Islam – The Other American Religion: Dispelling Fears and Exploring Possibilities (Part 1)

(Originally Published on AMCIPS Website)


And I should like to assure you, my Islamic friends, that under the American Constitution, under American tradition, and in American hearts, this Center, this place of worship, is just as welcome as could be a similar edifice of any other religion. Indeed, America would fight with her whole strength for your right to have here your own church and worship according to your own conscience. This concept is indeed a part of America, and without that concept we would be something else than what we are.

Dwight D. Eisenhower  [1]

      On September 11^th, 2010, America marked the 9^th anniversary of a tragedy that has impacted so many lives around the globe.  Of the thousands that died in the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, around 32 were Muslims.[2]  Some first responders were also Muslim.[3]  Many of those serving on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan are Muslim.[4]  President George W. Bush urged America not to blame her Muslim citizens for the terror inflicted by those who sought to distort a religion to suit their own agenda.  But now those with their own agendas and tastes for power have preyed upon those distortions and invented some of their own.  In typical “divide and conquer” fashion, they seek to paint Islam as an ideology and not a religion, thus stripping it of its First Amendment protection.   People who coin words like “Jihadists” and “Islamofascists” are crossing the country in an effort to allegedly “protect” our nation by agitating for legislation banning the building of mosques and prohibiting the enforcement of Islamic religious law or Shariah in America. [5]  While Muslims have exercised their First Amendment rights by requesting religious accommodations in workplaces, schools and other institutions, and they have sought out resolution of their disputes through Islamic arbitration, no Muslim advocates imposing Shariah law on non-Muslims and Islam expressly forbids Muslims to do so.

Websites abound where “good, law-abiding, upholders of the Constitution” can circumvent that same Constitution by campaigning to criminalize one of humanity’s great religions.[6]  Islam has faced crusades and religious bigotry in the past, but no Christian soldier ever doubted its religious credentials or the faithful sincerity of its practitioners. 

America did not always feel this way about Islam.  When he established a non-denominational meeting house, Benjamin Franklin commented “even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a missionary to preach Mohammedanism to us, he would find a pulpit at his service.”[7]  How did America come to have such a negative impression of Islam; how did Americas come to believe that banning mosques or preventing the enforcement of Islamic Shariah law among Muslims would somehow protect the Constitution?  Despite that fact that all of us are immigrants, - even native people immigrated to America over a land bridge - we often forget our own histories, our own “foreignness” in this land of diversity.  Perhaps if Americans understood that Islam is not foreign to these shores and that this religion of 1.6 billion people is not so strange or exotic as many believe, they would be more open to building inclusive communities, rather than building walls to separate us.

Islam is an American Religion

Western civilization, with its emphasis on science and reason, owes its birth to Islam.   The Spanish Muslim scholar Ibn Sina, known as Avicenna in the West, preserved the writings of Plato and Aristotle, enabling Western scholars to rediscover the logic and reason that allowed Europe to come out of the Dark Ages and enter the light of the Renaissance.  Islamic civilization also gave us the “suq” or check; the world’s first negotiable instrument that allowed a merchant to sell his goods in Spain and transfer the payment to his account in India, without having to lug the heavy gold or silver coinage across the thousands of miles in between.  Medicine, astronomy, chemistry, geography, biology all owe debts to Muslim scholars who preserved ancient texts and expanded the scope of knowledge through experiment and research.  All of these scientific explorations are based on the command of Allah found in the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, to seek knowledge.

