Latin American Muslims

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Latin American Muslims are Muslims from countries in Latin America. A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2010 found that Muslims make up 0.1% of all of Latin America's population. [1]

Contents

History

The 1492 discovery of Latin America by Columbus was driven in part by Islamophobic views. European Christians arriving in the Americas perceived local customs as being Islamic and used this as a rationale for genocide. [2]

Sixteenth Century Inquisition

Some scholars believe that the first Muslims in Latin America arrived with the Portuguese and Spanish armies. [3] Beginning in 1492, the Spanish and Portuguese promoted efforts to forcibly expel or convert Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula during the Spanish Inquisition. From 1492 to 1610, over 3 million Muslims were expelled from the area, with many settling in North Africa, while others attempted to migrate to Latin America. [4] During his first journey in 1492, Christopher Columbus' interpreter Luis de Torres was a converted Jewish man who spoke in Arabic. Despite this, Spain and Portugal prohibited Muslims, along with the Moriscos and their descendants, from going to the Americas with the colonists. [5]

In 1501, Spain increased its efforts to promote Spanish culture in the colonies by creating royal decrees to limit the settlement of Latin America to Catholics. These decrees sought to ensure that the Catholic faith would be spread throughout the region by limiting the presence of Muslim and Jewish settlers, as well as those who were newly converted. [5] The Spanish sent this degree with the first royal governor of the Americas, Nicolás de Ovando. [6] Furthermore, Spanish rulers issued a series of decrees beginning in 1508 which banned the settlement of the descendants of converted Catholics or those convicted in the Inquisition in the Americas. Similar decrees were reinstated in 1522, 1530, and 1539. [5] Historians note that these rules were likely not evenly enforced, as shown by the frequent need to restate them. However, limited evidence has caused historians to debate the number of Muslim settlers at this time. [7]

Countries with Notable Islamic Populations

Brazil

Early Muslim Populations

The Muslim presence in Brazil has been shaped by multiple migratory patterns over time. Early Muslim populations came from Spanish and Portuguese colonization in the 16th century. [8] This colonization brought over prejudicial values of Christian purity, causing expulsion of Muslim and Jewish migrants, forced conversion to Christianity, and the suppression of religious practices. Despite restrictions against religious minorities, some maintained their practices in secret. The influence of these Crypto-Jews and Crypto-Muslims on Brazil's culture is evident through Arabic and Hebrew influence on Portuguese and Spanish languages.

Later Muslim Populations

While there is evidence of small Crypto-Muslim populations throughout the 16th century, larger and more organized groups of Muslims in Brazil began after the 19th century. The transatlantic slave trade brought enslaved Muslims from West Africa, and their involvement in slave uprisings contributed to increased religious fear and persecutions. [9] The Christian concept of limpieza de sangre (purity of blood), first introduced during the Inquisition's prosecution of religious minorities, played a significant role in shaping colonial racism and the formation of ethno-religious states in Brazil which persisted even after slavery. [8]

Other significant contributors to Islamic populations in Brazil include immigration from Syria and Lebanon starting in 1880. This was the first group of Muslim migrants that did not face extreme persecution for either race or religion, therefore is thought to be the most influential source of Islam in modern-day Brazil. In the 1990s, more Syrian, Lebanese, Palestinian and other Middle Eastern migrants came to Brazil as refugees and immigrants fleeing political instability. [9]

Caribbean

Early Muslim Populations

The first Muslims to arrive in the Caribbean arrived through the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, [10] originiating from Western African Countries. The second wave of Muslims that came after the abolition of Slavery were indentured servants originiating from Asia, mainly British-India. Many that came worked on Sugar farms from the 19th to early 20th century. The Caribbean is very unique were a majority of the Muslim Population there came from Asia compared to all other Latin Countries were a majority originated from Africa. This gives the Caribbean a unique Islamic Culture compared to the rest of the Latin Countries.

Later Muslim Populations

Most Muslims today in the Caribbean have orignated from Asia, predominately from the regions Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. [11] The Caribbean contains a unique Muslim culture due to having Asian descending Muslims compared to Afro-Muslims. Major differences are Asian descending have more of a direct faith to the Muslim relgion, where as Afro-Muslims have a religion that is blended with Christianity due to forced conversion. The celebration, traditions and music are much more traditional. Their religious goals are also different, where Afro-Muslims focus more on reclaiming their Islamic heritage and traditions, and Asian-Muslims focus more on preserving their traditional culture and ways of life. [12]

Effect on Culture

Most Muslims in Latin American were brought from slavery or are refugees. Many were forced out of their religion and to Christianity, among losing full body autonomy and any type of freedom. [12] This led to the Muslim population to dwindle in the 1700's and 1800's, losing many of their religious practices. However many Islamic traditions were preserved through what they were still able to do. Some of the actions kept were rice and spice cultivation practices, trade practices when they were freed, and blending Islamic and Christian practices creating a new Afro-Islamic-Christianity rich in music, dance and festivals. Modern day the country with the highest Muslim Population is Brazil. It is common to find Mosque's, communities and festivals celebrating Muslim heritage and religion. Many trade practices have become common place in Brazil that are native to Islamic roots. The 1835 Malê Revolt in Bahia, a notible slave revolt in Brazil had Muslim related practices blended with Afro-Brazilian culture. The revolt was led by Islamic speaking leaders, motivated by their religion being oppressed as well as body autonomy. [13] The event occurred during Ramadan and the revolters recited many Islamic prayers and verses during their revolt.

