|
Part of a series on  |
|
North and South America
|
The history of Islam in the United States starts in the early 16th century, with Estevánico of Azamor being the first Muslim to enter the historical record in North America.[1]
Once very small, the Muslim population of the US has increased greatly in the last one hundred years, with much of the growth driven by immigration. Muslim immigration to the U.S. is rising. In 2005, more people from Islamic countries became legal permanent United States residents — nearly 96,000 — than in any year in the previous two decades.[2][3] In fiscal year 2006 just 202 refugees from Iraq were allowed to resettle in the United States.[4][5]
Up to one-third of American Muslims are African Americans who have converted to Islam during the last seventy years. Conversion to Islam in prison has also contributed to its growth over the years.[6]
Contents |
The history of Islam in the United States can be divided into three periods: the pre-Columbian and colonization period, post World War I period, and the last few decades.[7]
Estevánico of Azamor may have been the first Muslim to enter the historical record in North America. Estevánico was a Berber originally from North Africa who explored the future states of Arizona and New Mexico for the Spanish Empire. Estevánico came to the Americas as a slave of the 16th-century Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca. After joining the ill-fated Narváez expedition in 1527, Cabeza de Vaca and Estevánico were captured and enslaved by Indians, escaping to make an arduous journey along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. In 1539 Estevánico guided the first Spanish explorations of what is now the American Southwest.[8]
In 1790, the South Carolina legislative body granted special legal status to a community of Moroccans, twelve years after the Sultan of Morocco became the first foreign head of state to formally recognize the United States.[9] In 1796, then president John Adams signed a treaty declaring the United States had no "character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen".[10]
Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow, a Senegalese educator and former UNESCO director, has speculated that in 1587 a shipload of Moriscos landed and settled in the coastal towns of South Carolina, reaching the mountains of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina,[11] but the claim is not widely accepted.
Alexander Russell Webb is considered by historians to be the earliest prominent Anglo-American convert to Islam in 1888. In 1893 he was the only person representing Islam at the first Parliament for the World's Religions.[11]
There is limited academic research regarding African Muslims transported to North America as slaves. Historical records provide sparse information regarding both ethnic origins and cultural differences.[12] However, some contemporary authors and historians speculate a sizable percentage of slaves possessed at least some knowledge of Islam. Estimates on the percentage of Muslim slaves purchased from Arab slave traders[13] range from 10 to 20%.[11]
Slaves began arriving in North America during the 1520s. By 1900 roughly 500,000 Africans were sent to this area, representing 4.4% of the 11,328,000 slaves imported worldwide.[14] It is estimated that over 50 percent of the slaves imported to North America came from areas where Islam was followed by at least a minority population. Thus, no less than 200,000 came from regions influenced by Islam. Substantial numbers originated from Senegambia, a region with an established community of Muslim inhabitants extending to the 11th century.[15] Michael A. Gomez theorized that Muslim slaves may have accounted for "thousands, if not tens of thousands," but does not offer a precise estimate. He also suggests many non-Muslim slaves were acquainted with some tenets of Islam, due to Muslim trading and proselytizing activities.[16] Historical records indicate many enslaved Muslims conversed in the Arabic language. Some even composed literature (such as autobiographies) and commentaries on the Quran.[17]
Despite living in a hostile environment, there is evidence that early Muslim slaves assembled for communal prayers. In limited cases some were occasionally provided a private praying area by their owner. Two of the most widely known examples of Muslim slaves in North America are Ayuba Suleiman Diallo and Omar ibn Said. Suleiman was brought to America in 1731 and returned to Africa in 1734.[15] Like many Muslim slaves, he often encountered impediments when attempting to perform religious rituals. For example, it is said that a white child threw dirt at Suleiman’s face after catching him praying. However, Suleiman was eventually allotted a private location for prayer by his master.[17] Omar Ibn Said (ca. 1770 –1864) is among the best documented examples of a practicing-Muslim slave. He lived on a colonial Louisiana plantation and wrote many Arabic texts while enslaved.
