Religious prejudice: a further aggravating factor for Muslim migrants in America

There is an increasing presence of Muslim migrants on the American continent 

Migration is not a new phenomenon, sometimes it is not even important for many governments, but globalisation and the lack of opportunities in the countries of origin is an increasingly noticeable reality in many countries in Africa and the Middle East. Wars, economic crises, hunger, disease and lack of work are some of the many factors that force thousands of people to leave their borders in search of a better life. And those who leave their country not only become migrants, but also people with a culture, faith and beliefs that often add to the horror of reaching a better country. 

In this case, the novelty lies in America and the increasing presence of Muslim migrants in the continent from African and Asian countries. There are no official figures on the flows of Muslim migrants through the Latin American route, but organisations assisting migrants in the region report that their numbers have been increasing. 

These migrants, in addition to facing the usual difficulties of the journey north, such as exploitation by coyotes, those mafias that smuggle illegal immigrants sometimes in exchange for money between Mexico and the United States, also face added difficulties due to their place of origin, such as religious prejudice along the way and obstacles related to the observance of their faith. 

In any case, it all starts with entry into Latin America. According to the latest data from the Islamic Organisation for Latin America (OIAL), there are currently large concentrations of Muslims, both immigrants and natives, numbering more than six million. One of the main gateways for Muslim migrants and refugees is in Brazil, which has just over 1.5 million followers of Islam, followed by Argentina with 700,000.  

These migrants and refugees have traditionally seen Brazil as a transit country when arriving in the America, especially in recent years due to the country's economic decline and lack of opportunities. This transit country would only be the beginning of the Latin American route taken by migrants to the United States as their final destination.  

However, the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 further accentuated the difficulties of these migratory movements. In addition to the border closures of Latin American states, there are also deportations from the United States. According to the public health order issued in March of that year by the Trump Administration, the expulsions were justified on the grounds that the migrants were carrying the COVID-19 to the United States. This is why the Mexican border city of Chiapas was receiving daily flights of people expelled from the US, which increased the number of asylum applications made by July 2021 by 70%.  

Then the cities that were intended to be transitory become the final destination. "They enter Brazil with tourist visas and then apply for refugee status," said Paolo Parise, director of the Catholic centre for immigrants Mission Peace in the city of Sao Paolo, who also noted the high number of migrants from Southeast Asia, the Middle East and African countries in recent years. "I estimate that 20% of all the people we received in 2020 were Muslims," he added. 

Despite the increase in the Muslim population in Latin America, the religion remains a minority across the continent and faces a number of challenges. The lack of knowledge among the larger population of Islamic culture and religion, the lack of formal education in both Arabic and Spanish, and the lack of economic resources make integration difficult in Caribbean and Latin American countries.  

However, many groups have maintained their identity and have decided to collaborate in supporting Muslim communities. So much so that the presence of migrants in Latin America from Muslim countries in North Africa and the Middle East also leaves great examples of humanitarian aid for all migrants. The Fundación Musulmana Latina project is an example of this. There, they build shelters for migrants to whom they offer food and shelter, medical and psychological assistance, and even prayer spaces. The organisation also offers legal assistance to Muslim migrants who want to apply for asylum in a country. 

This project has been particularly active since the summer of 2021, offering to take in people of Afghan origin. The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan caused thousands of people to flee the country as refugees, a reality that was soon addressed by the Latin Muslim Foundation, which began to build a shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, to receive Afghan refugees. 

Despite this, there is not much humanitarian aid for Muslim migrants, and with so many difficulties, most of them end up seeking help from Catholic institutions. Misión Paz, the Catholic Church for Latin America and the Caribbean Network on Migration, Refugees and Human Trafficking are just three of the many that exist throughout Central and South America. 

That Muslims are increasingly present in the United States is a fact, but it is no less true that they face a highly polarised society that leads to Islamophobia towards all American Muslims or migrants. 

In any case, according to the latest data provided by the Pew Research Center (PRC), there are currently more than 3.850 million Muslims in the United States, a figure that suggests the exponential growth of the followers of Islam in the country. The number of Muslim places of worship has also increased, with more than 2,769 mosques in 2020, according to the Congregational Sutudies Partnership.  

But as their numbers have increased, Muslims have also reported encountering more discrimination in the country. Especially after the 9/11 attacks, Islamophobia grew exponentially, leaving Muslims struggling to maintain their existence in all spaces of society. During the Trump Administration in early 2017, approximately half of American Muslim adults, 48%, said they had experienced some form of discrimination based on their religion, according to a PRC study. American society believes that Islam is more likely than others to foment violence, with a partisan divide emerging between Republicans and Democrats on this issue. 

However, there are a number of organisations in the Muslim community in the United States today that are making their voices heard and fighting against Islamophobia and for civil rights. The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), the Muslim Society of America (MAS) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) are the four main organisations seeking to carry out these tasks. 

The meeting of the borders between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay has been a focus of controversy over the last thirty years involving a thriving Islamic community. Not infrequently this so-called Triple Frontier has been singled out as a haven for international jihadist terrorism. It is believed to be a meeting point for Central American drug cartels and radical Islamists, allegedly with the complicity of local governments and authorities that do not administer justice there. Similarly, it cannot be confirmed with certainty what is going on there, but it may be a possible case of creating prejudice against Islam.  

Since the terrorist attacks in Argentina in 1992 and 1994, and even the attacks of 11 September 2001, the United States, in particular, has turned its attention to the TBA. However, these accusations have nothing to do with these cases because in reality this community is only made up of businessmen and entrepreneurs, and is not large enough to carry out such actions. 

On the other hand, the community could be linked to the financing of armed groups in Syria and Lebanon, such as Hezbollah or Daesh. So much so that in 2018 Assad Ahmad Barakat, in charge of managing the organisation's finances for all of Latin America and the Caribbean, was arrested in the Brazilian city of Foz do Iguaçu.   

The Triple Frontier, in any case, presents a challenge for the region in many ways. The global context and accusations largely fuel Islamophobic sentiment, which ultimately only further harms the plight of Muslims in Latin America, many of them migrants. 

Ahmed Kabeer is fleeing Sudan's mutilated conflicts to a place other than the Mediterranean. The United States is his final destination, but the hundreds of kilometres that divide the two points is but a furrow of hope carved out of the horrors left by the Latin American routes. "In Africa there are many problems. There is no work and there is a lot of corruption," the 34-year-old Sudanese explains to the AFP news agency.  

"I discovered that it is not difficult to get a visa to go to Brazil," Ahmed said. Since his landing, the young man has travelled several kilometres overland, from which he hopes to end up in "a safe place where I can speak English, like the United States or Canada". From Sao Paulo, where he arrived in America, he passed through Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, from where he hopes to go to Panama and continue his journey to North America.  However, what he fears most is crossing the jungle corridor of the Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama, a route that usually takes about ten weeks and where violence, both physical and psychological, can occur.  

Ahmed may be the human face of Muslim migrants in Latin America, at least one of the more than 5,000 people who crossed Panama in the year before the pandemic and possibly those crowded into temporary shelters, if not on the streets, because of border closures. 

Latin America Coordinator: José Antonio Sierra