Islam on St. Helena

The first permanent resident of the island of St. Helena was a Portuguese nobleman Fernand Lopis converted to Islam in India . In 1503, Lopis accompanied Portuguese admiral Afonso di Albuquerque during his first trip to Goa on the west coast of India. Albuquerque went to Portugal for reinforcements, leaving Lopis at the head of the Goa garrison . When Albuquerque returned two years later, he discovered that the garrison had switched sides with the Bijapur Sultanate . Some soldiers married local women, and some, including Lopis himself, converted to Islam ^[3] . Lopis and the other defectors surrendered to Albuquerque on condition that they save their lives. However, they were tortured so brutally that within three days half of them died. Lopisha was tied with ropes to two wooden posts, and the people of Albuquerque cut off his nose, ears, right hand and thumb of his left hand (according to other sources, also the index and middle fingers). The hair on his head and beard was scraped off by the shells of marine mollusks. On the way to Portugal, Lopis chose voluntary exile on St. Helena, where he lived in almost complete seclusion for about thirty years. Among the black slaves imported by the British East India Company to work on St. Helena until 1792, there were Muslims from West Africa ^{[4] [5]} . However, most of them subsequently adopted Christianity ^[6] . After 1792, it was decided for work in the agricultural sector of the island to begin contracted hiring of workers from China and India, among whom were Muslims ^[7] .

Nowadays, the number of Muslims on St. Helena does not exceed 0.1% of the total population of the island ^[1] . These are mainly descendants of migrants from India and West Africa.