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), estimates that in 2015, there are 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]
Chiapas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas, is one of the states that make up the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises 124 municipalities as of September 2017 and its capital and largest city is Tuxtla Gutiérrez. Other important population centers in Chiapas include Ocosingo, Tapachula, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Comitán, and Arriaga. Chiapas is the southernmost state in Mexico, and it borders the states of Oaxaca to the west, Veracruz to the northwest, and Tabasco to the north, and the Petén, Quiché, Huehuetenango, and San Marcos departments of Guatemala to the east and southeast. Chiapas has a significant coastline on the Pacific Ocean to the southwest.
Tuxtla Gutiérrez, or Tuxtla, is the capital and the largest city of the Mexican southeastern state of Chiapas. It is the seat of the municipality of the same name, which the most developed and populous in the state. A busy government, commercial and services-oriented city, Tuxtla had one of the fastest-growing rates in Mexico over the last 40 years. Unlike many other areas in Chiapas, it is not a major tourist attraction, but a transportation hub for tourists coming into the state, with a large airport and a bus terminal.
Chiapas is a state in Southwest Mexico. According to the 2020 Mexican census, it has the eighth largest population of all states with 5,543,828 inhabitants and the 10th largest by land area spanning 73,560.47 square kilometres (28,401.86 sq mi). Chiapas is officially divided into 124 municipalities, although the establishment of municipal authorities in Belisario Domínguez was suspended in 2015 pending the resolution of a territorial dispute between Chiapas and the neighbouring state of Oaxaca. In 2021, the Mexican Supreme Court resolved this dispute in Oaxaca's favour, and annulled the 2011 decree that had created Belisario Domínguez.
The Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba, officially known by its ecclesiastical name of Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, is the cathedral of the Diocese of Córdoba dedicated to the Assumption of Mary and located in the Spanish region of Andalusia. Due to its status as a former mosque, it is also known as the Mezquita and as the Great Mosque of Córdoba.
Tecate is a municipality in the Mexican state of Baja California. Its municipal seat is located in the city of Tecate. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of 108,440 inhabitants. The municipality has an area of 3,079.0 km².
Guatemala is a predominantly Christian country, with Islam being a small minority religion. Due to secular nature of the Guatemala's constitution, Muslims are free to proselytize and build places of worship in the country.
Argentina is a predominantly Christian country, with Islam being a minority religion. Due to secular nature of the Argentine constitution, Muslims are free to proselytize and build places of worship in the country.
Islam is one of the smallest minority faiths in Costa Rica, whose state religion is Catholic Christianity. Without an official number by any state entity, it is considered that the number of Muslims in Costa Rica could be between 1000 and 1500 people, mostly emigrants from Algeria, India, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, Egypt, Somalia, Pakistan, Palestine and Syria. This number includes Muslims who have immigrated to Costa Rican territory as well as those Costa Ricans who have embraced the Islamic faith through conversion, whose number is estimated to be at around 100. The number of Muslims corresponding to the Sunni and Shia factions is also unknown, although it is generally considered that the Sunnis are the majority.
Chile is a predominantly Christian country, with adherents of Islam being a minuscule minority. Due to the secular nature of Chile's constitution, Muslims are free to proselytize and build places of worship in the country. The statistics for Islam in Chile estimate a total Muslim population of approximately 5,000, representing less than 0.02% of the population. There are a number of Islamic organizations in Chile, including the Muslim Society of Chile and As-Salam Mosque in Santiago, Bilal Mosque in Iquique, the Mohammed VI Cultural Center in Coquimbo, and Islamic Foundation of Chile in Santiago.
Ocosingo is a city and its surrounding municipality of the same name in the Mexican state of Chiapas.
Spain is a Christian majority country, with Islam being a minority religion, practised mostly by immigrants from Muslim majority countries, and their descendants.
Almoloya de Juárez is a town in the State of Mexico and the seat of the municipality of Almoloya de Juárez. The name Almoloya comes from the Nahuatl, that is properly Almoloyan, composed of: atl, "water"; molo "impersonal voice of moloni, to flow the source" and yan, "place"; that it means "place where flows the water source".
Chiapas handcrafts and folk art is most represented with the making of pottery, textiles and amber products, though other crafts such as those working with wood, leather and stone are also important. The state is one of Mexico's main handcraft producers, with most artisans being indigenous women, who dominate the production of pottery and textiles. The making of handcrafts has become economically and socially important in the state, especially since the 1980s, with the rise of the tourist market and artisans’ cooperatives and other organizations. These items generally cannot compete with commercially made goods, but rather are sold for their cultural value, primarily in San Cristóbal de las Casas.
The Al Ahmad Mosque is an Islamic place of worship in Buenos Aires, Argentina, opened in 1986. It is the second oldest mosque in Buenos Aires but it is the oldest building with Islamic architecture in Argentina and it was designed by Ahmed and Elia Ham.
Al-Andalus Mosque is a Sunni Islam mosque in the neighbourhood of Arroyo del Cuarto city of Málaga, Andalusia, Spain.
The Granada Mosque is a Sunni Islam mosque, located adjacent to the Plaza San Nicholas in the Albaicin district of Granada, Spain. It was the first mosque built in the city since 1492, when the conquest of Granada by Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon concluded the reconquest of Spain by the Catholic Monarchs. Funded mainly by overseas donations, and local support, the mosque was opened in 2003.
↑ "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.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Islamportal 
