IINA – 11 

Port Villa, Rabi Awwal 13/May 25,2002 (IINA) – The Vanuatu Islands are situated in the Pacific Ocean, close to Australia, and a sizeable number of the inhabitants are Muslims. The manager of the Muslim World League’s office in Australia, Usama Ahmed Baitalmal, recently paid a visit to the islands’ Muslim community, and discussed with them the progress of Daawa work in the islands, including the construction of a mosque in the capital, and the question of granting scholarships to students from Vanuatu. Vanuatu is a group of 80 islands, covering an area of 12,200 square kilometers, with a total population of only 15,000. The islands were ruled jointly by Britain and France from 1906 to 1980, when they were granted independence. At one time the Catholic Church in the islands chose an indigenous Vanuatuan named Nabanja to go to India and learn more about Christianity. Instead, however, he embarked on learning Islam and eventually embraced it, and when he came back to Vanuatu he started preaching Islam and setting up Islamic institutions.

OB/OB/IINA