Statistics

Abou Bakr Al-Siddiq Mosque in Bogota 2017 Bogota calle 80 con carrera 30 - mezquita Central Abou Bakr Alsiddiq.jpg
Abou Bakr Al-Siddiq Mosque in Bogotá

Quoted from "Muslims in Latin America" by Muhammad Yusuf Hallar - "According to statistics, the number of Muslims in Latin America is over four million, serving as an example 700,000 (seven hundred thousand) in Argentina and more than 1,500,000 (one point five million) in Brazil." [14] [ original research? ] Based on other estimates, there are 100,000 Muslims in Latin America, mainly concentrated in Brazil, Mexico, Jamaica and Argentina, with smaller concentrations in Venezuela, Haiti, Colombia and Paraguay.[ citation needed ] Most of these Latin American Muslims are from either Lebanese, Syrian and some convert origin.[ citation needed ]

A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2010 found that the number of Muslims in Latin America and Caribbean is around 840,000. [15] According to the International Religious Freedom Report in 2015, the actual size of Argentina's Muslim community is estimated to be around 1% of the total population (400,000 to 500,000 members). [16] [17] And according to the 2010 census, the number of Muslims in Brazil, was 35,207 out of a population of approximately 191 million people. [18]

Suriname has the highest percentage of Muslims in its population for the region, with 13.9% or 75,053 individuals, according to its 2012 census. [19] Islam came to Suriname with immigrants from Indonesia (Java) and South Asia (today India, Pakistan and Bangladesh).

Organizations

Many Muslim organizations exist in Latin America, such as the Islamic Organization of Latin Americaand the Caribbean (OIPALC). OIPALC is considered the most active organization in Latin America in promoting Islamic affiliated endeavors. [20]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Marrano</i> Jews from the Iberian Peninsula forcibly converted to Catholicism

Marranos is a term for Spanish and Portuguese Jews who converted to Christianity, either voluntarily or by Spanish or Portuguese royal coercion, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but who continued to practice Judaism in secrecy or were suspected of it. They are also called crypto-Jews, the term increasingly preferred in scholarly works over Marranos.

<i>Morisco</i> Muslim-descended community in Spain

Moriscos were former Muslims and their descendants whom the Catholic Church and Habsburg Spain commanded to forcibly convert to Christianity or face compulsory exile after Spain outlawed Islam. Spain had a sizeable Muslim population, the mudéjars, in the early 16th century.

<i>Converso</i> Jew who converted to Catholicism in Spain or Portugal

A converso, "convert", was a Jew who converted to Catholicism in Spain or Portugal, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries, or one of their descendants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crypto-Judaism</span> Secret adherence to Judaism

Crypto-Judaism is the secret adherence to Judaism while publicly professing to be of another faith; practitioners are referred to as "crypto-Jews".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Christian</span> Jewish and Muslim converts to Catholicism in Spain and Portugal starting in the 15th century

New Christian was a socio-religious designation and legal distinction referring to the population of former Jewish and Muslim converts to Christianity in the Spanish and Portuguese empires, and their respective colonies in the New World. The term was used from the 15th century onwards primarily to describe the descendants of the Sephardic Jews and Moors that were baptized into the Catholic Church following the Alhambra Decree of 1492. The Alhambra Decree, also known as the Edict of Expulsion, was an anti-Jewish law made by the Catholic Monarchs upon the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula. It required Jews to convert to Roman Catholicism or be expelled from Spain. Most of the history of the "New Christians" refers to the Jewish converts, who were generally known as Conversos, while the Muslim converts were called Moriscos.

