Posted on YouTube: Jan 12, 2025
According to Wikipedia, There are only 2,000 Muslims in Ecuador, out of a population of 17,000,000. Not much.
Yes, there are 100,000 Lebanese in Ecuador, but almost all of them are Christians. One cannot get good figures for other Arabs. So, roughly around 2% or less of just the Arabs in Ecuador are Muslim, and only around .01% of the general population of Ecuador is Muslim.
Because reading the Quran was involved in the Arabic course (above), there was an element of proselytization involved. How effective it was, one cannot say.
Of course, these figure are sketchy, and they can change in time, but what is clear is that Islam is not presently significant at all in Ecuador.
The cultural effect of Christian Arabs is much greater.
Despite such small numbers, Ecuador has had three presidents of Arab – specifically Lebanese – descent. Amazing!
The chief conclusion is that, in Ecuador, the penetration of Islam is very small. Overall, the local Christianity (whether Catholic or Protestant) overwhelms whatever Muslim influence exists. However, Arabs are high performers, and they do assert themselves in politics. So although statistically insignificant, they do have outsized influence in other areas.
For example, this Catholic-affiliated school (Yes, Catholic?!) has the young girls perform Arabic Dancing. As noted elsewhere on this site, Arab Dancing is very popular in Latin America. So obviously the Christian Arabs in Ecuador have a lot of influence.
What has to be emphasized is that almost all of the Arabs in Ecuador embrace one form or another of Christianity.
As an aside, there were only 600 Jews in Ecuador in 2020, according to the World Jewish Congress. They are mostly of German background.
