title: 2020–21 NBA season

text: The 2020–21 NBA season was the 75th season of the National Basketball Association (NBA), though the 75th anniversary was not celebrated until the following season. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the regular season was reduced to 72 games for each team, and began on December 22, 2020. The season started just 72 days after the completion of the 2020 NBA Finals, the shortest off-season in league history. The 2021 NBA All-Star Game was played on March 7, at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, and was won by Team LeBron, 170–150. A play-in tournament for teams ranked 7th through 10th in each conference was held from May 18 to May 21. The playoffs then ran under the standard 16-team playoff format from May 22 to July 20, 2021. Due to COVID-19 cross-border restrictions imposed by the Canadian government, the Toronto Raptors played their 2020–21 home games at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida.


title: 2020–21 NBA season

text: Free agency negotiations were scheduled to begin on October 18, 2020, but that date was delayed. On November 9, it was announced that free agency would begin on November 20 at 6 p.m. ET, with signings permitted starting at 12 p.m. ET on November 22.


title: 2020–21 NBA season

text: The COVID-19 pandemic in North America, which pushed the conclusion of the previous 2019–20 season and playoffs into the fall, had delayed the start date of training camp to November 10, 2020. The preseason began on December 11 and ended on December 19.


title: 2020–21 NBA season

text: The start of the 2020–21 regular season was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The NBA initially set a target date of December 1, 2020, to start the regular season. However, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver suggested further delaying the season until at least January because local health orders at each NBA city would limit fan attendance. The NBA receives 40 percent of its revenue from attendance, and thus delaying the season until it is safer to let more fans into the arenas would ease the financial pain. The NBA also contemplated organizing the schedule such that teams would have less travel, with back-to-back games in the same cities against the same opponent. National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts suggested that the season might eventually have to begin within a "bubble" environment, similar to the 2020 playoffs.


title: 2020–21 NBA season

text: On October 13, the NBA delayed the targeted start date of the regular season from December 2020 to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 18, 2021. Later in October, "Sports Illustrated" reported that the NBA was targeting December 22, 2020, as the first day of the season. On November 5, 2020, the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) tentatively approved a 72-game regular season that began on December 22, 2020. The season featured a condensed schedule so that the NBA Finals could conclude by July 22, allowing NBA players to participate in the 2020 Summer Olympics; the Olympics were postponed to 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan.


title: 2020–21 NBA season

text: On November 17, the NBA announced that the 72-game regular season would run from December 22 through May 16. Each team would play three games against each opponent from its own conference and two games against each interconference opponent. The season would include a six-day All-Star break from March 5 to 10. While the All-Star Game (which was originally scheduled for Indianapolis) was initially considered unlikely, the NBA announced in February that the 2021 NBA All-Star Game would be held in Atlanta on March 7, 2021. The schedule was released in two parts; the first half was released in early December, while the second half was released in the latter part of the first half.


title: 2020–21 NBA season

text: The 2021 NBA All-Star Game was played on March 7, 2021. Teams were captained by LeBron James and Kevin Durant, and Team LeBron won the game 170–150.


title: 2020–21 NBA season

text: The NBA staged a play-in tournament for teams ranked 7th through 10th in each conference from May 18 to May 21. The 7th place team hosted the 8th place team with the winner clinching the 7th seed in the playoffs. The 9th place team hosted the 10th place team with the loser being eliminated from playoff contention. The 7th–8th place game's loser then hosted the 9th–10th place game's winner, with the winner clinching the 8th seed and the loser being eliminated.


title: 2020–21 NBA season

text: The playoffs began on May 22 and operated under the standard 16-team playoff format, with four rounds of best-of-seven series. The 2021 NBA Finals began on July 6 and concluded on July 20.


title: 2020–21 NBA season

text: On July 21, 2020, the NBA and Nike announced that the "Statement Edition" uniforms would switch to the Air Jordan label.


title: 2020–21 NBA season

text: As the NBA's plans for the 2020–21 season began to take shape, the Toronto Raptors were denied permission to play home games in Toronto as the Canadian federal government ruled that repeated cross-border trips by the Raptors and their opponents would be a major health risk due to the different levels of COVID-19 cases in the United States and Canada. This is similar to what happened to the Raptors' Major League Baseball counterpart, the Toronto Blue Jays, who were forced to play their 2020 home games in Buffalo.


title: 2020–21 NBA season

text: After looking at several U.S. cities, the Raptors announced on November 20, 2020, that they would play their home games at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida during the 2020–21 season.


title: 2020–21 NBA season

text: By July 21, 2021, all teams except the Oklahoma City Thunder allowed spectators to attend home games. Only seven teams have played all of their games with spectators since the start of the season.


title: 2020–21 NBA season

text: On February 10, 2021, Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo announced that the state would allow large sports venues to host spectators at 10% of their capacity beginning February 23, 2021, affecting the Brooklyn Nets and the New York Knicks. All spectators must present proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours of the event, and may also be required to submit to a rapid test if their PCR test was within more than 48 hours of the event. In late-March, Barclays Center and Madison Square Garden announced that the testing requirement would be waived for spectators who are fully vaccinated (second dose received no fewer than 14 days prior to the event).


title: 2020–21 NBA season

text: On April 2, Governor of California Gavin Newsom announced that the state will begin allowing indoor event and sports venues to resume operations on April 15. In regions under the "Substantial" (red) tier, capacity is capped at 20%, and all attendees are required to provide proof of a recent negative test or that they are fully vaccinated. In the "Moderate" (orange) tier, capacity is capped at 10%, but can be raised to 35% if all attendees are required to provide proof of a recent negative test, or that they are fully vaccinated.


title: 2020–21 NBA season

text: To reduce on-site staff, ESPN and TNT will leverage the home team's rightsholder as a host broadcaster for some of their games. They will send a neutral "world feed" and other camera feeds to the network, which will then add commentary and surrounding coverage. ESPN and TNT are also deploying additional cameras specific to their broadcasts, and ESPN may provide a supplemental on-site presence if the local broadcaster does not have enough capacity to support the host model. ESPN stated that some (roughly half) of their games, particularly marquee games exclusive to ESPN and ABC, would be produced on-site with an existing hybrid model (where some producers and graphics operators work from ESPN's studios in Bristol, Connecticut). TNT also planned to begin doing some games on-site beginning with Martin Luther King Jr. Day.


title: 2020–21 NBA season

text: On December 26, 2020, it was announced that Fox Sports Networks had acquired rights to simulcast 36 Toronto Raptors games locally in the Tampa Bay area through at least the first half of the season. All of the games will be carried via the Fox Sports Go app, with selected games to also air on television via Fox Sports Sun (15) and Fox Sports Florida (2).


title: 2020–21 NBA season

text: On March 31, 2021, the Fox Sports Networks rebranded as Bally Sports, as part of an agreement between majority-owner Sinclair Broadcast Group and casino operator Bally's Corporation.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the jurisdiction of the United States, with a population of 342,259. San Juan was founded by Spanish colonists in 1521, who called it Ciudad de Puerto Rico ("City of Puerto Rico", Spanish for "rich port city").


