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 doesnโt make him any less Hispanic, he said.
โIslam does not make you lose your culture,โ Cruz said. โThereโs 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.
โIf youโre Hispanic itโs almost as if you are forced to be Catholic,โ she said. โPeople are converting to Islam because they find the reality that isnโt defined in other religions.โ
Cruz and Espinoza arenโt alone.
Ahmad Shqeirat, the centerโs imam, or prayer leader, said during the past few years most of the converts at his mosque have come from the Latino community.
โIt 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.
โShe noticed a big change in how we conducted ourselves and how our relationship had really grown,โ Cruz said. โWe donโt drink and we donโt 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 arenโt happy with their lifestyles.
โThey are looking to fulfill a void that nothing else can fulfill,โ she said.
Morales said she believes many Hispanics donโt 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.
โItโs still something very appealing,โ she said. โThey 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.
โItโs getting kind of weak, the family structure,โ he said. โThey 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.
โI sometimes feel sad, but that also makes me stronger in the religion,โ she said.
Article Courtesy: Casa Grande Dispatch

The Sanitization Of Martin Luther King Jr.โs Legacy
ICNA CSJ Published On: Sat, 14 January 23 Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) was a revolutionary during the struggle for civil rights amongst Black Americans.
Alhumdulillah
Alhumdulillah