The non-Arab Muslim population of Circassians originally belongs to the Caucasus region of western Asia. Their reason for expulsion from their homeland was the Russian westward expansion. The Russians forced them to follow the Russian political agenda with which the Circassians did not agree. As a result they started to migrate to central Asia around the Balkans and further south in the Levant. Many of them settled in what is now Jordan in the late 19th century in order to practice their religion, customs, and traditions freely.