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Puerto Rico's capital is the third oldest European-established capital city in the Americas, after Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, founded in 1496, and Panama City, in Panama, founded in 1521, and is the oldest European-established city under United States sovereignty. Several historical buildings are located in San Juan; among the most notable are the city's former defensive forts, Fort San Felipe del Morro and Fort San Cristóbal, and La Fortaleza, the oldest executive mansion in continuous use in the Americas.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Today, San Juan is Puerto Rico's most important seaport and is the island's financial, cultural, and tourism center. The population of the metropolitan statistical area, including San Juan and the municipalities of Bayamón, Guaynabo, Cataño, Canóvanas, Caguas, Toa Alta, Toa Baja, Carolina and Trujillo Alto, is about 2.443 million inhabitants; thus, about 76% of the population of Puerto Rico now lives and works in this area. San Juan is also a principal city of the San Juan-Caguas-Fajardo Combined Statistical Area. The city has been the host of events within the sports community, including the 1979 Pan American Games; 1966 Central American and Caribbean Games; events of the 2006, 2009 and 2013 World Baseball Classics; the Caribbean Series and the Special Olympics and MLB San Juan Series in 2010.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The Taíno people were the indigenous inhabitants of the area before the arrival of the Europeans to the island of Puerto Rico in 1493. Remains of a small indigenous fishing village have been found in Puerta de Tierra where the Puerto Rico National Guard Museum stands today, however most archaeological sites in the region have been destroyed and lost throughout the colonial history. The area of San Juan used to be the boundary between the tribal regions (yucayeques) of "Guaynabo" and "Haimanio", led by the chiefs (caciques) Mabo and Yuisa (also known as Loaíza), respectively, at the time of the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: In 1508, Juan Ponce de León founded the original settlement which he called Caparra. It was named after the province of Cáceres in Spain, the birthplace of Nicolás de Ovando, then the Governor of Spain's Caribbean territories. Today, it is part of the Pueblo Viejo district of Guaynabo, directly to the west of the modern municipality of San Juan. A year later, the settlement was moved to a site then called Puerto Rico, Spanish for "rich port" or "good port", after its similar geographical features to the town of Puerto Rico de Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The local Catholic diocese, the second oldest in the Americas and the oldest in the United States, was founded in the newly built settlement on August 8 of 1511. In 1521, the newer settlement was given its formal name: Ciudad de Puerto Rico de San Juan Bautista. Many of the oldest European-founded institutions in the Western Hemisphere, such as the Santo Tomás de Aquino Convent and the Nuestra Señora de la Concepción Hospital, were established during this time in San Juan.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The ambiguous use of "San Juan Bautista" and "Puerto Rico" for both the city and the island in time led to a reversal in practical use by most inhabitants: by 1746 the name for the city (Puerto Rico) had become that of the entire island, leading to the city being identified as "Puerto Rico de Puerto Rico" on maps of the era.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: San Juan, as a settlement of the Spanish Empire, was used by merchant and military ships traveling from Spain as the first stopover in the Americas. Because of its prominence in the Caribbean, a network of fortifications was built to protect the transports of gold and silver from the New World to Europe. Because of the rich cargoes, San Juan became a target of the foreign powers of the time.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: San Juan underwent attacks from the English led by Sir Francis Drake in 1595 (in what is known as the Battle of Puerto Rico) and by George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, in 1598. Artillery from San Juan's fort, El Morro, repelled Drake; however, Clifford managed to land troops and lay siege to the city. After a few months of English occupation, Clifford was forced to abandon the siege when his troops began to suffer from exhaustion and sickness. In 1625 the city was sacked by Dutch forces led by Captain Balduino Enrico (also known as Boudewijn Hendricksz/Bowdoin Henrick), but El Morro withstood the assault and was not taken. The Dutch were counterattacked by Captain Juan de Amézqueta and 50 members of the civilian militia on land and by the cannons of the Spanish troops in El Morro castle. The land battle left 60 Dutch soldiers dead and Enrico with a sword wound to his neck which he received from the hands of Amézqueta.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The Dutch ships at sea were boarded by Puerto Ricans who defeated those aboard. After a long battle, the Spanish soldiers and volunteers of the city's militia were able to defend the city from the attack and save the island from an invasion. On October 21, Enrico set La Fortaleza and the city ablaze. Captains Amézqueta and Andrés Botello decided to put a stop to the destruction and led 200 men in an attack against the enemy's front and rear guard. They drove Enrico and his men from their trenches and into the ocean in their haste to reach their ships.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The British attack in 1797, during the French Revolutionary Wars, led by Sir Ralph Abercromby (who had just conquered Trinidad). His army laid siege to the city but was forced to withdraw in defeat as the Puerto Rican defenses proved more resilient than those of Trinidad. Various events and circumstances, including liberalized commerce with Spain, the opening of the island to immigrants as a direct result of the Royal Decree of Graces of 1815, and the colonial revolutions, led to an expansion of San Juan and other Puerto Rican settlements in the late 18th and early 19th century.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: On May 8, 1898, United States Navy ships, among them , , , , and , commanded by Rear Admiral William T. Sampson arrived at San Juan Bay. captured the Spanish freighter "Rita" in San Juan Bay, thus being the first hostile encounter between the warring sides in Puerto Rico. On May 9, "Yale" fought a brief battle with an auxiliary cruiser of Spain, name unknown, resulting in a Spanish victory. Around this time, Captain Ángel Rivero Méndez was assigned the command of the Spanish forces in the fortress of San Cristóbal in San Juan. On May 10, "Yale" returned to San Juan Bay, Rivero-Méndez ordered his men to open fire upon "Yale" using an Ordoñez 15-centimeter cannon, thus becoming the first attack against the Americans in Puerto Rico during the Spanish–American War.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: For his actions, Captain Rivero-Méndez was awarded the "Cruz de la Orden de Mérito Militar" (The Cross of the Order of the Military Merit) first class. The residents of San Juan were furious with Rivero and blamed him for the destruction caused to their city by the American bombardments. Nothing came of those accusations and Capt. Rivero-Méndez was ordered to turn over the keys of all the military installations in San Juan to Captain Henry A. Reed of the U.S. Army after the Treaty of Paris of 1898 was signed.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: On July 25, General Nelson A. Miles landed at Guánica (in southwestern Puerto Rico) with 3,300 soldiers in what was known as the Puerto Rican Campaign. The American troops found some resistance and engaged the Spanish and Puerto Rican troops in battle, the most notable of these the battles of Yauco and Asomante. All military actions in Puerto Rico were suspended August 13, 1898, after President William McKinley and French Ambassador Jules Cambon, acting on behalf of the Spanish government, signed an armistice. Spain ceded the island to the United States later the same year by signing the Treaty of Paris.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Camp Las Casas, located in the district of Santurce, served as the main training camp for the Puerto Rican soldiers prior to World War I and World War II; the majority of the men trained in this facility were assigned to the "Porto Rico Regiment of Infantry" which was renamed the 65th Infantry Regiment of the United States Army by the Reorganization Act of June 4, 1920. The 65th Infantry was deactivated in 1956 and became the only unit ever to be transferred from an active Army component to the Puerto Rico National Guard.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Lieutenant Teófilo Marxuach (retired as a Lieutenant Colonel), a native of Arroyo, Puerto Rico, fired the first shot in what is considered to be the first shot of World War I fired by the regular armed forces of the United States against any ship flying the colors of the Central Powers. Marxuach, who was a member of the "Porto Rico Regiment of Infantry" and Officer of the Day, on March 25, 1915, opened fire on the "Odenwald", an armed German supply vessel, when it was trying to force its way out of San Juan's bay. The shots ordered by Lt. Marxuach were the first fired by the United States in World War I.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: In 1919, Félix Rigau Carrera, "El Aguila de Sabana Grande" (The Eagle from Sabana Grande), the first Puerto Rican pilot, became the first native Puerto Rican to fly an aircraft in the island when he flew his Curtiss JN-4 from Las Casas. At the time, the area was used by the military as an air base and it was also Puerto Rico's first commercial airport, and Rigau Carrera was allowed to perform his historic flight from the airfield. Camp Las Casas was eventually closed down, and in 1950 a public housing project by the name of Residencial Fray Bartolome de Las Casas was constructed on its former location.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: On January 2, 1947, the people of San Juan elected Felisa Rincón de Gautier (also known as Doña Fela) (1897–1994) as their mayor. Thus, she became the first woman to be elected as the mayor of a capital city in any of the Americas. During the Cold War era, she ordered the establishment of the island's first Civil Defense system under the directorship of Colonel Gilberto José Marxuach (Teófilo's son). Rincón de Gautier served as mayor until January 2, 1969.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: On October 30, 1950, San Juan was the scene of the San Juan Uprising, one of many uprisings which occurred in various towns and cities in Puerto Rico, by the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party against the governments of Puerto Rico and the United States. Among the uprising's main objective was to attack La Fortaleza and the United States Federal Court House Building in Old San Juan. The "La Fortaleza battle", which ensued between the nationalists and the police lasted 15 minutes and ended when four of the five attackers were killed.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: San Juan has experienced periods of both stagnation and development in the recent years. Gentrification has been noticeable in areas of the city such as Loíza Street in Santurce and Santa Rita in Río Piedras. In recent years the city has been the location of multiple strikes and protests, such as the 2001 protests against the United States Navy in the island municipality of Vieques, the 2010 and 2011 University of Puerto Rico strikes, and the 2019 protests against Governor Ricardo Rosselló which resulted in his resignation.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria made a direct impact in Puerto Rico, causing widespread damage and a collapse of the infrastructure in San Juan and the rest of Puerto Rico. The damage caused in 2017 was extensive, affecting the electricity, potable water supplies, transportation, and communication, but significant progress had been made in the capital by April 2019, and particularly by October 2019. This was significant for tourism, which had rebounded by October of that year and was close to the pre-Maria era.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: San Juan today remains an important cultural, financial and industrial center not only of Puerto Rico but of the Caribbean region. As the biggest industrial center of Puerto Rico, it is the home of industries such as tobacco processors, breweries, refining facilities for petroleum and sugar, and distillers of rum as well as manufacturers of metal products, cement, pharmaceuticals, and clothing. The Puerto Rico Convention Center, opened in 2005, is the largest of its kind in the Caribbean and one of the most advanced in the Americas.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: San Juan is located along the north-eastern coast of Puerto Rico in the Northern Plains region. It lies south of the Atlantic Ocean; north of Caguas and Trujillo Alto; east of Guaynabo; and west of Carolina. The city occupies an area of , of which, (37.83%) is water. San Juan's main water bodies are San Juan Bay and two natural lagoons, the Condado and San José. At almost 1,030 feet (314 m) above sea level, the highest point in the municipality of San Juan is located on an unnamed hill on the "Morcelo" sector of Caimito, close to the municipal border with Caguas.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The municipality of San Juan is surrounded by the San Juan metropolitan area, particularly the highly urbanized municipalities of Guaynabo, Trujillo Alto and Carolina. These municipalities, together with Bayamón and Cataño, form what is locally referred to as the "Área Metro", the core of the wider San Juan metropolitan area. In total 41 municipalities are included in the entire metropolitan area extends throughout the island's northern coast and central eastern regions.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: San Juan has a tropical monsoon climate (Am). It has an average temperature of . Temperatures of or higher are seen on an average 79 days annually, more commonly occurring during the wetter months of the northern summer, especially if the winds come from the south.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: In the winter, temperatures can drop to around . The average winter low is . The coolest temperature officially recorded was on March 3, 1957, and the hottest was on October 9, 1981. The record cold daily maximum is on February 4, 1935. The record warm daily minimum is on August 11, 1995, the most recent of four occasions.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: With a mean minimum of 67 °F (19 C), San Juan is in USDA plant hardiness zone 13B the highest category. Rainfall is well-distributed throughout the year. The months of January, February, and March are the driest. As March averages just of rain, the city falls under the tropical monsoon category.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Rainfall averages , falling on an average 198.5 days per year. Despite this dampness, the city averages 2,970 hours of sunshine per year, or just over of the possible total. Annual rainfall has historically ranged from in 1991 to in 2010.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Hurricane Maria made landfall in southeastern Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017. Gusts up of to 113 mph (182 km/h) were reported in the capital city shortly before landfall in the municipality of Yabucoa. The municipality of San Juan experienced widespread flooding in most coastal areas, and roofs were blown off from numerous structures. The neighborhood of La Perla was largely destroyed. In the wider metropolitan area, flooding from Lake La Plata produced flash floods that trapped residents of Toa Baja, and in Cataño the Juana Matos neighborhood was estimated to be 80% destroyed. At least eight people died from the flooding, while many were unaccounted for.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: San Juan is home to numerous beaches, all of which are open to the public. All beaches of San Juan face the Atlantic Ocean. The Islet of San Juan hosts Los Cables Beach and La Perla Beach next to the Old San Juan district of La Perla, the Capitolio Beach located immediately north of the Puerto Rico Capitol, Puerta de Tierra Beach along the "Paseo de Puerta de Tierra", and El Escambrón Beach at the northeastern edge of the islet. The latter is the most popular beach in the islet due to its shore being protected from the strong Atlantic Ocean waves by reefs that serve as natural breakwaters. From east to west, the beaches in Santurce include Ocean Park Beach (also known as Último Trolley Beach), Condado Beach and Playita del Condado. Ocean Park Beach and El Condado Beach are the largest in the city and they host a large number of hotels and businesses that cater to tourists and beachgoers.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: As with other beaches across Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, the beaches of San Juan are currently under the threat of coastal erosion, particularly that of Ocean Park. The threat has become more evident recently and there are currently no state reports dedicated to the documentation or mitigation planning, according to oceanographer and geologist Maritza Barreto.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The municipality of San Juan contains numerous parks, including public parks, historic and heritage parks, nature reserves, protected natural areas, and recreational parks. These parks are managed by a number of entities such as the Municipality, the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, the National Park Service, the University of Puerto Rico and conservation easements.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The San Juan Ecological Corridor is a conservation project by the Government of Puerto Rico consisting in 6 different units found within the municipality of San Juan: the Cupey Arboretum, which protects the riparian ecosystems along the Río Piedras; the Doña Inés Mendoza Urban Forest, a small urban forest located next to the Luis Muñoz Marín Foundation in Sabana Llana Sur; Los Capuchinos Forest, a forest which covers a small karst area also in Sabana Llana Sur; the New Millennium State Forest, one of the 20 state forests of Puerto Rico; the San Juan Waterworks, consisting of the Old Piedras River Aqueduct and adjacent historic district; and the University of Puerto Rico Botanical Garden, also known as the San Juan Botanical Garden.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The San Juan National Historic Site is home to El Morro Esplanade, a large open area located between El Morro and Ballajá in Old San Juan. The esplanade is located in the promontory which gives "El Morro" its name and it offers views of the San Juan Bay and the rest of San Juan. It is very popular for activities such as picnics, stargazing and kite flying.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The district of the Capitol of Puerto Rico is home to the Iglesias Pantín and Rafael Hernández Marín parks, and a line of monuments located along Constitución Avenue which includes the "Walkway of the Presidents", the Puerto Rico Police Memorial Monument and The Holocaust Memorial Monument. The "Loma de los Vientos", or "Loma del Viento" (Spanish for "hill of winds"), is a small open green area located northwest of the Capitol, next to Castle San Cristóbal, and it often hosts events such as the Epiphany celebrations.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Luis Muñoz Rivera Park is a 27.2 acre recreational and historic park located in Puerta de Tierra, between Luis Muñoz Rivera, Ponce de León and Constitución avenues. It is the largest public square in Puerto Rico, and it is home to several historic sites such as the Polvorín San Gerónimo de Boquerón, which used to supply gunpowder to the nearby Fortín de San Gerónimo. The park used to host a small zoo, and currently hosts gazebos, gardens, restaurants and access to the beach. The park has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since November 14, 2007.