One more story of a group apparently susceptible to conversion to Islam: “In Chicago and elsewhere, Latinos converting to Islam,” by Alexandra Arriaga, Chicago Sun-Times, June 30, 2018:
Standing shoulder to shoulder inside a community center in Morton Grove, Muslim men and boys bowed their heads in prayer. Behind them, women and girls prayed along, some with faces covered, some just their heads.
At the same moment, Muslims around Chicago and the world faced Mecca and prayed to Allah. They repeated the pattern of standing, kneeling, bending their foreheads to the ground, uttering prayers.
It was Ramadan — the ninth month in the Islamic calendar, in which Muslims fast and devote themselves to prayer, giving to the less fortunate and nourishing relationships. At the end of their fast each day, they ate an iftar — breaking their fast.
At this iftar in Morton Grove, Arabic, Urdu and English were spoken by Muslims whose roots traced to India, Pakistan, Jordan and Palestine. Soon, Spanish could also be heard.
Alongside the traditional Pakistani and Indian dishes — daal, butter chicken and endless naan — were Mexican dishes like molé y arroz.
It was a slice of the Muslim world that’s often overlooked — people whose families are from Mexico, Guatemala, Puerto Rico and Peru.
There are no precise figures on how many Latino Muslims live in the Chicago area, where the population is about 30 percent Latino. But, according to various estimates, the 130 mosques in the city and suburbs are the spiritual home to a small but growing group of converts — Latino Muslims.
Juan Galvan, co-author of a national study last year of Latino Muslims as director of the Latino American Dawah Organization, puts the number at about 35,000.
Galvan says Chicago is home to one of the nation’s biggest and longest-standing Latino Muslim populations.
According to Aaron Siebert-Llera, an attorney with the Inner-City Muslim Action Network who is the current director of the Latino American Dawah Organization, the black Muslim population has been the predominant Muslim group in Chicago. During the 1960s and 1970s, Siebert-Llera says, the South Asian and Arab Muslim populations grew, separately on the North and Southwest Sides.
As with other immigrant groups, different communities tended to have their own places of worship.
“It’s just based on how Chicago has always been — a very divided city,” he says. “Muslim immigrants kind of followed the same pattern. These communities have all segmented themselves. Latinos are the same way. They stay in the neighborhoods where they’re comfortable.”
Siebert-Llera says Latino Muslims around Chicago tend to be more dispersed than they are in other cities. In Houston, for example, the Centro Islámico mosque opened in 2016 to serve Latino populations.
But there are growing signs of change in Chicago. The organization Islam in Spanish — which was formed in Houston — now has a Chicago chapter. The young Muslim Latinos who’ve been gathering through that network are creating a new nonprofit called Ojalá and looking to set up their own mosque.
“You have your places where you can be together and be with people from your same background, we’re just looking for the same,” Siebert-Llera says.
Felicia Salameh, who lives in Orland Park with her husband and two sons, attends a nearby mosque and sends her older son to the Muslim school next door, where he learns to read the Quran in Arabic.
She was raised by a Mexican Catholic mother and Palestinian Muslim father.
What’s pulled her closer to Islam have been the connections she has made with other Latino Muslims. Since meeting others in the Islam in Spanish group, she’s moved more and more toward wearing a hijab, or headscarf. She has been learning more about Islam and has traveled to Texas to meet with Latino Muslims from around the country.
“When I found out that there were Mexicans and Puerto Ricans and Colombians who were also Muslim, I was really excited,” Salameh says. “They educate Latinos who are interested about Islam, in the Spanish language if the person does not speak English.”
The group also has opened the door for her to more deeply connect with her Mexican roots. She says she’s picked up on Mexican recipes, as well as some Spanish, and now more readily asks her Mexican abuela, a devout Catholic, about their family history.
A strong Catholic culture might be part of the reason some Latinos have embraced Islam, according to Salameh.
“People who are Catholic or Christian when they come to Islam, they realize that this is all stuff that I believe in already,” Salameh says. “Islam is the only non-Christian faith that believes in Jesus Christ.”
Muslim apologists are quick to say that they “revere Jesus” and have a sura in the Qur’an named after “Mary.” And Felicia Salameh claims that “Islam…believes in Jesus Christ.’’ But the Jesus Muslims revere, and “believe in,” is very different from the Jesus of Christianity, for he is a prophet — one of so many in Islam — but not the Son of God. And the Mary of Islam is not the mother of God. That’s an essential and colossal difference, that is elided in the Muslim telling and that needs to be emphasized. Salameh makes little of that difference, missing the abyss between the faiths and instead calling it a bridge.
Efrain Diaz is a Brighton Park native, father of two daughters and a Mexican-American who is a convert to Islam. Diaz was baptized, had his first communion and was confirmed in the Catholic church. His parents, immigrants from Mexico, decorate their home with images of Jesus Christ and the Mexican icon of Mary, la Virgen de Guadalupe.
He tries to explain his decision to follow a different religion to [from] his parents, pointing to similarities that he says made it easier to choose to convert. For example, he tells them, both Jesus Christ and Mary have a chapter in the Quran, the sacred book of Islam. To believe in Islam, he tells them, is to believe in Jesus as a highly respected prophet and in Mary as his mother.
