Muslims down souf
Mar 12th, 2007, 02:03 am
Yesterday I hung out with a few Argentine Muslims. The Centro Cultural Islámico Rey Fahd served lunch and hosted a day of soccer, pool, and Ping-Pong. I heard about it at jummah, and I thought I’d check it out to meet some locals.
I met a bunch of people, mostly Argentine converts. Typically, our conversations began with questions about where I’m from, my ethnic origins, and discrimination against American Muslims. They seemed impressed that I could speak Spanish. I was told that I speak it well a few times, but I don’t know if they were just saying that to be nice. I think I speak it well until I don’t know how to say something, which happens a lot.
As I mentioned in my post about my first visit to the masjid, the Muslim community seems very small. There were only about thirty people at this massive masjid. According to a few sources, there over half a million Argentines of Muslim ancestry, but few of them identify as Muslims or practice. Sadly, Islam mostly died out with the first Arab Muslim immigrants. There was a large wave of Arab immigration from the Ottoman Empire before World War I. Although most of these immigrants were Christians (from Lebanon and Syria), there were many Muslims as well. Yet, Islam didn’t last long. A convert I met said that they didn’t have the education or time to preserve their Islamic identity. ¡Qué lástima!
As a side note, Arabs were the third largest immigrant group in Argentina after Italians and Spaniards. I bet you didn’t know that.
The Muslim presence in Latin America is quite intriguing. Although it’s not nearly as large and vibrant as the North American Muslim community, it’s still alive and well. North American Muslims should take the time and effort to learn about their southern neighbors, especially considering most of us don’t even know there are Muslims here. Before I decided to study abroad, I have to admit that I was pretty ignorant about Latin American Muslims too. Heck, I didn’t even know there was an America outside the real America.
On a totally different topic, I ate about a quarter pound of fried cheese for lunch on Saturday. Disgusting. Oh, the joys of living in a new country and not knowing for sure what you order.