Mahmoud Elansary talks to Mexican American U.S. Staff Sergeant, Lourdes Loyola, who Converts to Islam after her deployment to Afghanistan, and then her children all convert! 5 years later they all get to watch as their Husband and Father emotionally convert to Islam as well. Lourdes is a Proud Mexican American Soldier who converted to Islam and never looked back.
Mahmoud Elansary (Host): Lourdes Loyola, thank you for joining the podcast. I’m excited to have you.
Lourdes Loyola: Thank you. I’m excited to be here.
Mahmoud Elansary: I’m very interested in your life story and the butterfly effects—the things that had to take place in your life in order for you to find Islam. What were the people and the events that had to occur for that to happen? So, what was your journey to Islam?
Lourdes Loyola’s Journey to Islam:
Lourdes: I actually found Islam years after I was in the military. I joined the military in 2009, and I started looking into Islam in 2015. I had been deployed twice to Afghanistan, where I met Muslims who were very nice people. That experience really changed my perspective on what Islam and Muslims really were. At that time, I wasn’t interested in converting; it was just an observation that Muslims weren’t who the media and Hollywood portrayed them to be. They were just normal people trying to make a living, just like us.
It wasn’t until 2015, when my brother, who was in the military, mentioned he was Muslim. That piqued my curiosity. However, the extent of my knowledge about Islam was very limited; I only knew that he didn’t eat pork.
During the 2015 elections, there was a lot of negative talk about Islam and Muslims. People were getting very bold online. I’m the type of person who likes to stand up for people, and I decided nobody was going to talk bad about my brother’s religion. I like to come at people with facts, so I started researching Islam to combat the trolls online. I didn’t want to come in with emotion; I wanted to come in with the facts.
Discovering Islam:
Lourdes: I started looking into the Quran, reading, and then eventually, we were in Nebraska at the time. I found an open house at a mosque and went. At that point, I was really interested, but I still had a lot of questions. When they gave their presentation, everyone was really nice, and at the end, they opened the floor for questions. I asked, “So how come women aren’t allowed to have the same inheritance as men? And how come you guys are linked with terrorism?”
I had all kinds of questions. I felt like I needed the answers, and now that I look back at it, I think it was about making sure that because the imam knew who I was, I was pleased with everything I was hearing. I was very pleased with everything I heard.
At the end of all my questions, I asked the person giving the presentation, “So why don’t you guys eat pork?” He said, “Well, just because that’s what God said.” I was raised in the Catholic Church, and I would go to church because I wanted to go, not because my family forced me. But when I started asking questions in the Catholic Church, the answer was always, “Just have faith,” or “Just because it is, just because God said so.” That started pushing me away from the Catholic Church.
So, when they told me, “Oh, just because,” it kind of brought me back to the whole Catholicism and I thought, “Okay, well, I guess this is maybe how they are as well.” I left content, thinking I had enough ammo to combat the trolls. But before I left, one of the sisters reached out to me and explained in detail why they don’t eat pork. I took that as a sign because I think God really knew what my struggles were in the Catholic Church.
Conversion to Islam:
Host: How long did this process take for you?
Lourdes: This was months, maybe three or four months. I knew I still had a lot to learn, but something in my heart was really pulling me in. When I took my Shahada (the Islamic declaration of faith), I felt like I was at home. It was December 10th, 2015. Since then, I’ve been studying, and there’s absolutely nothing in the Quran that makes me doubt or feel oppressed. There’s nothing negative about Islam that has ever made me question why I became Muslim.
Host: Did you cry when you took your Shahada? A lot of people do.
Lourdes: Yes, I did. I am an emotional gangster. Don’t tell anybody though.
Family’s Reaction to Lourdes’ Conversion:
Host: How did your husband take it?
Lourdes: He was super cool about it. I remember telling him, “Hey, we’re going to raise the boys in Islam,” and he was like, “Okay.” He was very supportive of all of us being Muslim. At that time, he wasn’t Muslim either, but he was still supportive, even when I had doubts about wearing my hijab at my job. He was very supportive, which is rare, especially from a non-Muslim husband.
The Hijab Journey:
Host: Tell me about your journey with the hijab. How long did it take you, and what kind of thoughts and doubts went through your head?
Lourdes: I thank God that I wasn’t present on social media much during my conversion because I see social media pushing people away from the religion. When I converted, I didn’t let anybody force me into anything or feel pressured into wearing the hijab. I didn’t even think about wearing it at first; I was just trying to find my own place in the religion and my own path.
I converted in December 2015, and I started wearing my hijab full-time in June 2018. It was something that I felt ready for. I wanted to do it because it made me feel closer to Allah. Before wearing it full-time, I would wear it here and there, try it on at the gym, wear long sleeves, and then turtlenecks. I allowed myself the space to take those steps towards wearing the hijab fully.
A lot of Muslim women don’t get that space to explore steps into the hijab; it’s often all or nothing. I did everything at my own pace, and my husband was very supportive. He encouraged me to do what was best for me and not wait for everyone else’s approval. He was one of the biggest reasons why I started wearing the hijab full-time.
Interfaith Marriage:
Host: Now that you’ve converted to Islam, did you want your husband to convert too? What was the community’s response to that?
Lourdes: No one has ever said anything negative to me in person about my religion, my husband not being Muslim at that time, or my hijab. Believe it or not, I had already made up my mind that my husband was never going to convert. I never in a million years thought that he would become Muslim. He was Catholic, but not a practicing Catholic, and neither was I very practicing before I converted.
I was okay with having a supportive Catholic husband. It didn’t bother me that he wasn’t Muslim because I felt it’s better to have a loving and supportive husband who respects Islam than to break up a family. Islam doesn’t make sense to me as a religion that breaks up families.
Host: How did you reconcile with the Islamic law that a Muslim woman can’t be married to a non-Muslim man?
Lourdes: I used common sense and everything I read in the Quran. It doesn’t make sense to break up a home, especially when my husband was so supportive. I believe there’s a case-by-case basis for things like this, and we rely on scholarly opinions. No one ever advised me to divorce my loving and supportive husband.
Husband’s Conversion:
Host: Tell me a little about how your husband decided to become Muslim. You said it was four years later?
Lourdes: Yes, it was about four years later. We were at the mosque one Friday when he asked us if we wanted to go. The Imam’s sermon that day was about building our foundation in Islam and how it’s better to be a sinning Muslim than not be Muslim at all. After the sermon, my husband came out and told me he wanted to be Muslim. I was shocked because I never thought he would convert.
He talked to the Imam, and he took his Shahada right there in front of our boys and me. It was one of the best moments of our lives.
Host: How did your sons react to their father becoming Muslim?
Lourdes: Seeing my husband’s conversion and having our children witness that was so beautiful. We all hugged and embraced each other. It was a very emotional and happy moment for us as a family.
Lourdes Loyola: US Soldier’s Journey to Islam
This format provides a structured narrative that captures Lourdes Loyola’s journey to Islam, her family’s reactions, and her experiences with the Muslim community, while keeping the conversational nature of the podcast.
