dear brothers and sisters in Islam. My name is Osman Azharuddin and today I will be speaking about a topic that is not shed light upon enough: the history of Muslims in America. Don’t you want to know how your fellow brothers and sisters got here? What made it possible for you to get here? After my speech, insha’Allah, I anticipate that you will leave with more knowledge and gratitude for the Muslims before us, our unsung heroes.
The time of the first Muslims’ arrival to present-day U.S is debatable. However, many historians claim that the earliest Muslims came from the Senegambian region of Africa in the 1300s, which is present day Gambia and Senegal. It is believed they were Moors, expelled from Spain, who made their way to the Caribbean
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However, the first real wave of Muslims in the United States was the African slaves of whom 10 to 15 percent were said to be Muslims. Maintaining their religion was difficult and many were forcibly converted to Christianity. There were still some practicing Muslim slaves though; one of the best documented examples is Omar Ibn Said a scholar from Senegal who wrote many Arabic texts while enslaved. Between 1878 and 1924, Muslim immigrants from the Middle East, particularly from Syria and Lebanon, arrived in large numbers. These immigrants settled primarily in Dearborn, Michigan; Quincy, Massachusetts; and Ross, North Dakota. Ross, North Dakota is the site of the first documented mosque and Muslim Cemetery, but it was abandoned and later torn down in the mid-1970s. A new mosque was built in its place in 2005. At the same time, the Great Migration of blacks to the North helped encourage the African-American Islam revival and the growth of the African-American Muslim Nationalist Movement that still exists to this day. An example of an Islamic movement group consisting of primarily African Americans would be the Nation of Islam. After 30 years of excluding most immigrants, the United States flung open its doors again in 1952. This led to waves of immigration such as with South Asian immigration in the 1960s, bringing many more Muslims
The Spirit World (pg 25): Some West Africans who lived immediately south of the Sahara the Fulani’s in Senegal, the Mande-speakers in Mali, and the Hausas in northern Nigeria learned about Islam from Arab merchants and Muslim leaders called imams.
Race and religion are two concepts in American culture that can really tie people together, or clearly separate them apart. A group forged by strong common roots in both race and religion can be a powerful societal force, if it wants to be. The Nation of Islam is a small but growing religion in America that has become somewhat of a social movement because of its strong and radical ideas on race. In this paper, I will try to explore the beliefs of the Nation of Islam, and the ramifications it could and has had on racial relations in America. The Nation of Islam, or NOI, is a relatively new religion. The first temple of Islam was established in Detroit by Master Fard Muhammed in 1930. Much
I attended Dr. Mark Hausfeld’s presentation at Wilson Institute on 9/30/16. The topic of his lecture was, “Islam in America: Understanding and engaging diaspora Muslims through the local church”. The lecture was based upon his mission work, he served as the second J. Philip Hogan Professor of World Missions, in 2007-2008. Currently, Dr. Mark Hausfeld, D. Min. is the President of the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in Springfield, MO. He has been engaged in the ministries of both in the United States and abroad for the last 30 years. Dr. Mark and his wife Lynda has worked with Assemblies of God World Missions (AGWM) in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan from 1995 to 2001. His mission was to evangelize
Everyone of us has our own unique culture and religion identification in the world. Also, known by the culture beliefs, behavior patterns, and which group or religion, we represent, but we have to represent each other because of their religion after all we are all human beings first. Also, their are many different variations of cultures living together in the same neighborhood, these days, and representing each other for cultures identity and what we believe in. We need to avoid any misunderstanding there is in the world about any cultures or religion.
Islam, a religion of people submitting to one God, seeking peace and a way of life without sin, is always misunderstood throughout the world. What some consider act of bigotry, others believe it to be the lack of education and wrong portrayal of events in media; however, one cannot not justify the so little knowledge that America and Americans have about Islam and Muslims. Historically there are have been myths, many attacks on Islam and much confusion between Islam as a religion and Middle Easter culture that is always associated with it. This paper is meant to dispel, or rather educate about the big issues that plague people’s minds with false ideas and this will only be touching the surface.
