#MusulmanaLatina: Latina Muslim Women Contesting Normative Islamic Practice Online

In a TikTok post, user @sofiapena00 dances to a Mexican cumbia song while wearing hijab, celebrating being the first and only Muslim in her family. She voices her frustration with being perceived as too religious by Mexicans yet not religious enough in hegemonic Muslim spaces. This content is increasingly visible on TikTok, where Latina converts to Islam challenge normative portraits of Muslim piety by reclaiming ethnic and national identities. This paper explores a variety of TikTok performances that intertwine Latinindad and Muslimness to examine how Latina Muslims negotiate their faith and culture against those who deem their identity and practice as “un-Islamic.” I look at how TikTok trends, including music and dance, are utilized to counter claims around social legibility and the discursive formations they foster. Attention is paid to how intersecting layers of marginalization, including race and gender, play a role in the discursive production of this content.