The Spiritual Edge

Sofie Lovern is a Latina convert and comedienne who learned the difficulty of trying to merge two very different cultures in a marriage, even when their religions were the same. Her struggle with marriage is not uncommon with new convert women who are often rushed into marriage. Her marriage fails, but her comedy brings her through it all. She emerges unmarried but still Muslim.

Tyson Amir's family knew he would become Muslim from a young age. He was influenced by the revolutionary example of Malcolm X. And also by the legacy of resistance embodied by his great-great-great-grandfather, an enslaved man who was Muslim, according to family lore.

Convicted of first-degree murder and sent to Folsom State Prison, Wendell Al-Amin James gravitated towards the Muslim prisoners out of a need for protection. But ultimately his conversion restructured his life to one of education and purpose.

As a student and basketball player at the University of California at Berkeley in the 1960s, Abdul Raoof Nasir joined the Nation of Islam. In the years that followed, he was forced to make a choice: stay with the Nation or go with one of the groups that splintered away from it.

Rabi'a Keeble has been fighting discrimination and pushing boundaries her whole life as she searched for a faith and spiritual home that felt just right. She's an innovator, which led her to found a women-led mosque that sparked a powerful backlash.

Diana Demchemko converted to Islam in college after a childhood of asking tough spiritual questions of those around her. She spent her young adulthood learning to become Muslim, but it was while on a journey to Cairo to study the Quran that she looked for answers to some of her deepest questions. While there she learned, and unlearned, a few things about how to be a "real" Muslim.

In Becoming Muslim, we explore the motivations and challenges of converts, as they carve out a uniquely American path for being Muslim in the United States. Over seven episodes, we profile eight individuals from various cultural backgrounds. Each offers a different window into this diverse and complex religion. A spiritual seeker travels to Cairo to find the "real" Islam.. A prison inmate hangs with the Muslim brothers to stay safe. A UC Berkeley basketball player is introduced to the Nation of Islam. And more. In a religion that's often partitioned by nationality and culture, how do these new Muslims fit in?

Women don't always feel welcome in American mosques. They're sometimes turned away, sent to basements to pray, or discouraged from serving on the boards of directors. Aisha al-Adawiya has devoted her life to changing that. She's inspired a national campaign — and a fatwa — that's persuading the men who control mosques to share space and power.

Independent producer Maria Martin offers this remembrance of the late Sister Dianna Ortiz, who survived torture in Guatemala during the 1980s. For years, Sister Dianna sought the truth about what happened; the Guatemalan and U.S. governments attempted to cast doubt on her story. She went on to fight for human rights and to speak out about the use of torture globally. She did so until her death in February 2021, even while still suffering from the trauma of her experience.

The Central American country of Guatemala promotes its indigenous heritage to tourists. At the same time, its government has historically marginalized and discriminated against the Maya, many of whom endured terrible violence during a decades-long civil war. Twenty five years after the war's end, human rights leader Rosalina Tuyuc is promoting healing for her people based on ancient Maya wisdom.