When America was discovered by the Spanish in the fifteenth century, they brought slaves from North and West Africa, who introduced Islam in Latin America that remain in countries such as Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia and some Caribbean islands. In many cases, these Muslim slaves were forced to abandon their religious beliefs or be executed instead. So over time the Islam began to disappear in Latin America.
At the end of the sixteenth century, after the liberation of the slaves and the return of a large number of them in the country and immigration from India and Pakistan, new concentrations of Muslims appeared. According to some documents, 1850-1860 mass immigration of Muslims Arabs in America instead. Mainly from Syria and Lebanon and remained in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia. Some of them remained in Paraguay, as well as immigrants from Palestine, Bangladesh and Pakistan. This immigration was very intense, and started in the 1950s in these countries and in the 1970s in Colombia, with the future take up residence in Brazil and Venezuela to sink currents.
These communities, as in the United States, have been integrated into the national, stand for their hard work, respect and love for the land that housed. Many of them together to create Islamic societies, mosques, schools, etc., free to worship. Today in all Latin American countries there are concentrations of Muslims, immigrants and natives who adopted Islam as their new faith. According to statistics, the number of Muslims is more than four million in Latin America, 700,000 in Argentina and more than 1.5 million in Brazil. Immigrants account for 50% of the Muslims in Islamic communities in Latin America, with new Muslims of different nationalities, like the rest of Mexico, Spanish, Italian, Colombian, Argentina, etc.
As in other countries where Muslims are a minority, the Muslims in Latin America are also facing difficulties. These include the lack of knowledge about the culture and the Islamic religion, lack of formal teaching of the Arabic language, the lack of economic resources and lack of Islamic material in Spanish. These groups have worked hard to change that.
Today, many members of the Muslim community in America attend Islamic lectures around the world, young Latino Muslims studying at universities in the Arab countries and other religion and Islamic traditions and the desire to keep increasing their knowledge of the same. The number of people who accept Islam is also growing day by day. Given this situation, the Muslim representatives from 19 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean met in 1997 in Buenos Aires, and in the formation of the completed "Islamic Association for Latin America."
As a result, many tasks have been carried out, the Spanish publication of many books and Islamic websites, mass distribution of Spanish materials on Islam, recognition by government authorities (eg, Argentina) from the communion of saints day Islamic, including the new Islamic year, and Muslim Representation of members of our community in their respective countries as governors, senators, representatives and other key positions.
At the same time there are still achieved a lot. Muslims must cooperate mosques in places where the Islamic communities lack establish; they must cooperate in the establishment of a humanitarian fund for the elderly, the poor and the sick; You need the attitude of the Muslims to unite topics like marriage, funerals, funerals, etc. and should encourage mosques to hold various activities, so that they can exercise their true function, not just a place to pray and to celebrate events.
Finally, Muslims in America must continue to meet their neighbors to be to show the beauty of Islam and its commitment to maintain productive citizens in their respective countries.
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Adapted from a speech by Muhammad Yusuf Hallar in a recent Organization of Islamic Conference for Latin America.
Muhammad Yusuf Hallar is the Secretary General of the Islamic Organization for Latin America, office director of the Centre for Islamic Culture Argentina, a member of the Constituent Assembly Islamic Council of the Muslim World League (Mecca) and member of the Committee of experts for the rights of minorities Islamic Conference (OIC). In 2009 he was one of the 500 most influential Muslims in the world issued by a report by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding called at Georgetown University.