Islam in the Dominican Republic

Although the majority of the population is Christian, Muslim community is leaded by the Círculo Islámico de República Dominicana (The Islamic Circle of Dominican Republic).

The Círculo Islámico established the first mosque in the Dominican Republic in the center of Santo Domingo, about a five-minute walk from the Palacio de Policía Nacional and the Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE) where Muslims from around the city would have easy access to reach it.

The first recorded instances of resistance were in 1503, when Nicolás de Ovando, Hispaniola's first royal governor, wrote to Isabella requesting that she prevent further shipments to the colony of enslaved Black ladinos, or persons possessing knowledge of Spanish or Portuguese languages and cultures, but who also often had connections to either Senegambia, Islam, or both.

De Ovando had arrived earlier in April 1502 and was already complaining that the ladinos on the island were “a source of scandal to the Indians, and some had fled their owners,” establishing maroon communities in the mountains.

[1] Muslim population in the nation was increased by Middle Eastern settlers, mostly Arabs of Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian and by Pakistanis and other people from the Indian subcontinent.