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The Polvorin de Miraflores is a historic district and park located next to the Puerto Rico Convention Center in Isla Grande, Santurce. The ammunition storage house dates to the mid-18th century and it is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Another historic district currently under revitalization is the San Juan Waterworks historic district which contains the Old Piedras River Aqueduct. There are plans to revitalize the old aqueduct structures and its surroundings to create a historic park open to visitors and researchers.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Some of the recreational parks of the municipality include Bahía Urbana, a waterfront park located in Old San Juan and Puerta de Tierra by the San Juan Bay; the Paseo de Puerta de Tierra, a recreational walkway along the Atlantic Ocean cliffs of Puerta de Tierra that connects the Puerto Rico Capitol with El Escambrón Beach and Luis Muñoz Rivera Park.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Ventana al Mar, Laguna del Condado Jaime Benítez Park, Parque del Indio are some of the parks located in El Condado district of Santurce. Dr. José Celso Barbosa Park is located in Ocean Park, also in Santurce. Parque Central, also known as the San Juan Municipal Central Park, is a large park and recreational complex located in southern Santurce near the mouth of the Puerto Nuevo River and the Martín Peña Channel. The Enrique Martí Coll Linear Park connects the Central Park to Hato Rey through the Caño Martín Peña Nature Reserve.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Luis Muñoz Marín Park, La Merced Park, Dr. José N. Gándara Park, Santiago Iglesias Pantín Park are some of the parks located in Hato Rey. Luis Muñoz Marín Park is one of the largest in the municipality. It is located in the Gobernador Piñero district between Hato Rey and Puerto Nuevo. The park has gazebos that can be rented for events, green areas for strolls, biking and picnics, an artificial lake with paddleboats for rent ($6), and a number of playgrounds for children. Its main attraction is the cableway that crosses the park and offers scenic views of the Piedras River and the city while providing transportation to the Roberto Clemente Coliseum and the Hiram Bithorn Stadium.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The municipality of San Juan is home to various important ecosystems and preserved natural areas. Some of the ecosystems of the San Juan Bay National Estuary, which is the only tropical estuary in the National Estuary Program network, are protected by numerous nature reserves and protected areas such as the Caño Martín Peña Nature Reserve. Other areas protected under the San Juan Bay National Estuary include El Condado Lagoon, the San José Lagoon and El Boquerón where the San Antonio Creek and the Condado Lagoon connect with the Atlantic Ocean.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Two of the 20 state forests of Puerto Rico are located in the municipality of San Juan: the New Millennium Urban Forest, which is also part of the San Juan Ecological Corridor, and the San Patricio Urban Forest, a secondary forest located next to a mogote. The Hermanas Sendra and San Juan Park Protected Natural Areas are located inland within the municipality of San Juan in the barrios of Caimito and Cupey.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The architecture of San Juan is very diverse, due to its size and all the cultural influences received during its existence. The oldest part of the city, known as Old San Juan, mostly features the influence of Spanish architecture. This part of the city is comprised by a network of "setted" roads usually surrounded by ancient, two-storied houses built on masonry. Some colonial structures have been restored and serve either as government offices or museums.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Some examples are the Ballajá Barracks, which now serve as museum and headquarters of several cultural organizations; La Fortaleza, which has served as the residence of the Governor of Puerto Rico since the 16th Century; and the Ancient Welfare Asylum, which now houses the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, among others. Old San Juan also features several public squares, like the Plaza de Armas, located in front of San Juan City Hall; and cathedrals, like the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista. Old San Juan is also notable for being partly enclosed by massive walls and fortifications built by the Spanish government.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The architecture is more varied in other districts of the city. The district of Santurce features a lot of influence from Art Deco, while the districts of Hato Rey feature more modern structures.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: As with the other Puerto Rican municipalities, San Juan is administratively divided into "barrios." What is now known as Old San Juan occupied the western end of a rocky islet, the Isleta de San Juan, at the mouth of San Juan Bay. During the 20th century, the main population centers surged well beyond the walls of the old city and onto Puerto Rico's main island and merged with the existing settlements east and south of Old San Juan.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: With the annexation of Río Piedras in 1951, the municipality of San Juan grew to four times its previous size. As a result, the municipality also went from 2 to 18 barrios (barrios), 16 of which fall within the former municipality of Río Piedras. Eight of the 18 barrios are further subdivided into subbarrios, including the two barrios (San Juan Antiguo and Santurce) that belonged to the original municipality of San Juan.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: During the Spanish colonial times most of the urban population resided in what is now known as Old San Juan. This sector is located on the western half of a small island called the "Isleta de San Juan", which is connected to the mainland by two bridges and a causeway. The small island, which comprises an area of , also hosts the working-class neighborhood of Puerta de Tierra and most of Puerto Rico's central government buildings, including the Commonwealth's Capitol.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The main central part of the city is characterized by narrow streets made of blue cobblestone and picturesque colonial buildings, some of which date back to the 16th and 17th century. Sections of the old city are surrounded by massive walls and several defensive structures and notable forts. These include the 16th-century Fort San Felipe del Morro and the 17th-century Fort San Cristóbal, both part of San Juan National Historic Site, and the 16th-century El Palacio de Santa Catalina, also known as La Fortaleza, which serves as the governor's mansion.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Other buildings of interest predating the 20th century are the "Ayuntamiento or Alcaldía" (San Juan City Hall), the "Diputación Provincial" and the "Real Intendencia" buildings, which house the Puerto Rico Department of State, the Casa Rosa, the San José Church (1523) and the adjacent Hotel El Convento, the former house of the Ponce de León family known as Casa Blanca, the Teatro Tapia, the former Spanish barracks (now Museum of Ballajá), "La Princesa" (former municipal jail, now headquartering the Puerto Rico Tourism Company), and the Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery, located just outside the city walls.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The Cathedral of San Juan Bautista (construction began in the 1520s) is also located in Old San Juan and contains the tomb of the Spanish explorer and settlement founder Juan Ponce de León. Old San Juan, also known as the "old city", is the main cultural tourist attraction in Puerto Rico; its bayside is lined by dock slips for large cruise ships.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: East of Old San Juan lies the wealthy tourist-oriented neighborhood of Condado, which occupies land that used to be owned by entrepreneur Pablo Ubarri Capetillo, a Spanish railroad developer and Count of San José de Santurce under the Spanish colonial period. Beaches such as nearby Ocean Park, popular with swimmers, surfers and kitesurfers, are found all along the district's Atlantic coastline which is also the locus of numerous hotels.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Near Condado are two separate business districts, Santurce and Miramar. Miramar is mainly a residential area rising south of the Condado Lagoon. It comprises the former "barrio" of Miraflores, as well as drained marshland and landfill over which was built San Juan's first airport, the Isla Grande airport, which was renamed Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport in honor of Major Fernando Luis Ribas-Dominicci (USAF). Miramar now hosts the Puerto Rico Convention Center as well as some of San Juan Harbor's cruise ship piers. In 2005 Miramar was designated an historical district of Puerto Rico.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Santurce, originally named "San Mateo de Cangrejos" (Saint Matthew of the Crabs), was a settlement for freed African slaves during the early days of the city. After Pablo Ubarri sought permission to link San Juan with Río Piedras proper via steam tramway in 1878, the time it took to travel between both points were shortened and thereby stimulated the colonization and growth of the district. At the beginning of the twentieth century an electric trolley was installed, the township was split into three parts, and its main settlement, merged with the city, was renamed using the Spanish spelling of Santurtzi ("Saint George" in Basque), Ubarri's birthplace in Vizcaya, Spain. The "Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico" (Puerto Rico Museum of Art) and other important cultural venues are located in Santurce.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: South of Santurce is Hato Rey, part of the former municipality of Río Piedras. Hato Rey was grazing ground for cattle owned by the royal government (hence its name, the "King's Herd" in Spanish) as early as the 16th century, and is now considered the financial center of the island. A section of this district is often referred to as "Milla de Oro" (actually long) due in part to the many banks and businesses located there.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: In the southern part of the city is the socially diversified community of Río Piedras. Founded in the mid-1850s, Río Piedras was a separate town which hosted sugar cane plantations and the estates of some of San Juan's wealthiest inhabitants (as well as their working-class staff). The Spanish colonial governors also had their summer home there on land which eventually gave way to the main campus of the University of Puerto Rico. In 1951 the municipalities of San Juan and Río Piedras were merged to redefine San Juan's current city limits. Today Río Piedras comprises the largest area of the municipality of San Juan. and is home to the "Plaza del Mercado" (Río Piedras Marketplace), the main campus and the Medical Sciences campus of the University of Puerto Rico and the San Juan Botanical Garden.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: San Juan is the largest city in Puerto Rico by population. From 1899 to 1950 the municipality of San Juan excluded the township of Río Piedras. For this reason, population data and land area for the period make reference only to the Antiguo San Juan and Santurce "barrios", or subdivisions, of San Juan. The old municipality of Río Piedras constituted the third most populated city of Puerto Rico at the time of its annexation in 1951. Its strategic location south of the capital served as a junction for all the principal ways of transportation of the island and as a geographical entry to San Juan, which are factors that prompted Río Piedras's dramatic urban development in the 20th century.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Among the Hispanic and Latino population, Puerto Ricans are the largest group; they make up 87.5% of San Juan's Hispanic population. People of Dominican descent make up 7.6% of the Hispanic population, while those of Cuban descent form 1.7% of the Hispanic populace. Other Hispanic and Latino groups collectively form 3.2% of San Juan's Hispanic population.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: There are 4,822 whites and 1,187 blacks of non-Hispanic origin living in San Juan. Non-Hispanic whites and blacks form 1.2% and 0.3% of San Juan's population respectively. There are also approximately 673 Asians of non-Hispanic origin in San Juan; they make up less than 0.1% of the population. However, Asians of Hispanic and non-Hispanic origin together number at 6,342.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The vast majority of Asians in San Juan are of Chinese descent; of the 6,342 Asians, 4,928 are Chinese. Chinese comprise 1.4% of the population. The only other sizable Asian group in San Juan are Indian Americans; there are 698 people of Indian descent in the city, forming 0.2% of the population. There are very small numbers of people of Filipino, Japanese, and Vietnamese ancestry; none of these groups number more than 100 members.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: According to the 2006–2008 American Community Survey, 87.5% of San Juan's population was native and 12.5% were foreign-born. Of the native population, 86.9% were born in Puerto Rico or the U.S. proper, of which 75.6% were born in Puerto Rico and 8.9% were born in the U.S. The other 0.7% were born in a different U.S. territory or born abroad to American parents. The remaining 11.9% of the population were born outside the United States and U.S. territories.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: In recent years, an increasing number of Americans not of Hispanic ancestry (both of African American and of White American descent) have moved to San Juan. In addition, a large number of Stateside Puerto Ricans have settled in the city upon their return to Puerto Rico. There is also a growing West Indian population, both of Hispanic and non-Hispanic origin.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: San Juan today is home to the largest Jewish community in Puerto Rico, and one of the largest Jewish communities in the Caribbean, with more than 2,000 people attending two local synagogues in Santurce (the Conservative Shaare Zedeck Synagogue and the Reform Temple Beth Shalom) and an additional synagogue (the Chabad Jewish Center of Puerto Rico) in Isla Verde in neighboring Carolina.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: In terms of ancestry, 23,875 people claimed American ancestry, which is equivalent to 5.8% of San Juan's population. Other sizable ancestry groups included those of Italian descent, French descent, and West Indian descent. People of Italian descent numbered at 1,694, forming 0.4% of the population; people of French descent numbered at 1,064, forming 0.2% of the population. Finally, those of West Indian descent numbered at 1,393, forming 0.3% of San Juan's population. Approximately 1,026 people claimed Sub-Saharan African ancestry; 719 claimed Irish ancestry; 646 claimed German ancestry; 431 claimed Arab ancestry, and 346 claimed English ancestry. There are many other ancestry groups in San Juan, but they are very scant.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: San Juan experienced significant economic growth following World War II. During this period the city underwent an industrial revolution, although as of 1984 it had never generated its own economic region. The city's economy relies mostly on companies dedicated to the manufacture of several products, including: Chemical substances (bleach and house cleaning products); medicines; rum and other beverages; fertilizers; electric tools; electronic devices; plastics, textiles, and food-based products.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Tourism is also a key industry, based on San Juan's proximity to Puerto Rico's main airport, the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The tourism focus of the city is located in the district of Condado Beach where there are luxurious hotels. Historical locations such as El Morro, Old San Juan and El Cuartel de Ballaja are promoted in tourism campaigns. The district of Hato Rey contains a corporate sector known as "La Milla de Oro", (The Golden Mile) which serves as the headquarters of local and international banks. San Juan's Hato Rey district is often referred to as the "Wall Street of the Caribbean", due to the influence of the area on Puerto Rico and the Caribbean's economy.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Technological advances after World War II in the development of the airliner, coupled with the island's climate and natural setting, have transformed San Juan into the springboard for tourism around the island, and has made the rest of the Caribbean known throughout the world during the last fifty years. Today the capital features hotels, museums, historical buildings, restaurants, beaches and shopping centers. In San Juan there are tourist attractions, including: Old San Juan, Ocean Park, Isla Verde and Condado.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Places and monuments emphasized in tourism campaigns include: Old San Juan, promoting the historic nature of its colonial buildings and narrow streets covered by cobblestones, a blue stone cast from furnace slag; they were brought over as ballast on Spanish ships. This includes the city's ancient defensive wall and forts, most notably El Morro and the Castillo San Cristóbal. On January 23, 1984, both of these edifices were catalogued as being part of humanity's cultural patrimony. The restaurants and art galleries in the zone are visited by tourists. The local universities are promoted as historic places, most notably the campus of University of Puerto Rico located in Río Piedras, which is the oldest university on the island being founded in 1903.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: An April 2019 report indicated that, by that time, repairs after Hurricane Maria were moving rapidly. Only a few hotels were still closed in San Juan and that life for tourists in and around the capital had, for the most part, returned to normal. By October 2019, nearly all of the popular amenities for tourists, in the major destinations such as San Juan, Ponce and Arecibo, were in operation on the island and tourism was rebounding. This was important for the economy, since tourism provides up 10% of Puerto Rico's GDP, according to Discover Puerto Rico.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: In late November 2019, reports indicated that 90 calls to San Juan by Royal Caribbean ships would be cancelled during 2020 and 2021. This step would mean 360,000 fewer visitors, with a loss to the island's economy of $44 million. As well, 30 ship departures from San Juan were being canceled.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: San Juan is the birthplace of artists and musicians who have significantly influenced Puerto Rican culture. During the 20th century, the musical aspect of the city was influenced by performers including Afro-Caribbean dancer and choreographer Sylvia del Villard and José Enrique Pedreira who became a composer of Puerto Rican "Danzas". International musicians such as opera singer Justino Díaz and Grammy Award winners Ramón Ayala (Daddy Yankee) and Ricky Martin were born in the city. Other notable residents include writers Giannina Braschi and Tomas Blanco, award-winning actors Raul Julia and Benicio del Toro, and comedian José Miguel Agrelot. Rafael Cordero (1790–1868), was influential in the development of Puerto Rican education and has been once renowned as "The Father of Public Education in Puerto Rico".