Behold! In the creation of the heavens and the earth,
And the alternation of Night and Day,—
There are indeed Signs for men of understanding,—[8]

Pre Columbian Presence

Many were the Ways of Life that have passed away before you:

Travel through the earth, and see what was the end of those
Who rejected Truth.[9]

Spurred on by this emphasis on traveling to acquire knowledge, Islam’s presence in the New World may even predate that of the followers of Christ.  The earliest record any one can find of Muslims visiting America comes from Sung Dynasty records in China.  Mentioned in the publication of the Khotan Amiers in 1933, the records indicate a visit by Muslim sailors to “Mu Lan Pi” in 1178 CE.  Aramco World reported on evidence of visits as early as 942 AD from the Annual of Mas’udi.  Records in Mali also indicate visits by Malian sailors in the 1300s, 192 years before Columbus sailed in 1492.  [10]

And Muslim Arabs and their advanced knowledge of navigation aided Columbus in his voyage of discovery.  Arabs were the greatest navigators of the time, having sailed the farthest from European shores, and they did not believe the world was flat.  The Qur’an states:

 “The Earth is spherical.” [11]

Columbus also used a navigation book prepared by Portuguese Muslims, eighty muhajirun or explorers who set sail out of Lisbon during the reign of the Murabit amir, Yusuf ibn Tashufin. 

Muslims also explored my home state of Arizona.  Isfahan, a Moroccan from Azamor, traveled first with Panfilo de Narvaez to Florida in 1527; and then with the famous Father Marcos De Niza, to Arizona and New Mexico.  [12]

Colonial Acceptance

The American Colonies were founded on the bed rock of religions freedom.  We all know the story of the Puritans and Pilgrims who came here fleeing religions persecution in Europe.  They accepted not only co-religionists of other denominations, but people of different faith traditions as well. In 1776, John Adams published "Thoughts on Government," in which he praised the Islamic prophet Muhammad as a "sober inquirer after truth" alongside Confucius, Zoroaster, Socrates, and other thinkers. [13]

 In his autobiography, Jefferson wrote "[When] the [Virginia] bill for establishing religious freedom... was finally passed, … a singular proposition proved that its protection of opinion was meant to be universal. Where the preamble declares that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the word 'Jesus Christ,' so that it should read 'a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion.' The insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend within the mantle of its protection the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo and infidel of every denomination." ^[14] While President, Jefferson also participated in one of the first Presidential iftar dinners with the Ambassador of Tunisia in 1809.

The Founding Fathers of America not only accepted Islam, they embraced aspects of it.  The Ancient Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, most commonly known as the “Shriners,” and tracing its “lineage to the “Grand Shaykh” of Mecca and to Sufism.” [15]  All Shriners must be members of the fraternal organization known as the Freemasons;  our first President, George Washington, held the highest rank of the order, that of Master Mason. [16]

Early Americans not only paid recognition to the spiritual aspects of Islam, they also acknowledged its legal contributions.  On the façade of the Supreme Court building, the sculptor, Adolph A. Weinman, included Prophet Muhammad among eighteen of Mankind’s great lawgivers.  While the Qur’an specifically prohibits any graven images and Muslim, therefore, detest any depiction on any prophet, the message that our Founding Fathers were trying to convey is that Islamic Law – the Shariah – is one of the world’s great attempts to hold back the forces of chaos and provide for a “written law as a force for stability in human affairs.” [17]

Of course, our Founding Fathers also founded a nation, and some of America’s first international treaties were with Muslim states. While some have tried to erroneously paint the Barbary pirates as forerunners of today’s Al-Qaeda, “evidence abounds that neither the pirates nor the Americans considered religion central to their conflict.” [18]  The Barbary Wars were a series of battles fought between the United States and the Berber states of Morocco, Algeria, Tunis and Tripoli (now Libya).  Previous to her independence, American shipping had been protected by British treaties with the Barbary States.  Upon her declaration of independence, America realized her shipping would be at risk and sought a new protector in France.  But, after the September 3, 1783 British treaty recognizing American independence, the fledgling nation was on its own. [19]  The series of treaties negotiated between America and the Barbary States reveal not only that America had become a legitimate power on the world stage, but that she recognized the legitimacy of Islamic states as well.

