Why More Hispanics Are Converting to Islam Faster Than Any Other Ethnic Group

Jaime “Mujahid” Fletcher is a Colombian-American who embraced Islam 21 years ago.

When he began his journey he also felt alone, but soon his father also wanted to learn about Islam.

The only problem was his father is a Spanish speaker and Jaime had a hard time finding educational material about the religion that was written in Spanish. Jaime decided to translate what he was reading for his dad.

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That effort grew into Islam in Spanish.

An Islamic center based in Houston doesn’t convert Hispanics to Islam, but provides educational information about the religion in Spanish.

Despite their hands-off approach, Jaime says they have seen an explosion of Latino and Latina converts.

“Based on data Latinos are the fastest growing ethnic group embracing Islam in America,” Fletcher said. “People just show up and they say hey we’re coming here to embrace Islam.”

In Colorado, Rudy Sanchez and Juana Serrano also heard and answered the call to Islam.

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Both of them and brother Jaime say Islam and Latino culture has a lot of similarities which makes conversion easier.

“Coming from a Hispanic background family is very important,” Serrano said.

“Respecting parents and respecting family members and all that’s a huge part of Islam and that’s also a huge part of like our culture,” Sanchez said.

“Looking deeper into Islam all of a sudden you start finding out that hey this is the way you know I was brought up these are the values my family shared with me so there’s a lot of affinity,” Fletcher said.

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“We actually can keep our culture intact and be a better version of what it means to be a Latino,” Fletcher said.

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