I now do this kind of work in the world's largest penal colony. A great many of the inmates here claim their faith as Muslims. While it has only been a couple of years that I have been in this environment, I have already seen Muslims who have been released from jail, only to return again after a very short period. Of course, this is in no way true of all incarcerated Muslims, but it happens regularly enough to wonder why, in fact, that is.

http://www.latinodawah.org/newsletter/aug2k2.html

Posted by: leavingtheleft at October 2, 2005 8:15 AM

"More so in California, but in Florida it's a new trend. …Yes, there are several Hispanic Muslims that have been in Florida for some time now

Dirty bomb suspect Jose Pidilla(sp) is one example of a Florida Hispanic convert to Islam.Pidilla(sp) is an ex-con and former gang member who converted to Islam. Islam the convicts religion of choice.

Posted by: Roxane at October 2, 2005 8:21 AM

"What I think is very significant this year is that taking into consideration all that has happened within the Muslims who live in America and the … challenges that we faced."

What challenges are we talking about? What type of overt discrimination have Muslims faced in the West since 9/11? If memory serves I recall that two people were killed in the "so called" backlash after those attacks--a Sikh and a Coptic Christian. That shows us that yes they are some racists in the United States but they are stupid and can't discriminate between Muslims and other brown skinned people.

I don't think we have to worry about a tide of conversions to Islam in the sunshine state. I, to my everlasting embarrassment, was a convert to Islam myself(I have since apostatized) Many converts do eventually leave Islam altogether. Of course we have to also realize that converts to Islam throughout history have been some of the most fanatical. We have plenty of recent examples of this so a list is not necessary.

The excellent Theadore Dalrymple who sometimes writes under the name of Anthony Daniels, has written about conversions in the UK. He notes that many converts(mainly male Jamaicans) accept Islam because this is the biggest revenge they can muster against their host society, a society they deem has sold them short.
Muslims who engage in Dawa have cottoned onto this.

Posted by: spencerd at October 2, 2005 8:22 AM

"I am going to be more sensitive to things I didn't notice before, like hunger; I am looking forward to what it is going to do for my sensitivity." ... Matos

But what will Matos do with that new found sensitivity? That's the crucial question.

Since Ramadan has been observed for 1400 years by Muslims, where is the increased sensitivity in Muslim societies that Matos exudes about? The poor, the beggars, the lame, and the blind all emerge from the shadows at Ramadan in Muslim societies, so much so that one can hardly walk down the street at any time, in any place, without being stung by pathetic sights, such as mothers with thin, crippled, sometimes comatose children -- perhaps in wheelchairs (the lucky ones) or just on a ragged blanket on the sidewalk. This is only one example of the poor who seek help in Ramadan. How long does the benefit of increased sensitivity help them? The pittances they receive from the mostly indifferent public continue until the end of Ramadan, and then what . . . back to the shadows?

As for the stated opinion that Hispanics and Muslims share the ideal encapsulated in that warm and fuzzy feel-good phrase "family values," any observant person familiar with the realities of daily life for women in these two cultures would say that an important word has been omitted from this otherwise happy phrase. It should be restated as "misogynist family values."

Posted by: Jen at October 2, 2005 9:38 AM

The poor, the beggars, the lame, and the blind all emerge from the shadows at Ramadan in Muslim societies, so much so that one can hardly walk down the street at any time, in any place, without being stung by pathetic sights, such as mothers with thin, crippled, sometimes comatose children -- perhaps in wheelchairs (the lucky ones) or just on a ragged blanket on the sidewalk.

This is Allah's Will. Just like tsunamis, earthquakes and hurricanes. Human intervention is not required.

Posted by: Whistling Dixie at October 2, 2005 10:16 AM

Any statement coming out of CAIR will include the words "a growing number of (fill in the blank)s is taking the shahada..."

