Why Latinos Are Converting to Islam

Jan 17, 2019 • Latinos are one of the fastest growing groups within Islam in America. VICE's Lee Adams travels to Houston Texas, the home of America's first Islam in Spanish center, to investigate what’s behind this phenomenon and how America’s current political climate might be related.

As a former gang leader, Jaime "Mujahid" Fletcher claims that Islam saved his life, inspiring him to found the Islam in Spanish center. He dedicated himself to translating Muslim texts for a Spanish-speaking audience.

We spoke to Jaime and other recent Latino Muslim converts to find out why two of America’s most discriminated groups are coming together.

Why Latinos Are Converting to Islam

Latinos are one of the fastest growing groups within Islam in America. VICE's Lee Adams travels to Houston Texas, the home of America's first Islam in Spanish center, to investigate what’s behind this phenomenon and how America’s current political climate might be related.

As a former gang leader, Jaime "Mujahid" Fletcher claims that Islam saved his life, inspiring him to found the Islam in Spanish center. He dedicated himself to translating Muslim texts for a Spanish-speaking audience.

We spoke to Jaime and other recent Latino Muslim converts to find out why two of America’s most discriminated groups are coming together.

Latinos Converting to Islam for Identity, Structure

VOICE OF AMERICA: MIAMI— Latinos are one of the fastest growing groups in the Muslim religion.

According to the organization whyIslam.org, about 6 percent of American Muslims are Latino.

And according to Latino American Dawah Organization (LADO), a group that promotes Latino conversions, a little more than half of new converts are female.

Greisa Torres arrived in Miami four years ago from Cuba.

While she felt at home in the Florida city, where two out of the three residents are Hispanic, Torres says she lost her identity in the move and found it in the Prophet Muhammad. » | Carolyn Presutti | Saturday, October 18, 2014

CrossTalk: Rising Latinos

How are relations between Latin America and the US developing? Can Latin America challenge US influence? What does each party stand to lose in this contest? CrossTalking with Alejandro Sanchez and Mark Weisbrot.

Obama's Lead Over Romney Among Latinos Widening

LOS ANGELES TIMES: President Obama's advantage among Latino voters is getting larger, a new poll suggests, even as Mitt Romney's campaign released what it said was its ninth ad in Spanish.

The poll by Latino Decisions, released Wednesday, showed support for Obama rising to 70% of registered Latino voters, compared with 22% for Romney. If that margin held until the election, it could play a significant role in battleground states with sizable Latino populations, such as Florida, Nevada and Colorado.

Romney isn't ceding the Latino vote, though. He has used Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as a surrogate, and has not discouraged speculation that Rubio could be a vice presidential pick. And his latest Spanish-language ad features his son, Craig, who learned fluent Spanish as a missionary, and makes mention of something Mitt Romney rarely speaks about: the fact that his father, George Romney, was born in.Mexico. » | Mitchell Landsberg | Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Whitewashing the Past
YNET NEWS: Op-ed: New criminal Germany emerging, with anti-Semitism shifting to anti-Israel views

Forty-seven percent of Germans are of the opinion that Israel is exterminating the Palestinians according to a poll undertaken by the University of Bielefeld for the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, affiliated with the German Social Democratic Party. These findings raise fundamental questions about the future of German society and not only about those Germans who falsely accuse Israelis of behaving like their own totalitarian or murderous ancestors.

The recent data should not surprise anyone. It even marks some progress when compared with the past. This same university undertook a major poll in 2004. Some 68% percent of Germans then agreed with the allegation: “Israel undertakes a war of destruction against the Palestinians.” Fifty-one percent shared the opinion: “The way the State of Israel acts toward the Palestinians is in principle no different from the Nazis’ behavior in the Third Reich toward the Jews.”

Simultaneously with the accusations against Israel, many Germans are whitewashing their country’s past. Historian Susanne Urban writes about current narratives that should be seen as modern German myths. In her view, an impression is fostered of a National Socialism without National Socialists and a Holocaust without or almost without perpetrators.

The influx of Jews to Germany in recent decades plays an important role in concealing a nasty reality. Urban says that the presence of a substantial number of Jews in the country is very important publicly as “proof” that Germany has developed into a diverse and democratic open society. » | Manfred Gerstenfeld | Monday, April 04, 2011

YNET NEWS: Poll: Anti-Semitism among US Latinos – National survey finds nearly half of American Latinos believe US foreign policy too supportive of Israel » | Ynetnews | Monday, April 04, 2011

Marco Rubio Tries To Still Debate Over His Religion
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Marco Rubio, the new Florida senator and one of the Republican Party’s brightest stars, has been trying to stifle a debate over his religious affiliation amid allegations that, contrary to his claims, he is not a Roman Catholic.

Marco Rubio and family. Photo: The Daily Telegraph
Mr Rubio, 39, a darling of the Tea Party and touted as a future presidential candidate, was born and raised a Catholic by his Cuban parents. However, for the past six years he and his wife have attended the Christ Fellowship, a Florida congregation which describes itself as “non-denominational” but is affiliated to the Southern Baptist Convention, whose theology is firmly anti-Catholic.

According to the St Petersburg Times, Mr Rubio has donated much of the $66,000 he has given to charity since 2000 to the Christ Fellowship.

Alex Burgos, a spokesman for Mr Rubio, told The Daily Telegraph on Friday: “[Marco] regularly attends Catholic Mass, and he was baptised, confirmed and married in the Roman Catholic Church. On the final Sunday of the campaign, for example, he attended Mass at Christ the King Catholic Church in Tampa ... He also attends services at a Christian church with his wife and children.” Asked why Mr Rubio attended a non-Catholic church regularly. the spokesman said: “He attends both regularly.” >>> Damian Thompson | Friday, November 12, 2010

Marco Rubio: Latino or not?
THE WASHINGTON TIMES: MONGTOMERY VILLAGE, Md. November 11, 2010 — Marco Rubio won his bid for senate for Florida this past November 2nd. He is the son of a Cuban bartender and a hotel domestic worker.

