A Clash of culture, faith (latina conversions to islam)

CNN ^

[The Lion Roars]

Every morning, Jackie Avelar wakes up to a predicament. On one side of her bed is a clock that sounds the Islamic call to prayer five times a day. On the other side is a statue of Mary. As a Muslim, she wants to remove it. As a Latina, she can't.

Her father, who is a Catholic from El Salvador, wants the statue to stay.

Photos Embracing a New Faith A growing number of Latinos are redefining themselves through Islam, attracted by a devoutness, simiplicity and way of treating women that they prefer to the machismo culture they were raised in.

"I have to respect him," Avelar said.

So she has found a comfortable balance: She covers the statue with a photo of her family.

Avelar, 31, constantly struggles to find balance within her family, within the outside world, within herself. Growing up, she was a beach-going, tank top-wearing, salsa-dancing girl. Now, she's a devout Muslim who favors Islamic garments and avoids socializing with men.

Across the nation, thousands of Latino immigrants are redefining themselves through Islam, including a few hundred in the Washington region, according to national Islamic groups and community leaders. Precise numbers are not available, but estimates range from 40,000 to 70,000.

[The Lion Roars]

the dhimmi always find an excuse and succumb to evil.

[jaime1959]

> way of treating women that they prefer to the machismo culture they were raised in. <

Yes, treating them like chattal instead of the whore/maddona dichotomy.

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

I lived in Saudi Arabia for five years, studied enough about Islam to see that it has kept its people from progressing through "The Enlightenment." Converting to Islam is like going back in time 400 years.

[PeteB570]

Was thinking the same thing.

Islamic vs machismo treatment of women.

And the MSM likes to beat up on the Baptists

[wolfcreek]

You gotta love the tolerance for other religions in Islam or for that matter Catholicism. It's either OUR way or the highway.

[Westbrook]

Converting to Islam is like going back in time 400 years.

I think you meant to say 1400 years.

.

[oilfieldtrash]

I agree.

That woman may feel she gets respect from men with the hijab but I dont believe she will get it from women.

Women have worked hard to move ahead in the work place and suddenly you have women that want to turn the clock back 100 years.

[The Lion Roars]

I think you meant to say 1400 years.

Using the theory of relativity, that would be 400 years if you were in Saudi Arabia. :-)).

[Westbrook]

It's either OUR way or the highway.

With Islam, it's more like, "Our way or we'll saw your head off with a rusty kitchen knife, or bury you alive, or slice off your limbs, or ..."

You get the idea.

And she will really get to understand the true nature of Islam if she ever converts to Christianity (see above).

.

[kb2614]

And the MSM likes to beat up on the Baptists

Easy target. Baptists aren't likely to leave a car bomb at your door step. That makes it a safe target for the cowards of the MSM.

[SaveUS]

" simiplicity and way of treating women that they prefer to the machismo culture they were raised in. "

I have nothing constructive to add except, LOLOLOL ROFLMAO LOLLOL, BBWWHAHAHHAHA. Anyway.....

[AmericaUnite]

Jose Padilla will be the tip of the iceberg. They are also looking for "Lily Whites". Many useful idiots.

[Free Baptist]

Emptiness just sucks in more emptiness.

As a Latina she can't remove the statue. This means then that just being Latino/Latina is equivalent to being loyal to the Roman Catholic system, does it not? That would be the impression.

In business after business in the Philippines you can see, hanging on the walls, god shelves, where BOTH Roman Catholic idols and Buddhist idols are placed together, and incense is burning there. It is always strange to me that no Roman Catholic priest ever tries to tell these people that you cannot mix Christ with idolatrous religions. Oops! I forgot. Roman Catholicism itself is idolatrous. They bow to idols and kiss cement or ceramic, or plastic statues.

[browardchad]

At the University of Texas, she was introduced to Islam in a Middle East history course and during Muslim student events. At the end of her freshman year, Martinez recited the shehada , the vow a person takes to become a Muslim. When she told her Catholic family, they gave her an ultimatum: Leave Islam or leave their house. Martinez left.

Publicly-funded universities as a tool of Muslim recruiting. Our tolerance -- no, make that encouragement -- of intolerance will destroy us.

[markomalley]

The problem is, at least from the description in the article, that the families weren't even practicing Catholicism. Rather than that, it sounds as if they were "cultural" Catholics.

Doesn't matter whether you're a Protstant, Catholic, Jew, Muslim, or atheist: if you dress like a slut, you're going to get treated like one. If you go out and hang in bars all night, you're going to deal with the same consequences.

Complaints about bikini-clad women on the covers of CD's or magazines or whatever? Excuse me, but show me in the Catechism where that kind of behavior is acceptable.

Frankly, this article comes off to me as a very correct condemnation of the modern, feel-good Church and a condemnation of the modern, souless, feel-good society.

[Thorin]

>>>>>>In business after business in the Philippines you can see, hanging on the walls, god shelves, where BOTH Roman Catholic idols and Buddhist idols are placed together, and incense is burning there.

This is probably because the business is owned by an ethnic Chinese, who own many businesses in the Philippines but who, unlike the Filipinos, generally aren't Catholic.

>>>>>>>Oops! I forgot. Roman Catholicism itself is idolatrous.

Roman Catholicism is the world's largest Christian denomination, and Roman Catholics have spread the Faith to all corners of the earth. The claim that Roman Catholicism is "idolatrous" is moronic.

[kanawa]

Roman Catholicism itself is idolatrous. They bow to idols and kiss cement or ceramic, or plastic statues

You do understand for something to be an idol it has to be worshipped, do you not?

[EBH]

Growing up, she was a beach-going, tank top-wearing, salsa-dancing girl. Now, she's a devout Muslim who favors Islamic garments and avoids socializing with men.

Well I missed this line on the first reading. All she needed to do was to dress more conservatively and set her socialization standards a bit higher, instead she chose islam. She classified her hijab as helping her gain respect in front of the day-workers. They don't respect, stunned by her maybe, respect doubtful. The hijab did nothing but hide her from societies eyes, it did not create respect for her or women.

I feel very sorry for this misguided soul. As far as things being complicated in the catholic religion, I guess the priests had better come up with better explanations. I've asked similar questions to many a priest, only to find my own answers in the Bible.

The competition is on for their very lives & souls. Islam sits in God's judgment seat over her life, but only God can judge her soul. May God have mercy on her and on the priest who couldn't inspire her continued faith in Jesus Christ.

[Redleg Duke]

Every time I see a caucasion or latin woman in hijab, I feel pity. Talk about a self-inflicted wound!

[Free Baptist]

"You do understand for something to be an idol it has to be worshipped, do you not?"

Are you preparing to insist to me that Roman Catholics do not worship their statues and images? If so, I would reply this way: American Roman Catholics would always try to insist to American non-Catholics (I am not Protestant either, at least not in the Geneva sense) that they don't actually "worship" the images and statues. But this is only because there are sufficient numbers of non-Catholic Bible-believers in America to influence you into this argument, taking you to task if you would admit to "worshipping" these man-made things.

Remember that American Roman Catholics are far outnumbered by third-world Roman Catholics, who are under the authority of the very same King Benedict. And if you travel into the villages of, say, the Philippines, and ask a Filipino Roman Catholic whether he is worshipping that statue of Mary, he will answer with the Tagalog equivalent of "What's wrong with you, Man, of Course I am!!"

And NO Filipino Roman Catholic priest would correct their parishioners for describing what they do at the statues and images as "worship."

Your opinion of what Roman Catholics do with idols is out-voted by the members of your own church outside of the United States.