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The Luis A. Ferré Performing Arts Center (Spanish: "Centro de Bellas Artes Luis A. Ferré") hosts some of the most important musical and artistic events in Puerto Rico. It is home to the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra (PRSO) and hosts the Casals Festival, the most important classical music festival in the Caribbean. The venue also hosts theater and musical performances such as Hamilton, which it hosted in 2019. The Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico is a public music conservatory that hosts Puerto Rican and international students has a longstanding relationship with the classical music movement in the island. The Ateneo Puertorriqueño and the theater of the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras also host important music events.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The city is also the home of contemporary and classic art museums. The Puerto Rico Museum of Art hosts the largest collection of contemporary art in Puerto Rico, housing over 1,100 permanent art pieces and displaying temporary exhibitions containing artwork from various locations through Latin America. The Puerto Rico Museum of Contemporary Art, located in Santurce, specializes in contemporary artwork from Latin America and the Caribbean. The paintings displayed in the permanent exhibition are either acquired by the museum's administrative personnel or donated by artists and collectors. They are judged by a panel of painters, art critics, and scholars before being displayed.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Other museums such as the Pablo Casals Museum, the San Juan Book Museum, the Museum of the Americas, and the National Gallery display historic items and artwork alongside contemporary art. Miscellaneous museums such as the Children's Museum and the Bacardi Distillery (also known as the "Rum Cathedral") in nearby Cataño appeal to different audiences through interactive exhibitions.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Old San Juan is also home to important art museums, such as the Puerto Rico National Gallery, and numerous private art galleries.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: As one of Puerto Rico's 78 municipalities, San Juan's government consists of two branches, the executive and the legislative. Those citizens eligible to vote directly elect the Mayor of San Juan and the municipal assembly for four-year terms. The municipal government is housed in City Hall or "Casa Alcaldia", which is located at 153 San Francisco Street, facing the Plaza de Armas at the center of Old San Juan. City Hall was constructed based on Madrid's City Hall starting in 1604 and finally completed in 1789.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The executive branch is headed by a popularly elected mayor. The office is held by Miguel Romero Lugo who won in the 2020 general election. Miguel Romero Lugo took over from Carmen Yulín Cruz, who was elected at the 2012 general election. Before her, Jorge A. Santini held the position for 12 years. In addition to running the city's day-to-day operations and supervising associated departments, the mayor is responsible for appointing a secretary-auditor and a treasurer. San Juan's Municipal Legislature is made up of 17 municipal legislators, elected at-large, which represent the city's population.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: On March 8, 1948, the city government of San Juan officially adopted as the city's first flag an orange field, in the center of which is the coat of arms of the city. The orange color was based and taken from Father Diego de Torres Vargas' text and it reads:


