Converts say they are surprised to discover similar customs By Wendy HundleyThe Dallas Morning NewsOctober 15, 2003 When Carlos Puerto was growing up in his native Colombia, he was taught to step out of bed in the morning on his right foot to ensure a good day. It’s a custom, he said, that’s common in […]

By Ana CampoySan Francisco ChronicleSunday, January 5, 2003 When the doorbell rings, Daniel Denton rises from the couch. “Ah, Martin!” he says, opening the door a crack. “Babe, Martin is here,” he shouts to his wife, who rushes to get her veil and fits it around her face tightly, so none of her wiry black […]

By Julia M. ScottJersey Journal staff writerMonday, July 28, 2003 The Islamic Educational Center of North Hudson took its message to a new demographic yesterday: Latinos. In a one-day celebration at the Union City center, Muslims and Latino converts sought to teach their neighbors, the vast majority of whom are Latino, about the Spanish Moors, […]

By Abbas BarzegarThe Gottfried and Martha Lang Student Prize PaperThe High Plains Society for Applied Anthropology (HPSfAA)Fall 2003, No. 2 Vol. 23, pp 126 – 129. Introduction 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, […]

By Kenny Yusuf RodriguezThe American MuslimVol. 4, no. 1, January, 2003 The call to prayer echoed throughout the corridors of the mosque when Jamil slipped off his shoes and entered the prayer hall. After exchanging greetings of “As salaam `alaykum,” or peace be upon you, to his fellow Muslim brothers, he proceeded to offer his […]

By Lisa Viscidi Washington Report on Middle East AffairsJune 2003. Vol. XXII, No. 5.pg 56, 58, 59 On January 21, 2003, the United States census bureau officially named the nation’s 37 million Latinos the largest minority population in the country-outnumbering African Americans by 0.3 percent. This demographic shift, coupled with Islam’s status as one of […]

By David KoonThe Arkansas TimesDecember 19, 2003 Muslims talk about the ups and downs of life in our state since 9/11. Most say it’s been a road paved with compassion and love. It’s a November morning, soon after a frosty Arkansas sunrise, and 10,000 miles from Mecca a long line of cars is snaking across […]

IslamOnline SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS (Nov. 4 2003)–Inside the dusty compound behind the forbidding, no-nonsense walls of the Sheik Hamden bin Rashid al Makoum mosque and madrassa (Islamic training center), the faithful are summoned to prayer five times a day. Like good Muslims everywhere on earth, these Tzotzil Indian converts to Islam who live […]

By Amir Nashid Ali MuhammadIslamWeb.netNovember 22, 2002 History shows that Muslims came to the Americas in four different waves, the first as explorers, then those fleeing the Spanish inquisition, during the Barbary Coast Wars and the enslavement of Africans, and by immigration starting in the mid-to-late 1870s. Historical Points (1312 – 1684) In 1312, African […]

By Allen EssexValley Morning StarSeptember 10, 2002 In the wake of Sept. 11, many Rio Grande Valley Muslims worried that they would become targets of hatred and reprisals because the accused hijackers in the attacks were reported to share their faith. Except for a handful of isolated incidents, that backlash never materialized in South Texas. […]