I was shocked to find out recently that one of my most educated cousins (PhD in physics) who happens to be Hispanic and who still lives in Latin America had converted to islam. However, wearing a tarp in the tropical rainforest while doing research brought her to her senses and she left the accursed cult. It also helped that absolutely everyone who knew her questioned her intelligence, spoke the truth and insulted islam. Hispanics are not PC with each other or about others.

Quite frankly, I think Latin women want a break from having to look like J Lo, Salma Hayek, Shakira or the hoochie-du-jour, and from hearing that irritating "hola, mami," which won't happen when you're wearing a tent.

Posted by: 3812Michelle at October 2, 2005 10:32 AM

Could it possibly be that there are an increasing number of Hispanics converting to Islam because, er...there are an increasing number of Hispanics?

Just a thought.

Posted by: Effractor at October 2, 2005 10:43 AM

I can't imagine Hispanics giving up music and dancing. There just are not enough positives in islam for a thinking person to convert. I will never believe that a real Christian would even consider such a stupid move.

Posted by: Carolyn2 at October 2, 2005 10:57 AM

What discrimination? Dirty looks in the street? Comments about hijab? It that discrimination?

Muslims don't get it or don't care. Non-Muslims are angry. They are angry about the changes that have to be made to accommodate Muslims. Muslims are only a tiny minority most of whom are very recent immigrants. What right do they have to made demands, to insist upon changes to culture of the majority. In fact, immigration protocol requires that immigrants conform to the host culture, not the other way. No culture is required to give in, to create conditions that maintain a culture that is foreign to them.

Posted by: epg at October 2, 2005 11:18 AM

Of course, I'm deeply suspicious of anything that comes out of CAIR's mouth, but what a development Hispanic Islam would be. Imagine - just at the moment that the US is being swamped with Hispanics (a trend that seems set to only accelerate), which is itself bad enough, they start going Muslim on us. Lol, rains - pours.

On the other hand, Hispanics are just the kind of people to let you know what they think of your Islam. None of that phony guilty-white-liberal "oh, a Muslim, why that's great dear" with these guys. I can just imagine the colorful Spanish invective that would flow upon hearing the news that someone's daughter converted. No doubt this would be increased ten-fold if Hispanics could be educated about the reality of Islam. Unfortunately, Hispanics don't really seem think much of things like, umm, reading - not if their record breaking multi-generational high school drop out rates are anything to go by. This would be a great opportunity for the Catholic Church to step in and warn of the dangers of Islam. But nope, American Catholicism these days concerns itself mostly with leftwing "social causes". (Of course, you'd think telling the truth about Islam would be a "social cause" without peer in today's world, but ahh, what can you do...)

Posted by: spect8or at October 2, 2005 11:29 AM

If there really is a growing number of Hispanics converting to Islam, may I suggest that if anyone wants to make some quick money, they ought to take up the old art of phrenology, or head-reading, and then take himself/herself off to those communities where these 'reverts' are to be found. For there will surely be a growing need for the services of phrenologists in those areas in the years to come!

On a more serious note, when reading stories of reverts - the web is full of them - one can't help but notice that so, so many of them come from very dubious backgrounds: broken homes; families in which there was an alcoholic parent; leading a life of crime in a younger incarnation; etc.

As Roxanne so eloguently put it, Islam is the convict's religion of choice!

Islam offers these reprobates a way out of their mental anguish, since when they take the shahadah they then go off and 'cleanse' themselves in the shower in a ceremonial washing away of their earlier sins. Islam offers these people a perfect escape - an escape to a new reality. In any case, Islam legitimizes sinful behaviour towards the infidel; so it must absolve them of much of their guilt that way, too.

We should all ask ourselves this question, though: How many people convert to Islam from a balanced state? I think the answer to this will be very few!

Posted by: Mark at October 2, 2005 11:44 AM

I have a theory about the California phenomenon. Most Hispanics in California are of Mexican descent, while the Latin community in Florida is more heterdox, with a strong component of Carribeans and particularly Cubans.

