Islam in Jamaica

Jamaica is a predominantly Christian country, with Islam being a minority religion. Due to secular nature of the Jamaica's constitution, Muslims are free to proselytize and build places of worship in the country.

The first Muslims arrived in Jamaica as enslaved people. Islam was one of the main religions of Africans brought to the Caribbean and America. Other Muslim groups came through the indentureship program Africa and the Indian subcontinent, and today make up a population of about 1,513 with several mosques and festivals.

History

The first Muslims in Jamaica were West African Moors captured in the Reconquista sold as slaves to traders, and brought to Jamaica on ships. Bryan Edwards and Richard Robert Madden in their works written in the late 18th and early 19th century often wrote about the Muslim slaves of Jamaica and their situation. They wrote that many were able to memorize the Quran, declare the shahada, fasted, prayed, and some were even able to write in Arabic.

Over time most of them lost their Islamic identity due to forced mixing of ethnic groups. Mu’minun of African descent belonging to the Islamic nations of Mandinka, Fula, Susu, Ashanti and Hausa ceaselessly tried to maintain their Islamic practices in secrecy,
while working as slaves on the plantations in Jamaica. By the time the slaves were liberated, much of the Muslim faith of the past had faded, and the freed slaves picked up the faith of their former slave masters. Some Muslim slaves returned to Africa or traveled to other parts of Latin America while others remained in Jamaica and practiced their faith in secret. These factors led to the virtual disappearance of Islam in Jamaica outside of the Indian community.

About 16 percent of the 37,000 indentured Indian immigrants who arrived to Jamaica between 1845 and 1917 were Muslims. Muhammad Khan, who came to Jamaica in 1915 at the age of 15, built Masjid Ar-Rahman in Spanish Town in 1957, while Westmoreland's Masjid Hussein was built by Muhammad Golaub, who immigrated with his father at the age of 7. The indentured Muslims laid the foundation of the eight other masjids established in Jamaica since the 1960s, with the advent of an indigenous Jamaican Muslim community that now forms the majority of the Muslim populace on the island.

Current demography

The statistics for Islam in Jamaica estimate a total Muslim population of about 1,513. There are several Islamic organizations and mosques in Jamaica, including the Islamic Council of Jamaica which was founded in 1981 and the Islamic Education and Dawah Center, both located in Kingston and offering classes in Islamic studies and daily prayers in congregation. Outside Kingston organizations include Masjid Al Haq in Mandeville, Masjid Al-Ihsan in Negril, Masjid-Al-Hikmah in Ocho Rios, the Port Maria Islamic Center in Saint Mary and the Mahdi Mosque in Old Harbour.

Festivals

These are the main Islamic Festivals practised by Jamaican Muslims:

* The Ramadan Fast
* Hosay (or Ashura)
* Id al Fitr (or Eid-Ul-Fitr)
* Eid al Adha (or Id-al-Kabir)
* Mawlid
* Miraj
* Hijrah

References

Further reading

* Islamic Horizons Sept/Oct 2001
* Afroz, S. (2001) 'The Jihad of 1831–1832: The Misunderstood
* Baptist Rebellion in Jamaica' ournal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 21, No. 2, 2001

{{Islam in the Americas

Jamaica