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Many Hispanics finding faith in Islam
NorthJersey.com ^ | 02.26.06 | ELIZABETH LLORENTE

Posted on 02/27/2006 12:28:11 PM PST by Coleus

Last year, Gaby Gonzalez wore black nail polish and black eye shadow. She had a messy room, standoffs with mom and occasional drinks.  Today, the Honduran-born 20-year-old is known as Sister Gaby.   She proudly wears her jade-green hijab, which forms a nearly perfect frame around her delicate features and large brown eyes. She prays several times a day and does not wear makeup, eat pork or even utter the phrase "happy hour" – that is all haram, she said, or prohibited in Arabic.

"In my past, I focused on myself. I didn't think about other people, about my parents, just myself and my circle of friends," she said. "Now, every day I strive to be better, to do good, to help others. I stopped being selfish and arrogant."  Gonzalez, who majors in anthropology at Montclair State University, is one of thousands of Latinos who have converted to Islam. So many Latinos have thronged to Islam in recent years that many mosques, including some in North Jersey, have set up special "Latino Muslim" groups within their congregations. And many now offer simultaneous Spanish translations as part of their religious services.  After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, mosque leaders saw the fear and anger mushrooming against Muslims and decided to reach out to non-Muslim organizations and community groups to demystify Islam and to condemn terrorism.

"When we reached out, we weren't even thinking of Hispanics; we didn't know much about Hispanics," said Mohammed Al-Hayek, the imam at the Islamic Educational Center of North Hudson, in Union City. "But they were the ones who responded. That's when we realized that our outreach focus had to be specifically Hispanics."  Al-Hayek brought in the head of a mosque in Ecuador and asked him to go out into the immigrant enclaves of Hudson County and talk about Islam. For four months, the Ecuadorean went out into the crowded streets of Union City and the surrounding towns, and encouraged people to ask questions about Islam and Muslims. He also visited homes and spoke to local organizations.  "Here was a Latino, someone the people in the Hispanic community could relate to, speaking to them in their own language about Islam," said Al-Hayek, a thin man with a friendly face and wide smile. "It wasn't Arabs speaking to them, and at the beginning especially, that made a big difference."

The mosque's efforts have paid off. Since Al-Hayek began the outreach program five years ago, some 500 Hispanics have visited the mosque, sitting in prayer sessions as guests and attending seminars on Islam. Many converted, usually from Catholicism. Now, Al-Hayek said, of the approximately 1,000 people who regularly worship at the mosque, nearly 200 are Hispanic converts.  Mohamed El-Filali, the outreach director for the Islamic Center of Passaic County, held an "open house" for Hispanics last summer. "Many of the Latinos who accept Islam are looking for what many people are searching for when they turn to religion in general, which is a way out of one kind of life and a means by which to reach divine acceptance."

Hispanics and Muslims note that their communities have much in common – tight-knit families, reverence for their elders and a tendency to dote on children. They also note that Islam is a core part of the history of Spain, where Muslim Moors ruled for about 800 years. And many Spanish words, they say, come from Arabic.  "They're coming back to their roots," Al-Hayek said.  The sound of Spanish now fills the air at many mosques. On Wednesday night at the mosque in Union City, a group of Hispanic converts spoke Spanish among themselves, with the more veteran ones teaching the newest mosque members how to put on a hijab.

"I don't understand a word they're saying," said Mariam Abbassi, an Oradell business owner, whose eyes darted back and forth as she strained to figure out the conversations. "I'm trying to learn. But it's a pleasure having them here. They're very enthusiastic, very warm; we Muslims feel very strongly about seeing others in our religion as Muslims, not Egyptians or Colombians or Puerto Ricans or Saudis."  Like many Hispanics who embrace Islam, Gonzalez came from a family of devout Catholics.  Back in Honduras, her grandmother insisted that Gonzalez strictly adhere to the religion.

"My grandmother whipped me if I didn't go to church, if I didn't read the Bible," she said. "It wasn't something for me that was allowed to develop naturally." Here, she discovered punk rock music and the punk lifestyle, and for a sheltered Honduran in her teenage years, it was alluring and liberating. "Punk girls wore tight pants, things that showed their figure," she said. "My hair was uncombed." She was marching to her own beat, but she was still unhappy, she said. "I was always stressed out, doing things I shouldn't do," Gonzalez said. "I prayed to be led to the right path." During a college course that looked at different religions, Gonzalez became intrigued by Islam.

