Monterrey, Nuevo Leon

Strangely enough MUSLIM CENTER DE MEXICO's activities in the second largest city in Mexico was due to a business opportunity that a Mexican hamburger factory (Trosi de Carnes SA de CV) had in 1995 when McDonalds Restaurants were opened in the Middle East. Trosi de Carne due to the Crazy cow disease in Europe was offered the production of hamburgers for all McDonalds restaurants in the Middle East and North Africa. MCM was asked to certify that the imported Halal meat from USA was processed in clean machines without been mixed with none Islamic slaughterings. Omar Weston was flown from Mexico City to Monterrey three days a week to over view the hamburger production. With the financial aid received by Trosi de Carnes and some brothers in Texas Omar Weston rented a house to use it as a branch of the MCM.

MCM managed to establish a Jumah prayer with about ten participants, however this didn't last long because the hamburger production was transferred once again to Europe so MCM could no longer assist the brothers to keep the house open, some efforts were made by some of the local brothers but till today August 2000 the group of brothers there now substantially bigger haven't managed to start Jumah prayers again. However MCM keeps close contact with them and sends them literature frequently.

Torreon, Coahuila

While visiting Monterey so frequently Omar Weston started contacting a small Muslim community in Torreon. This community is formed by Syrian Immigrants that migrated in the twenties and thirties, a decade ago Mr. Sirhan Elias built a beautiful small Masjid in honor of his daughter that died. Mr. Hasan Chamut is the Imam there and they have a Jumah attendance of 10 to 20 people. Even though they come from a Shiite background and the Iranian embassy has supported them with literature, there are only a handful of them that really understand the real meaning of the Shiite doctrine.

Guadalajara, Jalisco

Guadalajara is the third biggest city in Mexico, the story of Islam started when Abu Bakr (one of the fortunate new Muslims that studied in Medina) visited a book fair at Guadalajara. He found two brothers of Mexican origin "Omar and Khaled" however Omar was of Algerian origin, he narrates that his grandfather came to Mexico decades ago with his son and his son fell in love with Omar's mother, buisness wasn't good so the grandfather returned leaving his son married to Omar's mother, when Omar was six his father past away, he remembered that his father used to pray and it lead him to seek Islam.

Br. Omar Weston later visited them, they had a house with barely a roof on it and a little Musallah, with a Mirhab. They were calling the Adhan in Spanish a reading Al Fatiha in Spanish they learned this from an Encyclopedia. Br. Omar took one of them (khalid) back to Mexico with him and taught him ten Surahs of the Quran, how to read Quran in Arabic and basics of Tawheed and Fiqh.

Later we discovered that a group of Medical Students was studying in Guadalajara so we asked them to rent a house in the area where these new Muslims were. They followed suit and joined efforts to improve the condition of Islam there. Our last visit Br. Omar gave a Khutba on Friday to over 35 Muslims. This Mosque and Islamic Center is a branch of MUSLIM CENTER DE MEXICO in Guadalajara.

San Cristobal de las Casa, Chiapas

Ahmed and Munir Abdul Basir both previous students of Br. Omar took a brother from Spain by the name of Nafia who insisted he wanted to start Dawa in Chiapas. MUSLIM CENTER DE MEXICO hosted some scholars from Medina who offered Br. Ahmed a scholarship to Medina to help him increase his knowledge of Arabic. Nafia who we later discovered was financed by the Murabitun movement leaded by Abdul Qadir Al Murabit insisted he not go to Medina.

A few more people from the Murabitun arrived from Spain to help Nafia, however today after about 200 people have accepted Islam. half of them have broken away from Nafia and are seeking MCM´s support. MCM has visited them twice and in August 2000 three of the main brothers from Chiapas visited Mexico City. MCM did a program for them on Islam and with the help of some brothers in the US have managed to build a simple Mosque.

In Other parts of Mexico:

MUSLIM CENTER DE MEXICO has contacts in over twenty major cities in Mexico, we have tried establishing Musallah´s in Cuidad Obregon, Sonora. MCM Studied the possibility of helping a Priest who became Muslim by renting a house near him, but in both cases our economical resources don´t allow us to extend our support.

Source: http://www.islam.com.mx/islam/cuerpoparts.html