Marco really embraced the American Way. He left his parents’ traditional, Roman Catholic religion to convert and attend an Evangelical community, received a law degree, and married a Miami Dolphins cheer leader. He is also articulate, apparently intelligent and good looking.

Even before the media started hinting at a possible “first Latino president”, I was thinking of this possibility. This doesn’t mean that I am smart or a personal friend of his (very far from it). With the Republican Party in need of “dream team” candidates, he will rise to the top.
 


I do however have a problem with Marco being the first Latino president of the United States. While in school I met and befriended several of the early arrival Cuban Americans. I remember that to a man, when asked if they were Latinos or Hispanics, they would respond, - “No, I am not, I am Cuban.” >>> Mario Salazar | Friday, November 12, 2010

Converts to Islam: A Latino Muslim's Story


HISPANIC MUSLIMS: Reversion Stories >>>

Immigration Made America Strong - But It Threatens to Ruin Europe
MAIL ONLINE: Are Britain and Europe being swamped, overrun, defeated by a wave of mostly Muslim immigrants and their descendants? Or are Europe's ethnic problems the figment of a febrile political imagination - something created by racism, dishonesty and manipulation by extremist parties such as the BNP? Those are not the only two possibilities, of course, although a lot of people behave as if they are.

Both sides will take lots of fodder for their arguments from a study released last week by the highly reliable Pew Forum On Religion And Public Life. According to the report, there are now 1.6billion Muslims, a quarter of the world's population.

And they are distributed in surprising ways - there are more Muslims in Germany than in Lebanon, for example. Recent projections by the British Government show the population rising to 71 million within 20 years, due mainly to migration.

But Europe's (and Britain's) problems with Muslim migration are not mostly demographic. The Pew study shows the world's Christian population is growing too, to 2.25 billion.

It is possible, though, to have grave problems with immigration that do not involve either the wipe-out of a culture or the disappearance of a population.

Europe opened the door to mass immigration in the Fifties and discovered - as the United States did before it - that it is impossible to open that door just a fraction. Immigration, though intended as a solution to a short-term labour crisis, has become, without anyone particularly wanting it to be, a permanent feature of the landscape.

One of the most amazing statistics in the history of European immigration is that the number of foreign residents in Germany rose steadily between 1971 and 2000 - from three million to about 7.5million - but the number of employed foreigners did not budge. It stayed rock-steady at around two million.

Multi-ethnic societies can be good societies. But the transition puts a strain on institutions, on trust in government, and on a sense of identity.

Not every society makes that transition successfully. In my book, Reflections On The Revolution In Europe, I tried to describe how this process is working - or, more often, not working.

Revolution is not too strong a word. It well describes what occurred in America between 1840 and 1925, when millions of Catholic immigrants arrived, transforming a largely Protestant society.

The need to accommodate them made the United States replace one kind of society with another. We may like the result, but it would have been absurd to expect those born into pre-immigrant 19th Century America to rejoice at the disruption.

However, the transition has given America an edge in the present era of mass migrations. That is not America's only advantage, of course. The 'tone' of current US immigration is set by various Latin American cultures; that of European immigration is set by various Muslim cultures.

The cultural peculiarities of Latin-American immigrants generally appear to Americans as antiquated versions of their own. >>> Christopher Caldwell, Author of Reflection on the Revolution in Europe | Sunday, October 11, 2009

No Place for Gay Discrimination in US: Obama
SX: US President Barack Obama has called for an end to discrimination, including inequality against gay people, in an address to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People last week.

In a speech mentioning the economy, health care, education and HIV/AIDS, Obama also addressed the issue of discrimination, calling for an end to prejudice against minority groups, specifically African-American women, Latinos, Muslim Americans and gays and lesbians.



“The first thing we need to do is make real the words of your charter and eradicate prejudice, bigotry, and discrimination among citizens of the United States,” Obama said in the address. >>> Rachel Cook | Thursday, July 23, 2009

Naturalized Citizens Are Poised to Reshape California's Political Landscape
Efren Curiel, 45, is sworn in as a naturalized U.S. citizen in March at the Quiet Cannon Country Club in Montebello. California’s 300,000 naturalized citizens accounted for nearly one-third of the nation’s total. Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES TIMES: The increase in naturalized Asian and Latino citizens -- 300,000 people took the oath of allegiance in 2008 -- could alter the state's policy priorities for years to come, analysts say.

More than 1 million immigrants became U.S. citizens last year, the largest surge in history, hastening the ethnic transformation of California's political landscape with more Latinos and Asians now eligible to vote.

Leading the wave, California's 300,000 new citizens accounted for nearly one-third of the nation's total and represented a near-doubling over 2006, according to a recent report by the U.S. Office of Immigration Statistics. Florida recorded the second-largest group of new citizens, and Texas claimed the fastest growth.

Mexicans, who have traditionally registered low rates of naturalization, represented the largest group, with nearly one-fourth of the total. They were followed by Indians, Filipinos, Chinese, Cubans and Vietnamese.

The new citizens are reshaping California's electorate and are likely to reorder the state's policy priorities, some political analysts predict. Several polls show that Latinos and Asians are more supportive than whites of public investments and broad services, even if they require higher taxes. >>> By Teresa Watanabe | Monday, May 11, 2009