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Muslims arrived to the Americas as early as the tenth century; more than five centuries before Christopher Columbus “discovery” of “the new world” in 1492. Some Muslims also came with the Spanish conquistadors to the Americas. Like what happened in the Iberian Peninsula, all Muslims were forced to abandon their religion. In addition, between 1615 and 1700 Muslim Moriscos from Spain established a colony in the lands currently occupied by Colombia and Venezuela, but they were obliterated by the Spaniards. Other Muslims came with the waves of enslaved black Africans during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; some of whom were Muslims. They led revolts against the inhumane treatment in Haiti in 1757, Jamaica in 1831, and Brazil in 1835. However, all these revolts were crushed and Islam was obliterated again due to various oppression tactics.
Slavery was abolished by the British in 1834, French in 1848, and Dutch in 1863. However, slavery was replaced by indentured labor mostly from British India by the Brits and Dutch and Java by the Dutch. Some of this labor was Muslim and their decedents remain in the continent, mostly in former British and Dutch colonies in the Caribbean. Most notably are Suriname, Guyana, and Trinidad; the three countries with the largest Muslim percentage in the continent. While 13% of Suriname’s population is Muslim, the portion for Guyana and Trinidad is 7% each. The indentured labor system was abolished by the British in 1917, and the other colonial powers followed suit afterwards.
During the second half of the nineteenth century, Muslims emigrated from Syria, Lebanon and the Balkans (North America), all of which were under the Ottoman Empire. Many were fleeing the wars and avoiding enlistment in the Turkish army. Then Muslim Tatars came from Poland to North America in the early twentieth century. This was followed by remarkable conversion rate of African descents to Islam throughout the continent. This conversion started in the United States in 1920s, where Black Muslims constitute a third of the Muslim population and where 80% of the continent’s Muslim population lives. Another wave of Muslim immigrants started in mid-twentieth century from Palestine after the declaration of Israel.
In the 1960s, immigration laws in the US and Canada changed to welcome immigrants from all over the world and not just Whites. Since then the number of Muslims is fast growing due to immigration, but also higher birthrate and conversions. Immigration from the Middle East and Indian subcontinent towards all parts of the continent also continues. About half of Muslims in this continent live in the United States, a quarter live in Canada, and the remainder is spread sparsely throughout the rest of the continent. However, the countries with the largest Muslim minority starting with the largest are Suriname (13%), Guyana (7%), and Trinidad (5%).
The Muslim population in the Western Hemisphere, both in size and in percentage, remains the low-est in comparison with other continents. It increased from 5,000 or 0.02% in 1800, to 80,000 or 0.05% in 1900, to 4.3 million or 0.5% in 2000, to 7.7 million or 0.8% in 2020, and is projected to reach 24 million or 1.9% by 2100, then 41 million or 3.3% by 2200, and then 58 million or 4.5% by 2300.
- ^ Kettani, Houssain (2014). The World Muslim Population, History & Prospect. Singapore: Research Publishing Service. ISBN 978-981-07-7244-4.