This article seeks to present and discuss some issues concerning the relationship between ethnic and religious identity in the case of the Muslim community of Buenaventura. It seeks to show that religious identity has not only been constructed in relation to ethnicity, but that both have served to generate mobilization strategies. To that purpose, based on narratives and typical acts of the Twelver Shia Islam, elements from the Nation of Islam have been kept, at the same time as myths and traditions have been reelaborated in order to adapt them to the bonaverense local vision. Such actions do not only refer to spiritual and collective identity pursuits, but they also allow the development of action agendas within the community. The data used in this paper comes from two fieldworks conducted in February and April 2011, as well as from the sermons (khutbahs) drawn up by the leader of the community