Born in the kingdom of Futa Tooro (modern Senegal), he arrived in America on December 27, 1807 aboard the ship Heart of Oak, one month before the US abolished importation of slaves. Some of his works include the Lords Prayer, the Bismillah, this is How You Pray, Quranic phases, the 23rd Psalm and an autobiography. In 1857, he produced his last known writing on Surah 110 of the Quran. In 1819, Omar received an Arabic translation of the Christian Bible from his master, James Owen. This Bible is housed at Davidson College in North Carolina since being donated by Ellen Guion in 1871. Although Omar converted to Christianity on December 3, 1820, many modern scholars believe he continued to be a practicing Muslim, based on dedications to Muhammad written in his Bible. In 1991 a masjid in Fayetteville, North Carolina renamed itself Masjid Omar Ibn Said in his honor.[18]
Another example is Bilali (Ben Ali) Muhammad, a Fula Muslim from Timbo Futa-Jallon in present day Guinea-Conakry who arrived to Sapelo Island during 1803. While enslaved, he became the religious leader and Imam for a slave community numbering approximately eighty Muslim men residing on his plantation. He is known to have fasted during the month of Ramadan, worn a fez and kaftan and observed the Muslim feasts, in addition to consistently performing the five obligatory prayers.[19] In 1829, Bilali authored a thirteen page Arabic Risala on Islamic law and conduct. Known as the Bilali Document, it is currently housed at the University of Georgia in Athens.
Small-scale migration to the U.S. by Muslims began in 1840, with the arrival of Yemenites and Turks,[15] and lasted until World War I. Most of the immigrants, from Arab areas of the Ottoman Empire, came with the purpose of making money and returning to their homeland. However, the economic hardships of 19th-Century America prevented them from prospering, and as a result the immigrants settled in the United States permanently. These immigrants settled primarily in Dearborn, Michigan; Quincy, Massachusetts; and Rose, North Dakota.[11]
In 1915, what is most likely the first American mosque was founded by Albanian Muslims in Maine.[20][21] Construction of mosques sped up in the 1920s and 1930s, and by 1952, there were over 20 mosques.[11]
Although the first mosque was established in the U.S. in 1915, relatively few mosques were founded before the 1960s. Eighty-seven percent of mosques in the U.S. were founded within the last three decades according to the Faith Communities Today (FACT) survey. California has more mosques than any other state.
The Nation of Islam was organized in 1930 by Wallace Fard Muhammad.[22] Fard drew inspiration for NOI doctrines from those of Noble Drew Ali's Moorish Science Temple of America. He provided three main principles which serve as the foundation of the NOI: "Allah is God, the white man is the devil and the so called Negroes are the Asiatic Black People, the cream of the planet earth". Fard also taught a separatist and nationalist ideology. In 1934 Elijah Muhammad became the leader of the NOI. Muhammad deified Wallace Fard, saying that he was an incarnation of God, and taught that he was a prophet who had been taught directly by God in the form of Wallace Fard.
The NOI was renamed and reorganized as an orthodox Sunni organization by Warith Deen Mohammed in 1975. Silis Muhammad first resurrected the teachings of Elijah Muhammad and later Louis Farrakhan reestablished the organization under the original Fardian doctrines. Today the group has a wide influence in the African American community. The Million Man March in 1994 remains the largest organized march in Washington, D.C.[citation needed] The group sponsors cultural and academic education, economic independence, and personal and social responsibility. The Nation of Islam has received a great deal of criticism for it's anti-white, anti-Christian, and anti-semitic teachings,[23] and is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.[24]
Mosque (masjid in Arabic) are usually explicitly Sunni or Shia. There are 1,209 mosques in the United States and the nation's largest mosque, the Islamic Center of America, is in Dearborn, Michigan. It was rebuilt in 2005 to accommodate over 3,000 Muslims for the increasing Muslim population in the region.[25]
In many areas, a mosque may be dominated by whatever group of immigrants is the largest. Sometimes the Friday sermons, or khutbas, are given in languages like Urdu or Arabic along with English. Areas with large Muslim populations may support a number of mosques serving different immigrant groups or varieties of belief within Sunni or Shi'a traditions.[citation needed]
At present, many mosques are served by imams imported from overseas, as only these imams have certificates from Muslim seminaries. This sometimes leads to conflict between the congregation and an imam who speaks little English and has little understanding of American culture. Some American Muslims have founded seminaries in the US in an attempt to prevent such problems.[26] The influence of Saudi Arabia and the Wahhabi school of Islam on Muslims in the United States has caused concern.[27][28][29]
There is no accurate count of the number of Muslims in the United States, as the U.S. Census Bureau does not collect data on religious identification. There is an ongoing debate as to the true size of the Muslim population in the US. Various institutions and organizations have given widely varying estimates about how many Muslims live in the U.S. These estimates have been controversial, with a number of researchers being explicitly critical of the survey methodologies that have led to the higher estimates.[30] Others claim that no scientific count of Muslims in the U.S. has been done, but that the larger figures should be considered accurate.[31] Some journalists have also alleged that the higher numbers have been inflated for political purposes.[32] On the other hand, some Muslim groups blame Islamophobia and the fact that many Muslims identify themselves as Muslims but do not attend mosques for the lower estimates.[33]
