Introduction:
The purpose of the following
historical survey is to present the basic realities of the Muslim
Experience in the West. I have chosen several methods of looking at these
present realities and past experiences. Some of these are case studies and
still others are from readings in history. Today as a community we are at
a point where we can either succeed or fail to a much greater extent than
in the past. We have schools, professionals, Islamic centers and well-read
Muslims. What we lack is a core of brothers and sisters willing to try to
organize Muslims into cohesive voting blocks and into strong neighborhoods
and communities where the Muslims are visible and have a voice in the
destiny of the greater society and to some degree in the foreign policy of
America.
There are by various estimates
between two and thirteen million Muslims or non-practicing descendants of
Muslims in North America. Unfortunately most of them are not well versed
in the literature and doctrines of their religion. Most of them would like
to pass Islam on to their children and grandchildren, but this is unlikely
without parents who have a strong knowledge about the Islamic faith and
practice it in their daily life. One method of analyzing our current
situation is to study our past. In order to develop my theme (along this
line), I will divide the history of Islam in America into five eras:
before 1800, 180-1890, 1890-1910, 1910-1950, and 1950-present.
Before 1800
1) The Navigator of Columbus,
who during the famous voyage, brought along a copy of a travel narrative
written by Portuguese Muslims who had sailed to the New World in the 12th
century. The narrative by al-Idrisi was called "The Sea of Tears". In this
narrative he discusses he voyage of 80 muhagharrun (explorers) who lived
in Lisbon during the reign of the Murabit amir, Yusuf ibn Tashufin. In the
narrative it mentions visits to fourteen islands. Over half of these
islands were later traced to be in either the Canary Islands or the
Azores. However, the ones not traced could have been as far away as the
Caribbean. An early travel from 942 A.D. is mentioned in the Annuals of
al-Mas'udi. (Aramco World, May-June 1992)
2) Istafan, the Arab, was a
guide for the Spanish that wished to settle the area that would later be
called Arizona in 1539. Istafan was from Azamor, Morocco and had
previously been to the New World in the ill-fated expedition of Panfilo de
Narvaez to Florida in 1527.
Brent Kennedy mentions him in his article in
Islamic Horizons as being one of the first Moors and Muslims in America.
Istafan was one of four to survive a five thousand mile tour of the
American Southwest. Originally he was part of a three hundred member
exploratory group. He would go on to become the first visitor from Europe
or Africa among the Pueblo Indians. (Islamic Horizons
November/December 1994, pp.24-27). He was also a guide for the Franciscan
friar, Marcos de Niza and was in this capacity until he was killed in an
Indian attack in Arizona and New Mexico in 1539.
3) Another early Muslim in
this period was Nasruddin. He is famous for having killed a Mohawk
princess who refused to marry him and for being the earliest permanent
Arab settlers in the New World. [History of Green County, N.Y., pp.
19-22.]
4) Ayub Sulaiman ibn Diallo
became a go between for his people and the British after his repatriation.
I mention him because he continued to practice Islam during his two years
of slavery in the 1730's in Maryland. He was versed enough in Arabic to
write at least a half dozen letters in that language, translate coin
inscriptions for the British Museum, and draw a map of West Africa writing
place names in Arabic.
5) Salim the Algerian, who was
a Muslim from a royal family of Algiers that studied in Constantinople.
After returning from a visit to Constantinople, he was captured by a
Spanish Man of War and later sold into slavery to the French in New
Orleans. Eventually he became free after running from slavery, lived among
American Indian tribes, and settled in Virginia. Salem was found in rags,
almost naked, and was taught English. Eventually, it was ascertained that
he knew Greek and he was given a Greek New Testament. Several future
members of the U.S. Congress befriended him and he converted to
Christianity. A new convert to Christianity he decided to go back home to
spread the Gospel. After a disastrous journey to his homeland (where he
was shunned as an apostate), he returned to America, met Thomas Jefferson,
attended the 1st Continental Congress, and died an insane man having
given-up his family and religion for America. While he was at the Congress
his picture was painted by a Mr. Peale after the intervention of a member
of the Congress Mr. Page. Near the end of Salem's life, he regained his
long lost sanity. He had been insane since his trip to his homeland after
his conversion to Christianity. Some say he renounced Christianity, other
say died a Christian at the Page estate, and still others say he died in
an insane asylum. [Graham's Magazine, 1857, pp. 433-437.] It should
be noted that none of these men tried to spread Islam and only Ayub tried
to preserve his own belief.
