NYC Latino Muslims, Alianza Islamica, ASWAD at MIB

By Yahya Abdul-Latif Figueroa Director, Alianza Islamica Reclaiming heritage lends itself to the false impression of dwelling on the past. The next few lines are about the future flowing from the past. Hopefully a reopening to a humble beginning that accomplished a number of great starts yet confronted many challenges and now must map a…

By Yahya Abdul Latif Figueroa Director, Alianza Islamica Beginnings and starting points are always difficult to determine and become obscured in the pages of bygone days. How and when movements and ideas bloom is never easy to pinpoint.  Historical studies of the same period rarely agree on key issues. Nonetheless, the following lines hope to…

Alianza Islamica Journal Published by the first iteration of the organization Alianza Islamica of the mid-80s, it was the first bi-lingual publication of its kind. The journal Alianza Islamica was a joint effort with the Bismi Rabbik Foundation in Chicago. The second iteration of Alianza Islamica as an organization, which lasted from the late 80s…

Assalaam alaykum, The video below documents a landmark event in the history of El Barrio (Spanish Harlem) and the Latino Muslim story in the United States. It was Alianza Islamica’s attempt to publicly showcase an expression of Muslim culture that was distinctly Latino and accurately reflected our contemporary cultural reality: sights, sounds, music, songs, verse,…

By Danny “Khalil” Salgado Islamic Horizons January/February 2020

Rahim Ocasio’s speech on the history of Alianza Islamica at LALMA‘s Ramadan event in Los Angeles, CA on May 19, 2019.