UTC)
 * 2) Juppiter 20:08, 17 February 2006 (UTC)
 * 3) Takbir! - Darwinek 15:33, 18 February 2006 (UTC)
 * 4) Warofdreams talk 17:56, 22 February 2006 (UTC)
 * 5) --Ehouk1 11:10, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Comments:
 * Keep in mind that an article like this would be a sub-article of both Islam by country and Religion in Europe&mdash;the latter of which does not even exist yet. Note also that although there are several continent-based pages on religion in general (such as Religion in Africa), there are no such continental pages at all within Category:Islam by country, so to create a page like this now without bothering to make Islam in Africa, Islam in Asia, etc. would merely cause more inconsistency. Probably the best way to handle this isn't to further a Euro-centric bias by focusing only on Islam in one continent, but instead to nominate the already-existing (but rather bare-bones, and almost entirely consisting of charts rather than prose) Islam by country for expansion, and once that page is expanded enough, for splitting into a number of sub-articles by continent, which in turn will serve as parent articles for all the Islam-by-nation articles. Likewise, working on Islam as one of several sections within a Religion in Europe article would be much more helpful than ignoring every other religion's effect on Europe. Starting from the top and working down from there is always best, as it promotes balanced, consistent, and unbiased coverage of all relevant related subjects. -Silence 18:48, 17 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Regardless of how we go about improving it, it's definitely a Wikipedia void. There's a lot of information that needs to be added (world religion, by regions) somehow. – Quadell (talk) (bounties) 20:31, 17 February 2006 (UTC)
 * I didn't dispute that it's a void. Just that you're missing the scope of the void. We have basically no articles on "[Religion] by [continent]" on all of Wikipedia, for any religion (including Islam) and for any continent (including Europe). Arbitrarily picking a single religion and a single continent to address that issue, while completely ignoring an entire variety of article that currently seems to be lacking, will only lead to time-wasting and inconsistency. -Silence 04:34, 18 February 2006 (UTC)
 * I don't think it's timewasting to work on an arbirtrary article in a missing topic. Might as well start somewhere, and Islam in Europe seems in the news nowadays as much or more than [random other religion] in [random other continent]. One step at a time, right? – Quadell (talk) (bounties) 18:56, 19 February 2006 (UTC)
 * But what would be wrong with creating a Religion in Europe article (or stub) first, having one of the sections of that article by "Islam in Europe", and then create an article for that specific topic after enough information has been accumulated in that section to justify a daughter article? It would prevent bias and lessen uneven coverage and inconsistency and allow users to provide information on numerous different religions, not just Islam, as well as encourgaing other religion-by-continent articles being created. I agree that anything's better than nothing, but why settle for "anything" when the ideal way is to work from the top down, and to create an article from a full and comprehensive section rather than starting from scratch with a low-quality stub? -Silence 19:28, 19 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Because, default religion in Europe is either Protestantism or Catholicism depending on the region. Not interesting and no need for an article.  "Some countries in Europe are Catholic and some are protestant.  Sometimes the two have wars.  this article is a stub."  The historic and present status of Islam in Europe, however, is much better capital for an article.  Now, come on Silence, be like your username. Juppiter 06:59, 20 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Please review WP:CIVIL; telling a fellow editor to shut up just because you disagree with him is highly counterproductive. Then review the fact that Christianity and Islam are not the only two religions that exist or have ever existed in Europe (History of the Jews in Europe is a blank page with plenty of articles linking to it, for example). Not to mention that both the majority and the minority elements in a group merit articles on Wikipedia, not just one or the other. And that I recommended making sections of a Religion in Europe article for each major religion to start with, not distinct articles, so there's no danger of any religion being a stub. And that your characterization of the entire history of religion in Europe as "Some countries in Europe are Catholic and some are protestant. Sometimes the two have wars." is rather ridiculous and offensive, not least because of the implications that Muslims in Europe, unlike Catholics and Protestants, don't have wars. Come now. -Silence 07:20, 20 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Great topic for COTW Juppiter 20:08, 17 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Note that I have newly created the Religion in Europe article, which needs a lot of work to get up to acceptable quality. It, along with Islam by country, is a parent article of Islam in Europe, so it takes precedence in terms of general importance. There's no reason we can't work on both articles simultaneously, though; if there's any support, we could even nominate Religion in Europe (or one of the non-yet-existing-but-heavily-linked-to-others, like Religion in Asia or Religion in North America) for CotW. -Silence 19:24, 22 February 2006 (UTC)