Southern California mosques welcome rising number of Latino Muslims
Groups are meeting growing interest through efforts such as Friday prayers in Spanish and #TacoTrucksatEveryMosque events to break Ramadan fasting.
When Mariam Saada teaches new Muslim converts, she notices several common challenges—learning how to pray in Arabic, adjusting to a new diet, giving up old holidays, and dealing with non-Muslim family members.
But for many Spanish speakers who have embraced the religion—which scholars say is an expanding part of the Muslim American community—there’s another hurdle: introductory materials on Islam are usually written in English, not Spanish.
Saada, who offers religious education classes in Spanish in Orange County in California, said Spanish-speaking Muslims are often isolated. “There’s a real language barrier.”
