Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Ahmad Shalaby, History of Muslim 

Education (Beirut: Dar al-Kashshaf, 1954); Gregory 

kuttab

  

437  J

---

Starrett,  Putting Islam to Work: Education, Politics and 

Religious Transformation in Egypt (Berkeley: University 

of California Press, 1998); Joseph S. Szyliowicz, Educa-

tion and Modernization in the Middle East (Ithaca, N.Y.: 

Cornell University Press, 1973).

Kuwait

  See g

ulf

 

states

.

Kyrgyzstan

  See c

entral

 a

sia

 

and

 

the

 

c

aucasus

.

K  438  

Kuwait

---

439

AF

J:

Lat, al-

  See 

goddess

.

Latin America

According to some scholars, Islam was first estab-

lished in Latin America between the 11th and 

12th centuries as a result of maritime contacts 

established by African Muslim sailors. The same 

scholars support the idea of a Muslim European 

influence in the 16th century stemming from the 

participation of moriscos (Andalusian Muslims 

who remained in Spain under Christian rulers 

after 1492) in the discovery and conquest of the 

continent. However, these first origins of Islam in 

Latin America are still debated. The first Muslim 

population to arrive of which we have specific 

data were the African Muslim slaves brought to 

the continent by the Dutch, French, and British 

colonial powers. Later on, in the 19th century, 

following the abolition of 

slavery

, the recruitment 

of indentured labor from i

ndia

 and i

ndonesia

brought to Latin America a number of Indian 

and Indonesian Muslims, mainly to the present-

day countries of Guyana, Suriname and Panama. 

Following this, in the last decades of the 19th 

century, Muslim and Christian Arabs from Greater 

s

yria

 (the Mediterranean Levant) emigrated to 

and settled in Latin America as a consequence of 

both the devastating effects of the ongoing eco-

nomic crisis of the Ottoman Empire and specific 

cases of religious persecution of Christian com-

munities.

The Muslim community in Latin America 

today is small in size, diverse in character, and 

grouped in several countries. Although no exact 

statistics of the total Muslim population exist, it is 

estimated that the Muslim community constitutes 

less than 1 percent of the total population of Latin 

America. Suriname, Guyana, and Trinidad have 

the largest number of Muslims followed by Brazil 

and Argentina.

Although not the largest in number, Brazil has 

one of the strongest Muslim communities. Despite 

a number of African Muslim slaves who were 

brought to the country during the 17th and 18th 

centuries, the current Muslim community dates to 

the a

rab

 emigration in the last decades of the 19th 

century. It is concentrated mainly in the state of 

São Paulo, where the first mosque was established 

in 1950. In 1968 the Islamic Dawa Center of Latin 

America for the spread of Islam was founded.

Suriname has the largest Asian Muslim popu-

lation, 26 percent of its total population. The Suri-

namese Muslim community originates from the 

indentured Indian and Indonesian labor brought 

by the Dutch and the British at the turn of the 

L

---

20th century. The Indonesian identity of some 

members of the community is visible in specific 

practices that are linked to those in Indonesia, 

such as the orientation of their mosques facing 

west instead of east, following the practice of 

mosques in Indonesia, an issue that has created 

some controversy among Muslims in Suriname.

See also  c

anada

; 

colonialism

; 

daawa

; U

nited

s

tates

.

Maria del Mar Logrono