We’re visiting Niagara Falls (highly recommended, by the way) and there are far, far more Muslims here than I have ever seen at any other tourist spot I’ve been to. There are also a ton of Middle Eastern and South Asian restaurants and that’s who seems to own a lot of other businesses here too.

I don’t have a problem with it (especially not the restaurants), Muslims can go where they want to go, I’m just not sure what the draw is here specifically. Is there some sort of religious significance to waterfalls in Islam? They aren’t praying at the falls, so I don’t know if that’s it.

Anyway, it’s been a great couple of days here so far. I’ve only been on the Canadian side and I hear the American side is trashy, but the falls are so beautiful and the whitewater walk along the rapids was incredible and, of course, everyone is so nice here.

Edit: I just looked, there are two mosques, an Islamic society and an Islamic cultural center in the city. The population is around 88,000 people. Maybe Canada has more Muslims than the U.S. and that’s it?

  • mlc894
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    1 year ago

    They’re just tourists and people who live there, nothing more to it. You might as well ask, “is there some significance of waterfalls to Americans? I see a lot of Americans coming here from far away.”

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      The concentration is much higher than other tourist spots I have been to and a lot of businesses that cater to Middle Eastern and South Asian people. I don’t think I’m just noticing them more than, say, East Asian people.

      • mlc894
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        1 year ago

        I’m not calling it stupid, I’m just providing context for an equivalent question to help illustrate my answer.