There is not much information on when Muslims first arrived in America, but there has been evidence that some of the slaves were Muslim, but didn’t have the ability to practice their religion freely, they also tried to accommodate their faith with Christianity, but others were converted. It was about twenty percent of the slaves in the US were Muslim. One of the first known Muslims in the United States, was a slave from Morocco, named Estevanico, who was shipwrecked with Spanish Explorers near the where the city Galveston, Texas is. After that there weren’t many Muslims coming into the United States until the twentieth century. This is shown by the evidence that one of the first mosques was built in North Dakota in 1929, and while the mosque was demolished a Muslim cemetery still stands near the spot of that mosque. Islam started in the 7th century with a prophet named Muhammad. It is an Abrahamic religion, like Judaism and Christianity, but Muslims believe that Islam is a step further than the other two religions.
One of the first elements of Muslim influence in the United States occurred in the early 20th
According to research obtained by Cornell University scientists, 92% of Americans watch TV, 87% read newspapers, and 81% specifically watch local or national televised news stations…
“God is black. All black men belong to Islam; they have been chosen. And Islam shall rule the world” (Baldwin 319). This is the principal message of the Nation of Islam movement. Although the movement has existed since the early 20th century, it gained a lot of momentum in America in the 1960’s, according to African-American essayist and novelist James Baldwin. In his essay, Down At The Cross, Baldwin conveys that the movement reached more blacks during the sixties because time was ripe for it. During the 1960’s, black and white Americans began actively questioning and challenging the status quo. Baldwin believes the Christian world had become “morally bankrupt and politically unstable”
If there is one thing I can say strongly about my perceptions of Muslims in America is that they are complicated. I feel strange even thinking about having these perceptions because I feel that I should not have them at all. Having any sort of judgement about Muslims means that I have put their character into a nice neat little box and there is no room for diversity. Alas, given that we are in the Information Age and, given by the name, that a constant stream of information is always headed towards us, I have some sort of view of Muslims that comes (mostly) from the media.
This paper will try to provide some reasoning as to why there is a Muslim problem in America, how Islam is perceived by Americans today, what influences Islamophobia to persist in American society, and the conflict between being an American and a Muslim. I am interested in this topic because I am an American Muslim who was raised in Saudi Arabia by Pakistani parents. Both grew up in Pakistan and had to move to Saudi Arabia due to issues with politics and terrorism. We had moved to Saudi Arabia before 9/11, at this time I was in high school studying to move to America for college when the time came. I believe this topic can be explored through photography and visual media because I believe a picture is worth a thousand words and a lot of these words are difficult to hear sometimes.
Through the time of denial of Islam, the Muslims held on and followed their faith and continued to pass down their faith to family. This continued for many years, until the 1890’s when white American Muslims began to change the role of Islam in the United States. This turning point at such a crucial time for the religion, helped Islam spread throughout the country. Alexander Webb proclaimed himself as missionary, and spent his time campaigning throughout the country, speaking about the religion, the building of mosques and more during a time that people believed Islam to be an adversary. (Curiel, 2015) Although, he was flawed in the sense that he would not work with other believers
Muslims have been treated horribly throughout the history of the United States. The attacks on September 11, 2001 only further put Muslims in a negative standing with other Americans. Many Americans view all terrorists as Muslims because of the terrorists claiming the religion of Islam for their actions. The attacks put fear into the hearts of all Americans eventually leading to the war on terrorism. With a renewed sense of nationalism many Americans joined the armed forces to take down the terrorist threat. Americans gained strong feelings of resentment towards Muslims due to the terrorist threat. Because of this misunderstanding many Muslims are shunned by American society as a result. Many Muslims due to being shunned stray away and practice their religion in seclusion to avoid scrutiny. The true terrorists and the contributions that many Muslim Americans make to aid the United
Islam is one of the oldest religions in history dating back to about 600 AD. It began when a man named Muhammad heard a voice from the heavens instructing him to proclaim the word of god. Currently there are over 800 million followers of the Muslim religion. The main text of the religion is the Quran which is said to be the word of God, or Allah as called in Muslim. Within the Quran, The five pillars of Islam are proclaimed along with many other concepts very unique to the Muslim religion. Prayer is a very important aspect of Islam as well. Islam has a long history of invention, heritage, and world imperialism that must be understood to completely identify with the concepts of the religion and culture.
For my paper I decided to choose the religion of Islam. I decided to pick this religion because of its fast growing rate. It is also different from what I am used to growing up with, so I was interested in learning more. I had learned some basic facts after the 9/11 event, but the Muslim religion and culture was still a mystery to me. Picking this topic has helped me learn more about Muslims and will help me better relate to them in my future work.