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Many Latinos are abandoning Catholicism for Islam, but LA parish doing its best to keep them in the fold... As a girl in Catholic school, Khadijah Rivera told religion writer Anthony Chiorazzi, she dreamed of becoming a nun despite the fact she feared Jesus. She was frightened by her church’s bloodied statue of Christ. Years later, as an adult, she says she has now gotten over those fears and learned to love Jesus more. The reason for her change of heart? Rivera converted to Islam. According to Chiorazzi, who writes for Busted Halo, "an online magazine for spiritual seekers," Latino Muslims in the U.S. may number close to 100,000, more than doubling their numbers in less than a decade. Some formerly Catholic Latinos contend that their conversion to Islam is made easier by the fact that they don’t have to abandon their love of Jesus and Mary. Jihad Turk, director of religious affairs at the Islamic Center of Southern California, says that both are highly regarded in Islam. “Jesus was born from a virgin birth, performed miracles-including healing the sick and raising the dead-and was the Messiah-a man chosen by God to lead the Jewish people back to God’s ways," Turk explained to Busted Halo. However, there are major differences. Unlike Christians, Muslims don’t consider Jesus divine or believe he rose from the dead. They also don’t believe in the reality of Original Sin and the need for a Divine yet human Savior to bridge man’s separation from God. In the two years that Turk has been teaching at the Islamic Center, he has seen over 100 converts to Islam, most of them Latino ex-Catholics. According to Turk, when Catholics were asked why they wanted to convert to Islam, without exception they said they had always believed in God but never could make sense of the Trinity. Islam just seemed simpler. "There is no leap of faith in Islam," said Turk. But some believe the conversions of Latinos from the faith of their ancestors isn’t motivated by theological issues. "The reason why some Latinos are leaving the Church for Islam is they never really understood Catholicism," Fr. Lawrence Seyer of the University of Southern California’s Catholic Center told Busted Halo. "They have a very cursory understanding of it, but what excites them about Islam is the discipline-no alcohol, a more structured prayer program and great sense of community." Fr. Bill Delaney, senior priest at St. Agnes Church in South Los Angeles, just a few blocks down from where the Los Angeles Latino Muslim Association often meets, says the reason why some leave is because they are not involved enough with their own parish. At St. Agnes-which is over 90 percent Latino-that connection is made through a 300-member charismatic prayer group that meets once a week. Fr. Delaney told Chiorazzi, who specializes in cross-cultural stories of religious conversion, that any Catholic who experiences one of their high-charged services will see another side of Catholicism that will draw them closer to their faith and Catholic community.
As in the days of Noah...
