Islam in Puerto Rico

In 2007, there were over 5,000 Muslims residing in Puerto Rico, representing about 0.1% of the population.^[1]^[2] The early Muslim community largely consisted mainly of Palestinian and Jordanian immigrants who arrived between 1958 and 1962. At the time, the vast majority of Puerto Rico's Muslims lived in Caguas^[3] – a city in the island's central region located south of San Juan – where they operated restaurants, jewelry stores and clothing outlets. A storefront mosque on Calle Padre Colón in the Río Piedras district of San Juan served the entire religious community on the island during earlier years, however, today there are mosques and Islamic centers in Aguadilla, Arecibo, Hatillo, Ponce, Vega Alta, and San Juan.^[4] The American Muslim Association of North America (AMANA) also has an office in Cayey.

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History

Muslims first appeared in Puerto Rico in the 16th century when so-called Moriscos served as adventurers, traders, or enslaved laborers during the Spanish colonization of the Americas.^[5] Enslaved Muslims from West Africa were also transported to the island during the same period. Although the number of Muslims living in Puerto Rico was probably significant, these early communities didn't survive and were soon converted to Catholicism or other more syncretic African diasporic faiths.^[5]

Recently, there has been an increasing number of converts to Islam.^[5]

Notable mosques

This is a list of notable mosques (Arabic: Masjid, Spanish: Mezquita) in Puerto Rico, including Islamic places of worship that do not qualify as traditional mosques.

Name	Location	Year	Notes
Centro Islámico de Ponce	Ponce		^[6]
Río Piedras Mosque	San Juan	1981	First mosque established in Puerto Rico. The mosque has a capacity of 200 men and 40 women and is located next to the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus.^[7]
Al-Faruq Mosque	Vega Alta	1992	Largest mosque in Puerto Rico, with a capacity of 1,200 men and 120 women.^[7]
Masjid Montehiedra	San Juan	2007	The mosque has a capacity of 400 men and 50 women. Features an Islamic weekend school.^[7]
^ S = Sunni Islam; SH = Shia Islam; A = Ahmadiyya; ND = Non-denominational

Notable Puerto Rican Muslims

Hector Camacho Jr., professional boxer^[8]

References

^ Institute of Islamic Information and Education: Number of Muslims and Percentage in Puerto Rico Retrieved June 11, 2009.
^ Percent Puerto Rican population that are Muslims Retrieved June 8, 2009. Archived January 17, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
^ Muslim Minorities in the West: Visible and Invisible, By Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, Jane I. Smith, pg. 266
^ Muslim Students Association @ Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico
^ ^a ^b ^c Chitwood, Ken (17 May 2018). "A peek into the lives of Puerto Rican Muslims and what Ramadan means post Hurricane Maria". The Conversation. Retrieved 2022-02-10.
^ "Islamic Center of Ponce in Ponce, Puerto Rico - Salatomatic - your guide to mosques & Islamic schools". www.salatomatic.com. Retrieved 2022-04-23.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Salaams From Puerto Rico: A Preview of Islam in the Caribbean". MVSLIM. 2017-07-02. Retrieved 2022-04-20.
^ "Hector Camacho Jr. Is His Father's Son". 8 August 2013.

External links

Islam in the Caribbean

British West Indies
Danish West Indies
Dutch Caribbean
- Caribbean Netherlands
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French West Indies
West Indies Federation

West Indies

Antilles

Greater Antilles

Cayman Islands
Cuba
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Navassa Island
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Leeward Islands

Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda
Guadeloupe
- La Désirade
- Les Saintes
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Montserrat
Saba^{^*}
Saint Barthélemy
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Sint Eustatius^{^*}

Saint Martin^{^}	Collectivity of Saint Martin Sint Maarten
Virgin Islands	British Virgin Islands U.S. Virgin Islands

Southern Caribbean

Leeward Antilles

Insular Venezuela
- Federal Dependencies
- Nueva Esparta

ABC islands	Aruba Bonaire^* Curaçao

Windward Islands

Dominica
Grenada
- Carriacou and Petite Martinique
Martinique
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Barbados^†
Trinidad and Tobago^†

Lucayan Archipelago

Bahamas

Turks and Caicos Islands

Caribbean Sea

Aves Island
San Andrés and Providencia
- Bajo Nuevo Bank^~
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Caribbean continental zone

Quintana Roo
- Cozumel

Central America	Belize Honduras Bay Islands Izabal Limón Corn Islands North Caribbean Coast South Caribbean Coast Panama
South America	Colombian Caribbean Venezuelan Caribbean

Wider groupings
may include:

Yucatán Peninsula	Campeche Petén Yucatán
The Guianas	Amapá French Guiana Venezuelan Guayana Guyana Guayana Esequiba^ǂ Tigri Area^ǂ Suriname

N.B.: Territories in italics are parts of transregional sovereign states or non-sovereign dependencies.

^{^}These three form the SSS islands that with the ABC islands comprise the Dutch Caribbean, of which ^*the BES islands are not direct Kingdom constituents but subsumed with the country of the Netherlands.

^†Physiographically, these continental islands are not part of the volcanic Windward Islands arc, although sometimes grouped with them culturally and politically.

^ǂDisputed territories administered by Guyana. ^~Disputed territories administered by Colombia.

^#Bermuda is an isolated North Atlantic oceanic island, physiographically not part of the Lucayan Archipelago, Antilles, Caribbean Sea nor North American continental nor South American continental islands. It is grouped with the Northern American region, but occasionally also with the Caribbean region culturally.

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