There are around 3,000 Muslims in the neighborhood, making it the most-populated diocese among the 16 Islamic dioceses in HCMC.
Haji Kim So, 72, head of the diocese, says the majority of the neighborhood are descendants of those that came from the Mekong Delta Town of Chau Doc and relocated to HCMC in the 1960s.
“Lands in this neighborhood were sold for cheap prices back then, so the first Cham Islamic people [from Chau Doc] gathered here and gradually established a community,” he says.
