Latino Post
By Nicole Akoukou · Feb 13, 2014
By and large, Latino Americans are Catholic; a majority of the 52 million Hispanics living in the United States belong to the Catholic Church and many of their traditions are rooted in its teachings. However, Cathedrals are emptying, and former occupants have taken to worshiping in mosques... or at least that's the case in the Latin American community. Latinos are flocking to the Islamic faith at an unconfirmed rate, and there's an estimated 100,000-200,000 (though competing sources says 15,000 to 50,000) Latino Muslims in the United States. Six percent of U.S. Muslims population is Latino, and one-in-five new converts to Islam are Hispanic.
Read MorePRI (Public Radio International)
By Jason Margolis · Dec 23, 2013
Growing up was rough for Jaime Fletcher in Houston. He moved from Colombia to Texas when he was 8. In high school, kids splintered off into ethnic gangs. One day, he says an African-American gang leader attacked him.
“And so I just fought back, and because I beat him, beat up the gang leader, by default, they thought it was another gang. And I was the leader,” Fletcher recalls.
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El Mundo
Amanda Figueras | Madrid
Actualizado domingo 16/12/2012 03:38 horas
Con su suave tono de voz y su discurso articulado es capaz de embelesar a enormes auditorios. Muhammad Isa García nació en Argentina y vive en Colombia pero es conocido mucho más allá como uno de los eruditos en el islam -suní- del mundo hispanohablante. Ha traducido del árabe innumerables textos relacionados con la religión y acaba de ser reconocido como uno de los 500 musulmanes más influyentes.
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Houston Chronicle
By Ken Chitwood · Jul 5, 2012
Growing up in New York and Houston, Isa Parada was always part of a vibrant faith community. An altar boy in his family's Roman Catholic parish, his family regularly prayed and read Scripture together. Today it is no different for Parada, save for one thing: He is now a Muslim imam.
A convert since 1996, Parada is fluent in Arabic and was educated in Muslim theology in Saudi Arabia. With family roots in El Salvador, Parada is part of a growing number of Hispanic converts to Islam.
A former Latino gang member told a story to a group of UH students Tuesday of how converting to Islam saved his life, and he described why Latinos are more likely to convert to Islam.
As part of Islam Awareness Week, the Muslim Student Association welcomed Mujahid Fletcher, who moved to Houston from Colombia at age 8.
Starting in middle school, Fletcher led a troublesome life after he began his own gang based on self-defense.
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When Daniel Hernandez converted to Islam in 1999, his parents, who immigrated to the United States from Puerto Rico, were amazed at their son’s change in character. “I became more calm, patient, and better spoken,” says Hernandez, who quit drinking and smoking and began fasting, praying five times a day, and giving to charity.
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Mujahid Fletcher runs a Houston-based nonprofit called IslamInSpanish that produces a Web site, DVDs, and a radio program designed to educate the small but growing number of Latino Muslims. Fletcher sees the organization as a tool to counteract some of the misconceptions about Islam that he initially encountered among his own friends and relatives.
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