from many different backgrounds. Kari Vogt estimated in 2000 that there were about 500 Norwegian converts to Islam. The rest are mostly first or second-generation immigrants from a number of countries. The largest immigrant communities from Muslim countries in Norway are from Pakistan, Iraq and Somalia: An unknown, but presumably high, proportion of these immigrant populations is Muslim. In other words, the largest group of Norwegian Muslims originate in Pakistan, but no single nationality constitute as much as a quarter of the total population. The Turkish, Pakistani and Iranian communities are quite established in Norway. 55% of Iranians have lived in Norway for more than 10 years. The Iraqis are a more recent group, with 80% of the Iraqi community having arrived in the past 10 years. In the 1990s there was a wave of asylum seekers from the Balkans, mostly Bosniaks. In recent years most immigrants arrive as part of family reunification. According to the Verdens Gang newspaper, during the 1990s around 500 people converted to Islam in Norway and this number increased to around 3,000 in 2019. By county (2019) By region (2019) Organizations Mosques have been important, not just as places of prayer, but also as a meeting place for members of minority groupings. Several mosques also do different forms of social work, e.g. organising the transport of deceased members back to their countries of origin for burial. The mosques are mostly situated in regular city blocks, and are not easily visible features of the cities. Some of the earliest attempts to organize Islamic worship in Norway was done by labor organizations as early Muslims were labor migrants. The first mosque was established in 1972 by Pakistani immigrants. Another mosque, the Islamic Cultural Centre (ICC) opened in Oslo in 1974. The initiative for the mosque came from Pakistanis who were helped by the Islamic Cultural Centre which had already opened in Copenhagen in Denmark. The new mosque adhered to the deobandi branch of Sunni Islam. Adherents of the Sufi inspired Barelwi movement, who constituted the majority of Pakistanis in Norway, soon felt the need for a mosque of their own, and opened the Central Jamaat-e Ahl-e Sunnat in 1976. Today this is the second largest mosque in Norway, with over 6,000 members. The first Shia mosque, Anjuman-e hussaini, was founded in 1975, and until 1994 was the only Shia congregation. The Tablighi Jamaat came to Norway in