Islam in Malawi

[5][6] According to the Malawi Religion Project[7] run by the University of Pennsylvania, in 2010 approximately 19.6% of the population was Muslim, concentrated mostly in the Southern Region.

[8] Islam arrived in Malawi with the Arab and Swahili traders who traded in ivory, gold and later on slaves beginning from 15th century.

[11] During the colonial era, the authorities in the country feared that Islam posed the greatest threat, as an ideology of resistance, to their rule.

[12] This view was shared by Christian missionaries, who greatly feared that Islam could unite Africans in hostilities and uprisings against colonial rule.

The Kuwait-sponsored AMA has translated the Qur'an into Chichewa (Cinyanja),[17] one of the official languages of Malawi, and has engaged in other missionary work in the country.

[20] A major Muslim center of learning exists in Mpemba, outside of Blantyre, funded mainly by money from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

[23] As a result of their strong trading contacts with Swahili-Arabs, many Yao adopted Islam and the two groups had cases of intermarriages in the past.