MADAGASCAR (IINA): About 17,500 members of the Intimor tribe in Madagascar, recently declared their Islam in the hands of Dawa activists of the Kuwait-based Africa Muslim Agency. The tribe, who live in the south-eastern part of Madagascar, have Islamic roots.Sheikh Bin Issa Alawy, director of the project, said the Intimor people had been Muslims, but lost contact with the Muslim world and gradually became ignorant about their faith, and with the advent of Christian missionaries they either embraced that faith or became agnostics. He said this campaign of re-Islamising them took four years of hard work. Sheikh Bin Issa said he expects at least another 50,000 members of the tribe to revert to Islam in near future, and thereafter more and more of them are expected to join, including those tribes in the environs of the areas in which this tribe lives. He said these new Muslims need all they help they can get, and appealed to philanthropists in the Muslim world to help in this endeavour, so as to counter the missionary activities.

Source : http://www.islamicvoice.com/january.2000/embraced.htm#INT