"I read more and more about Islam," she said. "I wanted to know what it was that led so many people to submit entirely to this religion. When I read the Quran, I found the truth. It spoke about serving others, putting others first."

Islam made her feel anchored.

But Gonzalez learned that becoming Muslim comes at a price. Some Hispanic converts say they encounter objections from relatives, some of whom have disowned their newly Muslim daughters, sons and grandkids. They find themselves defending their new lifestyles against taunts and warnings by fellow Hispanics about getting recruited into terrorist organizations and losing their freedom to cult-like pressures. "Most of my family is bigoted against Muslims," said Vincent Gallardo, a student at William Paterson University who converted to Islam two years ago. "A close friend stopped speaking to me," he said. "My mother was very hurt. A Latino co-worker always called out to me: 'Hey Taliban, how's it going?' "  Gonzalez's conversion stunned her friends; some stopped speaking to her. Her parents objected, and she stayed at a friend's home for a while. Even when she found acceptance among some relatives and friends, she said, people disapproved of her veil – a common point of contention, for it is a very tangible, very public expression of devotion to Islam. Gonzalez's family has come to accept her conversion, she said, and appreciate the positive changes that have occurred in her.

"Islam means submission to God, not that you are chosen to go out and bomb a place – that is a specific group that is not practicing Islam the way it was intended," Gonzalez said. "We don't drink alcohol, we don't eat pork, we pray five times a day, and people look at that and call us fanatics."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: New Jersey
KEYWORDS: academia; academialist; catholic; catholiclist; familyvalues; hispanics; hispanicsislam; honduran; honduras; islam; latinos; mexico; msc; msu; wpu
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To: Coleus
"In my past, I focused on myself. I didn't think about other people, about my parents, just myself and my circle of friends,"

You're STILL at it, hon. The more things change the more they remain the same.

Islam is about hating the 'Other', nothing more nothing less.

You have found a system that institutionalizes your anger.

Good luck with that.
41 posted on 02/27/2006 1:07:34 PM PST by TalBlack (I WON'T suffer the journalizing or editorializing of people who are afraid of the enemies of freedom)
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To: Individual Rights in NJ
What is it about Islam, other then the fact that it pisses off your parents, that you could not find in the Catholic religion.

Prohibition against alcohol for one. Separation from the opposite sex, not family members, for another.

Some people feel they need more restrictions than others...

42 posted on 02/27/2006 1:08:49 PM PST by ziggygrey
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To: WOSG
"[Islam]...[has] a tendency to dote on children"

Me, too! You beat me to it! (Or great minds think alike...) Still looking...

I've never heard of any Hispanic communities strapping bombs to their children, and I hope they never start.

43 posted on 02/27/2006 1:11:39 PM PST by fortunecookie
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To: Coleus

There's one born every minute. Hope she doesn't change her mind and try to repudiate allah - that's a death sentence.


44 posted on 02/27/2006 1:11:45 PM PST by Rummyfan
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To: Coleus
"My grandmother whipped me if I didn't go to church, if I didn't read the Bible," she said. "It wasn't something for me that was allowed to develop naturally."

And you think Muslim parents give their kids full room to grow organically? Please I see three year old girls running around covered head to toe in 90+ degree weather..

45 posted on 02/27/2006 1:11:49 PM PST by N3WBI3 (If SCO wants to go fishing they should buy a permit and find a lake like the rest of us..)
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To: Coleus
"We don't drink alcohol, we don't eat pork, we pray five times a day, and people look at that and call us fanatics."

Sorry, Gab, sin of omission. That's not what makes for fanaticism. If that's all there was to it, people wouldn't care.

46 posted on 02/27/2006 1:13:28 PM PST by siunevada (If we learn nothing from history, what's the point of having one? - Peggy Hill)
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To: ozoneliar
Islam...[has] a tendency to dote on children

Mad Mo certainly did! Especially of the female kind. Or maybe....

