Islam in Latin America, Opportunities and Challenges ahead

Upon the migration of the Spanish and the Portuguese to the Latin America and their full-scale sovereignty entwined with their coarse Imperialism over the region, this terrain was turned into a Christian territory to the point where after five centuries, currently over 85 percent of the population in the region are Christians while the followers of other religions and other native creeds in the region are of trivial numbers. The core Muslim population of the contemporary era are the off springs of the migrants who were initially brought by the European Colonists from West Africa or the Indian subcontinent as slaves or labours to Brazil, Central America, and the Caribbean islands. Another wave of migrations was concurrent with the reformations that took place in the Middle East in the first and mid-decades of the twenty first century when masses of Arab Muslims and Christians – particularly from Lebanon, Palestine and Syria – came to this region, whose presence caused the expansion of Islam in this region – especially in Brazil and Argentina. This paper will examine the position of Islam and Muslims in this region and will intend to provide coherent answers to several questions such as; what is the status of migrant Muslims and native Muslims in the region? What are the causes of tendency towards Islam? And what are the challenges faced by the Muslims? What are the opportunities they look forward to?