Islam in Jamaica

The statistics for Islam in Jamaica estimate a total Muslim population of 5000, representing 0.2 percent of the population. There are several Islamic organizations and mosques in Jamaica, including the Islamic Council of Jamaica and the Islamic Education and Dawah Center, both located in Kingston and offering classes in Islamic studies and daily prayers in congregation. Outside of Kingston, organizations include Masjid Al Haq in Mandeville, Masjid Al-Ihsan in Negril, Masjid-e-Hikmah in Ocho Rios, and the Port Maria Islamic Center in Saint Mary.

The first Muslims in Jamaica were West African slaves captured by Arab muslims, sold to traders, and brought Jamaica on ships. Over time most of them lost their Islamic identity due to forced mixing of ethnic groups. Mu’minun of African descent belonging to the Islamic nations of Mandinka, Fula, Susu, Ashanti and Hausa ceaselessly tried to maintain their Islamic practices in secrecy, while working as slaves on the plantations in Jamaica. By the time the slaves were liberated by the Christian anti-slavery process, much of the muslim faith of the past had faded, and the freed slaves picked up the faith of their liberators such as National Heroes Paul Bogle and Samuel Sharpe.

About 16 percent of the 37,000 indentured Indian immigrants who arrived to Jamaica between 1845 and 1917 were Muslims. Muhammad Khan, who came to Jamaica in 1915 at the age of 15, built Masjid Ar-Rahman in Spanish Town in 1957, while Westmoreland's Masjid Hussein was built by Muhammad Golaub, who immigrated with his father at the age of 7. The indentured Muslims laid the foundation of the eight other masjids established in Jamaica since the 1960s, with the advent of an indigenous Jamaican Muslim community that now forms the majority of the Muslim populace on the island.

References

• Islamic Horizons Sept/Oct 2001
• Afroz, S. (2001) 'The Jihad of 1831–1832: The Misunderstood
• Baptist Rebellion in Jamaica' [Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 21, No. 2, 2001]