Islam in El Salvador

Islam by country

World percentage of Muslims by country

Africa

* Algeria
* Angola
* Benin
* Botswana
* Burkina Faso
* Burundi
* Cameroon
* Cape Verde
* Central African Republic
* Chad
* Comoros
* Democratic Republic of the Congo
* Republic of the Congo
* Djibouti
* Egypt
* Equatorial Guinea
* Eritrea
* Eswatini
* Ethiopia
* Gabon
* Gambia
* Ghana
* Guinea
* Guinea-Bissau
* Ivory Coast
* Kenya
* Lesotho
* Liberia
* Libya
* Madagascar
* Malawi
* Mali
* Mauritania
* Mauritius
* Mayotte
* Morocco
* Western Sahara
* Mozambique
* Namibia
* Niger
* Nigeria
* Réunion
* Rwanda
* São Tomé and Príncipe
* Senegal
* Seychelles
* Sierra Leone
* Somalia
* South Africa
* South Sudan
* Sudan
* Tanzania
* Togo
* Tunisia
* Uganda
* Zambia
* Zimbabwe

Asia

* Afghanistan
* Armenia
* Azerbaijan
* Bahrain
* Bangladesh
* Bhutan
* Brunei
* Cambodia
* China
* Cyprus
* Georgia
* Hong Kong
* India
* Indonesia
* Iran
* Iraq
* Israel
* Japan
* Jordan
* Kazakhstan
* Korea
* North Korea
* South Korea
* Kuwait
* Kyrgyzstan
* Laos
* Lebanon
* Macau
* Malaysia
* Maldives
* Mongolia
* Myanmar
* Nepal
* Oman
* Pakistan
* Palestine
* Philippines
* Qatar
* Saudi Arabia
* Singapore
* Sri Lanka
* Syria
* Taiwan
* Tajikistan
* Thailand
* Timor-Leste
* Turkey
* Turkmenistan
* United Arab Emirates
* Uzbekistan
* Vietnam
* Yemen

Americas

* Antigua and Barbuda
* Argentina
* Bahamas
* Barbados
* Belize
* Bolivia
* Brazil
* Canada
* Chile
* Colombia
* Costa Rica
* Cuba
* Dominica
* Dominican Republic
* Ecuador
* El Salvador
* French Guiana
* Grenada
* Guatemala
* Guyana
* Haiti
* Honduras
* Jamaica
* Mexico
* Nicaragua
* Panama
* Paraguay
* Peru
* Saint Kitts and Nevis
* Saint Lucia
* Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
* Suriname
* Trinidad and Tobago
* United States
* Uruguay
* Venezuela

Europe

* Albania
* Andorra
* Austria
* Belarus
* Belgium
* Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Bulgaria
* Croatia
* Czechia
* Denmark
* Estonia
* Finland
* France
* Germany
* Greece
* Hungary
* Iceland
* Ireland
* Italy
* Kosovo
* Latvia
* Liechtenstein
* Lithuania
* Luxembourg
* Malta
* Moldova
* Monaco
* Montenegro
* Netherlands
* North Macedonia
* Norway
* Poland
* Portugal
* Romania
* Russia
* Tatarstan
* San Marino
* Serbia
* Slovakia
* Slovenia
* Spain
* Sweden
* Switzerland
* Ukraine
* United Kingdom
* England
* Northern Ireland
* Scotland
* Wales

Oceania

* Australia
* Christmas Island
* Cocos (Keeling) Islands
* Cook Islands
* Fiji
* Guam
* Kiribati
* Marshall Islands
* Micronesia
* Nauru
* New Caledonia
* New Zealand
* Northern Mariana Islands
* Palau
* Papua New Guinea
* Samoa
* Solomon Islands
* Tonga
* Tuvalu
* Vanuatu

Islam portal

* v
* t
* e

El Salvador is a predominantly Christian country, with adherents Islam being a minuscule minority. Due to the secular nature of the country's constitution, Muslims are free to proselytize and build mosques in the country.

There is a small Muslim community in El Salvador, largely consisting of Yemeni Arabs. However, most of the Palestinian Arab population in the country is Christian. It is estimated that there are about 1,000-1,500 Muslims in El Salvador, however, the figure can reach up to 18,000.[1][2]

There is an Islamic Cultural Association operated by the Shia community, named Fatimah Az-Zahra. They published the first Islamic magazine in Central America: Revista Biblioteca Islámica. Additionally, they are credited with providing the first and only Islamic library dedicated to spreading Islamic culture in the country.[3] Ahmadiyya Muslim Community also exists in the country.[4]

## Background

[edit]

### 20th-century immigration

[edit]

The arrival of families emigrating from Arab countries (Syria, Lebanon and Palestine) primarily occurred during the early 20th century. However, the majority of these Middle Eastern immigrants were Christian - of the few Muslim families, little or nothing had been documented.

## Centers

[edit]

In 1994, the first center of Islamic worship was inaugurated in El Salvador, named Centro Islámico Árabe Salvadoreño, founded in the capital city of San Salvador by a group of Salvadoran nationals and individuals of Palestinian ancestry. In 2004, a second mosque was inaugurated in the capital by Shiites, they named it Fátimah Az-Zahra, in honor of Fatimah, the daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad from his first wife Khadija. They began diffusing Islamic literature through the Internet, inaugurating the country's first Islamic Website that includes the publication of a quarterly magazine and that currently counts more than 100 digitized Islamic books.[5] In 2007, a third mosque, called the Dar-Ibrahim Mosque, was inaugurated in San Salvador.

