Latina Converts to Islam Growing in Number

WOMENSENEWS: NEW YORK -- For Zainab Ismail, a Bronx-born Hispanic woman, the turning point came in March 2009 after a wedding ceremony at a Catholic church.

"For some unknown reason, obviously now I know it was Allah--God--putting that thought and feeling in my heart, I no longer wanted to be Catholic. I didn't know what I wanted to be but I no longer wanted to be Catholic," Ismail recalls.

Less than three months later, Ismail embraced Islam and converted in June 2009.

"As a Latina, you are raised, if you got it, to show it, to flaunt it as much as possible," says Ismail, 44, raised in a Puerto Rican Catholic family.

Now she shows very little of her skin. Instead she wears the hijab, the Islamic veil or headscarf.

Since the 9/11 tragedy, the Hispanic community in the United States has witnessed a significant rise in conversions to Islam, especially among women, says Imam Shamsi Ali, a Muslim scholar and imam of the 96th street mosque in Manhattan, on the border of the city's Upper East Side and Harlem. They are "mostly educated, young and professional women."

Although 9/11 incited bias and discrimination against Muslims, many non-Muslims, who some had never heard about Islam, also started to question the meaning of the religion, explains Ali.

The percentage of new female converts to Islam in the U.S. has increased 9 percent since 2000, from 32 percent to 41 percent, according to the 2011 U.S. Mosque Survey, which interviewed leaders at 524 mosques across the country. Latinos--men and women--accounted for 12 percent of all new converts in the United States in 2011.

In 2006, the number of Hispanic Muslims was estimated at about 200,000 by the American Muslim Council, which has not provided any new figures since then. » | Hajer Naili | WeNews correspondent | Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Latina Immigrants: The New Ambassadors of Islam

NEW AMERICA MEDIA: Tucked away in a quiet rural neighborhood in Somerset, New Jersey is an old brownstone that houses the New Jersey Chapter of the Islamic Center of North America’s (ICNA) WhyIslam Project. Within its confines, in a second floor office decorated with rose-colored walls, sits the administrative assistant and only female employee of the department, Nahela Morales.


 In a long black garment and gray headscarf, Morales sits in front of a computer entering notes and taking phone calls from the program’s hotline, 1-877-WhyIslam, a resource for individuals hoping to learn more about the religion. A Mexican immigrant and recent convert, Morales is the national Spanish-language outreach coordinator for the program, part of ICNA’s mission to disseminate information about Islam nationwide.


 But Morales’ efforts go beyond U.S. borders: the 37-year-old recently led a trip to bring Islamic literature, food and clothing to her native Mexico.

Morales, who was born in Mexico City but later moved to California and then New York, is part of a growing population of immigrant Muslim converts from Latin America – many of them women -- now helping to bring the religion back to their home countries. 
 » | Wendy Diaz | Friday, January 18, 2013

Obama Introduces Sotomayor as Court Pick
President Barack Obama with Judge Sonia Sotomayor, right, his nominee for the Supreme Court. Photo courtesy of The Wall Street Journal
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama Tuesday introduced Federal Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor as his first nominee for the Supreme Court, hailing "an extraordinary woman" who would bring to the nation's highest court "the wisdom accumulated from an inspiring life's journey."

A beaming Judge Sotomayor, 54 years old, called herself "an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunity and experience."

The emotional introduction in the White House's East Room set the stage for a Supreme Court confirmation process that the White House hopes will go smoothly and quickly. As the first Hispanic nominee for the Supreme Court, Ms. Sotomayor's candidacy is historic.

But conservatives are itching for a fight. Wendy E. Long, counsel for the conservative Judicial Confirmation Network, denounced the president's nominee as "a liberal judicial activist of the first order, who thinks her own personal political agenda is more important than the law as written."

The White House introduction was designed to head off that fight, with a moving recitation of Ms. Sotomayor's rise from the housing projects of the Bronx and an assurance from the president that his choice was based on "rigorous intellect" and a "recognition of the limits of the judicial role."

A judge's job, Mr. Obama said, is "to interpret, not make, law."

But Mr. Obama didn't shy from challenging the right on what he called a final ingredient necessary to make a great justice: life experiences overcoming obstacles that would grant his nominee "a common touch and a sense of compassion."

Conservatives have said Mr. Obama's emphasis on a justice with "empathy" would ensure that his nominee would be an activist, seeking judgments that favor underdogs without deference to the facts and law. >>> By Jonathan Weisman | Tuesday, May 26, 2009

TIMES ONLINE: Barack Obama Names Hispanic Sonia Sotomayor as New Supreme Court Judge

President Obama has named Sonia Sotomayor, the federal appeals judge, as America’s first Hispanic Supreme Court justice, a woman with a remarkable personal story that began on a housing project in the south Bronx.

If confirmed by the Senate Judge Sotomayor, 54, whose parents came from Puerto Rico, will also become only the third woman to serve on America’s highest court. Within minutes of the announcement conservatives said that they were preparing to do battle over a judge they accuse of being a liberal activist.

Judge Sotomayor, who was inspired to become a judge after watching the Perry Mason courtroom dramas as a child, had diabetes diagnosed at 8 and lost her father, a factory worker, the following year. She and her brother were raised by their mother, a nurse in a methadone clinic, in the Bronxdale housing project. She graduated from Princeton University summa cum laude in 1976, and from Yale Law School in 1979. She is divorced with no children.

In making the first Supreme Court nomination by a Democratic president in 15 years, Mr Obama has said that the most important quality he was looking for was someone with empathy for ordinary citizens. Announcing his choice in the White House he said: “Even as she has accomplished so much in her life she has never forgotten where she began, never lost touch with the community that supported her. What Sonia will bring to the court is not only the experience acquired over the course of a brilliant legal career but the wisdom accumulated from an inspiring life’s journey.” >>> Tim Reid in Washington | Wednesday, May 27, 2009