A new book on the changing demographics of Latino Muslims in the US and the relationship between Muslim and LatinX identities has been announced on Wednesday at the Morgan State University, Michigan Daily reported.

Morgan State University professor Harold D Morales made the announcement Wednesday during a lecture at Haven Hall.

The Romance Languages and Literature, Global Islamic Studies Center, Department of American Culture, Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs, Latina/o Studies and La Casa sponsored the event.

Titled, “Latino and Muslim in America: Race, Religion, and the Making of a New Minority,” the book examines statistics of Latinx Muslim representation in the United States population.

According to Morales, by the year 2043, the United States will be the first nation where the current racial minority populations will outnumber the racial majority population.

Dr. Harold D. Morales, associate professor at Morgan State University, discusses the changing demographics in the United States

Praise

During the event, University alum Asma Baban discussed how the media portrayed Latinx Muslims.

“Most media representation of Muslims tends to be negative — we know that. But specifically, it targets like a certain type of ethnic Muslim,” Baban said.

“So, to hear and learn about the Latinx perspective and blind next experience of it, all of that was very insightful, and fascinating.”

In addition, Rackham student Ivana Lopez-Espinosa also praised the way Morales approached his research.

“I thought the overall presentation was well thought out,” Lopez-Espinosa said.

“There were multiple intersecting ideas in terms of the identity and the language aspect of it. So, I thought that was fascinating because there are very few times where you see an academic actually respect the identities and the preferred perceptions of the groups that were studying.”

According to the institute’s annual report ‘American Muslim Poll: Predicting and Preventing Islamophobia’, only 1% of Muslims identified as Hispanic in 2009. By 2018, it expanded to 7%.

According to a study of the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Religion on Muslim Latinos in the US, many American Latinos convert to Islam for a similar reason: the desire to have more direct and personal experience with God.

In fact, most American Latinos who converted to Islam are women of Mexican or Puerto Rican origin who justify their conversion as a return to a pre-Hispanic and pre-Catholic Muslim identity.