The history of the Jews in Latin America began with conversos who joined the Spanish and Portuguese expeditions to the continents. The Alhambra Decree of 1492 led to the mass conversion of Spain's Jews to Catholicism and the expulsion of those who refused to do so. However, the vast majority of conversos never made it to the New World and remained in Spain slowly assimilating to the dominant Catholic culture. This was due to the requirement by Spain's Blood Statutes to provide written documentation of Old Christian lineage to travel to the New World. However, the first Jews came with the first expedition of Christopher Columbus, including Rodrigo de Triana and Luis De Torres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alhambra Decree</span> 1492 decree expelling Jews from Spain

The Alhambra Decree was an edict issued on 31 March 1492, by the joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain ordering the expulsion of practising Jews from the Crowns of Castile and Aragon and its territories and possessions by 31 July of that year. The primary purpose was to eliminate the influence of practising Jews on Spain's large formerly-Jewish converso New Christian population, to ensure the latter and their descendants did not revert to Judaism. Over half of Spain's Jews had converted as a result of the religious persecution and pogroms which occurred in 1391. Due to continuing attacks, around 50,000 more had converted by 1415. A further number of those remaining chose to convert to avoid expulsion. As a result of the Alhambra decree and persecution in the years leading up to the expulsion of Spain's estimated 300,000 Jewish origin population, a total of over 200,000 had converted to Roman Catholicism in order to remain in Spain, and between 40,000 and 100,000 remained Jewish and suffered expulsion. An unknown number of the expelled eventually succumbed to the pressures of life in exile away from formerly-Jewish relatives and networks back in Spain, and so converted to Roman Catholicism to be allowed to return in the years following expulsion.:17

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mexican Inquisition</span> Extension of the Spanish Inquisition in New Spain

The Mexican Inquisition was an extension of the Spanish Inquisition into New Spain. The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was not only a political event for the Spanish, but a religious event as well. In the early 16th century, the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, and the Inquisition were in full force in most of Europe. The Catholic Monarchs of Castile and Aragon had just conquered the last Muslim stronghold in the Iberian Peninsula, the kingdom of Granada, giving them special status within the Catholic realm, including great liberties in the conversion of the native peoples of Mesoamerica. When the Inquisition was brought to the New World, it was employed for many of the same reasons and against the same social groups as suffered in Europe itself, minus the Indigenous to a large extent. Almost all of the events associated with the official establishment of the Palace of the Inquisition occurred in Mexico City, where the Holy Office had its own major building. The official period of the Inquisition lasted from 1571 to 1820, with an unknown number of individuals prosecuted.

Limpieza de sangre, also known as limpeza de sangue or neteja de sang, literally 'cleanliness of blood' and meaning 'blood purity', was a racially discriminatory term used in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires during the early modern period to refer to those who were considered to be Old Christians by virtue of not having Muslim, Jewish, Romani, or Agote ancestors. In both empires, the term played a major role in discrimination against suspected crypto-Jews or crypto-Muslims. Over the years it manifested into law which excluded New Christians from almost every part of society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goa Inquisition</span> Portuguese Inquisition in colonial-era Portuguese India

The Goa Inquisition was an extension of the Portuguese Inquisition in Portuguese India. Its objective was to enforce Catholic orthodoxy and allegiance to the Apostolic See of the Pontifex. Many violent conversions took place through the Goan Inquisition with the persecution of Hindus and the destruction of Hindu temples.

Crypto-Islam is the secret adherence to Islam while publicly professing to be of another faith; people who practice crypto-Islam are referred to as "crypto-Muslims." The word has mainly been used in reference to Spanish Muslims and Sicilian Muslims during the Inquisition. With the Portuguese Empire's expansion to the Far East and the Spanish Empire's spread to the Philippines from Latin America, Filipino Muslims and Portuguese Muslims were also subject to the Inquisition, one famous case being Alexo de Castro of the Spanish-occupied Moluccas, who was tried for crypto-Islam a continent away before the Mexican Inquisition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islam in Argentina</span>

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.

Religious assimilation refers to the adoption of a majority or dominant culture's religious practices and beliefs by a minority or subordinate culture. It is an important form of cultural assimilation.

Old Christian was a social and law-effective category used in the Iberian Peninsula from the late 15th and early 16th century onwards, to distinguish Portuguese and Spanish people attested as having cleanliness of blood, known as Limpieza de sangre, from the populations categorized as New Christian. 'New Christian' refer to mainly persons of partial or full Jewish or Moorish (Muslim) descent who converted to Christianity, and their descendants.

Religion in Latin America is characterized by the historical predominance of Catholicism, and growing number and influence of a large number of groups that belong to Protestantism, as well as by the presence of Irreligion. According to survey data from Statista in 2020, 57% of the Latin American population is Catholic and 19% is Protestant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islam in the Americas</span>

Islam is a minority religion in all of the countries and territories of the Americas, around 1% of North America population are Muslims, and 0.1% of Latin America and Caribbean population are Muslims.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Persecution of Jews and Muslims by Manuel I of Portugal</span> Expulsion of Muslims and Jews from Portugal

On 5 December 1496, King Manuel I of Portugal signed the decree of expulsion of Jews and Muslims to take effect by the end of October of the next year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forced conversions of Muslims in Spain</span> 1502–1526 edicts outlawing Islam

The forced conversions of Muslims in Spain were enacted through a series of edicts outlawing Islam in the lands of the Spanish Monarchy. This persecution was pursued by three Spanish kingdoms during the early 16th century: the Crown of Castile in 1500–1502, followed by Navarre in 1515–1516, and lastly the Crown of Aragon in 1523–1526.

