umm Abdillah, Radio Islam Programming – 2014.01.20

Herewith, a series of summaries of some discussions held at the 2^nd Imam Nanotwi Award Conference  in Azaadville, 17-20 January 2014.

Chad: Sh. Dr. Abu Bakr Wular Madhu (Masjid Ateeq)

1) Shaykh Dr. Hussein Hasan Abu Bakar, Imam and President at the Higher Council for Islamic Affairs in Chad was unable to attend due to other Deeni engagements.

2) Chad is a former French colony, a landlocked country in the area of northeast Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west.

3) Islam in Chad as the first (revealed religion) arrived around 640 AD. By the time Arab migrants began arriving in the fourteenth century, the faith was already widespread.

4) Arabic is not the maternal language of the majority of Chadian Muslims, however there are over one million huffadh in Chad.

5) Chadian Islam adheres to the Maliki legal school (which, like the other three accepted schools of Islamic jurisprudence, is based on extensive legal literature). They follow Ash'arism as Islamic philosophy

6) Most Chadian Muslims identify with the Tijaniyya order or silsilah, a brotherhood, which basically institutionalised its teachers' interpretations of Islam.

7) Higher Islamic education in Chad is rare; thus, serious Islamic students and scholars go abroad to study. Problems in recent times have arisen of extremism from students having studying abroad. This extremism and rigidity drives people, Muslim and non-Muslim away from Islam and creates schisms and factions destroying the image of Islam and is contrary to the teachings of Islam.

8) The Shia movement, supported by Iran, has targeted Chad as it has targeted many parts of Africa, seeking to divide and conquer.

9) Chad, like most parts of Africa remains plagued by political violence, and is one of the poorest countries in the world. We require duas and assistance to defect attacks on the aqeeda of the Ahlus Sunnah and Jama’ah and specifically against extremism and radicals who do more harm than good.

Chile: Ml. Sulaymaan Jada (Masjid Al Salaam)

Chile is a South American country occupying a long, narrow strip of land between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It stretches over 4,300 km (2,670 mi) north to south.

Islam in South America arrived with Muslim navigators from Spain and Africa who developed contacts with Mexico and other parts of Central and South America well before Columbus. Along the coast of South America Arab coins have been found dating back to 800 AD.  Columbus’ 1492 expedition coincided with the fall of Granada, the very last Muslim stronghold in Spain. This led to some very harsh times for Spanish Muslims, culminating in the Spanish Inquisition. This turn of events encouraged many displaced Muslims to go to the New World in the hopes of freely exercising their religion once again. “Muslim artisans in the 16th and 17th centuries, came to the colonies without their families and their descendants – Mestizos – born of local women, preserved their art in Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil.”

In response, Spain created a “whole body of laws and regulations” in order to keep Muslims from inhabiting the New World. However, the Queen Isabella was unsuccessful in curbing this flow of migration, so much so that an increasing number of Muslims and Jews continued to settle in Latin America in the similar hopes of freely practicing their faiths.

Most of the Muslim from Africa encountered a fate similar to the Spanish Muslims. They were forced to convert to Christianity. Just like Spain and Sicily, Latin America was successful in wiping out Muslims from its lands. However, with time, it was reborn as a result of waves of Muslim migrants.

1) These migrants were mainly from the land of Shaam, bringing in a resurgence of Arab culture to Chile. Through the 1970s and ‘80s, there were no religious leaders or centres for praying. Muslims who maintained the faith met in the residence of Taufik Rumie’ Dalu, a trader of Syrian origin. In 1990 the construction of the Al-Salam Mosque began, the first in the country.

2) The work of da’wah and tabligh has assisted greatly in creating an awareness of Islam and Islamic identity in Chile.

3) There is an urgent need for committed male and female scholars of the Deen to aid in the efforts of da’wah in Chile.

4) Santiago has become a centre for Spanish translations of Islamic books and it still needs to grow.

5) We require duas and assistance in establishing small makatib and masajid all over the country given its geographical length. Further, the need exists to make halal food accessible, without which a Muslim’s prayers are not accepted.

Some text has been added to the summaries to provide context.