4 Muslim Latinas Share Their Experiences With Faith And Islamophobia

Ever since Aamilah Vilchez , Mariana Aguilera, Shailie Nieves and Zainab Ismail decided to practice Islam, they say they've not only faced ignorance about their faith but also a lot of anti-Muslim rhetoric.

The Latinas are the subject of a recent video by Vivala.com, in which the women share everything from what they'd like others to know about their faith -- "No one forced me to wear a hijab" -- to the Islamophobia they've endured.

"In one situation there were two white males in the produce section that came up to me, in my face, and started calling me a terrorist," Aguilera, who is Mexican-American, says as the video opens.

Nieves, who is Puerto Rican and practices Islam with her immediate family, shares a similar story.

"It was... a few years after 9/11, that my mom had converted [to Islam] and I was walking with a family friend inside of the street," Nieves says. "A Jeep passed by with four guys inside of it and they screamed 'Go back to your country, go back to Iraq' and they threw a beer bottle at me."

The four Muslim Latinas are part of the growing number of Latinos converting to Islam, according to PBS. In January, the Pew Research Center estimated there were about 3.3 million Muslims living in the United States in 2015. And in a separate study published last summer, the think tank estimated that four percent of U.S. Muslims were Latino in 2014.

Watch the full video above and check out their individual stories at Vivala.com.