The Wahhab brothers were
shipwrecked on the coast of North Carolina in the 1770's. They settled
married and started a farm. Their ancestors today own one of the largest
private hotel chains in North Carolina. The only contemporary reference I
have on them is a letter from the North Carolina historian Thomas
Parramore. Whether they or their ancestors stayed in the Islamic faith is
something that I can not answer at this time. Around this same time a ship
of 70 odd Moorish slaves landed in Maryland. No more is known on these
Moors.
An important point is that
these Muslims were not unique in being able to read and write Arabic. In
fact, in many slave quarters in the Caribbean and Brazil there were
clandestine Arabic and Islamic schools. One can find references to these
in the works by Nina Rodriguez and in the two volume book
"A twelve month's residence in the West Indies, during the transition from slavery to apprenticeship; with incidental notices of the state of society, prospects, and natural resources of Jamaica and other islands" by Richard Robert Madden (Phil.: Carey, Lea and Blanchard, 1835).
1800-1890
During the era of 1800-1890,
there was documentation of the Islamic presence in the slave quarters by
four individuals:
1) Theodore Dwight, Jr. wrote
about a slave named Lamen Kebe who was a school teacher in Africa. He was
the focus of two articles by Dwight. Lamen Kebe gave him a list of over
twenty texts used in his schools and some information on teaching method
used in those Islamic schools (much of it still valuable today). At the
end of one of articles he also attached one of the earliest glossaries we
have of the Serrechuleh language. Dwight also mentions Abdul Rahman and
Ayub b. Sulaiman Diallo in passing.
2) James Cooper wrote the
story of Salih Bilali which was published with other ethnological writings
in William Brown Hodgson's NOTES ON NORTH AFRICA (NY: Wiley and Putnam,
1844). Salih was a Fulani (as are all the others mentioned) and his story
is only found in a letter by Cooper. This letter is republished in AFRICA
REMEMBERED by Philip Curtin (Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin, 1967). Here we
have an oral remembrance of Africa and a vocabulary of Fula but nothing
about his training or practice in Islam.
3) William Brown Hodgson was
perhaps the most important of these documenters. The main characters
Hodgson documented were the following: Bilali Muhammad, who wrote the only
extant book of Islamic Law written in America and contributed several
Islamic terms to the Gullah dialect of English. He gave his descendants
Muslim names and taught them until the generation of his grand-children.;
'Umar ibn Said was a butler of a brother of a former Governor of North
Carolina that lived at Fayetteville, N.C. and who wrote a 13 pp.
autobiography in Arabic. What he wrote shows that he might have been a
Qadiriyyah Sufi, trader, and school teacher who feigned conversion to
Christianity under difficult circumstances.; Abdul Rahman Ibrahim Sori who
wrote 2 autobiographies, 2 copies of the Fatiha, signed a charcoal sketch
of himself by Henry Inman [This picture was on the cover of "Freedmen's
Journal" and is on display in the Library of Congress.], and dictated
several letters to his family while he was traveling the U.S. to raise
money to return to Africa. None of his Arabic writings show the least
formal education but it is surprising that he remembered the little Arabic
he knew after forty years in slavery before he returned to Africa to die.
His story is documented in "PRINCE AMONG SLAVES" by Terry Alford (NY:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977).; A slave named London was detailed in a
pamphlet by Hodgson called THE GOSPELS WRITTEN IN THE NEGRO PATIOS OF
ENGLISH IN ARABIC CHARACTERS BY A MANDINGO SLAVE NAMED LONDON. This was
perhaps the only systematic try at writing English in Arabic letters up to
that point. He was held in slavery by the Maxwell family of Savannah,
Georgia. They latter moved to Florida where he died.; and an unknown slave
correspondent from Georgetown, S.C. who wrote 5 chapters of the Qur'an
from memory. This was translated by Hodgson.