The Islamic Centers are generally involved in performing the Friday congregational prayers known as Salaat-al-Jummah, distributing literature, charitable activities, online propagation, and donating informative materials on Islam to various religious and cultural institutions nationwide. For example, the Fátimah Az-Zahra Islamic Center provides introductory classes on Islamic doctrine and history. These classes, which are open to the general public, are not solely religious in nature: courses in foreign languages and efforts to improve adult literacy are also offered.[6]

## Mosques

[edit]

* Dar-Ibrahim Mosque
* Ismael El-Salvador Mosque[7]
* Fatima al-Zahra Islamic Center[8]

## See also

[edit]

* Islam portal
* El Salvador portal

* Latin American Muslims
* Islam by country
* Latino Muslims

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Orantes, Diana (21 September 2019). ""Los árabes son una raza, musulmán es el que acepta el islam"". Elsalvador.com. El Diario de Hoy. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
2. ^ "El Salvador 2023". United States Department of State. Retrieved 2025-08-13.
3. ^ El Sitio de Los Musulmanes Shiítas de El Salvador
4. ^ "Ahmadía, el ala pacífi ca del Islam, atrae a guatemaltecos". Archived from the original on June 2, 2014. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
5. ^ islamelsalvador.com
6. ^ Revista Comunica de la UCA Archived 2008-11-01 at the Wayback Machine
7. ^ "Ismael El-Salvador Mosque – Mosqpedia". Retrieved 2025-08-13.
8. ^ "Fatima al-Zahra Islamic Center, an Active Shia Center in El Salvador, America – Shafaqna English | International Shia News & Fatwas". 2015-12-27. Retrieved 2025-08-13.

## References

[edit]

* El Islam en El Salvador
* Oficina de Divulgación Islámica, Fátimah Az-Zahra
* Pedro Escalante & Abraham Daura Molina (2001), Sobre Moros y Cristianos, y otros Arabismos en El Salvador, Embajada de España en El Salvador y Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional, San Salvador, ES pp. 17
* Archivo Electrónico de la Prensa Gráfica, correspondiente al 17 de febrero de 2008
* Revista Comunica de la UCA
* Mauricio Pineda Cruz, Carlos (July 2005). Al-Qaeda's Unlikely Allies in Central America. Terrorism Monitor Vol. 3, Issue 1
* Marín-Guzmán, Roberto (2000). A Century of Palestinian Immigration into Central America: A study of their economic and cultural contributions. San Jose, CR: Universidad de Costa Rica.
* Pagano, Néstor y Amoretti, María.Los Imames de la Buena Guia de la familia del Profeta Muhammad. Biblioteca Islámica Fátimah Az-Zahra
* Pagano, Néstor.Jesús, Hijo de María En el Corán y la Tradición

## Further reading

[edit]

* Islam and Muslims in the American Continent. Center of Historical, Economical and Social Studies. 2001. pp. 484–8.
* Tottoli, Roberto (2022-02-21). Routledge Handbook of Islam in the West. Routledge. p. 178\. ISBN 978-0-429-55638-8.
* Modern Muslim Societies. Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC. 2011-01-15. p. 367\. ISBN 978-0-7614-9965-7.
* Osegueda, Carlos Felipe; Barquero-Hernández, Diego José; Rivera-Baires, Narciso; Urbina-Ruano, Kevin Orlando (2020-12-30). "Religión y muerte: La visión de la muerte en el cristianismo y el islamismo desde una perspectiva etnológica en El Salvador". Entorno (in Spanish) (70): 121–129\. doi:10.5377/entorno.v0i69.9564. ISSN 2218-3345.
* Moore, Kathleen (2022-01-17), "Islam in Mexico and Central America" (PDF), Routledge Handbook of Islam in the West (2 ed.), London: Routledge, pp. 167–183, doi:10.4324/9780429265860-14, ISBN 978-0-429-26586-0, retrieved 2025-08-13
* Offutt, Stephen (2018), "El Salvador", Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions, Springer, Cham, pp. 1–6, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-08956-0_349-1, ISBN 978-3-319-08956-0, retrieved 2025-08-13
* Kettani, Houssain (15 February 2013). "History and prospect of Muslims in Central America". European Online Journal of Natural and Social Sciences 2013. 2 (2). Information Systems Engineering, Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas, USA: 288–297\. ISSN 1805-3602 - via www.european-science.com.
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## External links

[edit]

* El Sitio de Los Musulmanes Shiítas de El Salvador
* Oficina de Divulgación Islámica, San Salvador, San Salvador
* Centro Islámico[permanent dead link]

* v
* t
* e

Islam in the Americas

Sovereign
states|

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* Argentina
* Bahamas
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* Belize
* Bolivia
* Brazil
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* El Salvador
* Grenada
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* Guyana
* Haiti
* Honduras
* Jamaica
* Mexico
* Nicaragua
* Panama
* Paraguay
* Peru
* Saint Kitts and Nevis
* Saint Lucia
* Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
* Suriname
* Trinidad and Tobago
* United States
* Uruguay
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Dependencies
and territories|

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