At least Efrain Diaz, unlike Ms. Salameh, understands that in Islam Jesus is only a prophet, albeit highly respected, and Mary only his mother, that is the mother of a mortal man, who is not the Son of God.
And the languages his family speaks and the language he prays in — Spanish and Arabic — have strong historic connections and similarities.
“Pantalón, pantaloon; camisa, kamis; azucar, sookar,” Diaz says. And his favorite, “Ojalá, Inshallah,” meaning “God willing.”
What does the fact that dozens of words may have entered Spanish from Arabic, during the long period of the Muslim Arab (and Berber) occupation of Spain, have to do with the truth or falsehood of Islam? Nothing. And indeed, we could easily lengthen the list, beginning with all those words that start with the Arabic “al” — “alcalde” (mayor), “alcohol,” “almohada” (pillow). This is a linguistic fact, without any religious significance. Or rather, it testifies to the rule by the Muslims of Islamic Spain, a period not of supposed “convivencia” but rather, a time when Christians and Jews suffered under the Muslim yoke. It took the Christians 770 years of fighting the Reconquista to finally remove all vestiges of Muslim rule in Spain. A linguistic trace was unsurprisingly left. Does the fact that there are now hundreds of loan-words from English now in Arabic have any significance as to the “truth” of Christianity? Of course not. The Arabic words now in Spanish, similarly, testify only to the fact of long-term Arab rule and not to any Islamic tolerance or benevolence.
Diaz got caught up in gang activity and almost had to father his two young daughters from behind bars. When he decided to commit to Islam, he was alone in a jail cell, facing drug charges. In his cell, he had the company of two books: a novel by James Patterson and a Quran.
“This is like God talking to me, like he’s giving me signs,” Diaz says of the moment he found the Quran. “Alhamdulillah, thanks to God I didn’t end up having to do 30 years.”
Some of the charges were dropped. Now, after getting out of jail, he’s back in Brighton Park. He lives in the same building where his parents, aunts and uncles live and takes care of the family. Every afternoon, he picks up his daughter from school.
For many prisoners, not just Efrain Diaz, Islam has a special appeal. In some cases, it offers security behind bars: the “Muslims” form the largest prison gang, with an instant community of “brothers.” And it offers what Diaz, clearly at loose ends and needing discipline, recognized: the strict regulation of life, from the Five Pillars, to Qur’anic commands as to how to treat Infidels, how to treat women, and what to accept as halal and shun as haram, all this is what he thought he needed. In short, Islam offers a complete guide, a Total Regulation of Life, which is exactly the daily discipline that Diaz needed and craved.
When Diaz picked up the Qur’an, he prayed for the chance to return to his family and promised he would change. He was alone in his prison cell when he took his shahada, or declaration of faith, and became part of the Latino Muslim community.
When Diaz picked up the Qur’an, and prayed for early release, and promised himself to change his life, and said the Shahada, he was placing his bets on Islam to aid in his reformation. And for him, it seemed to work. After Diaz committed to Islam, he was released from prison early, and he took that as a post hoc, ergo propter hoc sign of the rightness of his choice.
Some converts from devout Catholic families say they sometimes are faced with skepticism and ignorance from their own relatives: “Oh, what are you an Arab now?” “Why did you join a black religion?” “Did you join ISIS?” “Take that thing off your head.”
Silly comments, reported in order to mock the Islam-scoffers. Did none of these relatives of converts have any more telling remarks? Nothing, say, about Jihad or “striking terror” into the hearts of Infidels? Was it all on the idiotic level of “did you join ISIS?” and “take that thing off your head”? Did Diaz, or Salameh, know that Muslims are supposed to shun any relatives who are Infidels?
Still, Salameh’s Mexican Catholic abuela has now gone with her to the mosque, accompanied her to meetings of Islam in Spanish and tried to learn about Islam.
One of Diaz’s first experiences joining others for Ramadan was uneasy. He sat at the table for an Eid celebration. People started speaking to him in Arabic.
“And I would say, ‘Meksiki,’ ” Diaz says. “Meksiki is Mexican. I don’t speak Arabic.”
Diaz stood out for another reason — the tattoos covering his hands, a lion on one, a skull on the other. In Islam, tattoos aren’t permitted.
“I felt so welcomed, and immediately everything turned around,” Diaz says. “They saw my tattoos. They got to talking in Arabic. And then I was, like, shunned. I remember that Ramadan I felt like crying, feeling so alone.”
Apparently the umma proved to be not quite so welcoming. Did Diaz not find his being “shunned” by Muslims at the Eid dinner because, before he became a Muslim, he had acquired some tattoos, more than unnerving, but a sign of unbending Muslim intolerance? When he “felt like crying, feeling so alone,” what was the upshot? Did the other Muslims — Arabs — finally accept him? It sounds as if they did not, which is why he was glad that Latino Muslims have started their own center. Presumably he would find there a community of fellow Latino converts, many of whom would also have had tattoos, and would not have been put off by them.