4) Wm. Caruthers author of
"KENTUCKIAN IN NEW YORK" (NY, 1834, p. 146) where a slave who wrote the
Fatiha at the request of a traveler is mentioned.
One Muslim of this era not
covered by these writers was Hadji Ali (Philip Tedro) a Greek convert to
Islam and one of six camel handlers (three Arabs, Two Turks, and Hadji
Ali) in the short-lived U.S. camel calvary corp in 1856. The Secretary of
War, Jefferson Davis introduced a bill in Congress, that passed in 1855,
to import camels for military purposes in the Arizona desert. During the
experiment, 77 camels and six handlers were brought over from the East.
When the War between the States broke out, this experiment was abandoned.
It was called off due to the impending Civil War. Hadji Ali was the only
of the cameleers to remain in the U.S.. The others returned to their
homelands. Circuses and Zoos acquired some of the camels and others were
turned loose. The camels that were turned loose in the desert terrorized
live stock and wild animals for years. Hadji A]i became a prospector in
the Colorado River Area. He eventually became a legend under- the
corrupted name given to him by soldiers in the U.S. Calvary- Hi Jolly. The
legacy of this experiment are a highway grave marker for Hadji Ali, some
U.S. Army Manuals [see esp.- "Report Upon the Purchase, Importation, and
Use of Camels and Dromedaries, To be Employed for military purposes,
According to Act of Congress March 3, 1855. Made under the Direction of
the Secretary of War 1855, '56, '57-240 pp.], and a movie by Walt Disney
called Hawmps starring Slim Pickens and Denver Pyle. Hadji Ali lived to
1903 in Quartzsite, Arizona where he was a Prospector and resident Imam.
His three daughters were raised as Muslims but I have yet to verify how
many generations Islam continued in his family.
The Omani Embassy published a
pamphlet about the exploits of the first Arab traders to the United States
during the 1840's. They did not settle here, however. [Eilts, Herman
Fredrick The Visit of Ahmad bin Na'aman to the U.S. in the Year 1840,
Embassy of Oman 1962.]
One Muslim mentioned in a book
by Allan Austin (African Muslims in Antebellum America), Yarrow
Marmout, was poorly covered by writers and deserves mention as he was
perhaps one of the longest lived individuals in this country (He died at
over 130.) and he was one of the first shareholders of the Washington,
D.C. Columbia Bank which was the second chartered bank in the United
States.
1890-1910
In the era of 1890-1910 the
only movement we can truly talk about is that of Muhammad Alexander
Russell Webb. Many trace him to be first "white convert" to Islam in
America. Before he became Muslim, he was a newspaper editor and later the
consular to the Philippines for the U.S.. He accepted the post of consular
in 1887. While a consular he began to read books on Eastern and Oriental
religions. Soon afterwards he began written correspondence with Indian
Muslims and in 1888 he publicly declared his Islam. He resigned his post
in 1892 and went to India where he had a lecture tour of four cities:
Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, and Hyderabad. These lectures were published in
the books: The Three Lectures and in Lectures in Various
Locations. The topics for these lectures included: Islam, The Better
Way, and Philosophical Islam. Upon returning to the U.S. he set up the
Oriental Publishing Company which published at least a half dozen of books
including Islam in America [Webb, Muhammad A.R., New York, 1892.]
and his short lived periodical "Moslem World". He had a Mosque on upper
Broadway which failed prior to his death in 1915, his being appointed
Turkish Emissary to the U.S., and writing of a still very pertinent book
The Armenian Problem and Where the Responsibility Lies. The last
being the views of Webb in the conflict between the Turks and the
Armenians. One possible reason his group failed is that it did not address
the needs of the generality of people, it was a movement of philosophers.
