Islam in Venezuela

The Mosque of Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Ibrahim in Caracas is the second biggest mosque in Latin America.

Islam is a minority religion in Venezuela. There are approximately 100,000 Muslims in Venezuela which make up 0.4 percent of the nation's population. Venezuela has a small but influential Muslim population. Many of them are Arabs of Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian and Turkish descent.

The capital city Caracas has a Muslim population of 15,000. The Mosque of Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Ibrahim in Caracas is the second largest mosque in Latin America. Located in a rapidly changing area of the city, this historic mosque features a dome, minaret and portal to signal its presence in the urban landscape, and devices such as the octagonal hall rising up from a platform to a circular dome to achieve the transition between the street and the interior of the prayer hall. It was constructed with funds from the Ibrahim bin Abdul Aziz Al-Ibrahim Foundation under the planning of architect Oscar Bracho. Other notable mosques and Islamic organisations include the Isla Margarita-Caribe La Comunidad Islámica Venezolana, Centro Islámico de Venezuela, the Mezquita al-Rauda in Maracaibo, the Asociación Honorable Mezquita de Jerusalén in Valencia, Centro Islámico de Maiquetía in Vargas, and the Asociación Benéfica Islámica in Bolívar. There is also a mosque in Punto Fijo built in 2008.

Margarita Island in particular is home to a sizeable Arab Muslim community. The local cable television outlets telecast channels like al-Jazeera; LBC Sat, a Lebanese channel; and more recently, MBC and ART, two Saudi Arabian channels. Women wearing hijab generally work as till operators. On most shop counters, Quranic verses are on display. Muslims here are mainly involved in retail businesses as well as banks and travel agencies.

Activism

On 11 February 2006, around 200 (mainly Muslim) protesters marched to the Danish embassy in Caracas, and burnt Danish and U.S. flags as protests over cartoons of Muhammad spread to Latin America.

On 20 July 2006, dozens of people marched in Caracas towards the Israeli embassy to protest against the war in Lebanon. Most of them were Venezuelan Muslims, but some were members of pro-government organisations.

Religious institutions

Institutions	Type	Location	Branch
Ibrahim Al Ibrahim Mosque	Mosque	Caracas, Capital District	Hanbali
Islamic Center of Venezuela	Islamic center	Caracas, Capital District	Shafi
Imam Al Hadi Islamic Center	Islamic center	Caracas, Capital District	Shia
Venezuelan Islamic Community		Caracas, Capital District
Al-Rauda Mosque	Mosque	Maracaibo, Zulia
Islamic Association of the Palestine Mosque	Mosque	El Limón-Maracay, Aragua
Honorable Association of the Jerusalem Mosque	Mosque	Valencia, Carabobo
Islamic Center of Maiquetía	Islamic center	Maiquetía, La Guaira
Islamic Charity Association		Bolívar
Islamic Center of the South	Islamic center	El Tigre, Anzoátegui
Islamic Palestinian Center	Islamic center	Coro, Falcón
Punto Fijo Mosque	Mosque	Punto Fijo, Falcón
Islamic Community of Venezuela		Margarita, Nueva Esparta
Honorable Association of the Omar ben al-Khattab Mosque	Mosque	San Felipe, Yaracuy

See also

• Latin American Muslims
• Latino Muslims

References

• Janetsky, Megan (2019-09-29). "This Grand Mosque and Its Migrant Community Were Witness to Venezuela's Rise and Fall". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 2026-01-04.
• Bruckmayr, Philipp (2023-09-20), "Creole and Indigenous Muslims in Venezuela", Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.1041, ISBN 978-0-19-934037-8, retrieved 2026-01-04
• Vaezi, Muhammad Nasser (2024-01-01). "A Glance at the Status of Islam in Five Important Latin American Countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, and Colombia". Higher Education Complex for Language, Literature and Culturology.
• Defort, Magdalena (2020). "Venezuela: A Case Study of Iran's Grand Strategy to Penetrate Latin America and the U.S. Response". American Intelligence Journal. 37 (1): 73–79. ISSN 0883-072X. JSTOR 27087684.
• Svanberg, Ingvar; Westerlund, David (2012-12-06). Islam Outside the Arab World. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-11322-2.
• Islam and Muslims in the American Continent. Center of Historical, Economical and Social Studies. 2001.
• The Muslim World: A Quarterly Review of History, Culture, Religions & the Christian Mission in Islamdom. Duncan Black Macdonald Center at the Hartford Seminary Foundation. 1920. pp. 101–95.

External links

• "Mezquita Sheikh Ibrahim website". MiPunto.com. Archived from the original on 2006-09-13.