47 posted on 02/27/2006 1:13:51 PM PST by Rummyfan
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To: Individual Rights in NJ
Sounds to me like Muslums taking advantage of the moody adolesant who just wants to piss off mom and dad. I mean come on... this wreaks of everything to do with rebellion and nothing to do with religion.

I went to college with a white boy who did this for a few months. I guess being a heavily tattooed punk had gotten too common. After the Muslim thing quit getting him attention, he moved on to the rave scene and tried to become a show promoter/ecstasy dealer. Then he got arrested and ratted on a bunch of people. I don't know what happened to him after that.
48 posted on 02/27/2006 1:14:22 PM PST by Welsh Rabbit
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To: Coleus

A picture of a Hispanic female convert to Islam and a link to another article about Hispanic female converts.

http://www.cair-florida.org/ViewArticle.asp?Code=CM&ArticleID=483

49 posted on 02/27/2006 1:14:46 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY ((((Hitler is alive and well and living in the Muslim Nation))))
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To: Coleus

"Islam means submission to God, not that you are chosen to go out and bomb a place – that is a specific group that is not practicing Islam the way it was intended," Gonzalez said. "We don't drink alcohol, we don't eat pork, we pray five times a day, and people look at that and call us fanatics."

No we call you fanatics by the way you try to force your beliefs on the rest of us at the point of a gun. Or by not reigning those of you co-religionists who try that.


50 posted on 02/27/2006 1:16:19 PM PST by nuke rocketeer
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To: Coleus

200 to 1000 hispanic Muslims. Hmmmmm. There's probably 50,000,000 million legal hispanics in addition to the approx 10,000,000 illegals are Catholic or Protestant.


51 posted on 02/27/2006 1:20:04 PM PST by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life :o)
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To: My2Cents
This is the one area mainstream Christianity is failing. Many 'Christians' go to church and if they are really good tithe. Christians who do devotions, participate in small groups, do charitable work, support missionaries, and run their home as a Christian home rather than just a home of nice people is rare.

I disagree with the poster who on this thread slams control as a bad thing. I control my home and when I fail my wife has every right to go before the elders at our Church and discuss it with them because while I am in authority over my home, they are in authority over me, the congregation is in authority over them, and God is in authority over the Church. Christian men are not leading their homes as they should and it might seem appealing to someone from a home like that to find that order elsewhere.

52 posted on 02/27/2006 1:20:11 PM PST by N3WBI3 (If SCO wants to go fishing they should buy a permit and find a lake like the rest of us..)
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To: voletti
Am sure if muslime countires permitted competitive prosletization, so many 1000s would accept the message of Christ and save themselves.

Of course they would! That's why in Saudi Arabia there can be no Christian presence whatsoever - the faithful would desert the moon-god cult by the millions.

53 posted on 02/27/2006 1:21:16 PM PST by Rummyfan
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To: Individual Rights in NJ
The sad thing is , when I have kids , if they ask me about Islam I am going to tell them I don't know anything at all about it, and they should go learn about it and tell me.

In doing this you surrender your authority as a Father. What you need to do is go out and learn it yourself and tell them the truth, the truth about Islam and its founder is one of the most powerful weapons against it..

54 posted on 02/27/2006 1:21:54 PM PST by N3WBI3 (If SCO wants to go fishing they should buy a permit and find a lake like the rest of us..)
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To: Coleus

I did not think it would be possible to make illegal immigration seem more dangerous than it already does, but now I stand corrected.


55 posted on 02/27/2006 1:24:56 PM PST by Brilliant
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To: Coleus

All the more reason to seal the borders, build the fence, kick the illegals back over it...


56 posted on 02/27/2006 1:29:44 PM PST by mikeus_maximus
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Comment #57 Removed by Moderator

To: Coleus

but . . . but the lard *makes* the refried beans.


58 posted on 02/27/2006 1:34:41 PM PST by tumblindice
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To: Coleus

Where is the Spanish Inquisition when you REALLY need them?


59 posted on 02/27/2006 1:35:24 PM PST by ZULU (Non nobis, non nobis, Domine, sed nomini tuo da gloriam. God, guts, and guns made America great.)
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Comment #60 Removed by Moderator


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