by FREDERIC SALIBA
The Catholic cathedral in San Cristobal de las Casas PHOTO/Meg/Rahul
Pope Benedict XVI has arrived in Mexico, one of the world’s most Catholic countries. But other religions are gaining ground, especially in the state of Chiapas, where even Islam has made inroads. Adopting a different religion, however, can be risky business.
SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS – Dressed in a long white robe topped with a dark red taqiyah cap, Manuel Gomez, 61, walks along one of the main roads in San Cristobal de las Casas in the south of Mexico. “I was born Catholic, became Presbyterian. Today, I am Muslim,” says this Tzotzil Indian who has called himself Mohammed since his conversion to Islam in 1995.
Just like him, tens of thousands of people from this little town in the state of Chiapas, the birthplace of the Zapatista revolutionary movement, have turned their back on the Catholic faith.
The Muslims may remain relatively few, but Protestants and Evangelicals make up more than a quarter of the Chiapas population of 4.8 million. These mass conversions, occurring against a backdrop of violent expulsions from the state, worry the Mexican clergy receiving Pope Benedict XVI in Guanajuato state this weekend.
In his decrepit house, Mohammed prays five times a day. “I have been invited to Mecca twice,” he says with a smile. The humble fruit and vegetable seller had never left Chiapas before adopting the Muslim faith. His wife Nura (Joana) wears an Islamic headscarf, but has kept her traditional tzotzil dress made of goatskin. “There is no question of rejecting our ancestors’ culture,” emphasizes Mohammed.
Not far away, at the end of a dirt track, a renovated building houses an Islamic Morabitum school from the Sufi branch of Islam. “About 20 students learn the Koran phonetically there,” explains the imam Hajj Idriss, also known as Esteban Lopez, who leads Friday prayers. The 60-year-old Spaniard came to Chiapas in 1995 to introduce Islam to Mexico. Since then, about 500 members of the indigenous community have converted to Islam in Chiapas alone. “Our influence remains modest compared to the Protestants,” acknowledges the imam.
The scale of Protestant influence is demonstrated by the presence of about 10 evangelical churches in the city of 190,000, including Adventists, Baptists, Methodists. “In the 1930s, the first missionaries translated the Bible into indigenous languages,” explains Aida Hernandez, religious specialist at the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (Ciesas) on the outskirts of Mexico City. “Chiapas now has the most protestants in Mexico.” Their proportion in this state (23.35%) has almost doubled in 20 years, according to the Mexican National Office of Statistics.
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