Latino Muslims recently commemorated the grand opening of what they said was the first Spanish-language mosque in the United States at the IslamInSpanish Centro Islámico in Houston's Alief neighbourhood. 

According to studies, there are currently tens of thousands of Latino converts to Islam nationwide, despite the fact that the majority of Latinos in the state are Catholic. At least 9% of the nation's Muslims are Latino converts, according to a 2020 survey, up from 5% in 2017. One of them, Jaime "Mujahid" Fletcher, was born in Houston, Colombia, and converted from Catholicism just months before the September 11 attacks. He has become known for being a media-savvy link between the first- and second-generation Hispanics in Texas and the Muslim population in the area.

Now more than two decades after his conversion, Fletcher hosted a ribbon-cutting event over the weekend for the new $4 million, 10,200-square-foot mosque beneath the Alief Water Tower off the Westpark Tollway. The facility includes a 3,600-square-foot production studio where Fletcher hopes to craft audio and video stories that can help teach Latinos about Islam.

Craig Considine, a senior lecturer at Rice University who has interviewed Fletcher about the rise of Islamic Latino converts numerous times over the last decade, told me on Tuesday that IslamInSpanish has been able to build widespread respect in the local Muslim community, especially among younger believers. "IslamInSpanish is a pioneer," said Considine, who complimented Fletcher's ability to engage Latino Muslims, including reaching millions of viewers through a 2019 VICE interview that has since become well-known in local Muslim circles. 

"It's community building on a very local level for an important general population," Considine said. "It's multi-ethnic. It's multinational. It's multi-racial. It's the quintessential American story of community building. The Irish and Italians did it. And now they're doing it not through Christianity but through Islam. They will have a positive immediate impact on the ground there."

The rise in Latino Muslims comes as Latinos now outnumber white residents as the largest cut of Texas' diverse population. Meanwhile, Houston's Muslim population has boomed to an estimated 500,000 throughout the area as Texas now has one of the largest Muslim populations in the U.S. 

The reasons Latinos have turned to Islam are diverse. Some disillusioned with Catholic practices are drawn to Islam's directives on daily prayer and its emphasis on discipline in forbidding drinking alcohol, gambling and eating pork. "It's food for the soul, food for the brain," Considine said. Fletcher, who was a former Houston gang leader before converting to Islam, echoed Considine, adding, "As teenagers, we didn't know anything about Islam. Becoming Muslim helped us fix our lives, and now we get to open the center right underneath the water tower."

Others are making a cultural statement in recognizing spiritual ties to Spain, where Islam reigned centuries ago. IslamInSpanish co-founder Sandy "Sakinah" Guiterrez, a Colombian-American who's also Fletcher's wife, designed the inside of the new Alief mosque with arches mirroring the styles of the Great Mosque of Córdoba in Spain, per reporting by Houston Chronicle reporter Tanya Babbar.  

Over the weekend, the IslamInSpanish opening drew a small yet powerful crowd of about 100 Muslims including local Imans and representatives from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group. "The only place in the U.S we can open a Spanish mosque is in Southwest Alief, Texas," said Houston Councilwoman Tiffany Thomas, who's not Muslim, but who proudly represents Alief in District F.

Considine stressed to me that Islam isn't limited to a homogeneous ethnic identity and that people from different cultures and backgrounds are embracing Islam. He believes what IslamInSpanish has accomplished here in Houston will reverberate across Texas and eventually spread nationwide as the populations of both Latinos and Muslims in the country continue to rise.