American Muslims

29/08/2023

Excited to share this new trailer for the American Muslims project — 6 short documentary films exploring the early history of Muslims in America — scheduled for distribution by PBS Digital Studios in March 2024 to coincide with the start of Ramadan. We’re currently raising finishing funds to help us meet our deadlines and deliver these films to the quality they deserve. We’d be grateful for any support you could provide to help us get the project across the line: americanmuslimsfilm.com/donate. Thank you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUJ-HQU5DhI

Teaser for the AMERICAN MUSLIMS project - six short films exploring the history of Muslims in America, scheduled for release by PBS Digital Studios in March ...

18/08/2023

Join us for a webinar discussing the American Muslims project — scheduled for release by PBS Digital in March 2024. bit.ly/americanmuslimwebinar.

27/05/2023

Another stop on our journey to explore the story of Muslims in America - Ross, North Dakota - site of one of the first purpose-built mosques in the country. This episode hosted by Slate journalist Aymann Ismail. 6 x 15 minute episodes produced by Timestamp Media - scheduled for release in March 2024.

22/05/2023

Excited to say we’ve started production on the series — on a film exploring the little-known story of Muslim involvement in the American Civil War — this episode hosted by Malika Bilal

13/05/2021

Eid Mubarak from the 'American Muslims' production team!

12/04/2021

We're thrilled to announce that we have been awarded a $300,000 Digital Media Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities!

This grant will support production of our first 4 short films revealing the untold histories of American Muslims.

For more information on the project, or how to become a funding or impact partner, please visit www.americanmuslimsfilm.com.

09/04/2021

We’re excited to announce that, having taken a break due to the pandemic, the American Muslims project has re-started production. We’re planning to start filming later this year, and to start sharing our films with you in 2022. For more details on our progress, or to learn how to support or partner with us, visit www.americanmuslimsfilm.com

24/08/2020

Muslim Americans continue the struggle to urge America to live up to its highest ideals of full inclusion and equality
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In this month’s , and are celebrated for their roles advocating for racial and maternal justice. The issue also includes an oral history from — America’s first Muslim Congressman — on the early days of the movement following the murder of
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Muslims have long been on the frontlines in the fight for justice in America and they continue to carry that legacy forward
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19/08/2020

this day in 1863, the North Carolina Standard published a rare obituary - that of an enslaved African, Omar bin Said. (Swipe to read)

Omar Ibn Said was an Islamic scholar who was taken captive in Senegal in the early 1800s and shipped to Charleston, SC. In 1808, Omar escaped his abusive slaveowner and fled to Fayetteville, NC, where he was captured and imprisoned. Here, Omar became a local celebrity after using a lump of charcoal to cover the walls of his prison cell in Arabic script. After a few days, he was sold to the Owen family, where he spent the rest of his life. He was known as Uncle Moreau.

In the 1830s, he wrote the story of his life. He is the only enslaved Muslim we know who was able to write an account of his life in Arabic that we still have. Scholars believe that because it is written in Arabic, a language his captors surely could not read, it is among the more candid slave narratives we have. It begins with Surah 67 from the Quran, which states that only God can have dominion over all things, including humans.

19/06/2020

Some 292 Muslim-sounding last names appear in troop listings for the Civil War. Most prominent among them is Nicholas Said (pictured here) also known as Mohammed Ali ben Said, who joined the 55th Regiment of Massachusetts Colored Volun­teers. Unlike many African Americans who fought in the war, neither Said nor any of his ancestors had been enslaved on American soil. According to his remarkable autobiography, Said was enslaved or indentured for much of his life yet he traveled to five continents, spoke seven languages, served princes and diplomats, and worked as a teacher and speaker in the southern United States. He was committed to being “useful to my race”. In his autobiography, Said notes that "Africa has been, through prejudice and ignorance, so sadly misrepresented, that anything like intelligence, industry, etc. is believed not to exist among its natives”. His work serves as a counter narrative to that notion.

Photo courtesy of Massachusetts Historical Society, thanks to Precious Rasheeda Muhammad for her work excavating this lost history and publishing Said’s autobiography.
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12/06/2020

On Believers Bail Out National Day of Action, we remember the long history of police brutality against Black communities in America and the powerful folks from the Muslim community who stood up to them.

On April 27, 1962, an act of police brutality took place took place at the Nation of Islam’s mosque in Los Angeles, wounding seven unarmed Muslims. Malcolm’s words about that day ring powerfully today:

"In the shooting that took place, seven men were shot. Seven Muslims were shot. None of them were armed. None of them were struggling. None of them were fighting. None of them were trying to defend themselves at all...
you’ve got some Gestapo tactics being practiced by the police department in this country against 20 million black people, second class citizens, day in and day out.”

Photo courtesy of The Gordon Parks Foundation

08/06/2020

In her essay, Dr. Mia Carey, former field director of the Yarrow Mamout Archaeology Project, reflects on why the stories of enslaved African Muslims and Islam’s early presence in America have been silenced.

As we watch the streets fill with protests for , Dr. Carey reminds us of the long history of racism and systematic violence against black bodies, and how that history has informed what it means to be American.

Read her essay on this lost history and it’s implications. Link in bio.

05/06/2020

We are moved by the messages of and support for the movement from our friends They're continuing a tradition of solidarity for racial justice that started many years ago.

Today we remember the remarkable ALIYA HASSEN (pictured) — a pioneering American Muslim leader who led the way in reaching outside her own Arab Muslim community to build bridges with black Muslims and fight alongside them for racial and social justice. Born to Syrian-Lebanese immigrant parents in South Dakota in 1910, Aliya moved to Detroit in 1925, and then to New York in the 1950s. While working as the civil defense director for Brooklyn's 82nd Precinct, Aliya became good friends with Malcolm X, and — in 1964 —helped facilitate his memorable trip to Mecca.

