Chile is the country on the Southwest Pacific coast of South America, which runs from a polar south to tropical north. 5% of Chile’s population is Arab, and the majority of that is Palestinian-Christian: Chilestino/Chilestinian.
Chile is a first world country now, very democratic. The Chilestinos are prosperous and wield incredible political power.
This seems to be the Facebook page (Click Here) of the group.
Again, more demonstration of how mainstream Arab culture is in Latin America. But, always remember that the vast majority of Latin-Arabs are Christian; and keep in mind that, as a rule, the demographic numbers reported for Muslims are often exaggerated.
Palestinians have been in Chile since 1890. Until recently, the vast majority of Palestinian immigrants to Chile were Christian Palestinians, who hailed from four historically Christian towns: Beit Jala, Beit Sahour, Bethlehem, and Beit Safafa (now in the eastern half of Jerusalem) – though Bethlehem has lost its Christian majority in the meantime.
That Christian pattern of immigration seems to be changing as of late.
Now, a considerable number of the immigrants to Chile are Palestinians of Muslim extraction.
Lest anyone fear that newer Muslim Palestinian immigrants will cause a seismic shift is Chile’s religious demographic, be at ease. Remember that South America is undergoing a massive Evangelical Revival.
There is a very good chance that some of these recent Muslim immigrants to Chile – or some of their children – will become Evangelical Christians.
Islam is still extraordinarily small in Chile: Less than 1/10th of 1%.
Islamic clerics in South America have a tendency to greatly exaggerate their numbers. But reliable sources I have seen put the numbers around 1 out of 4,000 Chileans is Muslim, or possibly less.
For those interested in peace in the Mideast, moving 60,000 Palestinians to Chile from Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) – even if they were Muslim – would be demographically insignificant to Chile, and would still keep the Muslim demographic well under 1%.
Chile has a population of 18,000,000. So 60,000 Muslims would constitute one-third of 1% of Chile’s numbers.
Chile is 14% Evangelical (roughly 2.5 Million and growing). They would quickly proselytize the Muslims.
This is a possible solution for the Mideast. South America assimilates Arabs.