In the last year Ojalá Foundation held over 52 bilingual classes, 4 seminars taught by religious leaders, 12 community potlucks, 6 programs about Latino Muslims at different Islamic centers, fed more than 1800 home-cooked meals, given out hundreds of blankets, sleeping bags, socks, gloves and tents along with a few thousand hand and foot warmers, and successfully executed 4 neighborhood clean-ups.

The year 2019 is only a few weeks in and already has its very own social media challenge, the “How Hard Did Aging Hit You Challenge,” with its accompanying hashtags, the #10YearChallenge, #2009vs2019, or for the more seasoned veterans, #1999vs2009. The goal?

One of the many things that she did that I am grateful for until this day is allowing my friend and I to vent our frustrations by performing spoken poetry in front of the class, or what we thought at the time were cool rap songs that we composed. It was the early 90’s and the topic of our amateur lyrics was Operation Desert Storm.

We are witnessing the realization of this prophecy today, as Islam continues to spread from the East to the West, including North and South America, where the number of Muslims will more than double by the year 2030, according to statistical projections.

Their xenophobic and Islamophobic rhetoric questioning the allegiance and morality of Muslims and Latino immigrants is reminiscent of the Second Red Scare during the McCarthy era, in which a hysterical fear of communists (Reds) caused panic throughout the U.S.

September 15 to October 15 marked the 30th National Hispanic Heritage Month in the United States, a month-long tribute established by President Ronald Reagan on September 14, 1989. It is, therefore, worth reflecting on the important presence of Latin American Muslims who represent the fastest-growing population of Muslims in the United States.