Soheil As’ad by mentioning that before the Islamic revolution no mosques were left in Latin America, said: “It was because of Imam’s revolution that a new movement began among Muslims and the Muslims in our region started a great change.”
According to a report by Rasa, Soheil As’ad, an Argentinean Shia scholar, at the conference of “Position of Shias in Latin America” which was held on March 5th by the cultural office of Khorasan Hawza in the religious school of Imam Mohammad Baqir, said: “150 years ago a number of Muslim from Egypt and other countries around it immigrated to the American continent because of economic issues.”
He mentioned the geographical position of America and said: “Latin America has three parts. North, central and southern America, most of the immigrants were from Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. Today we have 17 million immigrants from Lebanon but the population inside Lebanon is only 4 million. Also the people of Syria, Palestine and Jordan are used to immigrations, and it has become a custom in their countries.”
Soheil As’ad stated: “Immigration has benefits in economic situations but about spirituality, religion, morality and religious values it has some consequences and bad effects.”
He explained: “One of the problems that the immigrants in Latin America had was their marital issues. Because most of them were men and there were no Muslim women in America, so they had to marry christian women and the next generation from them based on their mother’s religion became Christian.”
This Shia scholar mentioning that before the Islamic revolution no mosques were left in Latin America, said: “Before the Islamic revolution, the Shia in this region were converting to Christianity, and those who remained Muslim their religious aspects were fading, like we had some Sayyids (descendants of the Prophet Mohammad or Imam Ali) and with names such as Mohammad or Ali but they were Catholic.”
He referred to his own family during the revolution and said: “What I knew about Islam was not eating pork and not drinking alcoholic beverages. My mother had found a book about the life of Imams and had started to read it. When she reached to the life of Imam Sajjad (The fourth Imam) she was surprised because she had alway thought there are only 5 Imams. We didn’t use to say our prayers. We considered that Hijab is for un-beautiful women and Hajj, Khums (one-fifth of certain items which a person acquires as wealth, and which must be paid as an Islamic tax) and Zakat (giving of a fixed portion of one's wealth to charity) for wealthy people.”
Soheil As’ad stated: “Before the revolution through the Latin America with a 40 million population only two people could read Quran. My father was one them. If someone passed away in southern Argentina his relatives would have come 3000 km to the capital to take my father for the funeral ceremony and to say a prayer and read Quran. We though that we should only kiss the Quran before sleeping .”
He added: “In 1979 Iran’s Islamic revolution had become victorious and Imam Khomeini sent clergies to Latin America. One of them came to Argentina and made a Mosque. This clergyman translated several books and caused a new movement through Muslims.”
This Shia scholar, comparing Argentina before the revolution and thirty years after it, said: “Now we have good Quran translators through our youth. Those who became familiar with Quran and then Arabic, they translated Quran. We even have international Quran reciter among those who their father didn’t even know how to read Quran.”
He continued: “The Quran which even Muslim didn’t know it is recited in Churches, Mosques and even Argentinian media. In Chile, reciting Quran has been approved as a law for Shia Eids (Holy days). In Colombia Quranic schools have been established.”
Soheil As’ad considered this movement as a result of Iran’s Islamic revolution and its art and said: “About understanding the Ahl al-Bayt, now we have 25 Islamic-Ahl al-Bayt centers in the region and all their managers are from the region. Some are black, some Indians and some Europeans who were Christian before.”
He added: “I was in Cuba. I was talking about humanities in a meeting were the Marxists were present. I pointed to different spices (animals, angles and humans) and said a Hadith from Imam Ali “If the spirituality of humans overcomes its material aspects, then humans w are going to be better than angels.” Three days later one of them came to me and said: “I was touched, I used to say that why should I die like an animal. Until you narrated from Imam Ali and I understood that I could be better than an animal so I became a Muslim.””
He continued: “ This Cuban fellow became Shia along with his wife and son. His son is in the Qom Hawza, they introduced Islam to their 70 years neighbor in Argentina with Hazrat Fatima Masouma. Now she and her son are Muslims and she named herself Fatima Masouma, she traveled to Qom, and when she returned she donated a room in her house for Hazrat Fatima Msouma and from that room the first Islamic center in Havana was established, where 70 persons became Shia.”