- Islam in Venezuela
There are approximately 100,000 Muslims in Venezuela, 0.4 percent of the nation's population [ [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2007/90271.htm International Religious Freedom Report 2007 - Venezuela] ] .
Venezuela has a small but influentialMuslim population, many of themArabs of Lebanese, Palestinian,Syria n descent and Turkish. (Luxner, Larry. "Bowing to Mecca from Caracas". Americas, 1992, volume 44, issue 4, page 4)The capital, Caracas, has a Muslim population of 15,000. The Mezquita Al-Ibrahim
mosque inCaracas is the biggest inLatin America . Located in a rapidly changing area of the city, this historicmosque features the use of dome,minaret and portal to single its presence in the urban landscape, and devices such as the octagonal hall rising up from a platform to a circular dome to achieve the transition between the street and the interior of the prayer hall. It was constructed with funds from the Ibrahim bin Abdul Aziz Al-Ibrahim Foundation under the planning of architectOscar Bracho . Other notable mosques and Islamic organizations include the "Isla Margarita-Caribe La Comunidad Islámica Venezolana, Centro Islámico de Venezuela", the "Mezquita al-Rauda" inMaracaibo , the "Asociación Honorable Mezquita de Jerusalén" in Valencia, "Centro Islámico de Maiquetía" in Vargas, and the "Asociación Benéfica Islámica" inBolívar .Margarita Island in particular is home to a sizeable
Arab Muslim community. The local cable television outlet carriesal-Jazeera as well as channels from Lebanon, like LBC Sat and ART and more recently, the Saudi/Imarati MBC. Women wearinghijab work cash registers, and on most shop counters,Qur'an icayah are on display. Arabs are involved mostly in retail businesses and more recently, banks as well as travel agencies.On
February 11 ,2006 around 200 (mainly Muslim) protesters marched to the Danish embassy in Caracas and burnt Danish and U.S. flags, as protests over cartoons ofProphet Muhammad spread to Latin America. ["Venezuelan Muslims protest cartoons", From correspondents in Caracas, The Australian, February 11, 2006]On
July 20 ,2006 dozens of people marched inCaracas towards the Israeli embassy to protest against the war in Lebanon. Most of them were Venezuelan Muslims, but some were members of pro-government organizations. ["Israeli embassy receives document supporting the peace in Lebanon and Palestine. From the Venezuelan Ministry of Communications and Information. Caracas, July 20, 2006 ]Notes
External links
*Mezquita Sheikh Ibrahim website on MiPunto.com [http://www.mipunto.com/venezuelavirtual/galeria_fotos/caracas/foto05.html]
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