“Latin America's contact with Islam dates back to the 12th century. Muslims discovered America in 1178, not Christopher Columbus. Muslim sailors arrived in America in 1178. Christopher Columbus mentions the existence of a mosque on a hill along the Cuban coast. I will talk to my brothers in Cuba and a mosque would suit the top of that hill today as well. We would build it if they [the Cuban government] say so. Islam had expanded in the American continent before Columbus arrived,” Erdoğan said on Saturday while speaking in İstanbul at the 1st Latin American Muslim Religious Leaders Summit, hosted by Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate.
Cuba, one of the few remaining communist countries in the world and one of the most populated in the Caribbean with a population of 11 million, has a tiny Muslim minority. Muslims in the country have long complained that they do not have a place to practice their religion collectively.
Turkey is willing to build a mosque in the Cuban capital of Havana and a delegation traveled there earlier this year to seek permission for just that. Turkish media reported last month that Cuban authorities rejected the request, submitted by Turkey's Religious Affairs Foundation (TDV).
Today Zaman