Muslim Tzotzils in Chiapas are ready to celebrate Ramadan from May 5 to June 4. This celebration consists of a month of fasting to commemorate the first revelation of the Quran to Muhammad .
This Indigenous community who converted to Islam now fasts, says daily prayers but they also share the Christian idea of universal love and resurrection , just as Catholics and Evangelists do.
For example, as members of the Islamic community they don't celebrate Holy Week but they believe in the Crucifixion of Jesus , who “we see him as an envoy, a messenger of God ,” says Ibrahim Checheb , the Imam of the Ahmadía Islamic Community , located in the Nueva Esperanza de San Cristóbal de las Casas neighborhood.
The Ramadan rituals for the Tzotzil community start on May 6.
For the community leader, who was educated in Europe , Islam doesn't break or uproots the idiosyncrasy of the Indigenous communities .
“My grandfather Miguel , who converted to Islam despite being 95 years old, saw when they performed the ablution and bowed and put their foreheads (on the floor) to pray and worship God , said 'I do that too',” he explains.
Therefore, the Tzotzil Imam considers that there is no difference between the ancestral traditions and their Islamic faith , since both aim to worship God .
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