Latino and Muslim in America: Race, Religion, and the Making of a New Minority (AAR Religion, Culture, and History)

"Even as many people view Latinos and Muslims as growing threats in US discourse, Latino Muslims celebrate their intersecting identities in their daily lives and in their mediated representations. The story of Latinos embracing Islam is set in an American religious landscape that is characteristically “diverse and fluid.” It follows distinctive immigration patterns and laws, metropolitan spaces, and new media technologies that have increasingly brought Latinos and Muslims into contact with one another. It is part of the mass exodus out of the Catholic Church, the digitization of religion, and the growth of Islam. It is set in a national context dominated by particular media politics, information economies, and the hyper-racialization of its inhabitants and their religious identities. The historically specific character of groups like Latino Muslims increasingly compels scholars to approach the categories of race, religion, and media as inextricably intertwined. This monograph therefore draws on and engages central categories, theories, and issues in the fields of religious, ethnic, and media studies. By carefully attending to the stories that Latino Muslims tell about themselves, the work examines the racialization of religion, the narrating of religious conversion experiences, the dissemination of post-colonial histories, and the development of Latino Muslim networks across the United States. This study of how being Latino and Muslim in America becomes mediated is a cautionary analysis of how so-called minority groups are made in the United States and how they become fragmented and nevertheless struggle for recognition in a “diverse and fluid” landscape" (ed.) Latino and Muslim in America examines how so called "minority groups" are made, fragmented, and struggle for recognition in the U.S.A. The U.S. is currently poised to become the first nation whose collective minorities will outnumber the dominant population, and Latinos play no small role inthis world changing demographic shift. Even as many people view Latinos and Muslims as growing threats, Latino Muslims celebrate their intersecting identities both in their daily lives and in their mediated representations online. In this book, Harold Morales follows the lives of several Latino Muslim leaders from the 1970's to the present, and their efforts to organize and unify nationally in order to solidify the new identity group's place within the public sphere. Based on four years of ethnography, media analysis andhistorical research, Morales demonstrates how the phenomenon of Latinos converting to Islam emerges from distinctive immigration patterns and laws, urban spaces, and new media technologies that have increasingly brought Latinos and Muslims in to contact with one another. He explains this growingcommunity as part of the mass exodus out of the Catholic Church, the digitization of religion, and the growth of Islam. Latino and Muslim in America explores the racialization of religion, the framing of religious conversion experiences, the dissemination of post-colonial histories, and thedevelopment of Latino Muslim networks, to show that the categories of race, religion, and media are becoming inextricably entwined Latino and Muslim in America examines how so-called "minority groups" are made, fragmented, and struggle for recognition. The U.S. is poised to become the first nation whose collective minorities outnumber the dominant population, and Latinos play no small role in this world-changing demographic shift. Even as many people view Latinos and Muslims as growing threats, Latino Muslims celebrate their intersecting identities in their daily lives and in their mediated representations. In this book, Harold D. Morales follows the lives of several Latino Muslim leaders from the 1970's to the present, tracing their efforts to organize and unify nationally in order to solidify the new identity group's place within the public sphere. Drawing on four years of media analysis, ethnographic and historical research, Morales demonstrates that Latinos embrace Islam within historically specific contexts that include distinctive immigration patterns and new laws, urban spaces, and media technologies that have increasingly brought Latinos and Muslims into contact. He positions this growing community as part of the mass exodus out of the Catholic Church, the growth of Islam, and the digitization of religion. Latino and Muslim in America explores the interactions between religion, race, and media to conclude that these three categories are inextricably entwined. The Experience And Mediation Of Race-religion -- The First Wave: From Islam In Spain To The Alianza In New York -- The Second Wave: Spanish Dawah To Women, Online And In Los Angeles -- Reversion Stories: The Form, Content, And Dissemination Of A Logic Of Return -- The 9/11 Factor: Latino Muslims In The News -- Radicals: Latino Muslim Hip Hop And The Clash Of Civilizations Thing -- The Third Wave: Consolidations, Reconfigurations And The 2016 News Cycle. Harold D. Morales. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.