Islam in Togo
Muslims in Togo represent between 12 and 20% of the national population. Islam came to Togo about the same time as it did much of West Africa. The vast majority of Muslims in Togo are Sunni of Maliki school of jurisprudence.[1]
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History
Islam was first introduced into West Africa south of the Sahara, across the salt and gold trade routes. Islamicized Berber and Tuareg merchants traveled the trans-Saharan trade routes. As time passed, Muslim clerics and scholars — teaching their beliefs and setting up places of worship along the routes — accompanied traders on their journeys. The Hausa and the Fulani, a traditionally nomadic group, traveled all over West Africa, taking their Muslim beliefs to places such as present-day Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.
Demographics
Estimates on the number of Muslims in Togo vary depending on the source. The CIA World Factbook puts the figure is 20%. A survey by the Pew Research Center gives an estimate of 12.2% of the population or 809,000 individuals as of 2009.[2]
Notable Muslims
- Mohamed Kader, first Togolese player to score in Fifa World Cup.
Notes
- CIA=Togo
- Miller, Tracy, ed. (October 2009), Mapping the Global Muslim Population: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Muslim Population (PDF), Pew Research Center, archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-10-10, retrieved 2013-01-01