1910-1950
1910-1950 saw several Orthodox
Sufi, Ahmadiyyah, Bahia, Shia, and so-called Black Nationalists groups
arise. To speed the process I will talk about the Orthodox Mosques (in
Ross, N.D., Detroit, and in Cedar Rapids, Iowa), Sheikh Dawood, Sufi Abdul
Hamid, Noble Drew Ali, and Elijah Muhammad.
In historical order, the Ross
Mosque is the earliest and longest lasting Masjid
(Mosque) in America. The
congregation at its largest was 100 persons. The Masjid
(Mosque) was built in 1930
and remained standing until 1978 and in use till the late 60's when
conversions and mixed marriages had decreased the numbers of Muslims till
a point where Arabic was no longer used, the cemetery had gophers, and
there were no practicing Muslims to attend Juma
(Friday Prayer).
An earlier mosque was built in
1915 in Maine by Albanians as was one in Connecticut, but they are not as
strongly documented or publicized. In Brooklyn the Polish speaking Tatars
built a mosque which was still in use in 1926. The Red Crescent was
founded in Detroit, in 1920 and a Mosque was built there which lasted from
1926-1932 and as far as I know still stands. The main problem at that
point was not lack of numbers but lack of finance. Only a few brothers
kept the Masjid (Mosque) afloat and the Depression proved it to be too much of
financial liability for them. The Lebanese Masjid
(Mosque) in Cedar Rapids, started
in 1935 and still in operation, suffered few of these problems. Going
overseas to marry was common, Arabic was widely used, finance was freer,
and fewer persons drifted from Islam.
Early Orthodox Sufis
Sheikh Dawood and Sufi Abdul
Hamid represent homegrown Orthodox Islam. Sheikh Dawood founded the
Islamic Mission Society on State Street in 1934 Brooklyn. Over 75,000
persons accepted Islam under his tutelage before his death in 1981. His
controversial theory of Islam being genetic ingrown was to be adapted
later by the likes Elijah Muhammad and Imam Isa. His success was due to
his willingness to suffer personal abuse and financial difficulty for the
sake of Islam. His writings and theories are contained in his
self-published books al-Islam the Religion of Humanity (1950) and
Islam the True Religion of Humanity (1965). His contemporary, Sufi,
and his teacher Mandaly from Egypt had similar success in Harlem but their
work was cut short when Mandaly had a heart attack and died. Sufi died in
a plane crash. The shortcoming of their work was that they failed to train
proper successors and the movement died with them. [Ottley, Roi,
`New
World A-Coming', Arno Press, New York, 1968, pp. 116-9.] more material
on these individuals is found in the chapters on Sufi Abdul Hameed and
Sheikh Daoud Ahmad Faisal.
Noble Drew Ali and Elijah
Muhammad represent the Islamic Nationalist side to Islam between 1910 and
1950. Both movements outlasted their founders. Ali started his movement,
the Moorish Science Temple in May of 1913, with the short lived
Canaanite Temple. He gave an answer to the question of who the recently
freed African were, how they could have self esteem, and allowed them to
be part of a movement not under the former slave masters control. His main
error was to fail to fully bring people into the reality of the Arabic
Language, Qur'an, and Ibadat, but he gave them a clear concept of
a Jesus that they could accept and of Tawheed which Christianity
failed to give them.
The
Nation of Islam
Elijah Muhammad's
organization, the Nation of Islam, was begun in Paradise Valley
(a Black Ghetto of Detroit) on July 4, 1930 by one Mr. W.D. Farrad. A
mysterious peddler from the East and one- time contestant for Drew Ali's
leadership of Islamic Nationalism in Newark, N.J.. W.D. Farrad was reputed
to have been born of a white mother and black father (Mimi and Alfonso) on
February 28, 1877 in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. His education supposedly
received at U.C.L.A. and Oxford. Farrad was to have been a member of the
diplomatic corp in the Hijaz but decided against it in order to go to the
"Wilderness of North America to find his Uncle (the Black Man)" and teach
him (his Uncle) Islam and the true history of the Black Man. After
teaching for three years he left the U.S. to points unknown.