Crypto-Hinduism is the secret adherence to Hinduism while publicly professing to be of another faith; practitioners are referred to as "crypto-Hindus". Crypto-Hinduism was observed during a period of forced religious conversions in South Asia, as well as suspected against Hindus who were forcibly converted to the religion of the invaders or colonizers. Many crypto-Hindus were arrested for practicing Hinduism after professing to have converted to Christianity, some sentenced to death for being a crypto-Hindu such as in colonial Portuguese Goa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Latin America and the Caribbean</span> Subregion of the Americas

The term Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is an English-language acronym referring to the Latin American and the Caribbean region. The term LAC covers an extensive region, extending from The Bahamas and Mexico to Argentina and Chile. The region has over 670,230,000 people as of 2016, and spanned for 21,951,000 square kilometres (8,475,000 sq mi).

References

  1. ↑ Analysis (19 December 2011). "Global religious landscape: Muslims" (PDF). Pewforum.org. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-03-23. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
  2. ↑ Mikhail, Alan (2020-12-17). "How the Specter of Islam Fueled European Colonization in the Americas". Literary Hub. Retrieved 2024-10-24.
  3. ↑ Sills, M. David. Islam in Latin America. p. 17.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  4. ↑ "Islamic Encounters". www.brown.edu. Retrieved 2024-12-06.
  5. 1 2 3 Qamber, Rukhsana (2006). "Inquisition Proceedings against Muslims in 16th Century Latin America". Islamic Studies. 45 (1): 21–57. ISSN   0578-8072. JSTOR   20839001.
  6. ↑ Logroño Narbona, María del Mar; Pinto, Paulo Gabriel Hilu da Rocha; Karam, John Tofik, eds. (2016). Crescent over another horizon: Islam in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latino USA. Middle Eastern studies, anthropology, Latin American studies (First paperback ed.). Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN   978-1-4773-0231-6.
  7. ↑ Vanoli, Alessandro (2013). "The Presence and the Memory of Islam during the "Spiritual Conquest" of the New World (Sixteenth Century): A Brazilian Case Study". Franciscan Studies. 71: 219–236. ISSN   0080-5459. JSTOR   43855971.
  8. 1 2 Shohat, Ella; Stam, Robert (2016). "Genealogies of Orientalism and Occidentalism: Sephardi Jews, Muslims, and the Americas". Studies in American Jewish Literature (1981-). 35 (1): 13–32. doi:10.5325/studamerjewilite.35.1.0013. ISSN   0271-9274. JSTOR   10.5325/studamerjewilite.35.1.0013.
  9. 1 2 Castro, Cristina Maria (2016). Islam and the State in Brazil: reflections on the freedom of a minority religion. In: Dawson A (ed) The politics and practice of religious diversity. Routledge, London: Dawson A (ed). pp. 67–81. ISBN   9781315762555.
  10. ↑ Mota, Thiago Henrique (2023-06-12). "Review of The Muslims of Latin America and the Caribbean". European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies (115): 6. doi: 10.32992/erlacs.11011 . ISSN   0924-0608.
  11. ↑ "Muslims of the Caribbean – Caribbean Muslim Network" . Retrieved 2024-12-09.
  12. 1 2 Khan, Aliyah (2020-04-17). Far from Mecca: Globalizing the Muslim Caribbean. Rutgers University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctvxw3p6h. ISBN   978-1-9788-0668-9. JSTOR   j.ctvxw3p6h.
  13. ↑ Domingues da Silva, Daniel B.; Eltis, David; Khan, Nafees; Misevich, Philip; Ojo, Olatunji (2017-10-02). "The transatlantic Muslim diaspora to Latin America in the nineteenth century". Colonial Latin American Review. 26 (4): 528–545. doi:10.1080/10609164.2017.1350492. ISSN   1060-9164.
  14. ↑ Muslims in Latin America by Muhammad Yusuf Hallar
  15. ↑ Analysis (19 December 2011). "Global religious landscape: Muslims" (PDF). Pewforum.org. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-03-23. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
  16. ↑ "International Religious Freedom Report 2010". United States Department of State . Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  17. ↑ "Table: Muslim Population by Country". Pewforum.org. 27 January 2011. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  18. ↑ IBGE – Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics). 2010 Census. Retrieved 7 August 2012.
  19. ↑ 2012 Suriname Census Definitive Results Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine . Algemeen Bureau voor de Statistiek - Suriname.
  20. ↑ Connell, Curtis C. (2005). Islamic Fundamentalism in Latin America and the Caribbean (Report). Air University Press. pp. 19–29.
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