Hawzah News Agency- But Zia is one of an estimated 85,000 to 100,000 Muslims in Colombia, comprising less than 0.2 percent of the country’s population.
Within that community, though, is a prism of diverse backgrounds and experiences. Some of Colombia’s Muslims reflect a rich history of migration to the region. Others are converts.
On the eve of Ramadan, Muslim communities in cities like Bogota and Medellin prepared for the coming festivities with decorations and prayer.
“The majority of those who come to the mosque are Colombians, but we see people from Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Pakistan and other Arab countries'', said Mu’tasem Abdo, the mosque’s imam who came to Medellin from Egypt four years ago.
“A native from a Muslim country can miss the grandeur of Ramadan as experienced back home'', Abdo explained.
Pakistani immigrant Rana Arif Mohammad remembers arriving in Colombia 23 years ago with dreams of adventuring through Latin America. But he too felt isolation as a Muslim in the country.
He settled in Medellin and founded a restaurant where he serves Pakistani and Arabic specialities in his Belen restaurant. But fellow Muslims were few and far between, and he remembers struggling to find a mosque.
“Twenty-three years ago, I met just four to five Muslims, just a few from Lebanon and Turkiye'', Mohammad said.
But Mohammad and others have observed Muslim visibility on the rise in Colombia.
In 2020, for instance, Colombia elected its first Muslim mayor in the border city of Maicao. And Mohammad explained that there are now more Islamic cultural centres and places of worship.
“Today, Medellin has five mosques,” he said, counting the ones he knows.
The Muslim population in Latin America first surged after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century. There have been several waves of migration in the century since.
In Bogota, Sheikh Ahmad Qurtubi speaks proudly of the range of nationalities in his jamaat, or congregation, at the Qurtubi Islamic Centre in the west of the city.
“There are people of different nationalities, approximately 10 or 15 different countries, and we find great diversity in this centre,” Qurtubi explained after delivering the Taraweeh prayer marking the first night of Ramadan.
Though there are no official statistics on the origins of Colombia’s Muslim population, Qurtubi has noticed an increase in Muslim converts.
He described how, on each night of Ramadan, a different family volunteers to cook food for the Iftar, the breaking of the fast.
He believes community events like Ramadan create an opportunity for Colombia’s Muslims to embrace their differences and build communal understanding.
Source :Al JAZEERA
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