Latino Muslims in Chicago say they have high hopes their new center for the Ojalá nonprofit can serve all members of the surrounding community — likely Back of the Yards or Brighton Park. They’re already taking part in neighborhood cleanups and hope to lead more Latinos and others to Islam.
“Prophet Muhammad said that this religion would spread to every corner of the world,” Salameh says. “The Latino community, they knew nothing about Islam. But they fell in love with it.”
It is because the “Latino community…knew nothing about Islam,” and not despite that ignorance, that “they fell in love with it.” They haven’t yet been provided with a truthful presentation of Islam, which is the task of non-Muslims, alert to the problem, to provide.
Ann Marie says
Islam preys on the ignorant, those who have committed crimes, and those who have never found a place in society.
That convert points out that Jesus in mentioned in the koran.. True, but Jesus is considered just a prophet to them, and not the Son Of G-d…. It puts him on the same level as mohammed and as we all know was one of the most vile people on this earth.
No Muzzies Here says
Judging from the worshipful tone, the author of the article heartily approves of this development.
The part about Islam believing in Jesus Christ is pure fantasy.
There are Arabic-derived words in Spanish. That does not constitute “strong historic connections and similarities.”
It’s too bad the Catholic Church hasn’t done a good job of presenting Catholicism to Hispanics. Instead, it has been busy building itself up as a temporal power and forgetting its primary mission in the world.
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
No muzzies, remember Islam is not a race,it is a universal religion for all races, not for Arabs and those who are related to them only. In fact non-Arabs are more committed to Islam than the Arabs. Allah says :”yastabdila qauman thumma La yakunuu amthalakum (Allah will subtitute you Arabs with people who will be better than you) “.The companions of the Holy Prophet Muhammad asked him :what is the meaning of this verse?prophet Muhammad explained that non-Arabs like salman farisi (the Persian) will be more serious and committed to Islam than the Arabs. It so happened that non-Arabs are committed to Islam than the Arabs. The question of Latinos being not related to Arabs will not arise. As such Arab racism has nothing to do with Islam, it arose from a movement called “Arabism “to identify Arabs,whether muslims or non-muslims, as distinct ethnic group,hence the emergence of Arab League.
FYI says
“It is a universal religion for all races”
Oh Please!All races eh?
Except Jews of course..”apes to be despised and hated” k2:65 according to your demonic false god, allah the deceiver.
These silly latino women are converting to the religion of antiChrist for which they will have to suffer the consequences.Wheat versus chaff.
They have already chosen to be the chaff…!
The unholy koran denies Jesus christ k4:157;since Jesus is a Jew He is also cursed by your false god allah the deceiver in k2:65
It is a demonic lie that the unholy koran/islam respects Jesus
You will,no more then these silly,stupid,latino women understand a word of that.
Think about this if you convert to islam:-
allah CURSES Jews AND Christians k9;30
allah preaches violence and hatred
allah does not subscribe to the 2 chief commandments
{even contradicting them in k5:51}
If you are an ex-christian do not imagine that “allah” will save you:allah is NOT the Biblical God.You will reap what you sow!
allah is the “best of deceivers” k3:54
and his “prophet” a self-confessed fraudster al tabari 6:111
islam CURSES Jesus Christ(as a Jew} and ..
alalh CURSES CHRISTIANS FOR BELIEVING IN JESUS CHRIST.
SEE koran 9:30
gravenimage says
Ibrahim itace muhammed just means that Islam is to be violent imposed on everyone.
And no–those passages do not mean that non-Arabs are apt to be more devout–this is just another example of Islam threatening people–even Arabs, in this case. Keep in line or you will be slaughtered like the Jews…
gravenimage says
violently
VRWC member77 says
Oh yes Ibrahin, you’re correct in saying that Islam is not a race but it is most assuredly a racist based ideology. As many shaih hadith declare that muhammud was as white as a white person could be and that he valued his black slaves over his white slaves. He also made a general comment in reference to Africans as “raisin heads.”
Islam is quite good at attracting the dim-witted toward conversion and that’s what you have in common with the people discussed in this piece.
VRWC member77 says
*valued his white slaves over his black slaves
Janet says
Too bad for them that they’re all going to hell!
milad says
cant wait for part II
Berengaria says
Hisplamics are forming a Big Part of America, they find it easier to hate the Gringo Population under the GOV APPROVED GROUP called Islam. Islam places the Hisplamic
In a position to receive Extra Benefits, such as Permission to Beat your Hisplamic Mate, without having to go to jail. Most of the Hisplamic Sports are Blood Sports, & appeal to their Black & Brown Islamic Bros, & I now wonder if MS-13 operates under the Islamic Umbrella, too!
We have a Ready-Made Enemy Force right on our own soil, &
has already taken a deadly toll on our Fellow Americans.
ENRAGED says
May that’s kind of racist language you are spouting is one of the reasons why some Latinos turn into Islam
gravenimage says
Ah–another claim that it is the “filthy Infidels” who are driving people to the violent embrace of Islam. Try again…
James Lincoln says
And now a triple alliance: Latinos, the far left, and Islam. A recipe for disaster!
milad says
James, Quote “they have high hopes their new center for the Ojalá nonprofit can serve all members of the surrounding community” —
Sunnis hate them Shia do not want them. RESULT!