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: ""Escudo de armas dado a Puerto Rico por los Reyes Católicos en el año de 1511, siendo Procurador un vecino llamado Pedro Moreno. Son : un cordero blanco con su banderilla colorada, sobre un libro, y todo sobre una isla verde, que es la de Puerto Rico, y por los lados una F y una I, que quiere decir Fernando e Isabel, los Reyes Católicos que se las dieron, y hoy se conservan en el estandarte real, que es de damasco anaranjado, con que se ganó la ciudad"".


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: ("Coat of arms given to Puerto Rico by the Catholic Monarchs in the year 1511 being Procurator a "vecino" (citizen) named Pedro Moreno. They are a white lamb with a red flag, on top of a book, and everything above a green island, which is Puerto Rico...which is of orange damask, with which the city was won"). It appears that the color was changed from orange to white at some point.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: San Juan is the territorial capital of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and it is home to the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the Puerto Rican government. San Juan is also the seat of the Puerto Rico Senatorial district I, which is represented by two Senators. The United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico is located in Hato Rey.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: In 2010 there were 201 homicides in San Juan, a rate of around 50 per 100,000 residents. In 2019 they were 172 homicides a rate of 53 per 100,000 residents. Law enforcement in San Juan is the joint responsibility of the Department of Police and Public Safety, also known as the San Juan Police Department and the Puerto Rico Police Department. The Municipal Police, originally known as the "San Juan Municipal Guard", was created in 1521 and had active military and law enforcement functions until 1980, when Act #77 created municipal law enforcement agencies in Puerto Rico. It employs over 1,000 sworn officers plus civilian staff.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Most of Puerto Rico's major newspapers are published in San Juan: El Nuevo Día, Primera Hora, El Vocero and the English-language San Juan Star. Other newspapers published in San Juan are Metro Puerto Rico, Indice and Caribbean Business News.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: San Juan is also home to several of Puerto Rico's major radio stations: WKAQ 580 AM and 105 FM, WPRM Salsoul 99.1 FM, WODA La Nueva 94 FM, Fidelity 95.7 FM, WSKN Radio Isla 1320 AM, WORO Radio Oro 92.5 FM, Salsa Hits Radio, WAPA Radio, WOYE Magic 97.3, WRTU Radio Universidad FM, WIPR 940 AM, Mix 107.7 FM, WTOK Hot 102, AZ Rock, Radio Antillas, etc.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Some of the television states based in San Juan are WKAQ-TV Telemundo/NBC Puerto Rico, WORA Univision Puerto Rico, WAPA-TV, WIPR-TV, WTCV Mega TV, WJPX América TeVé, etc.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: San Juan has been the setting of numerous movies and the city has also been used as a stand-in or substitute for other cities and countries where filming is more expensive, more dangerous or more restrictive. Some of the most popular movies filmed in San Juan are: Woody Allen's Bananas (1971), Captain Ron (1992), Assassins (1995), Amistad (1997), Bad Boys II (2003) standing-in as Havana, (2004) also as Havana, The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009) standing-in as Iraq, The Losers (2010), Fast Five (2011) stading-in as Miami and Rio de Janeiro, (2011) standing-in as Cádiz, Spain, The Rum Diary (2011), 22 Jump Street (2014) standing-in as a Mexican resort, (2016) standing-in as Lagos, Nigeria, Force of Nature (2020), and (2022).


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: San Juan is home to many of Puerto Rico's institutions of higher learning. The University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras Campus is located in San Juan, along with the University of Puerto Rico's Medical Sciences Campus. Other colleges located in San Juan are the University of the Sacred Heart, the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico, the Ana G. Méndez University System's Metropolitan University, the Metropolitan Campus of the Inter American University of Puerto Rico, the Carlos Albizu University, the Evangelic Seminary of Puerto Rico and the Center for Advanced Studies on Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. There are smaller colleges located in the city, including the ICPR Junior College, the "Instituto de Banca y Comercio" and the International Junior College, located in Santurce.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: There are also several technical schools based in San Juan, including the Technological College of San Juan, the "Liceo de Artes y Ciencias", Ramirez College of Business and Technology, and the Puerto Rico Technical Junior College. The Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music and the School of Fine Arts in Old San Juan specialize in education that promotes the fine arts and music.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Also, San Juan is home to 136 public schools operated by the Puerto Rico Department of Education. Most of the specialized schools operated by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico are located in San Juan. These schools emphasize topics such as Science and Math, Radio and Television, Arts, Trade, Music, and Sports, but also include other subjects such as Spanish, English, and Social Studies in their curriculum.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: In addition to dozens of state-run elementary, intermediate, and high schools, the government of the city of San Juan operates two bilingual schools, including one sports-magnet school, the first municipal-run schools in Puerto Rico. Several private schools are located in San Juan, including Robinson and St. John's schools in the Condado, Perpetuo Socorro in Miramar, St. John's Episcopal, Santa Mónica and Academia San Jorge in Santurce, Commonwealth High School, La Merced and Espíritu Santo in Hato Rey, Escuela Josefita Monserrate de Selles, San Antonio, Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola, San José in Río Piedras and Cupeyville, St. Mary's, Boneville and Cupey Maria Montesory School in Cupey.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (SJU), San Juan's primary commercial airport, is located eight miles () from Old San Juan in the neighboring municipality of Carolina. The airport accommodates more than 30 domestic and international airlines and is the busiest airport in the Caribbean. It is often referred to as "The Gateway to the Caribbean" because it serves as the main connection to the island and the rest of the Caribbean for the United States and vice versa.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The area's secondary airport is the Fernando Ribas Dominicci Airport (SIG), located directly across the San Antonio Channel ("Caño San Antonio") from Old San Juan in the Isla Grande district. Dominicci Airport is used mainly by general aviation aircraft, charter flights and some domestic commercial flights. It used to be the city's and also the island of Puerto Rico's main international gateway until the opening of Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport. It is now also widely used by the Isla Grande Flight School and Caribbean Flight Center, the only flight school on the island.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: At 4,300 vehicles per paved mile, San Juan has by far the highest density of vehicles on the road of any city in the world. The city is served by five limited-access expressways and highways and numerous arterial avenues and boulevards but continues to suffer from severe traffic congestion.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The Metropolitan Bus Authority ("Autoridad Metropolitana de Autobuses" or "AMA" in Spanish) provides daily bus transportation to residents of San Juan, Guaynabo, Bayamón, Toa Baja, Trujillo Alto, Cataño and Carolina through 30 fixed routes. Its fleet consists of 277 regular buses and 35 handicap-accessible buses. AMA's ridership is estimated at 112,000 on weekdays.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: In an attempt to decrease vehicle dependency and road congestion, the city built a metro system dubbed "Tren Urbano" ("Urban Train"). The line connects to 16 stations. The project, which opened in late 2004, cost $2.25 billion and was more than $1 billion over budget and four years late. The Tren Urbano has received less ridership than was originally projected and has not significantly reduced the city's automobile traffic, despite a reported 7.5% ridership increase in 2006 over 2005. There is a planned project to build an "interurban light rail system" connecting the cities of San Juan and Caguas.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Increased investment in public transportation, however, has not changed the fact that San Juan is an automobile-reliant city and its fast growth has sparked urban sprawl. As of mid-2010, the government has approved plans for a redesign of this Puerto Rican city, featuring a new mass transit system, new roads and intersections, and more beach-access points. No cars will be allowed inside the oldest part of city (Old San Juan). The plans hope to remedy previous poor urban planning in the oldest section of the city, the Isleta, while curbing reliance on motor vehicles. The plans for redevelopment also hope to make the city more appealing in order to attract new residents, as San Juan has suffered from a shrinking population over the past 60 years.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The Port of San Juan is the fourth busiest seaport in the Western Hemisphere, ranked among the top 17 in the world in terms of container movement. It is also the largest home-based cruise port in the world with over a dozen cruise ships. It is the second busiest port in cruise volume after Miami. It is managed by the Puerto Rico Ports Authority.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: AcuaExpreso is a ferry service in the San Juan Bay, consisting of the Cataño Ferry ("Lancha de Cataño") service between downtown Cataño and Old San Juan, and the "AquaExpress" which connects Old San Juan to Hato Rey and the Tren Urbano.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: San Juan has an elaborate system of triage, hospital, and preventive care health services. The municipal government sponsors regular health fairs in different areas of the city focusing on health care for the elderly and the disabled. There are 20 hospitals in San Juan, half of them operated by the government. The largest hospital in San Juan and most important of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean is the Rio Piedras Medical Center, or Centro Medico de Rio Piedras in Spanish. This hospital, founded in 1956, is operated by the Medical Services Administration of the Department of Health of Puerto Rico. It is made up of eight other hospitals.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The city of San Juan operates 10 hospitals. Of these, nine are Diagnostic and Treatment Centers located in communities throughout San Juan. The main hospital is located at Centro Medico. These 10 hospitals are:


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: Teams based in San Juan have been notably successful in athletic competition. The Santurce Crabbers won the National Superior Basketball League championship in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2003 during this period being recognized as a dynasty. The San Juan Senators and the Santurce Crabbers were the two major baseball teams in the city, winning the championship of the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League a total of 17 times. The Santurce Crabbers are located third among teams with more championships in the Caribbean Series, winning championships in the 1951, 1953, 1955, 1993 and 2000 editions of the tournament. The city has also been the host of events within the sports community; some examples include:


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: The $28 million San Juan Natatorium attracts island-wide and regional swim meets, as well as winter training by top-rated mainland U.S. colleges and universities, including the United States Military Academy at West Point and the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis.


title: San Juan, Puerto Rico

text: In July 2007, the San Juan Golf Academy and its driving range began operating atop the city's former sanitary landfill in Puerto Nuevo, and will eventually include the city's first and only 9-hole golf course.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: The origin of Shia–Sunni relations can be traced back to a dispute over the succession to the Islamic prophet Muhammad as a caliph of the Islamic community. After the death of Muhammad in 632, a group of Muslims, who would come to be known as the Sunnis, believed that Muhammad's successor should be Abu Bakr, whereas a second group of Muslims, who would come to be known as the Shias, believed that his successor should have been Ali. This dispute spread across various parts of the Muslim world, which eventually led to the Battle of Jamal and Battle of Siffin. Sectarianism based on this historic dispute intensified greatly after the Battle of Karbala, in which Husayn ibn Ali and some of his close partisans, including members of his household, were killed by the ruling Umayyad Caliph Yazid I, and the outcry for revenge divided the early Islamic community, albeit disproportionately, into two groups, the Sunni and the Shia. This is known today as the Islamic schism.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: The present demographic breakdown between the two denominations is difficult to assess and varies by source, with most approximations stating that 90% of the world's Muslims are Sunni and 10% are Shia, with most Shias belonging to the Twelver tradition and the rest divided between many other groups. Sunnis are a majority in almost all Muslim communities around the world. Shia make up the majority of the citizen population in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, and Azerbaijan, as well as being a minority in Pakistan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Chad and Kuwait.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Today, there are differences in religious practice, traditions, and customs, often related to jurisprudence. Although all Muslim groups consider the Quran to be divine, Sunni and Shia have different opinions on hadith.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: In recent years, Sunni–Shia relations have been increasingly marked by conflict, particularly the Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict. Sectarian violence persists to this day from Pakistan to Yemen and is a major element of friction throughout the Middle East and South Asia. Tensions between communities have intensified during power struggles, such as the Bahraini uprising, the Iraqi Civil War, the Syrian Civil War, the War in Iraq (2013–2017), and the formation of the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq and Syria that has launched a genocide against Shias.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Sunni Muslims are the vast majority of Muslims in most Muslim communities in Central Asia (including China), Europe (including Russia and the Balkans), South Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, Arab World, Turkey and among Muslims in the United States where in Shias are approximately 10%.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Shias make up the majority of the Muslim population in Iran (around 90%), Azerbaijan (around 65%), Iraq (around 55%) and Bahrain (around 60% of the citizens, excluding expatriates). Shia communities are also found in Yemen where a large minority of the population are Shia (mostly of the Zaidi sect), according to the UNHCR. Sources put the numbers of Shias in Yemen at 25-30%. About 10% of Turkey's population belong to the Alevi sect. The Shia constitute around 20% of Kuwait, 45% of the Muslim population in Lebanon, 10% of Saudi Arabia, 12% of Syria, and 10% of Pakistan. Around 10% of Afghanistan, less than 5% of the Muslims in Nigeria, and around 5% of population of Tajikistan are Shia.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: The Mahdi is the prophesied redeemer of Islam. While Shias and Sunnis differ on the nature of the Mahdi, many members of both groups believe that the Mahdi will appear at the end of the world to bring about a perfect and just Islamic society.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: In Shia Islam, "the Mahdi symbol has developed into a powerful and central religious idea." Twelvers believe the Mahdi will be Muhammad al-Mahdi, the twelfth Imam returned from the Occultation, where he has been hidden by Allah since 874. In contrast, mainstream Sunnis believe the Mahdi will be named Muhammad, be a descendant of Muhammad, and will revive the faith, and forms an important component of Sunni eschatology, his appearance being considered the last of the minor signs of the Day of Judgment before its major signs.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: The Shias accept some of the same "hadiths" used by Sunnis as part of the "sunnah" to argue their case. In addition, they consider the sayings of "Ahl al-Bayt" that are not attributed directly to Muhammad as hadiths. Shias do not accept many Sunni hadiths unless they are also recorded in Shia sources or the methodology can be proven of how they were recorded. Also, some Sunni-accepted hadith are less favored by Shias; one example is that because of Aisha's opposition to Ali, hadiths narrated by Aisha are not given the same authority as those by other companions. Another example is hadith narrated by Abu Hurairah, who is considered by Shias as an enemy of Ali. The Shia argument is that Abu Hurairah was only a Muslim for four years of his life before Muhammad's death. Although he accompanied Muhammad for four years only, he managed to record ten times as many hadiths as Abu Bakr and Ali each.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Shiism and Sufism are said to share a number of hallmarks: Belief in an inner meaning to the Quran, special status for some mortals (saints for Sufi, Imams for Shias), as well as veneration of Ali and Muhammad's family.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: The Five Pillars of Islam (Arabic: أركان الإسلام) is the term given to the five duties incumbent on every Muslim. These duties are "Shahada" (profession of faith), salat (prayers), "Zakāt" (giving of alms), "Sawm" (fasting, specifically during Ramadan) and Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca). These five practices are essential to Sunni and Shia Muslims. Shia theology has two concepts that define religion as a whole. There are Roots of Religion ("Usūl al-Dīn") and Branches of Religion ("Furu al Din").


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: When prostrating during ritual prayer called Salah in Arabic. Shias place their forehead onto a piece of naturally occurring material, most often a clay tablet ("mohr"), soil ("turbah") at times from Karbala, the place where Hussein ibn Ali was martyred, instead of directly onto prayer rug.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Some Shia perform prayers more than once in quick succession (1+2+2 i.e. "fajr" on its own "Dhuhr" with "Asr" and "Maghrib" with "Isha'"), thus praying five times a day but with a very small break in between the prayer, instead of five prayers with some gap between them as required by Sunni schools of law.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Shias and the followers of the Sunni Maliki school hold their hands at their sides during prayer; Sunnis of other schools cross their arms (right over left) and clasp their hands; it is commonly held by Sunni scholars especially of Maliki school that either is acceptable.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Twelver Shia as the main branch of Shia Islam permit "Nikah mut‘ah"—fixed-term temporary marriage—which is not acceptable within the Sunni community, the Ismaili Shia or the Zaidi Shia and is believed a planned and agreed fornication. Twelvers believe that Mutah was permitted until Umar forbade it during his rule. Mutah is not the same as "Misyar" marriage or " 'Arfi" marriage, which has no date of expiration and is permitted by some Sunnis. A Misyar marriage differs from a conventional Islamic marriage in that the man does not have financial responsibility of the woman by her own free will. The man can divorce the woman whenever he wants to in a Misyar marriage.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Both Sunni and Shia women wear the "hijab". Devout women of the Shia traditionally wear black and yellow as do some Sunni women in the Persian Gulf. Some Shia religious leaders also wear a black robe. Mainstream Shia and Sunni women wear the "hijab" differently. Some Sunni scholars emphasize covering of all body including the face in public whereas some scholars exclude the face from hijab. Shias believe that the hijab must cover around the perimeter of the face and up to the chin. Like Sunnis, some Shia women, such as those in Iran and Iraq, use their hand to hold the black "chador", in order to cover their faces when in public.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Shia are sometimes recognizable by their names, which are often derived from the names of Ahl al-Bayt. In particular, the names Fatima, Zaynab, Ali, Abbas, Hussein, and Hassan are disproportionately common among Shias, though they may also be used by Sunnis. Umar, Uthman, Abu Bakr, Aisha, Muawiya, being the names of figures recognized by Sunnis but not Shias, are commonly used as names for Sunnis but are very rare, if not virtually absent, for Shias.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: The origin of Shia Islam initially arose in response to the succession to Muhammad, and whether Ali ibn Abi Talib or a more experienced member of the Quraysh tribe should succeed. The concept of Shi'ism further crystallized around events at the Battle of Karbala, where Husayn ibn Ali, the son of Ali and grandson of the prophet, was killed alongside many of his supporters. Thus a political split became a far more personal one, marked by blood feud, and a cause for further divergence.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Even so, by the thirteenth to fourtheenth century, Sunni and Shiite practices remained highly intertwined and figures today commonly associated with Shia Islam, such as Ali and Jafar al-Sadiq, played an almost universal role for Muslim believers to understand the unseen ("Al-Ghaib").


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: The Umayyads were overthrown in 750 by a new dynasty, the Abbasids. The first Abbasid caliph, As-Saffah, recruited Shia support in his campaign against the Umayyads by emphasising his blood relationship to Muhammad's household through descent from his uncle, ‘Abbas ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib. The Shia also believe that he promised them that the Caliphate, or at least religious authority, would be vested in the Shia Imam. As-Saffah assumed both the temporal and religious mantle of Caliph himself. He continued the Umayyad dynastic practice of succession, and his brother al-Mansur succeeded him in 754.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Ja'far al-Sadiq, the sixth Shia Imam, died during al-Mansur's reign, and there were claims that he was murdered on the orders of the caliph. (However, Abbasid persecution of Islamic scholars was not restricted to the Shia. Abū Ḥanīfa, for example, was imprisoned by al-Mansur and tortured.)


