Islam in Mexico
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Part of a series on Islam by continent |
There is very little information about the origins of Islam in Mexico, but most sources claim it arrived with either Lebanese or Syrian immigrants and some other Middle Easterners like Egyptians, Iranians, and Turks. According to the 2010 census conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) there were 3,700 Muslims in the country.[1]
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[edit] Organizations
Today, most Mexican Islamic organizations focus on grassroot missionary activities which are most effective at the community level.
The Centro Cultural Islámico de México (CCIM), a Sunni organization headed by Omar Weston, a British born Mexican convert to Islam, has been active in several big cities in northern and central Mexico. In the state of Morelos, the CCIM built a prayer hall and centre for recreation, learning and conferences, called Dar as Salaam, which also operates Hotel Oasis, a hotel that offers halal holidays for Muslim travellers and accommodation for non-Muslims sympathetic to Islam. This group was the subject of a study carried out by British anthropologist Mark Lindley-Highfield of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen. Apart from CCIM there is a branch of the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order in Mexico City which is often at odds with the traditionalist Muslim community and is headed by two women, Shaykha Fatima Fariha and Shaykha Amina Teslima. There is also a small Salafi organization (the Centro Salafi de México) led by Muhammad Abdullah Ruiz (a former deputee to Weston) and an educational centre managed mainly by Muslims from Egypt and the Middle East, el Centro Educativo de la Comunidad Musulmana en México, within the capital city. Mexico has the largest Muslim population in Latin America.
[edit] Islam in Chiapas
The Spanish Murabitun community, the Comunidad Islámica en España, based in Granada in Spain, had strong ties to the Chiapas community. The Spanish missionary Muhammad Nafia (formerly Aureliano Pérez), now emir of the Comunidad Islámica en México, arrived in the state of Chiapas shortly after the Zapatista uprising and established a commune in the city of San Cristóbal. Since then there have been reports of indigenous Mayans and Tzotzils converting to Islam. President Vicente Fox voiced concerns about the influence of the fundamentalism and possible connections to the Zapatistas and the Basque terrorist organization Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), but it appeared that converts had no interest in political extremism.[2] In San Cristóbal, the Murabitun established a pizzeria, a carpentry workshop and a Quranic school (madrasa) where children learned Arabic and prayed five times a day in the backroom of a residential building. Nowadays, most of the Mayan Muslims have left the Murabitun and established ties with the CCIM, now following the orthodox Sunni school of Islam. They built the Al-Kausar Mosque in San Cristobal de las Casas.
[edit] Mosques
- Suriya Mosque in Torreon, Coahuila.
- Dar es Salaam Mosque in Tequesquitengo, Morelos.
- Tahaarah Mosque in Comitan, Chiapas.
- Aisha Mosque in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas.
- Salafi Mosque Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab in Mexico City.
- Amina de la Luz Mosque in Mexico City.
- Masyid Al Islam Tijuana Beaches, Baja California, Mexico.
- Alhikmah Ciudad de México, Aragón, Mexico.
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources
- Centro Cultural Islamico de México, A.C. (Spanish)
- Mexico Discovers Islam, Michelle Al-Nasr
- Islam is Gaining a Foothold in Chiapas, Jens Glüsing, Der Spiegel
- Adherents.com - Mexico, continued...
[edit] References
- ^ Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (2010). "Censo de Población y Vivienda 2010 — Cuestionario básico". INEGI. http://www3.inegi.org.mx/sistemas/TabuladosBasicos/Default.aspx?c=27302&s=est. Retrieved 4 March 2011.
- ^ Glüsing, Jens (28 May 2005). "Islam Is Gaining a Foothold in Chiapas". Der Spiegel. http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,358223,00.html. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
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