Islam in Sierra Leone Mauvi Sadeeur Rahman. In the early 18th century Fulani and Mande-speaking tribesmen from the Fouta Djallon region of present-day Guinea converted many Temne of northern Sierra Leone to Islam. During the period of British colonization, attempts to spread Christianity were mostly ineffective. Islam continued to spread after independence in 1961; in 1960 the Muslim population was 35 percent and grew to 60 percent by 2000, and then to 71% in 2008. It is difficult for people from Sierra Leone to travel to Mecca for the Hajj, the fifth pillar of Islam, due to the distance between the two places and
Our Lady of the Pillar Our Lady of the Pillar Our Lady of the Pillar () is the name given to the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with the claim of Marian apparition to Apostle James the Greater as he was praying by the banks of the Ebro at Caesaraugusta (Zaragoza), Hispania, in AD 40. The celebrated wooden image is enshrined at the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar in Saragossa (Zaragoza). Pope Callixtus III granted indulgences towards her shrine in 1456. Since 1730, Pope Innocent XIII mandated her veneration throughout the Spanish Empire, and the Virgin Mary invoked under this specific Marian title is