Salwa (née Silvia) Del Carmen has been asked a lot of silly questions since becoming a Muslim at the age of 15, but she insists that there are few contradiction between Latino culture and Islamic beliefs, and those that exist are minor. "No more arroz con salchichón," she jokes. "We change that to fried keilbasa." Contrary to popular belief, less than 10 per cent of the world`s 1.3 billion Muslims are Arabs. The American Muslim Council conservatively estimates...

When Rasheed Cordero, a young Venezuelan from Orlando is in doubt, he uses a hand compass, which he carries in his pocket to find the exact direction of North East. This is because Rasheed needs to situate himself towards this direction, towards the central city of Islam, before he makes each of his 5 daily prayers, which are required as a Muslim. "Many Hispanics who I meet think I am going to hell", he says laughing, " Especially the elder. They call me a Taliban. They think...

The United States Census Bureau officially named the nation's 37 million Latinos the country's largest minority population-outnumbering African Americans by 0.3 percent. This demographic shift, coupled with Islam's status as the fastest growing religion in America, has contributed to the significant growth of a newly emerging demographic: Latino Muslims. Lacking an organized network, and with their cultural presence in this country a relatively recent one, Latino Muslims are not as visible as...

The terms Caribbean and South American refer to aggregations of countries, not to specific areas within legally defined boundaries. Thirty-one countries form the Caribbean, which is divided into English, French, Spanish, and Dutch linguistic regions. The majority of the countries are English-speaking. The total Muslim population by country varies from 4 to 15 percent. The largest Muslim populations are in English-speaking countries such as Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago. There are small...

Perhaps Nancy Hanks, the mother of Abraham Lincoln, was Melungeon. It somehow seems fitting that one of America's greatest Presidents should be of mixed race and probably Muslim heritage. But who are the Melungeons? Historical records document that from 1492 through the early 1600's an estimated 500,000 Jews and Muslims were exiled from Spain and Portugal through a religious witch-hunt known as the Spanish Inquisition. Hundreds of thousands of Muslim exiles escaped to their ancestral homelands...

Every weekday morning, children at an Islamic school in this city sit cross-legged at low desks and rock in time as they recite the Quran in Arabic. The older girls' heads are wrapped in obligatory scarves, and all the children are required to leave their shoes at the door. But this isn't Pakistan, Iran or an Arab state. This Islamic "madrasa" is part of a small but growing community of several hundred Muslim converts in San Cristobal de las Casas, a Mexican tourist community in...

Yolanda Rodriguez considers herself a Muslim first, then Mexican- American, but on her regular walks down 18th Street in Chicago, she does not wear a hijab, the traditional head covering worn by many Muslim women. Well known in the Pilsen community as general manager of Radio Arte, a youth-oriented offshoot of the Mexican Fine Arts Center offering Spanish-language radio experience, Rodriguez, 33, often finds herself negotiating between her public persona and her personal faith. She is...

The first group of Muslims that came to Panama (Central America) came as slaves from Africa, brought by the Spaniards to work the gold mines. Not unlike the Africans in the other parts of the Americas, they refused to be slaves. In 1552 a group from the Mandinka tribes arrived in Panama. They were always considered as intelligent, industrious slaves and with a higher degree of culture. Of this group, the Vais were the most outstanding blacks of the continent because they had invented a...

In 1499, seven years after the tragic fall of Granada into Castilian hands, Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros came to that city to break the 1491 treaty that guaranteed Muslims' religious rights. The last king Boabdil was exiled but the common people of Granada were left behind to bear the brunt of persecution and torture in Inquisitorial jails for the next century and a quarter. By 1502, valuable books, many of them bound in leather and trimmed with gold leaf, were seized from private libraries in...

The mere mention of South America can conjure up visions of tall spires and stately steeples bedecking the enchanting and somewhat mysterious landscape of the continent. A common bond of Catholicism runs through the skein of South American countries that have emerged over the last century. It is no wonder then that one might typically perceive this region as a "baptized continent," devoid of any significant Islamic influence or presence. And even if the observer were to recognize the...