Remember – The Mosque which the Prophet Ordered to Be Burned?
Masjid ad-Dirar was a mosque built in Madinah by a monk named Abu Amir. After it was built, Abu Amir invited the Prophet to pray in it. Saying ‘O Messenger of Allah, we have built a mosque for the sick and needy and for rainy and cold nights, and we would like you to visit us and pray for us in it.’The Prophet accepted the invitation and promised to pray in it after he’s back from his Raid on the Jews to kill and loot..
When the Prophet returned from his journey, Allah revealed Quran 9:107-108. And, prevented him from praying in it. Thus the Prophet ordered his companions Malik b. Dukhshum, a brother of the Banu Salim, b. Awf, and Ma’n b. Adi, or his brother Asim b. b. Adi, brothers of the Banu al-Ajlan, and said:
‘Go to this mosque whose owners are unjust people and destroy and burn it. They ran until they entered the mosque, and burned it with people inside,
The Sunnis and the Houthis will do the same IN AMERICA calling them infidels.
andra says
How Little educated about Islam must I be to believe when they tell me that Islam believes in Jesus Christ?
Ever since the 60ies the Catholic Church fantasies that Islam and Christianity are two different ways to the same God. But as soon as I deal with Islam I learn that Allah has no children and Jesus was a fake.
I am stunned by these news.
WPM says
Is that the Sunni branch of Islam or the Shia branch Ibrahim itace Muhammad , is that the Kurdish Moslems ,or the Turkish Moslems, or the Hamas Moslems or the other tribes that have fighting and killing each other over power for a 1000 years did not Mohammad refer to his own black slave as a raisin head .Islam likes to convert people when they have little or no knowledge of what the Koran is about ,people weak in fear of Moslem gangs in jail join the gang to gain “protection” among them. You have people converting that still believe the Christ in Christian belief is the same Christ figure in the Koran .The Christ figure in the Koran is suppose to come at the end of time and kill all Christian and Jews .
Raja says
Andra,
The term “son of God” is sometimes used in the Old and New Testaments of the Christian Bible to refer to those with special relationships with God. … In the New Testament, Adam, and, most notably, Jesus Christ is called “son of God,” while followers of Jesus are called, “sons of God.”
This term definitely has no reference to the physical son of God for God is a spirit. The bible is very clear that Jesus before coming in flesh and blood was EQUAL WITH GOD. Koran is just anti-God and anti-Christ and it strives to be supremacist in every possible way.
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
Raja, how do you reconcile Jesus as equal to God and stament that “Father is greater than I “in the mithraist Bible?this blasphemous statement that Jesus was equal to God came from Roman paganism of mithraism inspired by the satan you call Holy Spirit. see Bart Erhman’s works and that of Helen Ellerbe.
gravenimage says
Helen Ellerbe hates Christianity, but she is a feminist. She is one of the first people Ibrahim itace muhammed would have murdered if Muslims ever come to power here.
Wellington says
Bad enough to be born a Muslim but it is unforgivable for any adult to willingly convert to Islam. Such a person is exceedingly foolish or malevolent or both.
Hugh Fitzgerald says
It’s a pathological condition. Adult-onset Islam.
raja says
Wellington and Hugh,
Both of you are right.
Brian hoff says
Your remark is so tyical racist against Islam.
WPM says
Islam is not a race it is a belief system you can believe something ,or not ,you can debate it is right or moral or not .Like communism, Fascism ,killing ,suppressing nonbelievers is encourage if it advances Islam supremist over nonbelievers is the goal to have the whole world under Sharia law is the goal like the goal of the communist , or the fascist nothing done to advance the goal not matter how violent or immoral is justified .
WPM says
not justified
gravenimage says
Spot on, WPM.
FYI says
racist against islam?
What about racist against Jews?
Check this out for racism:the Jews are “apes to be despised and hated” k2:65
allah the racist bigot!
Does allah the deceiver not know that Moses And Jesus christ are …Jews??
Converts to islam lack the wisdom and intelligence to differentiate between God and allah the deceiver:they are too stupid to exist.
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
FYI, Jesus has nothing to do with your rubbish pagan christianity from mithraism inspired by the satan you call Holy Spirit. you and your one-eyed bad smelly homosexual Satan god will be casted into hottest lake of hellfire burning forever.you will surely regret believing in this rubbish when you die and see Jesus telling you that he never taught those pagan doctrines of Godman and begotten son of God. Idiot!!
Wellington says
Jesus, Ibrahim, reveals an infinitely superior character to that of Mohammed. One knows this or should know it, whether religious or not, and thus it makes your Allah all the more looking like a fictional character—and an iniquitous fictional character at that.
May your Allah strike me dead tonight if I’m wrong here. Be in touch with you soon, Ibrahim, perhaps tomorrow or shortly thereafter. Gotta’ go because it’s time for a beer or two and some fine pork sausages.
gravenimage says
As Ibrahim itace muhammed and all other pious Muslims see it, Jesus was not just not the Savior, he is not a healer or a peacemaker, either. His only real purpose in Islam is to slaughter Christians in the last days, That is what this vicious Mohammedan is referring to here.
