Guyana

South-American/Caribbean republic independent from Britain in 1966; its Muslim minority descends chiefly from South-Asian indentured labourers brought in the 19th century, a mostly Sunni-Ḥanafī community — one of the larger Muslim populations of the Americas in proportion.

☾ The Coming of Islam

Islam brought by South-Asian indenture

Islam reached Guyana in the 19th century with indentured labourers brought from British India to work the sugar plantations; their descendants, the Indo-Guyanese, carried a South-Asian, mainly Sunni-Ḥanafī, Islam into the Caribbean and South-American world.

☾ Religious Composition

A significant Muslim minority in a plural society

Guyana is religiously plural — Christian and Hindu communities are the largest — with a significant Muslim minority (mostly of South-Asian descent), among the larger Muslim populations, in proportion, of the Americas.

Demographic shares are approximate.

At a glance