Muslims in Tijuana

Mexico is a predominantly Christian country, with adherents of Islam representing a small minority. Due to the secular nature of the state established by Mexico's constitution, Muslims are free to proselytize and build places of worship in the country. The country has a population of around 126 million as of 2020 census and according to the Pew Research Center, the Muslim population was 60,000 in 1980, 111,000 in 2010, and is predicted to be 126,000 in 2030;[1] however, according to the 2010 National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) census, there were only 2,500 individuals who identified Islam as their religion.[2] Most Muslims are foreign nationals and the majority are Sunni.[3][4]

Organizations

Mezquita Soraya, the first mosque in Mexico

Today, most Mexican Islamic organizations focus on grassroots missionary activities, which are most effective at the community level.

The Centro Cultural Islámico de México (CCIM), a Sunni organization headed by Omar Weston, a British-born Mexican convert to Islam, has been active in several big cities in northern and central Mexico. In the state of Morelos, the CCIM has built a prayer hall and centre for recreation, learning and conferences, called Dar as Salaam, which also operates Hotel Oasis, a hotel that offers halal holidays for Muslim travellers 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. Apart from CCIM there is a branch of the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order in Mexico City which is often at odds with the traditionalist Muslim community and is headed by two women, Shaykha Fatima Fariha and Shaykha Amina Teslima.

There is also a small Salafi organization (the Centro Salafi de México) led by Muhammad Abdullah Ruiz (a former deputy to Weston) and an educational centre managed mainly by Muslims from Egypt and the Middle East, el "Centro Educativo de la Comunidad Musulmana en México" (run by Said Louahabi),and centro al hikmah run by Isa Rojas a Mexican convert to Islam, who studied Islamic studies in the University of Medina, within the capital city.[5] At first, the CCIM which headed by Muhammad Ruiz were closed, until it reopened in 1998 due to support from Saudi Arabia embassy, then from 2011 book which contained the claim by Muhammad Ruiz, he claimed that the active members in Mexico city are around 200 members, which half of it are Mexican converts.[6] This number does not included the Sufis, Muslims from other organizations, and non practitioners.[6]

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.[7]

Demographics

Torres and Minarete of Agua Caliente
Construction Details

Islam represents less than 0.01% of the population.[8]

Federal Entity Muslim Population (2010)
 Mexico (whole country) 2,000
 Aguascalientes 32
 Baja California 190
 Baja California Sur 20
 Campeche 32
 Coahuila 70
 Colima 16
 Chiapas 650
 Chihuahua 78
 Durango 34
 Guanajuato 100
 Guerrero 26
 Hidalgo 38
 Jalisco 202
 México (state) 117
 Michoacán 200
 Morelos 98
 Nayarit 15
 Nuevo León 126
 Oaxaca 758
 Puebla 106
 Querétaro 100
 Quintana Roo 142
 San Luis Potosí 56
 Sinaloa 200
 Sonora 45
 Tabasco 13
 Tamaulipas 63
 Tlaxcala 19
 Veracruz 86
 Yucatán 43
 Zacatecas 13
 Mexico City 500

Indigenous Mexican Muslims

A figure of a Moor being trampled by a conquistador's horse at the National Museum of the Viceroyalty in Tepotzotlan.

Islam has been present in Mexico since the mid 1950's due to mass Spaniard and Arab settlement. The Spanish Murabitun community, the Comunidad Islámica en España, based in Granada in Spain, and one of its missionaries, Muhammad Nafia (formerly Aureliano Pérez), now emir of the Comunidad Islámica en México, arrived in the state of Chiapas shortly after the Zapatista uprising and established a commune in the city of San Cristóbal. The group, characterized as anti-capitalistic, entered an ideological pact with the socialist Zapatistas group.[9] President Vicente Fox voiced concerns about the influence of the fundamentalism and possible connections to the Zapatistas and the Basque terrorist organization Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), but it appeared that most converts had no interest in political extremism.[9] By 1994, many indigenous Mayans and more than 700[10] Tzotzils have converted to Islam.[11] In San Cristóbal, the Murabitun established a pizzeria, a carpentry workshop[12] and a Quranic school (madrasa) where children learned Arabic and prayed five times a day in the backroom of a residential building, and women in head scarves have become a common sight.[9] 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 non-Muslims.

Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatistas entered into an alliance with Chiapas Muslims in the 1980s.[9]

Mosques

This is a list of some but by no means all mosques and Islamic meeting centers in Mexico.

  • Centro Islámico del Norte. Av. Benito Juárez 603, Centro, 66230 San Pedro Garza García, N.L.
  • Suraya Mosque in Torreon, Coahuila.
  • Dar es Salaam Mosque in Tequesquitengo, Morelos.
  • Tahaarah Mosque in Comitan, Chiapas.
  • Al Kautsar Mosque in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas.
  • Al Medina Mosque in San Cristobal de las casas, Chiapas
  • Musala Tlaxcala #30 San Critobal de las Casas, Chiapas
  • Murabitun Mosque San Cristobal de las casa, Chiapas
  • Salafi Mosque Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab in Mexico City.
  • Mezquita/ tekke de la Orden Jalveti Yerraji instituto Luz Sobre Luz in Mexico City.
  • Masiid Omar, Centro Islamico Tijuana Beaches, Baja California, Mexico.
  • Al-Hikmah Ciudad de México, Aragón, Mexico.
  • Mezquita Euclides Euclides 25, Col. Anzures, Polanco, Ciudad de México.
  • Mezquita Abu Bakr Don Luis 10, Nativitas, Benito Juàrez, Nativitas, Metro, 03500 Ciudad de México, CDMX
  • Mezquita de guadalajara Centauro 2912, La Calma, 45070 Zapopan, Jal. Guadalajara.
  • Musalah Al Ajirah in Margarita # 5 local, colonia Santa Maria la Ribera, Delegación Cuauhtémoc, CP 06400, Mexico City.[13]

Moorish architecture in Mexico

La Pila fountain in the main square of Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas.
Morisco kiosk in Colonia Santa María la Ribera neighborhood.

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.[14] It was built by the Spanish Dominican friars during the Colonial era in the sixteenth century.[15]

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.[16][17]

Notable Mexican Muslims

Fitra Ismu Kusumo, Indonesian artist living in Mexico.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Table: Muslim Population by Country". 27 January 2011.
  2. ↑ Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (2010). "Censo de Población y Vivienda 2010 — Cuestionario básico". INEGI. Retrieved 4 March 2011.
  3. ↑ Tottoli, Roberto (19 September 2014). Routledge Handbook of Islam in the West. Routledge. p. 157. ISBN 9781317744023. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
  4. ↑ Kusumo, Fitra Ismu (2004). El Islam en el México Contemporáneo (Thesis) (in Spanish). Escuela Nacional Antropología e Historia. ASIN B00EJL9KFW.
  5. ↑ Ruiz Al Meksiki, Muhammad (2009). "PRIMERA PARTE El inicio de la Dawa y los primeros musulmanes activos en la Historia del Islam en México" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2012-01-01. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  6. 1 2 Eugenia Cruset, Maria (2011). Migration and New International Actors: An Old Phenomenon Seen With New Eyes. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 74. ISBN 978-1443834902. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  7. ↑ ""México no tolera a musulmanes: Muhammad Ruiz Al Meksiki"". Noroeste. 2015. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  8. ↑ "Mexican Catholics find God in Islam". Public Radio International. 13 February 2014. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Glüsing, Jens (28 May 2005). "Islam Is Gaining a Foothold in Chiapas". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  10. ↑ "Indígenas musulmanes abren plática sobre el Islam en San Cristóbal". quadratin.com. 22 August 2015. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
  11. ↑ Lara Klahr, Marco. 2002. “¿El Islam en Chiapas?: el. EZLN y el Movimiento Mundial Murabitun,”. Revista Académica para el Estudio de las. Religiones 4(2002): 79-91 (in Spanish)
  12. ↑ "Islam is the new religion in rebellious Mexican state Chiapas". RNW media. Retrieved 27 November 2015.
  13. ↑ "Musalah Al Ajirah - Cuauhtémoc - HERE WeGo". HERE WeGo. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
  14. ↑ "Chiapa de Corzo" (in Spanish). Chiapas, Mexico: Secretaría de Turismo de Chiapas. Archived from the original on January 19, 2011. Retrieved May 11, 2020.
  15. ↑ "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.
  16. ↑ 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.
  17. ↑ "El Kiosco Morisco de Santa María la Ribera, ícono de la CDMX". mexicodesconocido.com.mx. May 2018. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
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