The following are a few of these disputed estimates:
The 2007 Pew survey of Muslim Americans finds two-thirds of the Muslim Americans are foreign-born. Among the foreign-born, most have immigrated since 1990. Of the roughly one-third of Muslim Americans that are native-born, the majority are converts and African American. In 2005, according to the New York Times, more people from Muslim countries became legal permanent United States residents — nearly 96,000 — than in any year in the previous two decades.[43][44]
According to a CAIR survey, regular Sunni[45] mosque attendees come from the following backgrounds: South Asian (33%), African American (30%), Arab (25%), African (3.4%), European (2.1%), White American (1.6%), Southeast Asian (1.3%), Caribbean (1.2%), Turkish (1.1%), Iranian (0.7%), and Hispanic/Latino (0.6%).[46]
A map prepared by the Harvard Pluralism Project, shows the distribution of mosques/masjids in the United States.[47] Another map from Valparaiso University shows an estimation of the Muslim populations per county, noting heavy concentrations of Muslim Americans in the Washington-Boston corridor, Houston, and southern California.[48]
In addition to immigration, the state, federal and local prisons of the United States may be a contributor to the growth of Islam in the country. J. Michael Waller claims that Muslim inmates comprise 17-20% of the prison population, or roughly 350,000 inmates in 2003. He also claims that 80% of the prisoners who "find faith" while in prison convert to Islam.[49] These converted inmates are mostly African American, with a small but growing Hispanic minority. Waller also asserts that many converts are radicalized by outside Islamist groups linked to terrorism, but other experts suggest that when radicalization does occur it has little to no connection with these outside interests.[50][51][52]
Muslims in the United States have increasingly contributed to American culture; there are various Muslim comedy groups, rap groups, Scout troops and magazines, and Muslims have been vocal in other forms of media as well.[53]
Within the Muslim community in the United States there exist a number of different traditions. As in the rest of the world, the Sunni Muslims are in the majority. Shia Muslims, especially those in the Iranian immigrant community, are also active in community affairs. All four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) are found among the Sunni community. Some Muslims in the U.S. are also adherents of certain global movements within Islam such as the Salafi/Wahabi, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Tablighi Jamaat, as well as movements which most Muslims would consider non-Muslim, such as Jama'at Ahmadiyya or the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement or Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam.
According to a 2004 telephone survey of a sample of 1846 Muslims conducted by the polling organization Zogby, the respondents were more educated and affluent than the national average, with 59% of them holding at least an undergraduate college degree.[54] Citing the Zogby survey, a 2005 Wall Street Journal editorial by Bret Stephens and Joseph Rago expressed the tendency of American Muslims to report employment in professional fields, with one in three having an income over $75,000 a year.[55] The editorial also characterized American Muslims as "role models both as Americans and as Muslims".
Unlike many Muslims in Europe, American Muslims do not tend to feel marginalized or isolated from political participation. Several organizations were formed by the American Muslim community to serve as 'critical consultants' on U.S. policy regarding Iraq and Afghanistan. Other groups have worked with law enforcement agencies to point out Muslims within the United States that they suspect of fostering 'intolerant attitudes'. Still others have worked to invite interfaith dialog and improved relations between Muslim and non-Muslim Americans.[56]
Some progressive Muslims press for more accommodations to the surrounding society. For instance, they want mosques re-designed to make them more woman-friendly; they believe that women can be imams, that is, lead the congregation in prayer.[57]
There are also those Muslims who feel that U.S. Muslims are lukewarm in their faith, and press for even more stringent observance of halal rules, male-female segregation, hijab, daily prayer and fasting.[citation needed]
Growing Muslim populations have caused public agencies to adapt to their religious practices. Airports such as the Indianapolis International Airport, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport[58] as well as the Kansas City International Airport have installed foot-baths to allow Muslims, particularly taxicab drivers who service the airports, to perform their religious ablutions in a safe and sanitary manner.[59] In addition, Denver International Airport included a masjid as part of its Interfaith Chapel when opened in 1996.[60]
There are many Islamic organizations in the U.S.
Muslim political organizations lobby on behalf of various Muslim political interests. Organizations such as the American Muslim Council are actively engaged in upholding human and civil rights for all Americans.
In addition to the organizations just listed, other Muslim organizations in the United States serve more specific needs. For example, some organizations focus almost exclusively on charity work. As a response to a crackdown on Muslim charity organizations working overseas such as the Holy Land Foundation, more Muslims have begun to focus their charity efforts within the United States.
