By
Susmita Baral
Islam
is most commonly associated with the Middle East and the Arab world, but the
simple truth is that 85 percent of the world's Muslims are non-Arab. Current
estimates suggest that one-fourth of the world's population is Muslim (roughly
2.6 billion). When looking at the countries with the largest Muslim
populations, most are from the Eastern World: Indonesia, Pakistan, India,
Bangladesh, Egypt, Nigeria, Ian, Turkey, Algeria, Morocco, Iraq, Sudan,
Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China, Syria and
Russia. But the prevalence of Islam doesn't just lie in the Eastern world, as
new reports are suggesting that Hispanics are converting to Islam.
The
Hispanic community is one that has strong roots in Catholicism, but yet BBC
reports that the U.S. Census finds that Latino Muslims number between 100,000
and 200,000. BBC reporter Katy Watson spoke with Yousef, a half Colombian and
half Ecuadorian. "I was very, I guess ignorant," said Yousef.
"And I think what I saw enraged me -- I saw people falling from the towers.
In the end, I hated Muslims. My hatred was diminished, it was extinguished
really, my learning about Islam. My project I was given to learn about Islam in
college. And once I did that, I made the decision to come to the faith."
In
fact, in Union City in New Jersey, where more than 80 percent of the population
is Hispanic, mosques and Islamic religious centers are popping up. One local
mosque has a 30 percent Latino population and classes are held in Spanish to
help converts learn more about the Qur'an. "We are a minority within a
minority, growing very rapidly," says Nahila, a Mexican convert who works
at an outreach center. "I think they're looking for that niche."
Nahila goes on to explain that the hardest part of converting for a Latino is
the feeling that they are leaving their family.
CNN
reports that a 2011 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found
that 2.75 million Muslims live in the United States and in 2008, four percent
of America's Muslims identified themselves as Latinos. The vast majority of the
Latino Muslim community were found in major cities, such as Atlanta, Los
Angeles, Chicago and the Bronx. As for why Latinos are converting, the reasons
are across the board ranging from marrying into the faith, disatisfaction in
their birth faith, exposure to the religion during prison or attending
interfaith events. One common factor found; however, is that most of the
converts switch faiths in adulthood.