Muslims discovered America, says Turkish President Erdogan
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s, an Islamic, put into question the history of Christopher Columbus assuring that America was discovered by the Muslims and not by the Genoese navigator.
“Muslim sailors reached America in 1178,” Erdogan said. “In his diaries, Christopher Columbus noted the presence of a mosque on top of a mountain in Cuba,” said the president, adding, “Islam was spread through the Americas before the arrival of Europeans in 1492.”
The theory of a mosque in Cuba was espoused in 1996 by Youssef Mroueh, at work for the ‘As-Sunnah Foundation of America. “Mroueh believed this to be a reality and not just metaphorically, as did the majority of other Muslim scholars, that a notation by Columbus was highlighted by a mosque near Gibara on the northeast coast of the Caribbean island.”
Erdogan has announced that he will seek permission from the Cuban authorities to build a mosque on a lift there.
The declarations by the Turkish president comes as nearly 75 representatives of 40 Muslim minority countries have come together in Istanbul for the first Latin American Religious Leaders Meeting with the discussion of the issues that surround Muslims that live in Latin America.
During the meeting, issues surrounding the lack of organizations to meet children’s religious education and the lack of Spanish-speaking imams were raised. Hosted by the Department of Religious Affairs under the title of “Building Our Tradition and Future” and attended by Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Venezuela, Peru, and Columbia, issues regarding the Muslim minorities in South America were discussed.
Other countries including Costa Rica, Haiti, Honduras, and Jamaica make up a population of nearly 4.5 million Muslims in South America as well as those in Brazil and Argentina, according to attendees at the meeting. The summit was joined by five religious organizations, including the Eurasian Islam Council, the African Religious Leaders Summit, the Meeting of European Muslims, the Balkans Meeting of Religious Directorate Leaders and the World Islam Scholars’ Peace, Moderation and Foresight Initiative.
[Photo above ofTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shaking hands with Pedro Lazo Torres, president of the Islamic League of Cuba.]