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Shia sources further claim that by the orders of the tenth Abbasid caliph, al-Mutawakkil, the tomb of the third Imam, Hussein ibn Ali in Karbala, was completely demolished, and Shias were sometimes beheaded in groups, buried alive, or even placed alive within the walls of government buildings still under construction.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: The Shia believe that their community continued to live for the most part in hiding and followed their religious life secretly without external manifestations.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Many Shia Iranians migrated to what is now Iraq in the 16th century. "It is said that when modern Iraq was formed, some of the population of Karbala was Iranian". In time, these immigrants adopted the Arabic language and Arab identity, but their origin has been used to "unfairly cast them as lackeys of Iran". However many of these Shias come from Sayyid families with origins in tribes from Iraq, Lebanon and Bahrain, one of said tribes being al-Musawi, and two prevalent families that are descended from it and lived in Iran for some time before settling in Iraq are the al-Qazwini and al-Shahristani families. Other Iraqi Shias are ethnic Arabs with roots in Iraq as deep as those of their Sunni counterparts.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Shafi'i Sunnism was the dominant form of Islam in most of Iran until rise of the Safavid Empire although a significant undercurrent of Ismailism and a very large minority of Twelvers were present all over Persia.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: The Sunni hegemony did not undercut the Shia presence in Iran. The writers of the Shia Four Books were Iranian, as were many other scholars. According to Morteza Motahhari:


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: The domination of the Sunni creed during the first nine Islamic centuries characterizes the religious history of Iran during this period. There were some exceptions to this general domination which emerged in the form of the Zaidis of Tabaristan, the Buwayhid, the rule of the Sultan Muhammad Khudabandah (r. 1304–1316) and the Sarbedaran. Nevertheless, apart from this domination there existed, firstly, throughout these nine centuries, Shia inclinations among many Sunnis of this land and, secondly, Twelver and Zaidi Shiism had prevalence in some parts of Iran. During this period, the Shia in Iran were nourished from Kufa, Baghdad and later from Najaf and Al Hillah. Shia were dominant in Tabaristan, Qom, Kashan, Avaj and Sabzevar. In many other areas the population of Shias and Sunni was mixed.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: The first Zaidi state was established in Daylaman and Tabaristan (northern Iran) in 864 by the Alavids; it lasted until the death of its leader at the hand of the Samanids in 928. Roughly forty years later the state was revived in Gilan (north-western Iran) and survived under Hasanid leaders until 1126. After which from the 12th-13th centuries, the Zaidis of Daylaman, Gilan and Tabaristan then acknowledge the Zaidi Imams of Yemen or rival Zaidi Imams within Iran.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: The Buyids, who were Zaidi and had a significant influence not only in the provinces of Persia but also in the capital of the caliphate in Baghdad, and even upon the caliph himself, provided a unique opportunity for the spread and diffusion of Shia thought. This spread of Shiism to the inner circles of the government enabled the Shia to withstand those who opposed them by relying upon the power of the caliphate.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Twelvers came to Iran from Arab regions in the course of four stages. First, through the Asharis at the end of the 7th and during the 8th century. Second through the pupils of Sabzevar, and especially those of Al-Shaykh Al-Mufid, who were from Rey and Sabzawar and resided in those cities. Third, through the school of Hillah under the leadership of Al-Hilli and his son Fakhr al-Muhaqqiqin. Fourth, through the scholars of Jabal Amel residing in that region, or in Iraq, during the 16th and 17th centuries who later migrated to Iran.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: On the other hand, the Ismaili da‘wah ("missionary institution") sent missionaries ("du‘āt", sg. "dā‘ī") during the Fatimid Caliphate to Persia. When the Ismailis divided into two sects, Nizaris established their base in northern Persia. Hassan-i Sabbah conquered fortresses and captured Alamut in 1090. Nizaris used this fortress until the Mongols finally seized and destroyed it in 1256.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: After the Mongols and the fall of the Abbasids, the Sunni Ulama suffered greatly. In addition to the destruction of the caliphate there was no official Sunni school of law. Many libraries and madrasahs were destroyed and Sunni scholars migrated to other Islamic areas such as Anatolia and Egypt. In contrast, most Shia were largely unaffected as their center was not in Iran at this time. For the first time, the Shia could openly convert other Muslims to their movement.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Several local Shia dynasties like the Marashi and Sarbadars were established during this time. The kings of the Kara Koyunlu dynasty ruled in Tabriz with a domain extending to Fars and Kerman. In Egypt the Fatimid government ruled.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Muhammad Khudabandah, the famous builder of Soltaniyeh, was among the first of the Mongols to convert to Shiaism, and his descendants ruled for many years in Persia and were instrumental in spreading Shī‘ī thought. Sufism played a major role in spread of Shiism in this time.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Ismail I initiated a religious policy to recognize Shiism as the official religion of the Safavid Empire, and the fact that modern Iran and Azerbaijan remain majority-Shia states is a direct result of Ismail's actions.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Unfortunately for Ismail, most of his subjects were Sunni. He thus had to enforce official Shiism violently, putting to death those who opposed him. Under this pressure, Safavid subjects either converted or pretended to convert, but it is safe to say that the majority of the population was probably genuinely Shia by the end of the Safavid period in the 18th century, and most Iranians today are Shia, although there is still a Sunni minority.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: This led to a wide gap between Iran and its Sunni neighbors, particularly its rival, the Ottoman Empire, in the wake of the Battle of Chaldiran. This gap continued until the 20th century.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: The Shia faith in the Levant started spreading during the Hamdanid rule, which commenced in the start of the 10th century. It was followed by the Mirdasid Shi'ite emirate in the 11th century, with both the emirates centered at Aleppo.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: The general observations recorded by Muslim travellers passing through the Levant during the tenth and eleventh centuries, notably al-Maqdisi in his geographical works, “The best divisions in the knowledge of the regions”, as well as Ibn Jubayr, indicate that Shia Muslims made up the majority of the populations of the regions of the Levant during this era, notably in the cities of Damascus, Tiberias, Nablus, Tyre, Homs and Jabal Amel. In addition to the account of Nasir Khusraw who visited Jerusalem in the year 1045 AD and reported: "The population of Jerusalem is about 20,000, the populace being mostly Shi'a Muslims". However, with the advent of the Zengids and Ayyubids, the population of Shias dwindled greatly due to conversion and migrations.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: In 1305, the Sunni Mamelukes carried out a grand campaign to erase the Shiite dominance in the coastal mountains of Lebanon. This campaign forced most of the Shiites to disperse, with some fleeing south to Jabal Amel and some to the Bekaa, while a very small portion of them took on the practice of Taqiyya until the Ottomans came in 1517. Many Shias in the Levant were killed for their faith. One of these was Muhammad Ibn Makki, called "Shahid-i Awwal (the First Martyr)", one of the great figures in Shia jurisprudence, who was killed in Damascus in 1384.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi was another eminent scholar, killed in Aleppo on charges of cultivating Batini teachings and philosophy.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: On 21 April 1802, about 12,000 Wahhabi Sunnis under the command of Abdul-Aziz bin Muhammad, the second ruler of the First Saudi State attacked and sacked Karbala, killed between 2,000 and 5,000 inhabitants and plundered the tomb of Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of Prophet Muhammad and son of Ali ibn Abi Talib, and destroyed its dome, seizing a large quantity of spoils, including gold, Persian carpets, money, pearls, and guns that had accumulated in the tomb, most of them donations. The attack lasted for eight hours, after which the Wahhabis left the city with more than 4,000 camels carrying their plunder.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: The Sack of Shamakhi took place on 18 August 1721, when 15,000 Sunni Lezgins, of the Safavid Empire, attacked the capital of Shirvan province, Shamakhi (in present-day Azerbaijan Republic), massacred between 4,000 and 5,000 of its Shia population and ransacked the city.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Sunni razzias which came to be known as "Taarajs" virtually devastated the community. History records 10 such Taarajs also known as "Taraj-e-Shia" between the 15th and 19th centuries in 1548, 1585, 1635, 1686, 1719, 1741, 1762, 1801, 1830, 1872 during which the Shia habitations were plundered, people slaughtered, libraries burnt and their sacred sites desecrated.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Shia in India faced persecution by some Sunni rulers and Mughal Emperors which resulted in the killings of Shia scholars like Qazi Nurullah Shustari (also known as "Shaheed-e-Thaalis", the third Martyr) and Mirza Muhammad Kamil Dehlavi (also known as" Shaheed-e- Rabay", the fourth Martyr) who are two of the five martyrs of Shia Islam. Shias in Kashmir in subsequent years had to pass through the most atrocious period of their history.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Sunni–Shia clashes also occurred occasionally in the 20th century in India. There were many between 1904 and 1908. These clashes revolved around the public cursing of the first three caliphs by Shias and the praising of them by Sunnis. To put a stop to the violence, public demonstrations were banned in 1909 on the three most sensitive days: Ashura, Chehlum and Ali's death on 21 Ramadan. Intercommunal violence resurfaced in 1935–36 and again in 1939 when many thousands of Sunni and Shias defied the ban on public demonstrations and took to the streets. Shias are estimated to be 10-15% of the Muslim population in India and Pakistan and less than 1% of Muslim population in Bangladesh, although the total number is difficult to estimate due to the intermingling between the two groups and practice of "taqiyya" by Shia.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: In addition to Iran, Iraq has emerged as a major Shia government when the Twelvers achieved political dominance in 2005 under American occupation. The two communities have often remained separate, mingling regularly only during the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca. In some countries like Iraq, Syria, Kuwait and Bahrain, communities have mingled and intermarried. Some Shia have complained of mistreatment in countries dominated by Sunnis, especially in Saudi Arabia, while some Sunnis have complained of discrimination in the Twelver-dominated states of Iraq and Iran.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Some tension developed between Sunnis and Shia as a result of clashes over Iranian pilgrims and Saudi police at the hajj. Millions of Saudi adhere to the school of Salafism which is a branch of Sunni Islam.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: According to some reports, as of mid-2013, the Syrian Civil War has become "overtly sectarian" with the "sectarian lines fall most sharply" between Alawites and Sunnis. With the involvement of Lebanese Shia paramilitary group Hezbollah, the fighting in Syria has reignited "long-simmering tensions between Sunnis and Shi’ites" spilling over into Lebanon and Iraq. Bulgaria's ex-Ambassador Dimitar Mihaylov further claims that the current post-Arab Spring situation (encompassing ISIS, the Syrian civil war, Yemen, Iraq and others) represents a "qualitatively new" development in the history of Shi'a-Sunni dynamics. Historically, the inner rifts within Islamic ideology were to be hidden from the public sphere, while the new violent outbreaks highlight said rift in an obvious manner and is nourished by the two extremes of their mutual rivalry which will strongly affect both globally and regionally.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: At least one scholar sees the period from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire through the decline of Arab nationalism as a time of relative unity and harmony between traditionalist Sunni and Shia Muslims—unity brought on by a feeling of being under siege from a common threat, secularism, first of the European colonial variety and then Arab nationalist.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: An example of Sunni–Shia cooperation was the Khilafat Movement which swept South Asia following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the seat of the Caliphate, in World War I. Shia scholars "came to the caliphate's defence" by attending the 1931 Caliphate Conference in Jerusalem, although they were theologically opposed to the idea that non-imams could be caliphs or successors to Muhammad, and that the caliphate was "the flagship institution" of Sunni, not Shia, authority. This has been described as unity of traditionalists in the face of the twin threats of "secularism and colonialism."


