Islam Gains Toehold in Mexico's Zapatista Country

[Kire]

Islam Gains Toehold in Mexico's Zapatista Country
Tue Jan 25,12:35 PM ET

By Alistair Bell

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico (Reuters) - Islam has joined a battle for the hearts and minds of Mexico's volatile Tzotzil Indians in Chiapas state, home of Zapatista rebels and a hotbed of sectarian strife between Christians.



In an unlikely meeting of two worlds, an idealistic Muslim sect has converted some 300 Tzotzils, a Maya Indian group known for drink-fueled fiestas and religious fervor.


"It was difficult to learn the prayers in Arabic at first but now I have them in my heart," said Muhammad Emin Lopez, 46, a Tzotzil fruit merchant who boasts that his conversion to Islam in 1995 was the state's first.


He prays five times a day as required in Islam, has gone on the obligatory "haj" pilgrimage to Mecca and attends a small mosque in a cornfield on the outskirts of the hill town of San Cristobal de las Casas.


Beside the mosque, a Tzotzil woman dressed in colorful Indian garb and known by the Muslim name Karima washes clothes in a stream near ramshackle wooden houses.


The growth of Islam in such a restive area has raised the eyebrows of Mexico's intelligence agency, wary of possible terrorist activity aimed at the neighboring United States.


But the Tzotzil Muslims have little interest in holy war, having seen religious and political conflict close up.

More: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=572&ncid=572&e=2&u=/nm/20050125/lf_nm/religion_mexico_muslims_dc

[Jack_DeLeon]

1. great...

:eyes:

[el_gato]

2. this sounds like propaganda to me

[Cocoa]

4. there's also some "chatter" about Salvadoran gangs

Salvadoran gangs in the U.S. that supposedly have ties to al Qaeda.

I think the RW is gearing up for the immigration reform battle.

[Kire]

7. Propaganda? On the front page of Yahoo?

you don't say

[DrWeird]

9. Of course it is. Bigotry too.

Notice the similarity to communism.

[Radical Activist]

3. I'm not sure what to think

I tend to think anything that gets Mexico out of the grips of the Catholic Church is good, but...?

[Bridget Burke]

5. Mexico WAS gotten out of the grip of the Church....

And the people decided they wanted it back.

Look up The Cristero Rebellion.

[Minstrel Boy]

6. Islam is considered a faith sympathetic to the poor and the marginalized.

Where people are kept poor and marginal, I'm not surprised to see conversions.

[Djinn]

8. so what?

so some folks converted to Islam I don't get why this is newsworthy??

"The growth of Islam in such a restive area has raised the eyebrows of Mexico's intelligence agency, wary of possible terrorist activity aimed at the neighboring United States."

ah that's right because Islam and terrorism are synonymous, I forgot

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

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[Djinn]

12. are you kidding??

Its not so much that most followerers of Islam are terrorists, but most terrorists are followerers of Islam.

I'm really hoping so, first of all it's not "not so much" as completely not at all and second "most terrorists are followers of Islam" is just ridiculous, fisrt of all what's your definition of terrorism, I can only assume you do not beleive states can be guilty of it?

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

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[Djinn]

14. but DrWeird

there is no anti-arab anti-msulim bigotry on DU ;-)

[AP]

11. I suspect that Islam is popular with some people because it isn't as...

...hierarchical as some Christian religions.

Granted, Catholicism has a proud history of liberation theology in the last couple decades.

However, Islam really takes hierarchy out the structure. AFAICT, there are no popes or bishops or cardinals, and Muslims have a very direct and unmediated relationship with with Allah.

I can see how it would be popular with Zapatistas, or any group of people who feel that hierarchical political and social structures are holding them back.

Islam is also the youngest of the major religions, so it's still in a growth stage, I think.