BOLIVIA

WHAT IS BEHIND THE BOLIVIA-ISLAM CONNECTION?

It is a strange and unexpected sight in the middle of Bolivia, a country better Taxi Heathrow Airport known for alpaca sweaters and Marxist revolutionaries, but everyday from the curved towers of a mosque in the city of Santa Cruz goes out the call for Muslim prayer. One would not be embarrassed to have never imagined that the Bolivian Islamic Center ever existed in this country heavily dominated by Roman Catholicism and with a majority indigenous population.

La Paz, Monday, August 31, 2009