Thursday, November 14, 2013
 
By ELISA CORDOVA, Cronkite News Service
 
TEMPE โ€” Chris Cruz was born and raised Roman Catholic but converted to Islam in large part because of its call for a healthier lifestyle, including a prohibition on drinking.

But converting doesnโ€™t make him any less Hispanic, he said.
โ€œIslam does not make you lose your culture,โ€ Cruz said. โ€œThereโ€™s a lot more to life than what we used to do. I grew up partying.โ€
Sobida Espinoza, who like Cruz is a member of the Islamic Community Center in Tempe and was raised Catholic, said she converted to Islam to find truth.
โ€œIf youโ€™re Hispanic itโ€™s almost as if you are forced to be Catholic,โ€ she said. โ€œPeople are converting to Islam because they find the reality that isnโ€™t defined in other religions.โ€
Cruz and Espinoza arenโ€™t alone.
Ahmad Shqeirat, the centerโ€™s imam, or prayer leader, said during the past few years most of the converts at his mosque have come from the Latino community.
โ€œIt seems they are digging for their heritage,โ€ he said.
Shqeirat said Latino converts find similarities between Islam and the culture in which they grew up. Spanish is filled with Arabic vocabulary, he noted.
Cruz said both Islam and Catholicism promote having large families, but he said his new religion offers more guidance on the family structure. That led his mother-in-law, who is also Hispanic, to convert, he said.
โ€œShe noticed a big change in how we conducted ourselves and how our relationship had really grown,โ€ Cruz said. โ€œWe donโ€™t drink and we donโ€™t have the big parties.โ€
Nahela Morales, national Hispanic outreach coordinator for WhyIslam, an online resource about Islam and Muslims, said Hispanics convert because they arenโ€™t happy with their lifestyles.
โ€œThey are looking to fulfill a void that nothing else can fulfill,โ€ she said.
Morales said she believes many Hispanics donโ€™t feel accepted in the United States because of illegal immigration and other issues. By converting to Islam, she said, they become a minority within a minority.
โ€œItโ€™s still something very appealing,โ€ she said. โ€œThey find that family that they lack.โ€
Imam Didmar Faja of the Albanian American Islamic Center of Arizona in Peoria is opening a mosque in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, because of interest from people there. He attributed that, in part, to problems stemming from drug cartels and other social problems.
โ€œItโ€™s getting kind of weak, the family structure,โ€ he said. โ€œThey are looking for other options to keep these rooted traditions with them.โ€
Espinoza, who is single, said she was abandoned by her family when she converted. But as her family grew distant, she said, Islam became her new family and changed her life for the better.
โ€œI sometimes feel sad, but that also makes me stronger in the religion,โ€ she said.
Article Courtesy: Casa Grande Dispatch

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