Islam in Fiji

The Muslims of Fiji comprise approximately 7% of the population (62,534). The Muslim community is made up of people of Indian origin, descendants of indentured labourers who were brought to the islands in the late 19th century by the British colonialist rulers of the time. The majority of the Indian-Fijian community is Hindu and an estimated 16% is Muslim. There are also thought to be a few hundred indigenous Fijian Muslims, such as the well-known politician Apisai Tora, but no accurate statistical data exist in this regard.

Muslims are mostly Sunni followers Imam Abu Hanifa (59.7 percent) or unspecified (36.7 percent), with an Ahmadiyya minority (3.6 percent). The Ahmadis run the Fazl-e-Umar Mosque in Samabula, which is the largest in the South Pacific. In the 1966 elections a Suva-based Muslim communal party, the Muslim Political Front, took part.

By the end of the 19th century, Islam was firmly established in Fiji. Muslim migrants preserved Islam within their families for generations after the first ship brought Indian indentured labourers to Fiji in 1879. The first Indentured Labourer ship, the Leonidas, had quite a high proportion (22%) of Muslims. Between 1879 and 1916, a total of 60,553 labourers were brought to Fiji from India under the Indentured Labourer system. Of those who came from Karachi, 6557 were Muslims. 1091 Muslims came from Madras and 1450 from North- West Frontier, Baluchistan-Afghanistan and the Punjab region.

While, with the loss of the caste system, Hindus did not have any institution binding them together, the Muslim faith was affected little by travel to a far off land, although the community initially suffered from a lack of mosques and religious scholars. The Muslim community was able to preserve their religious rites, practices and festivals, but under the harsh reality of the indenture system, it was difficult to pray five times a day and observe the full fast of Ramadan due to the slavish labour conditions imposed upon them. C.F. Andrews, in his report after his first visit to Fiji, noted that religious decline had not been as rapid amongst Muslims compared to that of the Hindus, and on his second visit wrote that Muslims had retained their social system and religious life was showing signs of revival.

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Wikipedia