Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...

is an overwhelmingly Christian majority country, with adherents of Islam being a minuscule minority. Because of the

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

nature of the country's constitution,

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

are free to proselytize and build places of worship in the country. Islam first entered the country in 1987, when a

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

ian missionary belonging to the

Ahmadiyya Ahmadiyya (, ), officially the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community or the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (AMJ, ar, الجماعة الإسلامية الأحمدية, al-Jamāʿah al-Islāmīyah al-Aḥmadīyah; ur, , translit=Jamā'at Aḥmadiyyah Musl ...

movement visited Guadalcanal on a reconnaissance trip lasting three years. Today, there are two major Islamic branches in the country, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and Sunni Islam. According to a 2007 report by the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

International Religious Freedom Report The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (Public Law 105–292, as amended by Public Law 106–55, Public Law 106–113, Public Law 107–228, Public Law 108–332, and Public Law 108–458) was passed to promote religious freedom as a forei ...

, there are approximately 350 Muslims in the country. However, the

Australian Journal of International Affairs The ''Australian Journal of International Affairs'' is an academic journal that was established in 1947 as ''Australian Outlook''. It is published by Routledge on behalf of the Australian Institute of International Affairs. Its forerunner was the ...

suggests that there may be as many as 1,000 Ahmadiyya in the country alone, or 0.14% of the population.

Subgroups

Ahmadiyya

Islam was first introduced by an Ahmadi Muslim missionary, Hafiz Jibrail from Ghana. He visited the country from 1987 for three years and managed to draw a handful of converts to Islam, after which he left for Ghana. The Community then continued to flourish and practice their faith for over a decade without external contact from members of the international Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. In the years 2000 to 2005, the Community sent another missionary, as a result of which the Community grew to approximately 1,000 members. The Community is headquartered in Honiara, the capital of Solomon Islands, and is present in villages on Guadalcanal, the Russells,

Savo Savo may refer to: Languages * Savo dialect, forms of the Finnish language spoken in Savonia * Savo language, an endangered language spoken on Savo People * Savo (given name), a masculine given name from southern Europe (includes a list of people ...

, and

Bellona Bellona may refer to: Places *Bellona, Campania, a ''comune'' in the Province of Caserta, Italy *Bellona Reef, a reef in New Caledonia *Bellona Island, an island in Rennell and Bellona Province, Solomon Islands Ships * HMS ''Bellona'' (1760), a 74 ...

islands.

Sunni

Sunni Muslims first entered the country in 1995 as a result of

dawah Dawah ( ar, دعوة, lit=invitation, ) is the act of inviting or calling people to embrace Islam. The plural is ''da‘wāt'' (دَعْوات) or ''da‘awāt'' (دَعَوات). Etymology The English term ''Dawah'' derives from the Arabic ...

efforts from members of the

Tablighi Jamaat Tablighi Jamaat (, also translated as "propagation party" or "preaching party") is a transnational Deobandi Islamic Dawah, missionary movement that focuses on exhorting Muslims to be more religiously observant and encouraging fellow memb ...

. Sunni Muslims have publicly differentiated from Ahmadi Muslims and claim to represent the 'true' orthodox Islam. The Community claims to have more members than the Ahmadiyya Community.

References

External links

Pacific: Islam making inroads in Melanesia
{{Oceania in topic, Islam in Religion in the Solomon Islands