Muslims are citizens and active members of society in nearly all of the Portuguese-speaking countries. All cases differ significantly, but Muslims in Lusophone spaces do share some similar socio-cultural point of comparison (see state-of-the-art).
The idea of MEL-net (Muçulmanos em Espaços Lusófonos) emerged from the desire and necessity to facilitate academic exchange among scholars who work on Islam and Muslim-related questions in Portuguese-speaking countries and/or about Portuguese-speaking Muslims living elsewhere.
Most of these Portuguese speaking countries with Muslim populations lack a subsequent academic tradition of studies about Islam and Muslims, and have no specific institutional frameworks (research programmes, bibliographical databases, directories of experts, etc.) which support the work of researchers in this area. Furthermore, those scholars and researchers who work on Islam and Muslims outside lusophone spaces and/or lack Portuguese language skills are interested in learning about current work with Muslims in Portuguese-speaking countries for the purposes of comparative analysis. MEL-net aims to facilitate international academic exchange (by publishing the Portuguese research projects in additional languages, including English, French, etc) on these Muslim-related questions