Stories of Some of the Early “Latino” Muslims (Part 1)

RAMON FRANCISCO OCASIO MARCH 14TH, 2016 11:51 AM On January 30, 2016, Muslims and non-Muslims alike gathered in Houston, Texas, for the most highly anticipated event of the season: the grand opening of IslamInSpanish’s Centro Islamico, a new nexus to bring Islam to Latinos. Bright, sunny, nearly cloudless skies graced the sizable throng, most seated under…

By Yahya Figueroa Many of our Muslim answers have become dogmatic, repeating of a few themes someone has kind of understood from some book or the other. Iman (faith) is of course the cornerstone of our Muslim lives. I won’t recant basics of faith, theology and points we believe in. These cardinal points are laid…

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 Figueroa Intellectual fads and cultural truism are very hard to detect. These false trends often have a grain of truth but the final product is distorted truths and fabulous falsehoods. The larger society has in so many ways lost its mind morally and intellectually. Our minority groups are usually in the rear but…

Muslim History Tour NYC Facebook page: This 1985 article in Islamic Horizons highlights a presentation on Latinx people in Islam at the Museo del Barrio in East Harlem. At this time, a diverse Latino-led community was beginning in the Barrio known as Alianza Islamica, which started in 1987 with a journal of the same name….