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Latinos have long been the fastest growing demographic in the U.S., but now reports suggest they are also fastest growing group of Muslims in the United States.
The Press Enterprise, a California newspaper, estimated in a recent report that there are 150,000 Latino converts residing in the U.S.
The Islamic Society of North America has also tracked surging numbers of Latino Muslims after reporting in 2006 that there roughly 40,000.
The rise in Latino Muslims, according to some community leaders, has its roots in a shared experience of immigration and the negative political rhetoric toward Latinos and Muslims alike.
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Latino Muslims find strength in their faith despite regularly facing hateful rhetoric https://t.co/2FRQDy34mx pic.twitter.com/1sawXDgBMs
— Voto Latino (@votolatino)
December 20, 2015
Mark Gonzales, a Muslim poet and artist based in California, told the Orange County Register that after the 9/11 terror attacks animosity toward both Latinos and Muslims grew and two demographics subsequently found common ground and kinship.
“Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world, and Latinos are converting to Islam at a rate higher than any other ethnicity,” said Gonzalez, a Muslim convert of Mexican heritage.
Although most Latinos in the U.S. still belong to the Catholic Church, as by the Pew Research Center, the number of Catholic church going hispanics is decreasing, while the number who are protestant or have no religious affiliation has risen.
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Jihad Turk, president of Bayan Claremont, an Islamic graduate school in California, said one of the main reasons Latinos are turning to Islam is that the beliefs system is similar to those Catholics hold.
“Muslims not only believe in God and the Ten Commandments, but also in Jesus as Christ born to the Virgin Mary and her story is told in the Quran in more detail than it’s told in the Bible,” Turk said.
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Following the Nov.13 terror attacks in Paris and the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis, anti-Islam sentiment has risen in the U.S.
Several incidents of anti-Muslim violence or intimidation have been reported while Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ben Carson, have stoked anti-Muslim suspicions.
Robert McCraw, from the Council on American-Islamic Relations , said that the level is Islamophobia and violence is at a level not seen "since post-9/11."
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