Laos
Located in Southeast Asia, Laos is bordered by China to the north, Cambodia to the south, Vietnam to the east, and Thailand to the west with no coastline. There are 49 officially recognized ethnic groups in Laos, of which 53% are Lao, 11% Khmu, 9% Hmong, 3% Thai, and 24% Other.
Although the encounter of Laos with Islam may have occurred in much earlier periods, the first known contact took place during the French colonial period in the region starting from the late 19th century. In this period, in addition to Pashtun and Tamil Muslims brought to Laos from Pakistan and India for labor, there were also a small number of Cham Muslims who fled the Khmer regime in Cambodia and came here. In contrast to the Rakhine and Patani regions in Myanmar and Thailand, the other Buddhist governments in the region, there is no Muslim presence on this scale in Laos. As a result, there are no institutional structures to represent Muslims in the country. This highlights the vulnerability of Laotian Muslims in light of the examples of problematic regions such as Rakhine and Patani.
Today, the proportion of Muslims in the general population in the country is below 1% and their number is estimated to be limited to a few thousand in total. Muslims are mainly settled in the capital Vientiane, where there are two mosques open for worship.