With the growth of Islam within the United States, Muslims with similar interests and ideas have organized for various purposes. Among the types of Muslim organizations that exist are those for entertainment purposes as well as for professionals, such as doctors and engineers. The most well-known organization for Muslims within the medical profession is the Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA). The largest Muslim organizations for women is the Muslim Women's League.[citation needed]
American Muslims can be found in all professions in the United States. Muslim doctors, lawyers, teachers, and businessmen serve large and small communities. Muslims have made contributions to the cultural, scientific, political, and economic life of the United States. For more information on American Muslims and their contribution within the United States, see the list of North American Muslims.
A nationwide survey conducted in 2003 by the Pew Research Center and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reported that the percentage of Americans with an unfavorable view of Islam increased by one percentage point between 2002 and 2003 to 34%, and then by another two percentage points in 2005 to 36%. At the same time the percentage responding that Islam was more likely than other religion to encourage violence fell from 44% in July 2003 to 36% in July 2005.[74]
The July 2005 Pew survey also showed that 59% of American adults view Islam as "very different from their religion," down one percentage point from 2003. In the same survey 55% had a favorable opinion of Muslim Americans, up four percentage points from 51% in July 2003.[74] A December 2004 Cornell University survey shows that 47% of Americans believe that the Islamic religion is more likely than others to encourage violence among its believers.[75]
A CBS April 2006 poll showed that, in terms of faiths[76]
The Pew survey shows that, in terms of adherents[74]
According to a July 2007 Newsweek survey of Americans,[77]
| American Muslims' view of American society | ||
|---|---|---|
| Statement | U.S. Muslim |
General public |
| Agree that one can get ahead with hard work |
71% | 64% |
| Rate their community as "excellent" or "good" |
72% | 82% |
| Excellent or good personal financial situation |
42% | 49% |
| Satisfied with the state of the U.S. |
38% | 32% |
| Agree that Muslims coming to the U.S. should adopt American customs |
43% | n/a |
In a 2007 survey titled Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream, the Pew Research Center found Muslim Americans to be
"largely assimilated, happy with their lives, and moderate with respect to many of the issues that have divided Muslims and Westerners around the world.[78]
47% of respondents said they considered themselves Muslims first and Americans second. However, this was compared to 81% of British Muslims and 69% of German Muslims, when asked the equivalent question. A similar disparity exists in income, the percentage of American Muslims living in poverty is 2% higher than the general population, compared to an 18% disparity for French Muslims and 29% difference for Spanish Muslims.[78]
Politically, American Muslims were both pro-larger government and socially conservative. For example, 70% of respondents preferred a bigger government providing more services, while 61% stated that homosexuality should be discouraged by society. Despite their social conservatism, 71% of American Muslims expressed a preference for the Democratic Party.[78]
The same poll also reported that only 40 percent of U.S. Muslims believe that Arabs carried out the 9/11 attacks. Another 28 percent don't believe it and 32 percent said they had no view. Among 28 percent who doubted that Arabs were behind the conspiracy, one-fourth of those claim the U.S. government or President George W. Bush was responsible. Only 26 percent of American Muslims believe the U.S.-led war on terror is a sincere effort to root out international terrorism. Only 5% of those surveyed had a "very favorable" or "somewhat favorable" view of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda. Only 35% of American Muslims stated that the decision for military action in Afghanistan was the right one and just 12% supported the use of military force in Iraq.[78]
After the September 11, 2001 attacks, there were occasional attacks on some Muslims living in the U.S., although this was restricted to a small minority.[79][80]
In a 2007 survey, 53% of American Muslims reported that it was more difficult to be a Muslim after the 9/11 attacks. Asked to name the most important problem facing them, the options named by more than ten percent of American Muslims were discrimination (19%), being viewed as a terrorist (15%), public's ignorance about Islam (13%), and stereotyping (12%). 54% believe that the U.S. government's anti-terrorism activities single out Muslims. 76% of surveyed Muslim Americans stated that they are very or somewhat concerned about the rise of Islamic extremism around the world, while 61% express a similar concern about the possibility of Islamic extremism in the United States.[78]
On a small number of occasions Muslim women who wore distinctive hijab were harassed, causing some Muslim women to stay at home, while others temporarily abandoned the practice. In 2006, one California woman was shot dead as she walked her child to school; she was wearing a headscarf and relatives and Muslim leaders believe that the killing was religiously motivated.[81][82] While 51% of American Muslims express worry that women wearing hijab will be treated poorly, 44% of American Muslim women who always wear hijab express a similar concern.[78]
