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Becoming Muslim: AARON + RAUL
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Being Latinx and Muslim
Raul Gonzalez pictured outside of the Al-Nahda Center on March 14, 2021 in Worth, Ill. The mosque is five minutes from Gonzalez's house.
Photo credit: Michelle Kanaar
Aarón Seibert-Llera pictured outside his home in Bridgeview, Ill. on March 14, 2021. Seibert-Llera converted to Islam about twenty years ago.
Michelle Kanaar
Raul Gonzalez pictured outside of the Al-Nahda Center on March 14, 2021 in Worth, Ill. The mosque is five minutes from Gonzalez's house.
Photo credit: Michelle Kanaar
Raul Gonzalez holds a version of the Quran with Spanish translation in front of the Al-Nahda Center on March 14, 2021 in Worth, Ill.
Photo credit: Michelle Kanaar
Aarón Seibert-Llera pictured outside his home in Bridgeview, Ill. on March 14, 2021. Seibert-Llera converted to Islam about twenty years ago.
Photo credit: Michelle Kanaar
Raul Gonzalez pictured outside of the Al-Nahda Center on March 14, 2021 in Worth, Ill. The mosque is five minutes from Gonzalez's house
Photo credit: Michelle Kanaar
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By Natasha Haverty
“We’re completely used to breaking our fast alone, like this is something that’s not foreign to a lot of us who have come to the religion, because we don’t have Muslim families.”
Latinx Americans make up one of the fastest-growing groups of Muslim Converts in the U.S.. In 2010, Latinx Muslims made up one percent of all Muslims in the U.S.—they now make up eight percent, according to a Gallup poll.
One reason more Latinos are converting has to do with the mass exodus from the Catholic church. For others, it’s tracing heritage back 800 years to Andalusia, and the Muslim kingdom that ruled the Iberian peninsula. A lot of Latinx converts call themselves “reverts.”
In this episode, we follow the journeys of Aaron Siebert-Llera and Raul Gonzalez, both living in the Chicago area and who both converted to Islam twenty years and half their lifetimes ago. Both have been trying to answer the question of how to reconcile their identity as Latinos—with their identity as Muslims, ever since.
But while one has dedicated his life to helping the Latino Muslim community in his city find itself, the other still isn’t even sure being in a community as a Latino Muslim is possible.
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Natasha Haverty is an independent journalist whose work has appeared on NPR, Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting, and the New York Times. More at her website: www.natashahaverty.com
The Spiritual Edge is a project of KALW Public Radio. Funding for Becoming Muslim comes from the Templeton Religion Trust.
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