Panama is a predominantlyChristian country, withIslam being a minority religion. Due to thesecular nature of Panama's constitution,Muslims are free to proselytize and build places of worship in the country.
According to a 2009Pew Research Center report, there are 24,000 Muslims in Panama who constitute 0.7 percent of the population.[1]
It is believed that the first Muslims in Panama wereMandinka slaves, brought by the Portuguese slave traders to work the gold mines in 1552.[2] The Mandinka were mainlyanimist and Muslims at that time, and their importation was prohibited by Spanish Laws but was violated by the Portuguese nonetheless. A group of about 500 that arrived on the Atlantic coast of Panama in 1552, escaped from a sinking ship. They elected a man calledBayano (Vaino) as their leader in the fight against the colonizers. They formed councils, in the areas now known asDarién Province,Bay of San Miguel,San Blas Islands and the area along theBayano River, named after Bayano. Bayano gained truces with Panama's colonial governor, but the well known CommanderPedro de Ursúa successfully captured the guerrilla leader, who was sent toPeru and then Spain where he died in comfort at the expense of the royal treasury with an annuity. Although many insist that Bayano was a Muslim, he attacked Spanish troops under the cry of "SANTIAGO A ELLOS," asking the Christian patron saint of chivalry to help them.[3]
The first wave of Muslims were single-male immigrants from theIndian subcontinent andLebanon who arrived from 1904 to 1913 and later married local women. The first mosque was built by theAhmadiyya Muslim movement, in 1930.[4] In 1929 another group came fromBombay, India who formed the Sunni Indo-Pakistani Muslim Society. From 1929-1948 this organization (renamed Panama Muslim Mission) built a mosque inPanama City. Before construction was completed, the building was used forEid prayers and classes for new Muslims, who numbered about twenty-five blacks ofWest Indian descent. There was also another group practicing Islam in Colón led by a Jamaican named Basil Austkan, who rented a place forsalat on 6th Street and Broadway. In 1932 there was a group of Muslim in San Miguel, Calidonia in Panama City who resided in Short Street where they held meetings and prayers. The Muslims in Panama City of Indo-Pakistan origins had no communal structure until 1951 when the first families arrived. In 1963, they purchased a plot in the local cemetery called Jardin de Paz; in 1991, property was purchased in an area called Arraijan, which is now used solely as a Muslim cemetery.
In the mid-1970s some native Panamanians influenced by theNation of Islam and led by Abdul Wahab Johnson and Suleyman Johnson, began propagating Islam in Panama City and Colón. After meeting with Dr.Abdulkhabeer Muhammad they began to study orthodoxSunniIslam. In 1977 they received financing from Arab merchants in Colon to rent a place on 7th Street and Central Avenue, Colón. This group, due to lack of knowledge and assistance, eventually disintegrated. The Indo-Pakistani Muslims began teaching their children at home in 1965 until 1973, when a small teaching program began in a room above Bazar Hindustan on Central Avenue, Panama City. In 1978, they began to use a place in the area of Perejil, Panama City, where prayers and meetings took place until the completion of theEl Centro Cultural Islámico de Colón on January 15, 1982. This masjid was built jointly by theIslamic Call Society (based inLibya) and Salomon Bhikhu a local merchant fromIndia. Since its inauguration, classes have been held in the evenings and Sundays for new Muslims and people interested in Islam, given by Dr. Abdulkhaber Muhammad and in his absence Hamza Beard. In 1991 the Muslim community purchased in Arraiján, which is now used solely as a Muslim cemetery. As of March 1997, there were four mosques Panama.
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