Islam in Peru

Peru is a predominantly Christian country, with Muslims being a very small minority. Due to secular nature of the Peru's constitution, Muslims are free to proselytize and build places of worship in the country. The statistics for Islam in Peru estimate a total Muslim population of 15,000, largely based in the capital city Lima; this represents 0.015% out of total population of 32,555,000 inhabitants.

Islam was historically introduced by Spanish Moors, although today's population is almost entirely of Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian origin.

History
In 1560, the Spanish rulers of Peru sentenced Lope de la Pena, described as a "Moor from Guadalajara", to life imprisonment for the crime of "having practiced and spread Islam" in Cuzco and was also required to wear the Sanbenito around his neck for his entire imprisonment. Other sources give his name as Alvaro Gonzalez.

His colleague, the mulatto "son of a Spaniard [Juan Solano] and a black woman", Luis Solano was similarly convicted of spreading Islam, but was executed for the offence.

As persecution increased in the Spanish dependencies, Muslims ceased identifying themselves by their religion and became nominal Christians; eventually Islam disappeared from the country entirely.

In 1911, Stuart McNairn, a British missionary based in Cusco, wrote about "God's call to His Church to go in and possess the land [in] Africa, in view of the great Moslem advance. We must take the Light to the Dark Continent before the apostles of Mohammedanism enshroud it in yet greater darkness".

Islam was reintroduced to Peru in the 1940s during the Palestinian exodus by Palestinian and Lebanese Muslims fleeing from the Arab-Israeli war.

In 1974, the Nation of Islam, through its counterpart in Belize, began importing Pacific Whiting fish from Peru to the United States, where it was sold as an Islamic alternative to mainstream fish markets.

A Peruvian by the name of Louis Castro converted to Islam and later studied at the Islamic University of Madinah in the 1980s. In 1993, the Muslim community opened a masjid in the Jesús María District of the capital, but it was later closed due to financial difficulty. Another location was opened in the Villa El Salvador district, but met with similar difficulties and also closed.

Present circumstances
There are a handful of Islamic organizations in Peru, including the Asociación Islámica del Perú, the Musulmanes Peruanos of Naqshbandi Haqqani tariqa and Asociación Islam Peru in Lima. A group of Muslims have also set up a webpage www.IslamPeru.org

In 2007, there were unsubstantiated claims that Islamist militant sympathisers were helping arrange entrance to the United States through their country.

The Latin American Muslim Unity (LAMU) organization, based in Fresno, California, United States, has drawn up a proposal for the first Islamic orphanage in Peru, although it has not yet materialized.

In January 2011, Peru joined a number of other Latin American countries in announcing its recognition of the State of Palestine as a legitimate nation. This decade also marked a migration of Muslims from Bangladesh and other Asian countries to Peru as well.