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: In these years Allama Muhammad Taqi Qummi travelled to Cairo and started his efforts for reforming Islamic unity at Al-Azhar University, since 1938. Finally, his efforts and contacting with scholars such as Mahmud Shaltut and Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi led to the founding of Dar-al-Taghrib (community for reforming unity between Sunni and Shia Muslims).


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Another example of unity was a fatwā issued by the rector of Al-Azhar University, Mahmud Shaltut, recognizing Shia Islamic law as the fifth school of Islamic law. In 1959, al-Azhar University in Cairo, the most influential center of Sunni learning, authorized the teaching of courses of Shia jurisprudence as part of its curriculum.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: The year of the Iranian Islamic Revolution was "one of great ecumenical discourse", and shared enthusiasm by both Shia and Sunni Islamists.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: After the Iranian Revolution and the fall of Pahlavi dynasty, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini endeavored to bridge the gap between Shiites and Sunnis by declaring it permissible for Twelvers to pray behind Sunni imams and by forbidding criticizing the Caliphs who preceded Ali—an issue that had caused much animosity between the two groups. In addition, he designated the period of Prophet's Birthday celebrations from 12th to the 17th of Rabi Al-Awwal as the "Islamic Unity Week", there being a gap in the dates of when Shiites and Sunnis celebrate Muhammad's birthday.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Following this period, Sunni–Shia strife has seen a major upturn, particularly in Iraq and Pakistan, leading to thousands of deaths. Among the explanations for the increase are conspiracies by outside forces to divide Muslims, the recent Islamic revival and increased religious purity and consequent takfir, upheaval, destruction and loss of power of Sunni caused by the US invasion of Iraq, and sectarianism generated by Arab regimes defending themselves against the mass uprisings of the Arab Spring.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Many in the Muslim world explain the bloodshed as the work of conspiracies by outside forces—"the forces of hegemony and Zionism which aim to weaken [Arabs]" (Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Yusuf al-Qaradawi), unspecified "enemies" (Iran president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad), or "oppressive pressure by the imperialist front." (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad).


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Some Western analysts assert that the US is practicing divide and rule strategy through the escalation of Sunni-Shia conflict. Nafeez Ahmed cites a 2008 RAND Corporation study for the American military which recommended "divide and rule" as a possible strategy against the Muslim world in "the Long War." Dr. Christopher Davidson argues that the current crisis in Yemen is being “egged on” by the US, and could be part of a wider covert strategy to “spur fragmentation in Iran allies and allow Israel to be surrounded by weak states”.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Others lay the blame for the strife at a very different source, the unintended effects of the Islamic revival. According to scholar Vali Nasr, as the Muslim world was decolonialised and Arab nationalism lost its appeal, fundamentalism blossomed and reasserted the differences and conflicts between the two movements, particularly in the strict teachings of Sunni scholar Ibn Taymiyyah. The Iranian Islamic revolution changed the Shia–Sunni power equation in Muslim countries "from Lebanon to India" arousing the traditionally subservient Shia to the alarm of traditionally dominant and very non-revolutionary Sunni. "Where Iranian revolutionaries saw Islamic revolutionary stirrings, Sunnis saw mostly Shia mischief and a threat to Sunni predominance."


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Although the Iranian revolution's leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, was very much in favor of Shia–Sunni unity, he also challenged Saudi Arabia, in his view an "unpopular and corrupt dictatorship" and an "American lackey" ripe for revolution. In part because Saudi Arabia was the world's major international funder of Islamic schools, scholarships, and fellowships, this angered not only Saudi Arabia but its many fundamentalist allies and benefactors throughout the Arab world, according to Nasr.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Another effect noted by political scientist Gilles Kepel, is that the initial attraction of the Islamic Revolution to Sunnis as well as Shia, and Khomeini's desire to export his revolution, motivated the Saudi establishment to shore up its "religious legitimacy" with more strictness in religion (and with jihad in Afghanistan) to compete with Iran's revolutionary ideology. But doing so in Saudi meant a more anti-Shia policies because Saudi's own native Sunni school of Islam is Wahhabism, which includes the prohibition of Shia Islam itself, as strict Wahhabis do not consider Shia to be Islamic. This new strictness was spread not only among Saudis in the kingdom but thousands of students and Saudi funded schools and international Islamist volunteers who came to training camps in Peshawar Pakistan in the 1980s to learn to fight jihad in Afghanistan and went home in the 1990s to fight jihad. Both groups (especially in Iraq and Pakistan) saw Shia as the enemy. Thus, although the Iranian revolution's leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, was very much in favor of Shia–Sunni unity, and "the leadership position that went with it", his revolution worked against it.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: From the Iranian Revolution to 2015, Shia groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, supported by Iran have recently won "important political victories" which have boosted Iran's regional influence.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: In Lebanon, Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia militia and political movement is the "strongest political actor" in the country. Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq removed Saddam Hussein from power and instituted elected government, the Shia majority has dominated the parliament and its prime ministers have been Shia. In Syria, a Shia minority—the heterodox Alawi sect that makes up only about 13 percent of the population—dominate the upper reaches of the government, military and security services in Syria, and are the "backbone" of the forces fighting to protect the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria's civil war. In Yemen, Houthi rebels have expanded their territory south of Saudi Arabia, and become the country's "dominant power".


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Olivier Roy, research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, sees the "Shia awakening and its instrumentalisation by Iran" as leading to a "very violent Sunni reaction", starting first in Pakistan before spreading to "the rest of the Muslim world, without necessarily being as violent." According to Roy, "two events created a sea change in the balance of power between Shia and Sunnis: the Islamic revolution in Iran and the American military intervention in Iraq" in 2003. "Today, Azerbaijan is probably the only country where there are still mixed mosques and Shia and Sunnis pray together."


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: From 1994 to 2014 satellite television and high-speed Internet has spread "hate speech" against both Sunni and Shia. Fundamentalist Sunni clerics have popularized slurs against Shia such as "Safawis" (from the Safavid empire, thus implying their being an Iranian agents), or even worse "rafidha" (rejecters of the faith), and "majus" (Zoroastrian or crypto Persian). In turn, Shia religious scholars have "mocked and cursed" the first three caliphs and Aisha, Mohammed's youngest wife who fought against Ali.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Among those blaming the US invasion of Iraq are Fawaz Gerges, who writes in his book "ISIS: A History",


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: By destroying state institutions and establishing a sectarian-based political system, the 2003 US-led invasion polarized the country along Sunni-Shia lines and set the stage for a fierce, prolonged struggle driven by identity politics. Anger against the United States was also fueled by the humiliating disbandment of the Iraqi army and the de-Baathification law, which was first introduced as a provision and then turned into a permanent article of the constitution.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Malise Ruthven writes that the post invasion de-Ba'athification by the US occupiers deprived Iraq of "the officer class and administrative cadres that had ruled under Saddam Hussein, leaving the field to sectarian-based militias". Many of officers joined the anti-Shia takfiri ISIL group.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: The US-led invasion also “tilted the regional balance of power decisively" in favor of Shia Iran, alarming Sunni and leading to talk of a “Shia Crescent”.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Marc Lynch in his book "The New Arab Wars: Uprisings and Anarchy in the Middle East", argues that as old regimes or political forces sought to control "the revolutionary upsurge" of the Arab Spring, sectarianism became “a key weapon” to undermine unity among the anti-regime masses. Christians were pitted "against Muslims in Egypt, Jordanians against Palestinians in Jordan, and, above all, Sunnis against Shi’ites wherever possible.”


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: Shia–Sunni discord in Iraq starts with disagreement over the relative population of the two groups. According to most sources, including the CIA's "World Factbook", the majority of Iraqis are Shia Arab Muslims (60%), and Sunni muslims represent between 37% of the population. However, Sunni are split ethnically among Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen. Many Sunnis hotly dispute their minority status, including ex-Iraqi Ambassador Faruq Ziada, and many believe Shia majority is "a myth spread by America". One Sunni belief shared by Jordan's King Abdullah as well as his then Defense Minister Shaalan is that Shia numbers in Iraq were inflated by Iranian Shias crossing the border. Shia scholar Vali Nasr believes the election turnout in summer and December 2005 confirmed a strong Shia majority in Iraq.


title: Shia–Sunni relations

text: The British, having put down a Shia rebellion against their rule in the 1920s, "confirmed their reliance on a corps of Sunni ex-officers of the collapsed Ottoman empire". The British colonial rule ended after the Sunni and Shia united against it.