RNA - They are also the fastest-growing group of Muslims in America, according to organizations that cater to Hispanics converting to Islam. Although the statistics haven’t been widely tracked, there are an estimated 150,000 Islam converts among the Latino community in the US, reported the Press-Enterprise, a California newspaper.
The trend of Hispanic converts to Islam has been tracked by the Islamic Society of North America, which in 2006 estimated there were roughly 40,000 Latino Muslims in the US.
Some community leaders said the recent growth of the demographic has its roots in a shared experience of immigration and the negative anti-Muslim political rhetoric.
Mark Gonzales, a Muslim poet and artist in California, told the Orange County Register that immigration officials' targeting of Mexicans and Muslims after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks helped the two demographics find common ground.
“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, who is of Mexican-American and French-American heritage and converted to Islam 12 years ago.
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