With her hijab and dark complexion, Catherine Garcia doesn't look like an Orlando native or a Disney tourist. When people ask where she's from, often they are surprised that it's not the Middle East but Colombia. That's because Ms. Garcia, a bookstore clerk who immigrated to the US seven years ago, is Hispanic and Muslim. On this balmy afternoon at the start of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month, she is at her mosque dressed in long sleeves and a long skirt in keeping with the Islamic belief in...

Hispanic Muslims in Atlanta are set on changing the negative image that some in the Latino community might have of them. That is the mission of the Atlanta Latino Muslim Association (ALMA), a group founded by Siri Carrion, a Puerto Rican woman who is also Muslim. Wearing her hijab and kneeling, Carrion starts preparing to pray alongside her four children. One of them, Ismail, raises his hands and starts by saying the ‘adhan, inviting the angels into this family’s living room. ...

Catherine Garcia enters the mosque barefoot and finds a spot on the floor. She kneels and leans forward. Palms, nose and forehead touch the ground. Her lips move, almost imperceptibly, whispering words in Arabic. Three years ago, she would have been in a Roman Catholic church, murmuring prayers with her rosary beads. Today, she invokes Allah while reciting portions of the Quran. Garcia, 33, is among an estimated 70,000 Hispanics nationwide embracing Islam, blending with apparent ease two...

Hugo Hernández put aside the saints, the host and the confessions. Nineteen years of Catholic religious traditions were left behind when he decided to convert to Islam. A teacher and political science graduate, Hernández, 26, came to a turning point in his life during his freshman year of college in Denver. Born and raised in a traditional Catholic Latino family from Evans, Hernández says he hasn't talked to his mother in the seven years since he converted. "That's...

Every morning, Jackie Avelar wakes up to a predicament. On one side of her bed is a clock that sounds the Islamic call to prayer five times a day. On the other side is a statue of Mary. As a Muslim, she wants to remove it. As a Latina, she can't. Her father, who is a Catholic from El Salvador, wants the statue to stay. "I have to respect him," Avelar said. So she has found a comfortable balance: She covers the statue with a photo of her family. Avelar, 31, constantly...

Disturbing report by the ISN on the growth of Islam south of the border. I would be more frightened by it if I did not know that there is a much larger threat of home-grown Islamists here in the United States, than in Mexico. But still, the threat is real. The ISN report tends to whitewash the rise of Islam in Mexico, citing lack of evidence of Muslim groups their to violent jihad. However, as we have said for a long time now, the threat is not just from jihadis committed to violence but to...

The ongoing controversy surrounding the debate over illegal immigration and border security issues in the United States, specifically as it applies to the porous U.S.-Mexico frontier and the status of millions of undocumented workers and other migrants that enter the country each year from Mexico, continues to dominate headlines. Although the overwhelming majority of those entering the United States from Mexico each day are in search of opportunity, many observers worry that it is only a...

National Defense University Washington, D.C. The Pew Forum co-sponsored a symposium with the National Defense University's School for National Security Executive Education on "Religion, Conflict and the Global War on Terrorism in Latin America." A panel entitled "Islam and the Global War on Terrorism in Latin America" featured Col. Curtis Connell, USAF, and Vitoria Peres of Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora/MG, Brazil. The panelists examined Islam in Latin America,...

Mexico may be well on its way to a monotheistic revolution. This new trend is emerging from recent developments, and reflects a similar change evident in other South American nations - people are embracing Islam by the thousands, jettisoning the Catholicism imposed upon their ancestors in Spain. The prayer congregation has tripled since Mexico City's Centro Cultural Islamico de Mexico (CCIM) first opened its doors 6 years ago. The numbers could be even higher. However, most Mexicans still...

In the wake of the September 11 attacks, the possibility of al-Qaeda infiltrating Latin America became a priority for U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials. However, the most publicized incidents of radical Islamist activity in Latin America have not been linked to al-Qaeda but instead to the Lebanese Shi’ite Hezbollah, which is ideologically and politically close to Iran. These include the March 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina and the July 1994...