He left behind a successor,
Elijah Muhammad, and some written teachings set down in several lesson
plans of which seven are somewhat assessable today. This was a way of
teaching not uncommon to church catechisms, Masonic degrees, or Moorish
American Koran Questionnaires. By 1934 Farrad became a sort of hidden Imam
common to the doctrines of the Druze and Ishmaeli versions of Islam. He
seemed to expound rhetoric similar to military manual directives, Moorish
Science, Masonry, and some vague Eschatology and doctrines (such as blood
atonement) somewhat similar to that of early Utah Mormons. His movement
succeeded due to dedicated individuals and strong leadership that was
willing to suffer for the movement. His weaknesses were failure to teach
proper rules for prayer and fasting and preaching the concept of Ali
reincarnated through the Imams and the Mahdi (later he was considered
Allah incarnate).
1950-PRESENT
The next forty years saw the
rise and fall of the Nation of Islam and its rebirth (primarily
with Silas Muhammad, Farrakhan, John Muhammad, W.D. Muhammad, and Imam Isa).
The groups that resurrected tended to try and revolutionize the teachings.
Two groups came out of the Nation before its fall: Calistran
and the Five Percenter Nation.
Five Per-centers
Started in Harlem by a former
Korean War Veteran -- Clarence Jowars (Clarence 13X or Puddin'). He
disassociated himself from the Nation and founded his own group
(which still exists) in the early 1960's. According to numerous detractors
(police, Orthodox Muslims, etc.), the Five Percenter Nation is
little more than a gang using Nation of Islam mythos mixed with
some new lessons that Clarence compiled. Their flag is an eight pointed
star with a circle seven in the center (from Moorish Science) and the
words "In the Name of Allah" above it. Clarence 13X was assassinated by
some disgruntled members in 1968 and he became the departed spiritual
leader -- now incarnate within the body of all male members (Black Gods).
Many Rap stars such as Kool Moe Dee, Poor Righteous Teachers, and Queen
Latifah derive their material from his writings and teachings.
Silas Muhammad
A favorite West Coast minister
of Elijah Muhammad. The Nation paid for his education at UCLA. He
is centered in Atalanta and has several thousand followers in twenty one
temples nationwide. He claims to be the spiritual son of the Virgin Mary
(Elijah Muhammad) and has written a book (The Wake of the Nation)
to support his claims. He works with Whites for a restitution for the
wrongs of slavery and publishes a newspaper called "Muhammad Speaks".
Farrakhan and
the Nation of Islam
Farrakhan is perhaps the
loudest and most articulate of all former Nation of Islam
leaders. He separated from Warith Deen Muhammad in 1977 and started his
"Final Call Newspaper" and organization in 1979. The name of the newspaper
was derived from an early Nation paper called "The Final Call to
Islam". He is the most interesting and contradictory among former
Nation leaders. According to detractors, Farrakhan has accepted and
rejected Orthodox Islam at a whim whenever it would benefit him. He has:
made Hajj; belonged to Warith Deen Muhammad's group; called for unity
between Hispanics, Native Americans and Blacks; played Jewish violin
concertos even when denouncing certain aspects of Jewish life and culture;
and fights a war to end the drug problem (a war he started only after he
found out his own son was a drug abuser). His inner circle reputably
includes Black Nationalists, American Indians, Gangbangers, and other
so-called dangerous and disreputable individuals. Currently almost one
hundred temples are under his leadership and he has perhaps as many as
fifty thousand members nationwide. His position in the African American
community was recently strengthen by his highly successful "Million Man
March" on Washington, D.C..
W.
