KIM LAWTON, correspondent: "We visit the Islamic Center of Greater Miami to look at the rising number of Latino Muslims in the US—as many as 250,000, according to estimates. Some of the converts say that in Islam they have found theological simplicity and “no intermediaries with God.” The Islamic Circle of North America reports that more than half of the US Latino converts are women. “I just felt that the minute I put my head down to the ground,” says Nadia Echevrria, “I felt like I was really talking to God.”"
LAWTON: Today, Ruiz is an attorney with the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Miami. And he’s part of one of the fastest growing segments of Islam in the US: Latino Muslims. More and more Hispanics are embracing Islam, in part, Ruiz says, because they find a cultural familiarity that stretches back centuries, to the Moors in Spain.
RUIZ: Latinos soon reconnect with a hidden past. They say, “Islam is not really that foreign to us. Islam is us. It’s part of us.” Four thousand words from Spanish come from Arabic: Camisa, pantalón, tomate, ensalada.
RORAIMA AISHA KANAR: After going to, Catholic school for 12 years, my faith needed a little bit more depth in it, and I was able to find it in Islam.
LAWTON: Most Latino converts come out of Christianity, especially Catholicism.
NUSAIBA GUERRERO-MACIAS: The Trinity was very confusing to me. I didn’t understand how God was a man or how man could become a god.
NADIA ECHEVRRIA: I just felt that the minute I put my head down to the ground, I felt like I was really talking to God.
LAWTON: Ruiz says many Latinos like that in Islam, there are no intermediaries with God, such as priests.
Source/Credit: Religion and Ethics Newsweekly
July 25, 2014
LAWTON: Today, Ruiz is an attorney with the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Miami. And he’s part of one of the fastest growing segments of Islam in the US: Latino Muslims. More and more Hispanics are embracing Islam, in part, Ruiz says, because they find a cultural familiarity that stretches back centuries, to the Moors in Spain.
RUIZ: Latinos soon reconnect with a hidden past. They say, “Islam is not really that foreign to us. Islam is us. It’s part of us.” Four thousand words from Spanish come from Arabic: Camisa, pantalón, tomate, ensalada.
RORAIMA AISHA KANAR: After going to, Catholic school for 12 years, my faith needed a little bit more depth in it, and I was able to find it in Islam.
LAWTON: Most Latino converts come out of Christianity, especially Catholicism.
NUSAIBA GUERRERO-MACIAS: The Trinity was very confusing to me. I didn’t understand how God was a man or how man could become a god.NADIA ECHEVRRIA: I just felt that the minute I put my head down to the ground, I felt like I was really talking to God.
LAWTON: Ruiz says many Latinos like that in Islam, there are no intermediaries with God, such as priests.
Source/Credit: Religion and Ethics Newsweekly
July 25, 2014
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