AFRICAN-AMERICANS AND ISLAM: Membership numbers show growing sector.

      *More American born people of African decent are converting to Islam, according to the Associated Press.

     Although the number of Muslims in American is not precise, a 2007 Pew survey estimated there are 2.35 million, of whom 35 percent were Black.

     Lawrence Mamiya, a Vassar College professor of religion and African studies and an expert on American Islam, said Muslim organizations count about 6 million members, a third of them black.

     He said most black Muslims are orthodox Sunnis who worship in about 300 mosques across the country, and the second-largest group follows Farrakhan's Nation of Islam, which has about 100 mosques in America, abroad and in U.S. prisons.

      "The vast majority of African-American Muslims are using the religion to strengthen their spirituality," said Mamiya, who has interviewed many Black Muslim leaders and congregants.

     He said the number of black Muslims is growing, but not as fast as before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The Muslim faith continues to convert many average Black Americans, who say they are attracted by Islam's emphasis on equality, discipline and family.

      Few white Americans convert to Islam "because the tendency is to view Islam as foreign," Mamiya said. For some African-Americans, it's part of their African heritage that moves them away from the Christianity they saw as a slave religion.