D. Muhammad
W. D. Muhammad is the leader of
the largest group to come out of the Nation of Islam. He has lead
the members of his organization to Orthodox Islam over the years and
changed the name of his group to the World Community of Islam to
the American Muslim Mission and now each mosque/temple has its
own name and leadership. His paper also changed names from "Muhammad
Speaks" to "Muslim World News" to "Bilalian News" to "American Muslim
Journal" to "Muslim Journal". The organization underwent numerous changes
under his leadership. Members of his group also changed their ethos from
being Black Muslims to being Bilalians to being just
Muslim. The best study of Warith Deen Muhammad and his ties to Orthodox
Islam is found in the work by Zafar Ishaq Ansari "W. D. Muhammad: The
Making of a `Black Muslim Leader' (1933-1961)" found in the Vol. 2, No. 2
issue of the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences.
W. D. Muhammad has begun the
needed work of teaching proper Islam based on Qur'an and Sunnah and he is
somewhat hindered by the legacy of his father and his tendency to give the
teachings of the Qur'an as mostly symbolic as he was taught the Bible was.
The changes in the teachings
were wide and varied, they included: allowing white members, an end to a
call for a separate "nation of blacks" in this country, a call to voter
registration, an end to beliefs that Allah was incarnated in the form of
Master Farrad and the belief in Elijah Muhammad being a Messenger of
Allah. Warith Deen was excommunicated several times from the Nation
and only gained the ability to step in a position of leadership in the
last year of his father's life when he was reinstated as a minister in the
Nation of Islam.
Fasting in Ramadan, an end to
the December fast, changing the dietary taboos to Qur'anic based ones, and
a standard Muslim salah (prayer) were other changes he
instituted. In 1978 he stepped down as spiritual head and became a
minister at large. His organization has become decentralized and his
rhetoric is less spooky and mystical and more in line with Orthodox Islam.
In 1985 he dismantled the leadership council he had setup and each mosque
became an independent entity. He works as a kind of liaison between the
Black Muslims and the Immigrant community. Several collection of his
speeches such as: Religion on Line, An African American Genesis,
and Leadership and Islam are widely available. (see
"From
Black Muslims to Muslims: The Transition from Separatism to Islam,
1930-1980" by Clifton E. Marsh for details.)
Numerous former Nation of
Islam leaders disagreed with his changes. Most were people who
returned to the old teachings such as Farrakhan, Silas Muhammad, John
Muhammad, and Caliph Emmanuel Muhammad. One who turned to Orthodox Islam
was Siraj Wahaj.
Siraj Wahaj
Siraj Wahaj was a former
minister of the Nation of Islam who initially accepted the
leadership of Warith Deen Muhammad. He later split over issues where he
felt that Warith Deen Muhammad was being too accomodating to American
society. Siraj Wahaj supports polygamy and full implementation of the
Shariah where as Warith Deen Muhammad rejected polygamy and favored a
more gradual move toward implementation of Shariah. Since the
split Warith Deen Muhammad allegedly has moved his group closer to the
Wahhabi sect and called for the reestablishment of the Caliphate.
Jamil al-Amin
Jamil al-Amin was born as H.
"Rap" Brown in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1943. In 1964 he joined the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee at Howard University in
Washington, D.C. and rapidly moved up through its ranks. In 1967, at the
age of 23, he succeeded Stockley Carmichael as leader of the SNCC
and its ranks swelled. He allied himself and his group with the Black
Panthers and this was where he began to learn Islam. The Black
Panthers accepted the political and economic views of the Nation
but were slow to accept it moral, ethical, and dietary edicts. When he
turned the movement from non-violence to Urban Guerilla Warfare he was
placed on the FBI's most wanted list. After his 1973 arrest he decided to
accept Orthodox Islam. In 1976 he left prison and had placed the violent
non-Muslim lifestyle behind him. Today he is leader of over thirty Islamic
centers which were (for the most part member of the Dar ul-Islam
Movement - a group which came about from the work of early students
of Sheikh Daoud) and has documented his feeling about Islam in the work
Revolution by the Book (Beltsville, Maryland: Writer's Inc., 1994).