KJW says
Brian, racist is just a smear in this case. You would exhibit more honesty and intelligence if you said the word ‘criticism’ instead of ‘racist.” The comment he made is criticizing Islam or he’s stating his opinion about the effects of Islam on Muslims’ minds.
The smear words, that is, calling people racist when it’s really about the religious ideology umbrella or Islamophobic or even bigoted is often wrongly applied, is making the smearers look unintelligent and robotic. If one doesn’t use critical thinking and parrots other people without logic, I think it will permeate and affect their ability to do that on other subject matters too.
At this rate someone would say I’m bigoted about communism and Communismophobic and racist against communist adherents, therefore I should not criticize communism. Or if I criticize Christian Scientists (a Christian sect that has nothing to do with science) who don’t believe in going to doctors and some of their children have died as a result, well, that’s their religion…cultural relativism, right? I had a couple of ex-Christian Scientist friends and it screwed up their heads, they said. Islam is no different: Islam has some abhorrent practices and ideas and screws up many Muslims’ minds. Muslims are told not to question or criticize Islamic texts even though there are many contradictions and much disturbing things in the Hadith and Sira, notably Muhammad’s hypocrisy and many Muslims just repeat the lies they’re told. They are told to obey and turn off their minds. Likewise, when you smear people you’re turning off your mind.
You could ask him why he has that opinion and you might learn something although it might not be pleasant to hear. People do have independent thoughts and say things today that some person was saying in the 7th or 10th century without their having ever read it. There are patterns and endemic and systemic characteristics of Islamic believers and cultures. Of course if doesn’t apply to EVERY single Muslim since Muslims come from different cultures and countries. It also depends on how the Muslim was schooled in Islam. The Salafist school creates a pathological mindset, for sure. They’re being taught to hate others under a false veil of supremacy, for starters or to not be friends with non-Muslims though you might like the non-Muslim person. The Qur’an is hateful. Are you OK with Al Azhar University teaching that it’s OK to rape women as booty in war because Muhammad allowed it? That’s a war crime. Islam should be heavily criticized for teaching that it is OK to do. (One example.)
gravenimage says
True, Wellington and Hugh.
Raja says
Hypothetically if the pope converts to Islam what happens? it is well known he is an Islam leaning pope.
A Church is known by its doctrine(of the Bible) and its deeds. The absence of the first factor casts aspersions on the church itself as all that she does can go awry. NOT surprising that some foolish Latinos have fallen for the deception of the Islamic proselyte.
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
Wpm, Jesus was created by Allah, how can he be superior to his creator?You are just an an ignorant fool worshiping homosexual bad smelly Satan god mithraist christians Call Holy Spirit. you will surely be casted into hottest lake of hellfire burning forever together with your satan god.
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
I am referring to idiot Wellington who pretends to be an atheist, while he is a filthy mithraist pagan Christian worshiping one-eyed Satan god in yahweh and his wife Ashera hero god of evils
Wellington says
For the record, Ibrahim, I am neither an atheist nor a Christian. As usual, you get things completely wrong.
gravenimage says
Of course, Ibrahim itace muhammed understands nothing about Christianity–but that won’t stop him advocating the murder of Christians.
And note that Muslims consider *all* Westerners to be Christian–even when they are not, as in Wellington’s case. (I won’t even bother correcting him–Wellington is Agnostic, not Atheist).
In any case, it is possible to respect Jesus and Christianity without being Christian. Of course, Ibrahim itace muhammed is unable to grasp this.
In the same way, I can say that the character of the Gautama Buddha is much superior in just about every way to that of the vicious warlord Muhammed. I don’t have to be Buddhist–I’m not–to make this simple and obvious moral observation.
Joe says
Allah is a moon-god who is the sister of Baal. Of course, they are all just rocks. But heh, rock gods for people with rock heads. I’m okay with that. It is the killing, hate, rape, and terrorism of Islam that I don’t like. In fact, that is all Islam is which is probably why you like it so much.
WPM says
The Pope will not convert to Islam he would give up power and become a target for other Moslem groups to attack .He feels if we are nice to Moslems they will leave him and his flock along ,it does not work that way Islam has shown that over 1400 years. There is no room at the top of Islam for a Pope, or a Roman Catholic church that believe that Christ is the son of God or in the Trinity .The Church will have to grow a pair like they did when Islam first invade Europe and proclaim Islam is not a religion on the same footing as Christianity. It might happen after this Pope is called home to God the next Pope hopefully will clean up his mess.
Garfield says
I wonder if the Isis style cartel beheadings in Mexico isn’t Islamic influence.
Cicero says
Yes. That is what I thought when reading of the Mexican cartEl wars.
Another intersting point is the rage and viciousness of the Conquistadores from Spain as they inlicted genocide upon the unsuspecting Amerindians of North Central and South Americas
.. The zealotry as they and their marsuding Catholic monks came upon the Indians of the Americas and their forced conversions of the Native Animists to Christianity could be seen as asign of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder caused by Spain being under the yoke of Islam for seven hundred years.
