Islam in Trinidad and Tobago

File:Montrose Masjid Trinidad.jpg

Masjid in Montrose, Chaguanas.

Muslims constitute 6 percent of the population on Trinidad and Tobago, representing 65,318 individuals. The majority live in Trinidad but there are a handful in Tobago as well. The first Muslims to arrive in the country arrived from Africa brought as slaves by the colonists. The second group arrived in 1816 as a small proportion of those of the Corps of Colonial Marines who were African-born and had been recruited in 1815 in Georgia during the War of 1812, mostly settled in Fifth and Sixth Companies within the Company Villages near Princes Town. They were followed by African Muslims among disbanded members of the West India Regiments settled between 1817 and 1825 in Manzanilla on the East Coast and in a group of villages south-east of Valencia, and further African Muslims were brought to Trinidad as a result of the Royal Navy's interception of slaving ships following the Slave Trade Acts. From the 1840s, Muslims came from South Asia as part of the Indian indenture system to work on sugar cane and cacao plantations. Muslims today are mostly of South Asian descent but there are converts from all races. In Trinidad there are Islamic primary and secondary schools. The first Muslim secondary school in the country, ASJA Boys' College, San Fernando, was established in 1960.

There are many mosques and Eid ul Fitr is a public holiday. There are several mosques belonging to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. In 2005, an Islamic television channel IBN Channel 8 was born. In 2006 born was Darut Tarbiyah The Islamic Network (T.I.N.).

External links

• Muslims in T&T - Trinidad Guardian, Indian Diaspora Supplement May 30, 2000. National Library Archive
• The Trinidad & Tobago Masjid Project (at TriniMuslims.com) - comprehensive list of masaajid in T&T.
• Pictures of Masjids in Trinidad and Tobago
• Saudi Aramco World - Muslims in the Caribbean - Trinidad, Guyana etc.
• How a Minister in Trinidad and Tobago entered Islam