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Article: In Chiapas, missionaries battle for converts.
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- June 27, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Susana Hayward
SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico _ Outside this city of colonial churches and cobblestone streets built by Maya and Spaniards, Juan Gomez finds shade from a blinding afternoon sun inside his small wooden hut.
A beatific smile radiates from the young Tzotzil Maya as he haltingly reads the Koran in Arabic.
Gomez, 26, a former Protestant who became Muslim in 1996, is learning the language as a convert to Islam. He embodies a religious phenomenon in Chiapas, where one-quarter of the 3.9 million people are poor Maya peasants who practice myriad religions, often blending ancient rituals with Roman Catholicism.
The ...