Relationships between Cuba and the cultures of the Middle East are said to go back centuries. According to Al Jazeera, “Moors from Andalusia were brought as slaves by Spanish conquerors, with records of this dating back as early as 1593. Over the following centuries, both Muslim and Christian traders from the Middle East were drawn to Cuba by the wealth the sugar trade was generating. Many stayed, mostly in Havana or around Santiago de Cuba, the second-largest city at the far east of the island. Most Arab immigrants, both Muslim and Christian, gave up their religion once in Cuba.”
Which brings us to present day Cuba where there is reportedly a growing number of Cubans who have converted to Islam. Hajji Isa, a Cuban convert and artist, estimates that there are approximately a thousand Cuban Muslims, both converts and descendants of Muslim immigrants. “It’s a young community,” he says. “Muslims from abroad have been and still are a determining factor in the creation and development of the Cuban communities … Muslim students from African, Western Saharan, Yemen, Palestine and other Arab countries were a big influence in the 1990s, then later many from Pakistan.”
Hajji Jamal is a taxi cab driver who converted to Islam in 2009 and says freedom of religion is respected under Cuban law. “The law itself is clear – people can’t be discriminated against by race, religion or color.” Mr. Jamal says he works directly with the authorities to increase knowledge and understanding about his faith. “We’re trying to give the best possible example of Islam, for at the moment there’s a lot of negative messages in the media… Islam is peace. So that is the message we are taking. Not because we expect people to convert, but so they can live comfortably together with Muslims.”
