Why Cuba's Muslim population is growing

The religion is now quietly growing in Cuba, where there are as many as 9,000 Muslims. While they represent a tiny segment of Cuba’s 11.3 million population, it’s a significant increase from roughly a dozen in the early 1990s. “The Communist Party has been making decisions to open up religious plurality,” says Michael Leo Owens, associate professor of political science at Emory University in Atlanta. “Islam will naturally grow.”

Because there isn’t a long legacy of Islam in Cuba, many of the island’s Muslims are converts who found the faith after speaking with students and diplomats visiting from Muslim-majority countries, says Joan Alvado, a photojournalist based in Barcelona, Spain. Starting in 2014, Alvado has photographed the lives of Cuba’s Muslims, in the capital of Havana and around the country. Most recently, Alvado returned to Cuba, from early October to early November, to further explore this tiny culture, and his work is showcased here.