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Population of Japan – 127,000,000
Population of Tokyo – 13,000,000
No. of Muslims in Japan (estimate) – 100,000
No. of Japanese Muslims (estimate) – 10,000
No. who converted to Islam NOT for marriage(estimate) – 2 or 300
No. of Japanese imām's in Japan – 5
No. of Japanese imām's in Tokyo – 1
Abdullah Taqy is the only Japanese imām in Tokyo.
A chance meeting with a foreign Muslim 12 years ago in Tokyo's Shibuya district and a life spent studying various religions led him to convert to Islam 3 ½ years ago.
He completed the Hajj, the worlds largest annual religious pilgrimage, to Mecca in Saudi Arabia 2 ½ years ago at the invitation of the Saudi Arabian government.
Shortly after, a meeting with the man who started him down his path to Islam 12 years previously led him to becoming the imām at a small mosque in the Kabukicho area of Tokyo.
His day job for the past 20 years has been as a tattooist and body piercer.
He is soft spoken and exudes a calmness and friendliness that one cannot help being affected by.
He is truly, 1 in 13 million.
Photography,Audio,Editing – Uchujin/Adrian Storey
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uchujin.co.uk
He appeared in al-Jazeera a few years ago when they were filming for the Hajj in Japan. I believe the video exists on Youtube. Tokyo and outskirts have quite a few mosques now and not to mention numerous musallahs in universities.
Allahu akhbar! May Allah SWT bless and guide this imam and all the other muslims in Japan , and guide the Japanese people to the Truth and help them in this time of great need for their country.
Yeah I know about this brother.
I have an acquaintance who knows him personally…there are other Japanese imams in Japan besides him. Abu Hakim Maeno is the most prominent; he speaks Arabic, Japanese, and English fluently. He is doing a lot of good things for the muslim community in Japan.
MashaAllah! May this man continue to be guided and inshaAllah spread the word
Assalamualaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh
We should not distinguish between perceived or known “converts for marriage” and “converts for Allah or Islam”. Muslims are Muslims and that’s what we are called.