Islam in Suriname

According to the most recent census (2004), the Muslim population of Suriname is 66,307, representing about 13.5 percent of the country's total population, giving the country the highest percentages of Muslims on the South American continent. Though the majority belong to the Sunni interpretation of Islam, there is a large proportion who belong to the Ahmadiyya interpretation.

Some speculate that Muslims first came to Suriname as slaves from West Africa and then were converted to Christianity over time, even though there is little proof for these speculations. The ancestors of the actual Muslim population came to the country as indentured laborers from South Asia and Indonesia, from whom today most Muslims in Suriname are descended.

Because Islam came to Suriname with immigrants from Indonesia (Java) and the Indian subcontinent (today India, Pakistan and Bangladesh), who brought their local form of Islam to Suriname, it is strongly influenced by these regions. Apart from descent, most Surinamese Muslims also share the same culture and speak the same languages. Suriname has a small number of Afghan Muslims and their native-born children.

Suriname

Coordinates: 4°N 56°W / 4°N 56°W / 4; -56

Suriname (/ˈsʊrᵻnæm/, /ˈsʊrᵻnɑːm/ or /ˈsʊrᵻnəm/, also spelled Surinam), officially known as the Republic of Suriname (Dutch: Republiek Suriname, Dutch pronunciation: [ˌreːpyˈblik ˌsyːriˈnaːmə]), is a sovereign state on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west and Brazil to the south. At just under 165,000 km² (64,000 sq mi), it is the smallest country in South America. Suriname has a population of approximately 566,000, most of whom live on the country's north coast, in and around the capital and largest city, Paramaribo.

Originally inhabited by a number of indigenous tribes, Suriname was explored and contested by European powers before coming under Dutch rule in the late 17th century. In 1948 the country gained autonomy and in 1954 it became one of the constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. On 25 November 1975, the country of Suriname left the Kingdom of the Netherlands to become an independent state, nonetheless maintaining close economic, diplomatic, and cultural ties to its former colonizer.

Surinam (Dutch colony)

Surinam was a Dutch plantation colony in the Guianas, neighboured by the equally Dutch colony of Berbice to the west, and the French colony of Cayenne to the east. Surinam was a Dutch colony from 26 February 1667, when Dutch forces captured Francis Willoughby's English colony during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, until 15 December 1954, when Suriname became a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The status quo of Dutch sovereignty over Surinam, and English sovereignty over New Netherland, which it had conquered in 1664, was kept in the Treaty of Breda of 31 July 1667, and again confirmed in the Treaty of Westminster of 1674.

After the other Dutch colonies in the Guianas, i.e., Berbice, Essequibo, Demerara, and Pomeroon, were lost to the British in 1814, the remaining colony of Surinam was often referred to as Dutch Guiana, especially after 1831, when the British merged Berbice, Essequibo, and Demerara into British Guiana. As the term Dutch Guiana was used in the 17th and 18th to refer to all Dutch colonies in the Guianas, this use of the term can be confusing (see below).

Dagblad Suriname

Dagblad Suriname is one of the leading daily Surinamese newspapers. It is published in the Dutch language in Paramaribo.

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