Some Muslim Americans have been criticized for letting their religious beliefs affect their ability to act within mainstream American value systems. Muslim cab drivers in Minneapolis, Minnesota have been criticized for refusing passengers for carrying alcoholic beverages or dogs, including disabled passengers with guide dogs. The Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport authority has threatened to revoke the operating authority of any driver caught discriminating in this manner.[83] There are reported incidents in which Muslim cashiers have refused to sell pork products to their clientèle.[84]
Public institutions in the U.S. have also been criticized for accommodating Islam at the expense of taxpayers. The University of Michigan-Dearborn and a public college in Minnesota have been criticized for accommodating Islamic prayer rituals by constructing footbaths for Muslim students using tax-payers' money. Critics claim this special accommodation, which is made only to satisfy Muslims' needs, is a violation of Constitutional provisions separating church and state.[85] Along the same constitutional lines, a San Diego public elementary school is being criticized for making special accommodations specifically for American Muslims by adding Arabic to its curriculum and giving breaks for Muslim prayers. Since these exceptions have not been made for any religious group in the past, some critics see this as an endorsement of Islam.[86]
The first American Muslim Congressman, Keith Ellison, created controversy when he compared President George W. Bush's actions after the September 11, 2001 attacks to Adolf Hitler's actions after the Nazi-sparked Reichstag fire, saying that Bush was exploiting the aftermath of 9/11 for political gain, as Hitler had exploited the Reichstag fire to suspend constitutional liberties.[87] The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Anti-Defamation League condemned Ellison's remarks. The congressman later retracted the statement, saying that it was "inappropriate" for him to have made the comparison.[88]
At Columbus Manor School, a suburban Chicago elementary school with a student body nearly half Arab American, school board officials have considered eliminating holiday celebrations after Muslim parents complained that their culture's holidays were not included. Local parent Elizabeth Zahdan said broader inclusion, not elimination, was the group's goal. "I only wanted them modified to represent everyone," the Chicago Sun-Times quoted her as saying. "Now the kids are not being educated about other people."[89] However, the district's superintendent, Tom Smyth, said too much school time was being taken to celebrate holidays already, and he sent a directive to his principals requesting that they "tone down" activities unrelated to the curriculum, such as holiday parties.
The 2007 Pew poll reported that 15% of American Muslims under the age of 30 supported suicide bombings against civilian targets in at least some circumstances, while a further 11 percent said it could be "rarely justified." Among those over the age of 30, just 6% expressed their support for the same. (9% of Muslims over 30 and 5% under 30 chose not to answer). Only 5% of American Muslims had a favorable view of al-Qaeda.[78]
The influence of Saudi Arabia and the Wahabi school of Islam on Muslims in the United States has caused concern.[90][91][92] According to an article in The Washington Post, "backed by money from Saudi Arabia, Wahhabis have built or taken over hundreds of mosques in North America and opened branches of Saudi universities here for the training of imams as part of the effort to spread their beliefs, which are intolerant of Christianity, Judaism and even other strains of Islam."[93]
Some Muslims in the U.S. have adopted the strident anti-American rhetoric common in many Muslim-majority countries.[citation needed] In some cases, these are recent immigrants who have carried their anti-American sentiments with them. The Egyptian cleric, Omar Abdel-Rahman is now serving a jail sentence for his involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He had a long history of involvement with Islamist and jihadi groups before arriving in the US.
There is an openly anti-American Muslim group in the U.S. The Islamic Thinkers Society [7], found only in New York City, engages in leafleting and picketing to spread their viewpoint.
Young, immigrant Muslims feel more frustrated and exposed to prejudice than their parents are. Because most U.S. Muslims are raised conservatively, and won't consider rebelling through sex or drugs, many experiment with their faith shows a poll, dated June 7, 2007. [8]
At least one non-immigrant American, John Walker Lindh, has also been imprisoned or convicted on charges of serving in the Taliban army and carrying weapons against U.S. soldiers. He had converted to Islam in the U.S., moved to Yemen to study Arabic, and thence went to Pakistan where he was recruited by the Taliban.
It had also been noted that a growing form of Islam in prison pushes these same radicalized anti-American agendas. Commentators have pointed out that inmates are good targets for radicalized groups pushing these agendas because many of them are already dissatisfied with the system that has jailed them.[94] To this end experts have testified that this situation causes a threat to security, since it enables groups who engage in terrorism to recruit new members among the prison population.[95][96]
Other notable cases include:
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