WPM says
They were not a bunch of” green peace” love everyone civilization they capture people from small villages making them as slaves or just killing them as an offering to their gods and eating them. European disease kill more off then the few boat load of Conquistadores {who were lost most of the time wandering around}.By the time the monks got a hold of “the native” their civilization” was already failed the church with all it faults put some order, education pull them into the then modern world of that time..
WPM says
More an pre Columbian influence the whole killing and eating the hearts of your defeated foe thing ,makes the regular old Italian mob look like boy scouts .Killing whole families dealing drug and death far and wide human sex trade ,your right those pagans would fit right in with the Islamic savages.
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
Wpm, you must be an ignorant fool. Remember, there were mithraist christians in Arabia before Islam with scriptures in their hands and they referred to Jesus you worship as God or begotten son of God as “Esa”exactly as he is called in the Quran. They only differed with Islam on the question of whether “Esa”was mere prophet and messenger of “Allah”,according tothe Quran,or “Allah(God)”himself as begotten son of “Allah (God)”,according to mithraist christian scriptures.As such it is these pagan doctrines of Godman and begotten son of God that the Quran rejected, not Jesus.Note: the term “Jesus “came from “Essau”in Hebrew, which is the same thing as “Esa” in Arabic,because Hebrew and Arabic came from Same family of languages as you may know.
gravenimage says
The witless Ibrahim itace muhammed wrote:
Wpm, you must be an ignorant fool. Remember, there were mithraist christians in Arabia before Islam with scriptures in their hands and they referred to Jesus you worship as God or begotten son of God as “Esa”exactly as he is called in the Quran.
……………………………
This is no different from Arabic-speaking Christians referring to God as “Allah”. This does not mean that the loving God of the Gospels has anything in common with the vicious deity of the Qur’an.
More:
They only differed with Islam on the question of whether “Esa”was mere prophet and messenger of “Allah”,according tothe Quran,or “Allah(God)”himself as begotten son of “Allah (God)”,according to mithraist christian scriptures.As such it is these pagan doctrines of Godman and begotten son of God that the Quran rejected, not Jesus.Note: the term “Jesus “came from “Essau”in Hebrew, which is the same thing as “Esa” in Arabic,because Hebrew and Arabic came from Same family of languages as you may know.
……………………………
In other words, they only differ in everything of substance. Good grief…
Joe says
Islam teaches hate on nearly every page of the Koran. Since you hate everyone, it is your religion.
Christianity teaches love on nearly every page of the Bible. You hate Christianity, because you refuse to love anyone.
Lydia Church says
Islam is 100% evil.
It is mutually exclusive from Christianity, totally distinct.
They don’t know anything about Jesus because they deny everything that is true about Him.
Christianity is open to the whole world.
Those who remain outside of it because of loving darkness more than light will not make it to heaven.
And that… is the final word on that.
I do not read ibrahim’s lunacy, and do not have to to know it is all wrong, false, and evil propaganda from the devil and lies from hell.
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
Lydia church, it is because you are possessed by that one-eyed Satan god mithraist christians Call Holy Spirit ,and as incapable of reasoning. you are just told to close your eyes and accepted lies put in a cover called “Bible (the book of genocide and ethnic cleansing)”.
gravenimage says
More projection from Ibrahim itace muhammed. He himself has said that he wants to personally take part in the genocide of the Jews.
gravenimage says
Hugh Fitzgerald: Latinos Converting to Islam (Part 1)
……………………
Very disturbing–a phenomenon I have noticed before. Thank you Hugh, for covering this. Am looking forward to pt 2.
ciudadano says
It is no surprising that “Latino” Catholics are jumping ship to other religions. Most “Latinos” are non observant Catholics , rather, Cultural Catholics or practical atheists. Lack of a solid Christian foundation makes them easy prey of Islamic apologists, peer pressure or convenience conversion.
gravenimage says
Actually, I grew up in a heavily Hispanic area, and most of our neighbors were devout, observant Catholics. Of course, this is not everywhere the case.
Ciudadano says
Well, I’m an observant “latino” Catholic living in central america and a frequent complain among clergy in catholic media is low attendance to mass and the lack of devoution.
This Problem is not unique to “latinos”. The recent Irish referendum on abortion showed a strong correlation between non obserbant catholics and votes for legalising abortion.
https://religionnews.com/2014/02/10/graphs-growing-divide-practicing-catholics-cultural-catholics/
gravenimage says
True.
somehistory says
And the violence in the windy city will continue to escalate. It’s already out of control.
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
Liar Gravenimage, because it is the same one-eyed homosexual bad smelly Satan god who inspired Idol worships and your pagan mithraist christianity, hence you gang up against muslims? All of you will be casted into the same hottest lake of hellfire burning forever together with your filthy Satan god
VRWC member77 says
Ibrahim, I’m guessing your over the top hostility toward graven is a result of her running circles around you regarding historical reference and fact. Your rage seems particularly hostile because she’s a woman. That is why Islam and half-witted muslims like you have no place in Western society.