Muslims not only were present on American shores, but they contributed to the building of Colonial America, including New York and Manhattan Island.  One early Muslim emigrant was Anthony Janzoon van Salee. Born in Spain in 1603, he immigrated to New Netherland (the old name of New York) and established a farm on Manhattan Island in 1638.  In fact, he was one of the original settlers of Manhattan.  By 1639, he was one of the largest landowners on the Island.  Following numerous legal disputes, including with the church, Anthony was ordered to leave New Netherland, but on appeal to the Dutch West India Company, he was allowed to settle on 200 acres in what would become New Utrecht and Gravesend, Brooklyn. This made him one of the largest and most prominent landholders on Long Island. In 1643 he purchased a house on Bridge Street in New Amsterdam, in defiance of the court order restricting him from so doing. He would go onto become a successful merchant and creditor in New Amsterdam, while owning several properties throughout the region.[20]

Unrequited Assimilation

The image of the American melting pot is no longer valid or appropriate. A melting pot can only produce a flavorless, colorless gruel.  America today is a salad.  All the vibrant colors, smells, tastes and varieties of a multitude of ethnicities, cultures and nations gather.  It is the American “dressing,” that intangible dream that brings out the greatness in each of us and ultimately unites us all.[21]

Not only have Muslims contributed to the building of American society, they are, in fact, American.  Alexander Russell Webb (1846-1916) 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.  Born in Hudson, New York, and raised a Presbyterian Christian, Webb was appointed as United States Consul to the Philippines by President Grover Cleveland.  He notes that, “There is no religions system known to humanity that is and has been for centuries, so grossly misrepresented and thoroughly misunderstood … as that taught by the Prophet of Islam.”  “It is the only system known to man that is strictly in harmony with reason and science.  It is free from degrading superstitions, and appeals directly to human rationality and intelligence.”  [22]

The majority of Muslim Americans born on these shores came from more humble origins than Mr. Webb; many were slaves.  Omar ibn Sayyid was trained in the religious sciences and in the Arabic language in this homeland in West Africa. Enslaved in North Carolina, he wrote his memoirs in 1831.  [23]  Sold for a couple of hundred dollars, “Mahometans” would act strangely, singing a “melancholy song,” praying and observing silence – an early description of Islamic prayers. Charles Ball, a non-Muslim slave, wrote that he was accompanied by “the man who prayed five times a day, and at the going down of the sun, he stopped and prayed aloud in our hearing, in a language I did not understand.” [24] Around 20% of American slaves were Muslims from West Africa.[25] Their Arabic phrases, singing traditions, and food preferences have contributed to words like algebra, and musical forms like the Blues, as well as to our taste for mashed potatoes, leafy green vegetables, sweet potatoes, rice, and peanuts.

Later immigrants came to work and some even came for government service.  Hi Jolly, (a corruption of his Arab name, Hajj Ali, indicating he had made the pilgrimage to Mecca), came from Syria in 1856 as part of a U.S. Army program to use camels as pack animals.[26]  His tombstone in Quartzite, Arizona reads, “The last camp of Hi Jolly, born somewhere in Syria around 1828, died at Quartzite December 16, 1902.  Came to this country in February 10, 1856. Camel-driver – packer – scout – over thirty years a faithful aid to the U.S. government.”[27]

It is not certain when the first mosque was built in America.  A mosque was built on Kent Island, Maryland in the 1730’s.  Another early mosque was built in Michigan City, Indiana in 1914 and still another was established in 1917 in Biddeford, Maine.[28]  This mosque was established by Albanian immigrants who came to work in local paper mills.[29] The first permanent structure built specifically as a mosque was constructed in Ross, North Dakota in 1929.  The oldest surviving purpose-built mosque was completed in 1934 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Called the Mother Mosque of America, it still serves the Muslim Community today.[30]

Mosque building reflects the desire of Muslim immigrants to become American, to put down roots on these shores.  The Qur’an says:

            (They are) those who, if We establish them in the land, establish regular prayer nd give regular charity, enjoin the right and forbid wrong: with Allah rests the end (and decision) of (all) affairs.[31]

Muslims built mosques because they believed that America was their home.