There exists a strong undercurrent of anti-Americanism and anti-Angloism in the Mexican-American community in the Southwest, particularly in the universities. The great dream among some is the creation of Azatlan, an Hispanic polity in the southwestern USA, where the popular slogan so thoroughly betrays the racist content of the ideology: 'por la raza, todo, fuera de la raza, nada' ("for the race, everything, outside the race, nothing").* Others are irredentists, advocating the reconquista of the southwest for Mexico.

Many of these Mexican immigrants find solace in and gravitate to the hyper anti-Americanism of Islamic radicals. This might explain the momentum of the California phenomenon.

* Can you imagine an American university offering recognition and office space to a white supremicist group advocating similarly racist polemics? I can't either. Such is the state of affairs in the halls of academe and the culture at large, that while the racist right has no place in our national discourse (and rightly so), the bigotry and fanaticism of minorities (including Islam) and of the Left are accepted.

Posted by: Cornelius at October 2, 2005 12:23 PM

Someone mentioned the Catholic Church in connection with Latin American culture. I suspect that this is where one of the biggest problems lies. Whatever the image of Spanish and Portuguese America as a homeland of Catholic Christianity, the truth is that most of the continent is very poorly evangelized and provided for. A few years ago I read some truly stunning numbers. Outside Latin America, not only in North America and Europe, but even in the mission lands of Africa and Asia, the proportion of priests to baptized Catholics tends to be one to 2200 or so. In Latin America, it is one to 7800. In other words, there are not enough priests, not enough parishes, and not enough pastoral activity going on. Millions of supposed Catholics must spend their lives without the effective presence of a priest or even a religious of any sort. On top of this, the few that are there have been convulsed for decades by the crazy fad of "liberation theology", which has distracted the attention of everyone from the serious business of evangelization and Sacraments. (It is, however, another symptom of how isolated from the people the Church feels.)

The inefficiency of most Latin American Catholic Churches, including the putative Brazilian giant (weeds and small trees have been seen to grow from the walls of the cathedral of Bahia) may be one reason for the enduring poor literacy rates of most of these countries; it certainly is the reason why charismatic fundamentalist Protestantism from North America has swepth through several countries like wildfire, securing something like 20% of Brazilians today and something like 40% of Costa Ricans. It is not surprising to find that young Latinos, especially in a rudderless situation such as emigration, grow up effectively without religion; and even less surprising that they fall for the macho and violent world of Islam, so close to the mentality of street gangs.

Posted by: Paolo at October 2, 2005 2:06 PM

WWRD?

They'd build a reinforced concrete wall along the entire 1,951 mile border with Mexico: 30 feet high, 15 feet thick, tricked out with secondary barriers (trenches, barbed wire, etc.), guard towers and the latest in monitoring and command/control equipment. Then they'd man it with several junior legions. Occassionally, they'd mount punitive expeditions across the border.

Then, they'd sack the UN.

["What Would the Romans Do?" is an occasional service provided by heavystix.com.]

Posted by: Mad_Jack at October 2, 2005 2:23 PM

Orlando has a growing and unmonitored Muslim population. I see them running around in their ninja costumes or hijab. CAIR is planning a giant office down here to go with their annual convention. If I were part of DHS (well, things would be much better, and a lot different, anyway...) I'd certainly be monitoring the mosques in Orlando.

On September 11th, 2001 I found my local convenience store employees doing a lousy job of hiding their glee. I told them, "Everyone I know wants war. We just haven't figured out who to kill yet, but I'm sure Osama Bin Laden is near the top of the list."

That seemed to take some of the starch out of their shirts. Everyone in Florida is armed, you see. They tried to blame the attack on the Israelis, both ways. The Israelis either did it, or their actions justified it. The ummah has an amazing ability to tell the same (albeit illogical) story no matter who you ask, wherever you ask.

