Latino Muslims in the United States: An Introduction The Gottfried and Martha Lang Student Prize Paper

Abbas Barzegar

In recent years discussion of the role of Islam in American society as portrayed in mainstream discourse has been mostly associated with the “war on terrorism;” As such, it has been concerned with political conflicts abroad and the threat of international terrorism. In doing so, however, the rise of Islam as a means of religious conversion in the United States has been downplayed if not completely ignored. Surprisingly, statistics such as those presented by national Islamic organizations show increased conversion rates after September 11, 2001. Even more interesting is the presence of tens of thousands of Latino Americans who have chosen Islam as their faith. This essay introduces the rising phenomenon of Latino conversion to Islam in the United States.

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