Hispanic and Latino American Muslims

Hispanic and Latino American Muslims

Total population
50,000 to 70,000. Estimated.
Regions with significant populations
Across the country, especially in the Southwestern United States as well as in urban areas.
Languages
American English, Spanish, Portuguese, Spanish Creole, Portuguese Creole, Amerindian, Basque, Catalan, Galician, Occitan, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Hebrew, Judaeo-Spanish, Bosnian, Albanian, Azerbaijani, Armenian, Kartvelian languages, Ossetian, Kurdish, Aramaic, Northeast Caucasian languages, Northwest Caucasian languages, Gagauz, Crimean Tatar, Karachay-Balkar, Kumyk, Nogai, Romani, Berber languages
Religion
Islam (majority: Sunni, Sufi minority: Shi'a, Ibadi)
Related ethnic groups
Hispanic and Latino Americans, Hispanic and Latino American Jews, Latin American Muslims, Latin American Jews, Tejanos, Nuevomexicanos, Californios, Chicanos, Boricuas, Nuyoricans, Portuguese Americans, Caribbean Americans

Hispanic and Latino American Muslims are Hispanic and Latino Americans who are adherents of the Islamic faith. Hispanic and Latino Americans are an ethnolinguistic group of citizens of the United States with origins in Spain and Latin America.

Statistics and demographics

Latino Muslims have shown a growing presence in states like New York, Illinois, New Jersey and Florida.

Since the United States Census Bureau does not provide statistics on religion, statistics are scarce and wide-ranging. Estimates range between 40,000 and 200,000. In 2002 the Islamic Society of North America stated that there were 40,000 Hispanic Muslims in the United States. The population of Hispanic Muslims has increased 30 percent to some 200,000 since 1999, estimates Ali Khan, national director of the American Muslim Council in Chicago.

The majority of Hispanic converts to Islam are women.

Latino Muslim Survey (LMS)

In 2017, the Latino Muslim Survey — an online, English/Spanish survey with more than 560 U.S. Latino Muslim participants — released its results.

Key findings include:

• Findings determined that many converts were attracted to the devotion of Islamic beliefs and practices.
• The survey found that 93% stated that religion provides meaningful guidance in their day-to-day living.
• The vast majority of Latino Muslims surveyed (91%) self-identify as Sunni Muslims.
• The majority of respondents said they first heard about Islam from a friend (40%), while 13% were introduced by a spouse, and 8% by a family member.
• 34% of participants described their decision to embrace Islam as a "conversion," 40% saw it as a "reversion."

Organization in the United States

In 1987 Alianza Islámica was established after a group of Latino Muslims in New York felt that their "particular culture, languages, social situations, and contributions to Islamic history" were not well addressed in the African-American or immigrant Muslim communities.

In 1988 PIEDAD was founded in New York by Khadijah Rivera In 1997 the Latino American Da'wah Organization (LADO) was founded.

In 1999 a group of Latino Muslims led by Marta Felicitas Galedary from Los Angeles formed LALMA, which is the acronym for Los Angeles Latino Muslims Association. LALMA now stands for La Asociacion Latino Musulmana de America and is still based in the Los Angeles area.

See also

• Alianza Islámica
• African-American Muslims
• Latino Americans
• Islam in the United States
• Latin American Muslims
• Latino American Dawah Organization
• LALMA
• Morisco
• PIEDAD
• IslamInSpanish

Further reading

• Articles on Latino Muslims
• The LADO Newsletter
• Four Muslim Latinas open up about their journeys to Islam
• 'It's beautiful': How four Los Angeles Latinos found peace in Islam
• Five Years Since the Release of ‘New Muslim Cool’: Hispanic Muslims Growing Segment of U.S. Muslim Religious Culture

External links

• Latino American Dawah Organization
• La Asociación Latino Musulmana de América
• LatinoMuslims.net
• HispanicMuslims.com
• IslamInSpanish
• HablamosIslam
• PIEDAD