            However, the aspirations of Muslims to become Americans have mostly gone unrequited. At the opening of the 20^th Century, America was keen to prove that it was a full-fledged nation.  The World’s Fair held in St. Louis attracted representatives from 53 countries.  Two native Syrians, Ernest Hamwi and Abe Doumar set up a stall to sell souvenirs.  Doumar was selling holy water from the Jordan River in conical containers, and Hamwi was selling zalabia or jelebis, a kind of syrup covered pastry.  When an ice-cream merchant ran out of plates, Doumar concocted conical shaped pastries – creating the first ice cream cone.[32]  Despite the efforts of men like Doumar and Hamwi, or the hundreds of Arab and Muslim Americans such as Paul Anka and Casey Kasem (Kamal Amin Kasem), both Lebanese Christians, and Jamie Farr (Jameel Joseph Farah), Tiny Tim (Herbert Khaury), Edward Said, and Queen Noor, who have become American icons, Muslims of any nationality are now seen as “foreign” and their culture as incompatible with that of America. 

            In 1921, in an effort the stem the tide of emigrants flooding the country following WWI and the fall of the both the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires, the Congress passed the National Origins Act preventing immigration from all but a few Northern and Western European countries. The Act excluded all Asian immigrants and for the first time, placed limits on immigration from Canada or Latin America. “It capped entrants from any country at 2 percent of all persons born there who were counted by the 1890 census. The most generous quotas went to northern and western Europe, from which relatively few immigrants came, at the expense of Slavic and Mediterranean nations, where there was great pressure to migrate.” [33]  The Patriot Act is the latest in laws adversely impacting immigration from Muslim countries.  Despite our shared history, over the years, Muslims have gotten the picture that they are not truly welcome here.

            The picture got even clearer in the 1970’s.  Muslim immigration increased dramatically during this period.  The neighborhoods of Dearborn and Ann Arbor soon became predominately Arab.  This influx was fueled by politics.  In the age of the Cold War, dictators found support as the U.S. and The Soviet Union fought a proxy battle over the Middle East.  The resulting turmoil caused Syrians, Lebanese, Jordanians, Palestinians, Iraqis and Iranians to flee and seek asylum in the U.S.  Increasing turmoil between Pakistan and India, along with the lack of economic opportunities, fueled the South Asian Muslim Diaspora as well. 

But, the turmoil of the 1970’s also fueled stereotypes and hate.  “Afraid of being targeted by neighbors or strangers, many Arab-Americans changed their names: Farid became “Fred”; Mohammed became “Mo.”[34]  John Abourezk, the first U.S. Congressman of Arab American descent, opined that, “racism against Arabs has been endemic since the Crusades. But it was stimulated [in the United States] by the 1973 oil embargo.  Anytime there’s a lot of violence or huckletybuck in the Middle East, you find rising animosity toward Arab-Americans here.”[35] 

            Others have faced “No Iranians” signs and boycotts of Muslim-owned businesses.  Women in hijab head-scarves have had their cars rammed in parking lots.  Americans have called Child Protective Services to make false reports of child abuse in order to harass and threaten Muslim neighbors. Many Muslims live in fear.  After 9/11, many left.  Some long-time citizens moved back to Middle Eastern counties because they felt safer there, than here.  Safer in dictatorships, with secret police known for the use of torture, than in the United States of America – the Land of Freedom and Democracy!  Others faced deportation for minor glitches in their immigration paper work.[36] Whole neighborhoods on the East Coast became ghost towns. 

            So, despite the name changes, despite the fervent desire to just live and work like everyone else, immigrant Muslims end up hiding.  They hide in plain sight – afraid of losing jobs if they ask to be able to pray at work, or take off for religious holidays.  Their co-workers and neighbors may be completely unaware that they are Muslim.  They lead double lives.  The most friendly brother or sister at the mosque may not speak to you at all outside its safety.  By day, they wear neckties and jackets; by night salwar and thawbs. [37]  They end up in uncomfortable compromises between Western culture and Eastern traditions.  With one foot in two worlds, they really live in neither. 

