Jannah Project: Muslims in Mexico
For a year, she embedded herself in their homes, rituals and feasts for a project called Jannah, an Arabic word that represents paradise in Islam.
Islam came to Mexico in spurts over the past decades, with immigrants from Lebanon and Syria, and even a group of Spanish Muslims who came to convert members of the Zapatista revolutionaries in the 1990s. It caught on quickly.
The country now has around 5,270 Muslims—triple what it had 15 years ago, Lacolutti says. An Arabic teacher helps them read the Quran and a scholarship offers a chance to study at a medina in Yemen.
In Mexico, which is largely Catholic, Lacolutti found that having a belief system is more important than following a particular religion. She spoke to Catholic mothers who didn’t want their daughters to convert to Islam, but were pleased when the change inspired a more pious way of life.
"In Mexico it’s better to convert to Islam than in Europe,” she says, according to National Geographic.
"They want to build identity,” Lacolutti says of the new Mexican Muslims. "What is pleasing about Islam is that it brings practical actions in daily life: You have to pray five times each day. You can’t eat pork and you can't drink alcohol.”
Converts are fueling the growth in Mexico City, while high birthrates and large families spur it on in rural regions.
After a year of living with the community, Lacolutti asked for an introduction to the imams who tended to a rural community of Muslims in the southern state of Chiapas. By merging their indigenous practices with Islam, these 400 converts lived much differently than their Mexico City counterparts.
For one, they tend to blend in easily, since many indigenous women wrap their heads in scarves. "I want to speak my language, I want to put on the indigenous dress, but I also want to believe in Allah,” they told Lacolutti.
But the remoteness makes it difficult to maintain important tenets of their religion. Chiapas is a poor state, and meat that has been butchered in accordance to Islam, called halal, is rare. During one holiday feast, Lacolutti watched as the community sacrificed two cows and immediately brought meat to their Christian neighbors. "One ideal of Islam is you have to help a person that is poorer than you,” she says. "It’s not important if you believe in another god—you are my neighbor and you can eat the same food.”
Lacolutti is an atheist, but she was never once asked to convert. In such a devout country, her subjects seemed unbothered by a nonbeliever in their midst. Once, in a conversation with a Muslim woman in Mexico City she felt a longing for the other’s faith. "I think you have a very rich life because you believe,” Lacolutti told her. "I don't believe. I see you and think you have a better life.”