Never forget there are millions of us in the West of whom are on guard to your vile ideology. Sooner or later it will be dealt with accordingly.
gravenimage says
Thanks you so much, VRWC member77.
And yes–more and more of us are on to him and his vicious coreligionists regarding the danger of Islam.
gravenimage says
Ibrahim itace muhammed wrote:
Liar Gravenimage, because it is the same one-eyed homosexual bad smelly Satan god who inspired Idol worships and your pagan mithraist christianity, hence you gang up against muslims? All of you will be casted into the same hottest lake of hellfire burning forever together with your filthy Satan god
………………….
Observe that Ibrahim itace muhammed is not only unable to prove me wrong about anything, he isn’t even able to say what it is I am supposedly lying about.
All he can do is spout threats.
Notice, in any case, that someone who says that Muslims can rob, rape, enslave, and mass slaughter Infidels considers having a number of posters demolish his arguments “ganging up against Muslims”. Talk about projection!
Vicky says
Foolish women who left their own God, Jesus Christ, to follow a demon.
Paul says
Many Spanish words are related to Hebrew also: Sabado=Shabbat; seis=sheish (both Arabic and Hebrew number 6); alado=al yad (next to); Pesach=Pasquas (Passover or Easter); semana=shmonei (Hebrew number 8: the 8th day starts a new week); llega and higiya, etc. etc. Maybe these Latinos should consider Judaism instead, especially as they are likely to have some Jewish genetic background via the tens of thousands of forced Sephardic converts to Catholicism.
Chand says
Where can one turn to in a white supremacist, racist land like the US? While many Americans are liberal, wise and non racist, the deep currents of racism persists.
While most Latinos quietly accept their fate and are thankful for their living standards in America, some might feel betrayed by the God of Christianity, Who has been more generous to the White Race. Despised, ridiculed and hated as poor, immigrants and Non White, some hate back and are full of anger and rage. As are many African Americans, although they have a different history.
Then they might come across the Koran and God speaks directly to you. The main message of the Koran is that life is tough and harsh. You will face injustice and hatred if you follow Me (God). Muhammad was attacked as soon as he preached the One God of Abraham, David and Jesus. So fight back! Be righteous, just and true but be ready to fight. Follow Muhammad, who did not turn his cheek like Jesus to injustice. He fought.
So fight but be ready to suffer too. You might not win glory or victory in life but will be rewarded hereafter as you were true and just and fearless.
And even the grandchild of the Prophet, Hussein, died a horrible death, from thirst and torture in the desert of Karbala.
So a Latino might find strength in it. Might help him/her survive and carry on.
somehistory says
What nonsense.
The True God is “not partial.” He has no favorites, He doesn’t help any one race or ethnicity more than another.
and since you don’t know the Bible, you don’t write the truth about Jesus and the persecution He received from the moment He began to preach. Even His own family was against Him at one time.
Jesus never promised that following Him would be easy….in fact, just the opposite. He said all would be “persecuted” for following Him and having faith in Him and His Father. He stated more than once that the “world hates (me)” and the “world will hate (you) also,’ warning of the hatred against Christians and Christianity.
the evil slave trader, raper of children, mass murderer who pretended to be a “prophet,” just used what he heard about Jesus and God to form his own evil, filthy, demonic cult. In fact, his cult of murder and filth is straight from God’s enemy, satan the devil.
If the mass murderer, raper of children, pathological liar had told the truth about Jesus, then why would he then go against everything Jesus taught?
Your comment is just nonsense. If latinos and others convert to islam, it isn’t because God left them to help “Whites”….but because they wish to be doing evil work and getting praised for it.
Chand says
Muhammad revered Jesus and recognized his great suffering. He urged his followers to make Jesus their guide. Jesus was Muhammad’s guide, being the last Prophet before him.
Allah accepts those who have sinned and are given a chance for self redemption.
ANYWAY I’m an atheist and don’t care about religions, myself. Was just wondering out loud how some Latinos could be converting to Islam.
I like MR. Hugh Fitzgerald’s essays.
VRWC member77 says
“Where can one turn to in a white supremacist, racist land like the US? While many Americans are liberal, wise and non racist, the deep currents of racism persists.”
That’s exactly what a racist leftist would say.
somehistory says
The fake prophet did not “revere” the True Prophet, Jesus, as one cannot “revere” someone unknown. The vile mass murderer, raper of children, lair and warmonger, did not know Jesus and therefore, did not, could not, revere Him.
the fake “god” of the fake “prophet” commands people to sin. One can’t serve the fake god…really satan…without committing many evil sins.
You say you “don’t care about religion” but you write like a moslim and seem to “revere” the fake prophet devil worshipper who misled thousands, millions, of people with his filth.
gravenimage says
Appalling Muslim apologist Chand wrote:
Where can one turn to in a white supremacist, racist land like the US?
………………………
The United States is the most diverse nation on the face of the earth. The idea that most whites are racist is just calumny.
More:
While many Americans are liberal, wise and non racist, the deep currents of racism persists.
While most Latinos quietly accept their fate and are thankful for their living standards in America, some might feel betrayed by the God of Christianity, Who has been more generous to the White Race.