            The right to assimilate has been restricted not only for immigrants but also for native born sons and daughters.  I am a third generation American; born in Baltimore, Maryland; raised in Phoenix, Arizona.  My father was a Marine gunnery sergeant; my mother an Army nurse in WWII.  My brother died in Vietnam.  My grandparents on one side are Anglo-Indian; on the other Irish and Welsh.  In the 24 years since my conversion to Islam, I have been told to “Go back to Iran,” “Go back to Arabia, ” and other things that involve certain well-known hand gestures.  I face an America where I am not likely to be hired because of my name; where I am more likely to have my phone, email and other communications monitored without my knowledge; where I am always subject to “random” searches at airports and court houses. 

And for Muslims of African descent, well… As Mahdi Brey, the Director of the MAS Freedom Foundation puts it, he “is guilty of driving Black and flying Muslim.”   Around 24% of Muslims are native born African Americans.  With the development of the Black Nationalism movement, many African Americans became aware of their origins in Muslim West Africa.  Seeking a return to both physical and spiritual roots, they began to explore their religions heritage.  With the restriction on immigration under the National Origin Act of 1921, African Americans became the nation’s best source of cheap labor, and so many became part of a massive internal migration to the urban centers. Inspired by Marcus Garvey, Noble Drew Ali called upon his Islamic heritage to encourage African Americans to free themselves from their slave identities and rediscover themselves.   He founded the Moorish Science Temple in 1913.  Elijah Poole, later known as Elijah Muhammad also borrowed heavily from Islam when he took over the Nation of Islam from the mysterious New Zealand native, Wallace D. Fard.  [38]

Many Americans think that the followers of Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam, with Louis Farrakhan the current head, are Muslims.  Sometimes they are referred to as “Black Muslims.”  However, as Hajj Malik Al-Shabazz, better known a Malcolm X, discovered, the teachings of Islam and the Nation of Islam are radically different.  Islam teaches that Muhammad ibn Abdullah, who was born in 570 AD, is the last prophet, while the Nation teaches that Elijah Muhammad was a prophet who came after Muhammad ibn Abdullah.  Nation members do not prayer in the same manner as Muslims; they fast in February and not during the Islamic lunar month of Ramadan; and they have congregational services on Sunday, not on Friday like Muslims. 

However, despite these differences, there is no question that the Nation has greatly influenced America perceptions of Islam, particularly as a religion of violence and anti-government sentiment.  Elijah Muhammad served time in Michigan for sedition, treason and conspiracy after calling on Nation members not to fight in WWII.[39]  Malcolm X initiated gun clubs and preached a doctrine of “by any means necessary.” 

Most African American converts to Islam have moved away from this racist view.  Islam teaches that the only thing that distinguishes people is their degree of “taqwa” or piety.  There is no place for racism in Islam – the religion of Muhammad, an Arab Prophet and his Companions; Bilal, an Ethiopian former slave and first to give the Call to Prayer; Salman, an Iranian from a Zoastrian family who converted first to Christianity and then to Islam; Sa’id, a Byzantine Christian covert to Islam; and Abdullah ibn Salam, who converted from Judaism. 

The newest generation of Muslims, regardless of race, color or national origin, has grown up within the “Clash of Cultures” and they have decided that clash or not, we are Americans.  The late Samuel Huntington, who wrote the book, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, felt that with modern complex societies comes inevitable conflict and violence. [40] His last book, Who are We? The Challenges to America’s National Identity, predicted the increased polarization of American society due to Hispanic immigration.  Others like Edward Said remain optimistic that removal of obstacles such as stereotypical beliefs and cross cultural ignorance will lead to better relationships.[41]  But, Muslim Americans like Sheikh Hamza Yusuf and Zaid Shakir, assert that they can be fully American and fully Muslim.

Echoing the feelings of many born in this country, an African American sister commented, “We don’t want to practice a watered-down Islam. But that is what many people want us to do.  They think Muslims shouldn’t be seen or heard.” [42] We do not want a modernized Islam; Islam does not need “modernization.”  We want to practice Islam in our homeland - America.  We want to explore our American Muslim identity. We want to live, work, play and serve. We want to stand with both our feet firmly on this shore!  

(Continued in Part 2 - footnotes are found at end of Part 2)