Pacific Magazine > Magazine > June 29, 2007

Cover Story

A Consistent Call To Prayer

128 Years Of Islam In Fiji

By Ricardo Morris in Suva

The mesmerizing Muslim call to prayer – the azaan – rang out for the first time on Fiji soil on May 14, 1879.

 

This act is credited to Buddha Khan, one of the 92 Muslims who arrived from India with the first boatload of indentured laborers destined for the sugarcane farms of the then new British colony.

After disembarking from the sailing ship “Leonidas” at Levuka, Khan gathered the Muslims among the 498 passengers and they thanked Allah for a safe passage. They had been on the high seas for 75 days after leaving Calcutta on February 28 and now they had arrived in what would become their new home.

From 1879 to 1916 when the indenture – or girmit – system ended, some 86 voyages were made from India to Fiji. In all, Muslims made up about 14 percent of the girmit workforce.

Over 128 years since the first Muslims arrived, Islam has grown in many ways in this island nation. The Muslim population is estimated to be over 70,000, or about 8 percent of the population, and various Islamic sects have also grown up.

The majority of Fiji’s Muslim population (about 55,000) follow the Sunni school of Islam and there is also a strong following of Ahmadiyyas.

One of Fiji's many mosques. PHOTO: Ben Bohane

The Fiji Muslim League (FML), the governing body for Sunni Muslims, was established in 1926 and over 80 years later administers a portfolio of 22 primary schools, five high schools and an Islamic higher education institute.

“The vision of our forefathers to ensure that our faith is preserved and practised has been achieved,” says Hafiz Khan, the national president of the FML.

“In addition, their other key vision to educate our children (by setting up) schools, which while providing secular education also inculcate Islamic values, has also been successfully achieved.”

In this country of about 850,000, the majority of whom are Christians, followed closely by Hindus, Muslims have been a quiet but consistent voice.

Compared to Christian denominations which are vocal (witness roadside preaching sessions on loudspeakers) and sometimes controversial (the Methodist Church’s vehement anti-gay remarks), Fiji’s Muslims are low-profile, preferring to let the example set by their lifestyle do the talking.

“The message of Islam is available to all and sundry and the best way to propagate it is by adopting the way of life as prescribed by the Holy Quran and the teachings of the Holy Prophet (Mohammed),” Khan explains.

While the number of indigenous Fijians who have converted to Islam remains small (the last official figure puts it at 324 converts in all branches of Islam, while the FML estimates between 600 and 1000), those who do often become its staunchest believers.

Moses Whippy, also known as Mohammed Musa Whippy, has not looked back since embracing Islam over 25 years ago.

The bearded Suva businessman is at ease talking about his faith. “This is the duty of all Muslims and the best way to do it is through your dealings and behaviour,” he says in an email interview with Pacific Magazine.

He describes the difference in the strength of the faith between those who were brought up Muslims and those who converted as “chalk and cheese really”.

“It is like everything else that is presented to you on a platter free without you making any effort to achieve it,” he says.

“You will take it for granted because you will give it no value as it was given to you free. But if you had to go and search for it and work for it, striving and sweating and overcoming all kinds of obstacles and eventually achieving the fruit of your labor, this you will cherish and not forget so easily.

“This experience has not been very harsh for me but I know that for other brothers and sisters who have converted to Islam the going has not been very smooth. And some of them are going through very hard times still.”

In contrast with the rest of the Pacific, Islam has a comfortable place in Fiji’s national identity. Prophet Mohammed’s birthday is a national holiday and Eid, which marks the end of Ramadan, the annual month-long fast, is a festive time when whole communities join their Muslim neighbors in celebrating.

But this comfort is sometimes disturbed by events such as the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the U.S. and the reprinting in a local daily newspaper in February 2006 of Danish cartoons caricaturing Prophet Mohammed.

“The events of Sept. 11 have had effects on the whole world, not only on Muslims,” says Khan, but says there were no incidents in Fiji of hateful attacks against Muslims.

Whippy says in most cases such negative publicity often makes non-Muslims curious about the faith.

“In actual fact because of this negative publicity the general public is trying to learn more about Islam … the reasons why the Muslims are being targeted and why are the Muslims targeting others,” says Whippy.