This world consists of people of different classes, races, and religions. People of different religions are spread all over the world. You are going to find the Buddhists and Hindus in the East. You can find the Christians mainly in the west and the Jews in the East. However, as for Muslims, they are spread all over the world. Although, the Muslim countries are limited in this world, but the Muslim population is not. There are many countries in the world that are non-Islamic, but they have large Muslims population. Just as, Muslim population is present in different parts of America, they are also there in Argentina. In fact, the coming of Muslims to Argentina can be dated to many years back in the past. Now the Muslim population of Argentina has increased greatly. This is because a large number of people in Argentina have now accepted Islam. Moreover, Muslims are given their due rights as there is no need to move away from there.
Comparing Argentina with other countries of Latin America, we can see that it is the country with the largest Muslim population. Latin America is actually a territory of the Christian missionaries as they captured it in the 16th century. Thus, Argentina cannot be claimed as a Muslim state despite the large Muslim population as we see in many parts of it. Muslims are still thriving there as Muslim communities have flourished and are continuously growing to this day, allowing the Muslim population to increase, day by day.
Muslims Rights in Argentina
As mentioned above Argentina has a large Muslim population. They are also given their religious rights. For instance, a large number of mosques have been established. The capital of Argentina is Buenos Aires. It has a large mosque that was built a few years back. Talking about the number of mosques in other cities, they are more than ten.
Apart from the number of mosques, there is an Islamic cultural Center in Argentina, to aid the Muslims in Islamic learning. It was in the year 18996, when this learning center was established, with the collaboration of Saudi Arabia. A large area was given out for this project. This shows that the government aided the Muslim population in establishing a cultural learning center for them.
As a part of providing religious freedom to Muslims, Muslim women were allowed to wear Hijab. This news was widely accepted by Muslim women and brought a lot of cheer among the Muslim community. This was especially widely accepted after noticing the fact that in France, Muslim women were having problems wearing hijab. The permission of hijab also shows that religious rights of Muslims were protected.
Though Muslims are treated well and given their freedom to practice religion, but sometimes Muslims do face problems living in Argentina. This is because of the way the Muslim community is presented there. Unfortunately, the media is presenting Muslims in a negative way and thus, this had caused a little bit of problems for the Muslims living in Argentina in a society dominant by the Catholics, that was actually gained by the Christian missionaries. If we see the overall condition of Muslims in Argentina, we will notice that despite the low population of Muslims in Argentina, the government is taking steps to give them freedom of religion and expression.
Muslims Position in Government
Though Muslims in Argentina are given their religious rights and freedom; however, before 1989 they were not given any position in the government. They formed their own community and their public activities were limited to their community only. They had no part in elections or any government positions. At that time, their religious worshiping places also existed in their own communities, and since Muslims were a minority, they did not ask for any rights in the government. This was mainly because the federal government was controlled by the Catholics.
According to their constitutions, if a person has to be elected as a president or a vice president, he had to be a roman catholic. Otherwise, he does not hold any right to be elected.
It was in 1989, that a famous name Carlos Menem came to power. Though he was a roman catholic, and belonged to a small family, but his origin and his history had a link with the Arab Muslims. Menem himself was a Christian and did not like to talk much about his ancestry, but the truth is that his ancestors were from Syria. It was after the rising of power of Menem that the constitution was changed in 1994. The new rule was that in order to come to power, one had to be born in Argentina, or he should have his father or close relative as a native of Argentina.
All the religious barriers were removed, with the condition that whoever becomes a president would do it with loyalty and do not show any religious barriers. This removed the previous rules that stated that to become a president or vice president, it was important to be a Catholic.
Thus, we see that slowly and gradually Muslims are increasing in Argentina, probably because they are given freedom. They have the right to speak outside their community and can take an active part in everything. However, after the coming of Menem to power, and the changing of the rule in Argentina, attacks on Jews was seen, and unfortunately, Muslims started being blamed for it. The media showed it on a larger degree and Muslims started being understood as terrorist. However, the change of the law was good for Muslims as they got more right in the government, but the media and the attacks created some problem for the Muslims.
Overall, Muslims, despite a few problems that persist with minorities, are having a good time in Argentina. Their rights are protected. They are given the permission to build mosques. In fact, the great step of setting up an Islamic center with the help of Saudi Arabia, in Argentina was a great step towards religious freedom.
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