Goan Muslims

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. They are native to Goa, unlike recent Muslim migrants from mainland India, and are commonly referred to as Moir (Konkani: मैर) by Goans in Goan Konkani.^[a] Moir is derived from the Portuguese word Mouro. 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.^[1]