………………………
What tripe. There is far more opportunity for Hispanics and everyone else in the US.
More:
Despised, ridiculed and hated as poor, immigrants and Non White, some hate back and are full of anger and rage. As are many African Americans, although they have a different history.
………………………
What a grotesque and false characterization of how Hispanics are regarded in America.
More:
Then they might come across the Koran and God speaks directly to you.
………………………
This is only true if someone is a sociopath. In fact, most converts to Islam have not read the vicious Qur’an.
More:
The main message of the Koran is that life is tough and harsh. You will face injustice and hatred if you follow Me (God).
………………………
Most of the toughness and harshness in Islam comes from Muslims toward Infidels. It is Christianity that says you will face persecution, not Islam.
More:
Muhammad was attacked as soon as he preached the One God of Abraham, David and Jesus. So fight back! Be righteous, just and true but be ready to fight. Follow Muhammad, who did not turn his cheek like Jesus to injustice. He fought.
So fight but be ready to suffer too. You might not win glory or victory in life but will be rewarded hereafter as you were true and just and fearless.
And even the grandchild of the Prophet, Hussein, died a horrible death, from thirst and torture in the desert of Karbala.
………………………
Note that the appalling Chand is claiming that not submitting to Islam is “injustice”, and that slaughtering Infidels is “righteous”. *Ugh*.
Also, note his claim that the vicious “Allah” is the “One God”. Chand says he is not Muslim; how could he not be if he believes this?
More:
So a Latino might find strength in it. Might help him/her survive and carry on.
………………………
The idea that it is necessary to want to butcher unbelievers in order to survive is simply grotesque.
More:
Muhammad revered Jesus and recognized his great suffering. He urged his followers to make Jesus their guide. Jesus was Muhammad’s guide, being the last Prophet before him.
………………………
What crap. The fact is that Islam rejects that idea that Jesus suffered. The Muslim “Jesus”–really, the “prophet Isa”–was not crucified–instead, he coerced someone else to die nameless in his place.
In fact, Jesus is not only not the Savior, he is not a healer or a peacemaker, either. In fact, his main role is to *slaughter Christians” in the last days.
More:
Allah accepts those who have sinned and are given a chance for self redemption.
………………………
This is not what Islam is about at all–it is not a redemptive faith.
And the *only* way that Muslims can be assured a place in Jannah is to murder Infidels in violent Jihad.
More:
ANYWAY I’m an atheist and don’t care about religions, myself. Was just wondering out loud how some Latinos could be converting to Islam.
………………………
Chand says he doesn’t care about religions, yet all he does here is spout whitewash and apologia for the horrors of Islam.
More:
I like MR. Hugh Fitzgerald’s essays.
………………………
In what possible way? Note he does not say.
underbed cat says
I have an impression this may be happening in Puerto Rico….and all the controversy about the hurricane recovery mission really clarified it to me. Why was there so much bad press on U.S.recovery mission what was the reason for all the criticism of containers that sat in the harbor( as if it had not arrived, with the word that it was the U. S. government at fault. There are more mosques on that island than I would have expected, and somewhere I read the drivers to distribute were not showing up. The natural disaster was the perfect opportunity to gain power once again by protesting, work stop-age,agitation and the media couldn’t get enough and who got the bad press the Trump administration and the left/ Democrats were delighted with all the interviews, very clever.
gravenimage says
underbed cat, there are about 5,000 Muslims in all of Puerto Rico, and most of them are “Palestinian” and Jordanian immigrants who arrived in the 1950s and early 1960s. I don’t think there are many native converts.
C S K says
Somewhere in the Gospels (Matthew, maybe?), Jesus answering one of His followers questions about the signs of His return. Among others, He says (paraphrasing the KJV a bit) that there will false Christs and false prophets who will deceive many…
Hmmmm….. food for thought.
BTW, I am not Christian nor atheist. But I am from the north side of Chicago.
terry says
Ignorance is an islamic ace in the hole, that, and violence are two of the reasons it has survived.
This is yet another case in point.
Valkyrie Ziege says
; Yup, Muhammadanism is invading Central, and South America, and that is where the Central, and South Americans playing games with I.C.E., the immigrant system, and the American government, are getting their rhetoric from, e.g., Claiming “refugee status”, and “begging” for “political asylum”, from their own countries.
I’ll post a video of Central, and South Americans, building a mosque, and worshiping, and please note in the backgrounds of this, and other videos on-line, that they’re their not farming, or ranching, therefore they’re being financed by Muhammadans.
So-called “Latinos” haven’t learned the first rule of business is “There Isn’t Any Such Thing As a Free Lunch”, nor the lesson of Terry Southern’s “The Magic Christian”.
One must wonder how “Latino” women will respond to “female circumcision” i.e., The entire removal of the exteriour female genitalia, also the forced wearing of a head-to-toe gunny-sack, their daughters forced into being child-brides to pay-off “family debts”, the constant rapes, and beatings, of the women, and their children, for showing an ankle, and that the women are expected to “volunteer” their sons and recently including daughters, for suicide-bomber duty as “payment” for “family debts”.
https://youtu.be/bhQpt8Mk_A4