John Muhammad
Warith Deen Muhammad's uncle
John Muhammad acts as the "orthodox" Nation of Islam teacher as
he allegedly does not teach anything except what Elijah Muhammad
distinctly taught. He joined the Nation in 1930 with his brother
Elijah. He is the only one of his immediate family of fourteen children
and a wife who follows the old teachings. His wife is a follower of Warith
Deen Muhammad. His movement has less than a thousand members and only a
handful of active temples. The headquarters is in Highland Park, Michigan
and a newspaper called "Muhammad Speaks" is published by his organization.
A full length story (by Linda Jones) on his group can be found in The
Detroit News of July 17, 1988.
Caliph Emmanuel Muhammad
A group with less than two
hundred followers centered in Baltimore. The leader Emmanuel Muhammad
claims to be the successor or Caliph of Elijah Muhammad. His group
publishes a paper called "Muhammad Speaks" out of Baltimore, Maryland.
Imam Isa
Imam Isa is a Unitarian
Universalist, Spiritualist, Jewish, Ansar, Black Nationalist successor to
the self proclaimed Messenger of Allah, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. He
claims to be the successor of Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammad and Noble
Drew Ali! Over 300 of his books and pamphlets are peddled on the street by
his followers. A heavily armed camp/retreat was located in upstate New
York. No count of his membership has be attempted. His group has now
openly proclaimed themselves to be Black Jews even though they still claim
lip service to the Qur'aan and the Prophet Muhammad.
Others who came out of the
Nation of Islam
Others came from the
Nation and we must remember them as orthodox Muslims. These orthodox
Muslims include: Muhammad Ali, Hamas Abdul Khaalis, and Malcolm X.
Muhammad Ali went on to become one of the greatest sports men in this
nation and a great contributor to the spread of Islam. Hamas Abdul Khaalis
re-founded the Hanafi Madh-Hab Center in New York in 1958. It was
originally started by Dr. Tasibur Uddein Rahman in the late 1920's. In
1947 Ernest Timothy McGee joined, he was later sent by Dr. Rahman to join
the Nation of Islam to guide them to Orthodox Islam. By 1956 he
became National Secretary for the nation of Islam. He left in
1958. It was later moved to Washington, D.C.. At his height he had over a
thousand followers and led protests for several Muslim causes. His most
famous follower is Kareem Abdul Jabbar. In 1977, Khaalis and some of his
followers seized some buildings in D.C. as part of a protest and held them
for some hours. One hostage was killed. He is currently serving a sentence
of 41 to 120 years. [Giant Steps, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and an
AMC report on the history of Islam in America]
Al-Hajj Malik al-Shabazz
(Malcolm X)
One of the greatest Muslim
leaders ever in America was, of course, Malcolm X (or according to his
true Muslim name- Al-Hajj Malik al-Shabazz). He started the political
street organ of the Nation of Islam--the "Muhammad Speaks"
newspaper and influenced several generations with his eye-opening
auto-biography. Till the end of his life he was dedicated to the struggle
for the rights of all oppressed people of the world. He was allegedly
killed at the hands of FBI sponsored infiltrators into the Nation of
Islam.
Conclusion
It is strange that the
religion of peace is always faced with violent confrontation from both
within and without. Allah says, "And thus We have made you a
middle Nation that you may witness to all people and We made the Apostle a
witness to you...", in Sura 2 of the Holy Qur'an. How could
this history with its' successes, failures, and disappointments exist when
we are instructed to be a middle of witnesses to mankind and propagate
Islam.
In summary, this historical
briefing on Islam in America focused on American Muslims and Muslims that
were becoming Americans. This information points to the needs of
dawa'h, Islamic schools, fighting assimilation, bi-lingual education,
masjids, and taking part in the greater society.
This ground work is da'wah,
developing schools and businesses, adult education, and programs to teach
Arabic and Qur'an to such an extent our community here becomes bi-lingual
and stays that way. Next we need to have Islamic holidays recognized in
public schools in much the same way Jewish holidays are and finally we
need to make sure that proper books on
Islam are in every single public and private library in the U.S. and books
on Islam are placed in as many non-Muslim homes as feasible.
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