History of Islam in the Americas

Storia dell'Islam nelle Americhe

Islam is a minority religion in all of the countries and territories of the Americas.

Suriname has the highest percentage of Muslims in its population for the region, with 15.2% or 85,637 individuals, according to its 2010 census. However, the United States, in which estimates vary due to a lack of a census question, is generally believed to have the largest population, with approximately 3.45 million Muslims living there. [1]

Most Muslims in the former British Caribbean came from the Indian subcontinent as laborers following the abolition of slavery.[2] This movement also reached Suriname, although other Muslims there moved from a separate Dutch colony, which now contains Indonesia. In the United States, the largest Muslim ethnic group is of African Americans, who converted in the last century, including those who converted from the actions of the syncretic, radical and revisionist group known as the Nation of Islam. However, in South America, the Muslim population is mainly composed of upper-class immigrants from the Levant, including those from Lebanon and Syria.[3] Argentina specifically has the largest Muslim population within South America, with more than 3.5 million citizens of Arab descent and more than 400,000 practicing Muslims. [4]