Islam in the Americas

[2] However, the United States, in which estimates vary due to a lack of a census question, is generally believed to have the largest population, with approximately 3.45 million Muslims living there,[3] about 1.1 percent of the total U.S.

Below is the percentage of every American country that was Muslim in 2010, according to a Pew Research Center estimate:[8] During the rule of the Spanish and Portuguese in the Americas, Islam and any religion beyond Catholic Christianity were strictly forbidden.

In the last 25 years, new waves of immigrants as well as the tendency of a large group of American blacks to Islam have caused an increase in the number of Muslims in America.

In 1991, more than 100,000 immigrants entered the United States legally, most of whom were people (mostly Muslim) from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt and India.

[18] The first group of immigrant Shiites (Shias) migrated to the United States from Lebanon and Syria about one hundred and eighty years ago (1824-1878).