Osama didn't latch onto the Palestinians as one of his many rationalizations for mass murder until just before 9/11. But the ummah was ready with his new story, on cue.

BUG THE MOSQUES! ALL of them!

Posted by: Beagle at October 2, 2005 4:39 PM

This conversion trend in the Hispanic community is just one more reasons why the borders should be sealed and immigration from Latin countries slowed down to a trickle. I have seen several Latino women converts. Most likely they got knocked up by a Muslim and converted to marry “the baby’s daddy”. The fact that Hispanics are the group with the highest percentage of unwed mothers in America steers Latin women toward Muslims who are seeking visas and servile concubines to quench their insatiable apatite. Latin women get a husband, a rare commodity in their community, and the Muslims gets whatever they need out of these women. In the end of the day these women are viewed as nothing more than cheap prostitutes by their Muslim mates; an assessment that does not differ much than my own, for they have prostituted bodies and souls so cheaply.

Posted by: have_mercy at October 2, 2005 7:57 PM

Wonder if those women were told about the verses in the Quaran saying it's ok to beat women and that the whip should be kept on the wall as a reminder to them? That women in Islam have 1/2 the credibility of a man in the legal system, can olny ionherit 1/2 as much as a man and that a woman should be covered except for her face and hands? That should make them feel a lot safer.

Posted by: Bohemond_1069 at October 2, 2005 9:25 PM

Can you imagine an American university offering recognition and office space to a white supremicist group advocating similarly racist polemics? I can't either. Such is the state of affairs in the halls of academe and the culture at large, that while the racist right has no place in our national discourse (and rightly so), the bigotry and fanaticism of minorities (including Islam) and of the Left are accepted.

Posted by: Cornelius at October 2, 2005 12:23 PM

Of course the bigotry and fanaticism of minorities are accepted; they are VICTIMS. Only minorities can be VICTIMS, whites are OPPRESSORS. That's why a white person can never claim racial discrimination; according to the left-wing social engineers, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR A WHITE OPPRESSOR TO BE THE VICTIM OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION.

This disgusting and sad state of affairs has been brought to you by Western intellectuals and elites who are ruining this country (and others) by arbitrarily imposing multiculturalism, moral relativity, diversity, and political correctness on us. One would think we had all voted in a referendum to subject ourselves to this outrageous bullshit, but I don't recall one. Let's hope and pray a few of us manage to escape the inimical and pathetic throes of self-loathing that have crippled the so-called intelligentsia in the West.

Posted by: Susanp at October 2, 2005 11:43 PM

Susan,

I just read an interesting article about higher education in which the author proposes that instead of trying to reform existing academic institutions, we should take a page from conservative success in breaking the monopoly of the left on the media by literally starting up new universities all over the country with a mandate to teach using the old-fashioned tools of empiricism and critical analysis.

It's an interesting idea but seems a bit problematic for obvious reasons. Ending the Left's monopoly on television news was accomplished with the establishment of a single new network (Fox Cable). Conservative voices on talk radio are certainly more numerous, but here and with the blogger phenom, we're talking about the efforts of individuals using their intellect and vision to reach a mass audience.

The building of institutions all over the country is on a completely different scale. It would take literally decades and lots and lots of dinero. Of course over the long-term, anything's possible.

Anyway, it was disheartening to read this guy dismiss the efforts of Horowitz and others to reform academe as a lost cause. I like to think progress is being made.

Posted by: Cornelius at October 3, 2005 7:16 AM

This comes from CAIR, which is just trying to justify its existence. Among Hispanics, both in the U.S. and in Latin America, the biggest change is the growth of evangelic Christianity. Often Spanish people will go to evangelical store-front churches, but still have their children baptized at the local Catholic church.
Take a drive to your nearest Spanish neighborhood. I garauntee that you'll see several store front Iglesias, but no mosques.

This story is simply marketing from CAIR.

Posted by: Elam Bend at October 4, 2005 3:47 PM