Mexico has a religious minority of Muslims, mostly constituted by converts,[1] and Mexicans of African, Asian, European, and South American origin, as well as their children, born in Mexico.
According to the 2010 INEGI census, there were only about 2,500 individuals who identified Islam as their religion.[3] And the number of Muslims in Mexico had risen to more than 7,500 as of 2020.[4][5]
Muhammad Ruiz Al Meksiki, general director of the Salafi Center of Mexico (CSM), had estimated that in 2015, there were about 10,000 Muslims in Mexico.[6]
During the Mexican Porfiriate, there was an open policy regarding investment and migration, mainly of people of European countries.
Although, some immigrants from other countries, such as Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, also arrived during that period.
For the most part, they were Christians escaping religious persecution of the Ottoman Empire; but there were a few Jews, some non Sunni Muslims, and people of other religions, also immigrating into Mexico due to economic opportunity or escape from religious persecution.
The muslims who immigrated during the Porfiriate however, decided to settle down in places such as Yucatán, Veracruz, Nuevo León, Coahuila, Mexico City and Puebla; due to the economic opportunities said states had to offer.
Once there, several Islamic Organizations were formed, with most of them adhering to the Sunni Branch of Islam; however, Salafists, Shia's, and Sufi muslims also have presence and mosques of their own.
Today, most Mexican Islamic organizations focus on grassroots missionary activities, which are most effective at the community level.
The most important Islamic organizations in Mexico include:
The Educative Center of the Muslim Community In Mexico:Sunni organization, which operates in Mexico City. It runs an educational center, managed mainly by Muslims from Egypt and the Middle East, and is run by Said Louahabi.
Cultural Islamic Center of Mexico:Sunni organization headed by Omar Weston, a British-born Mexican convert to Islam, which has been active in several cities of northern and central Mexico.
In the state of Morelos, it operates a mosque, called “Dar as Salaam”, and it also operates Hotel Oasis, a hotel that offers halal vacation alternatives for Muslim travelers 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.
Musalla Al-Ajirah: Run by Muhammad Abdullah Ruiz, a former deputy to Weston, the Musalla is considered to be the only center of salafists in the country.
Islam has been present in Mexico since the mid-1950s, due to mass Spaniard and Arab settlement.
The Spanish Murabitun community, now based in Granada, Spain, had one of its missionaries involved in the spread of Islam.
Muhammad Nafia (formerly Aureliano Pérez), arrived in the state of Chiapas shortly after the Zapatista uprising and established a commune in the city of San Cristóbal.
In San Cristóbal, the Murabitun established a pizzeria, a carpentry workshop[19] and a Quranic school (madrasa) where children learned Arabic and prayed five times a day in the backroom of a residential building. It is reported that women in headscarves had become a common sight by then.[16]
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. Nevertheless, the vast majority of Native Mexicans today are not muslims.
In Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas, a fountain, known locally as "La Corona" or "La Pila" was built to provide the population with water.
This architectural work was built in annealed brick with a strong Mudejar influence.[22] It was built by the Spanish Dominican friars during the Colonial era in the sixteenth century.[23]
The Morisco Kiosk (Moorish Kiosk) in Colonia Santa María la Ribera was made by José Ramón Ibarrola for the Universal Exhibition of New Orleans from 1884-1885, in the neo-Mudejar style that was prevailing in Spain in the 19th century.[24][25]
↑ "Chiapa de Corzo" (in Spanish). Chiapas, Mexico: Secretaría de Turismo de Chiapas. Archived from the original on January 19, 2011. Retrieved May 11, 2020.
↑ "Chiapa de Corzo". Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México Estado de Chiapas (in Spanish). Mexico: Instituto Nacional para el Federalismo y el Desarrollo Municipal and Gobierno del Estado de Chiapas. 2005. Archived from the original on March 27, 2012. Retrieved May 11, 2020.
↑ Arturo Reyes Fragoso (August 13, 2006). "Santa María la Ribera, colonia centenaria"[Santa María la Ribera, the century colonia]. El Universal (in Spanish). Mexico City. Retrieved May 11, 2020.
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