With just 300 or so Muslims in all of Nicaragua, it became an instant mystery here when a big new mosque suddenly seemed to spring up recently in a residential neighborhood. Like, who paid for it? The ever-present Managua rumor mill quickly turned to the government of Iran. Its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a Muslim, and Nicaragua's leftist leader, Daniel Ortega, a Catholic, say they share a revolutionary kinship. As part of a grandiose effort to show that Iran is a global superpower, Mr....

San Cristóbal de Las Casas.- For allegedly being living under semi-slavery, a group of eight Chamula families professing the Muslim religion in the highlands of Chiapas abandoned the group formed in 1994, said the indigene Carlos Arturo Gomez, whose Islamic name is Moustafa. He explained that they decided to leave the group because they were exploited, since they had to work for over 12 hours a day and received less than 1,000 pesos per month. In addition, they were not allowed...

The first institute for the training of imams and preachers in all of Latin America is set to open its doors beginning in March 2009. The Latin American Institute for Islamic Studies is located in the city of Maringa in the northern state of Parana, will not simply be the first of its kind in Brazil, but a first for Latin American Muslims. The institute will focus on teaching Islamic studies, training imams, and have a 12-member teaching stuff. It is expected to enroll some 150-250 high...

Venezuela and Iran plan to start a new university program in the South American country with a focus on teaching socialist principles. Venezuela's government says it plans to establish the University of Civilizations under accords recently signed with Iran. Deputy Minister for Academic Development Tibisay Hung says the program will begin in Caracas at the existing, tuition-free Bolivarian University. Hung tells the state-run Bolivarian News Agency that the aim is to promote discussion of...

Monterrey, Nuevo Leon Strangely enough MUSLIM CENTER DE MEXICO's activities in the second largest city in Mexico was due to a business opportunity that a Mexican hamburger factory (Trosi de Carnes SA de CV) had in 1995 when McDonalds Restaurants were opened in the Middle East. Trosi de Carne due to the Crazy cow disease in Europe was offered the production of hamburgers for all McDonalds restaurants in the Middle East and North Africa. MCM was asked to certify that the imported Halal meat...

Chavez has invited Shia "missionaries" from Iran to convert the Guajiros and other indigenous people of the Amazon. The entire Wayuu tribe has converted to Islam, the women cover themselves in veils and the men practice using Kalashnikovs.

Islam in Argentina is represented by one of Latin America's largest Muslim minorities. Although accurate statistics on religion are not available (because the national census does not solicit religious data) the actual size of Argentina's Muslim community is estimated between 2-2.5% of the total population (300,000-900,000) [1] Early Muslim immigration Though early Spanish and Portuguese explorers and immigrants to the New World were very familiar with Muslims and Islamic culture (due to...

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Islam Online) - Residents of Palermo, a large middle-class district in Buenos Aires, are used to seeing their skyline change. New high-rise apartment towers, enormous shopping malls, shiny gas stations and U.S.-style fast food outlets are constantly erupting between the parks and plazas that represent an older, more leisurely city. But now a different kind of building has appeared right in the heart of this traditional neighborhood, occupying an eight-acre triangle...

In a Friday sermon that aired on Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV on April 11, 2008, Yunis Al-Astal, Hamas MP and cleric, told worshipers that Rome, "the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital," would soon be conquered by Islam, just as Constantinople was. It then, he said, would become "an advanced post for the Islamic conquests, which will spread through Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas, and even Eastern Europe." The following are...

On a recent crisp Friday afternoon in El Barrio, the Puerto Rican heart of East Harlem, Ramon Omar Abduraheem Ocasio, Imam of the Alianza Islamica, delivered a khutba (sermon) in Spanish, English and Arabic on fatherhood and responsibility to a motley congregation of Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Panamanians, Spaniards, and African Americans. Although it might seem surprising to find a Muslim mosque thriving in such a traditionally Catholic community, organizations like Alianza Islamica represent...