In the early 1970s, Aliya returned to Detroit, where she became director of ACCESS (the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services.) Here she was widely recognized for the support she provided immigrants from Lebanon, Palestine and Yemen. A prolific writer and life-long activist, Aliya continued the struggle until her death in 1990.

She's been described as a radical, an activist, and a feminist, and we salute her!

Photo:

04/06/2020

in 1752, an enslaved African Muslim named Yarrow Mamout (pictured) arrived in Annapolis, Maryland on board the slave ship Elijah. Gaining his freedom 50 years later, aged 60, Mamout went on to become a successful craftsman, entrepreneur and financier, lending money to local merchants, and owning stock in the Columbia Bank of Georgetown. In the early 1800s, Mamout bought his own house in Dent Place NW in Washington D.C. and had this portrait painted by the renowned American artist, Charles Wilson Peale.
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This is a remarkable story of Black triumph and liberation, but it has been silenced for too long.
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Archaeologist Mia Carey (swipe to see her picture) helped excavate the site of Mamout’s Georgetown home in 2015. She argues that Yarrow’s story—like so much of the story of Islam in black communities—has been silenced, because it doesn’t fit the dominant American narrative, and demonstrates a long history of systemic racism and violence against black bodies.
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02/06/2020

. American Muslim stands in solidarity with Black Lives Matter. We are outraged by the systems of oppression and anti-blackness that marginalize people in America. We feel the anguish of this moment, and we too are grieving. Our vision is to reclaim the past to reimagine the future, a future where everyone belongs. We want to learn from the past, from our Muslim American ancestors who have been in this fight from the beginning. At the same time, we recognize the inherent challenges. As one of our team members put it: "We've been having the same damn conversation for the past 70 years, and I don't know what's changing". As storytellers, we're committed to using this platform to make a difference, a real difference. We don’t know exactly what that looks like yet, but we’ll continue sharing stories, and doing what we can to change the conversation.

29/05/2020

“You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.” Malcolm X


Please click on the link to see a brave Somali woman protesting for justice for George Floyd.

https://twitter.com/aqsix4/status/1265952515998220288?s=20

“this lil somali girl throwing the tear gas back is killing me https://t.co/q5XxlrJRYp”

28/05/2020

Samia Khan for The Aspen Institute Inclusive America Project writes "For me, if the pandemic has revealed anything noble among great suffering, it is that we are all inextricably connected. As Americans of diverse faiths, races, and gender orientations, we have a shared past that we can collectively claim, in order to reimagine a future where everyone belongs. That’s exactly what we’re doing at American Muslim. "

https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/a-new-american-story-everyone-belongs/

For many American children, the story of who can and can’t be American begins in the classroom with fables, fables about the men who made America. Storytelling is a critical part of nation-building, and our origin story lays the foundation for our self-concept. We need a new narrative of what it m...

26/05/2020

We asked our project advisor, Denise Spellberg, Professor of History & Middle Eastern Studies , and author of the fascinating book “Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an” how Muslims fit into the American experiment of universal inclusion and equality:

“When Keith Ellison became the first Muslim elected to Congress in 2006, he swore his private oath of allegiance on Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an. That book symbolizes our nation's long and complicated history of connection to Islam and Muslims. The reaction to Congressman Ellison's election tested, in practice, the inclusion Jefferson had earlier predicted in theory. What would Thomas Jefferson say about Congressman Ellison's election? Possibly that it reflects a near-perfect confirmation of his founding, theoretical ideal of Muslims as future citizens with religious freedom and civil rights that he forecast in the 18th and 19th centuries. Muslims then marked the placeholders for the furthest reaches of inclusion as Americans at the nation's founding. But this ideal remains a work in progress. Even in the 21st century. Muslims remain a litmus test for the full realization of of the American experiment's promise of universal inclusion and equality, regardless of religion or race. Jefferson would not have been surprised that a Muslim had been elected to Congress, but he would have been stunned to realize that the first Muslim congressman descended from former West African slaves who arrived in North America in 1742. Once again, race continues to complicate Jefferson's capacious view of universal religious freedom. Despite bigotry born from rank prejudice and a limited view of American history, Islam remains what it has always been, an American religion. and its adherents as citizens test whether American ideals of equality and inclusion will prevail as national values. in this struggle for full equality, there is good news. Since Congressman Ellison's election, three more Muslims have been elected to Congress. Andre Carson of Indiana in 2008 and two women; Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and lhan Omar of Minnesota in 2018. Positive signs that many Americans share political values which transcend religious differences."
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25/05/2020

Sound up!
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We asked our project advisor, Denise Spellberg, Professor of History & Middle Eastern Studies and author of “Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an,” what George Washington’s list of taxable property reveals about the Founder’s views on race and religion:

“George Washington, like Thomas Jefferson, intended Muslims to be future citizens of the American Republic. In 1784, Washington wrote a friend that he needed workmen for his Mount Vernon plantation, and he didn't care about what they believed or didn't. Washington insisted, quote, “If they are good workmen, they may be of Asia, Africa or Europe. They may be Mohammedans (meaning Muslims,) Jews or Christians of any sect, or they may be atheists.” However, this document from a decade earlier in 1774 reminds us that despite Jefferson and Washington's lofty, theoretical ideals of religious freedom, their practice of chattel slavery based on race tragically reduced the earliest American Muslim people in the United States to the status of property. Thus, we see on this list of taxable items at Washington's Mount Vernon Plantation, the names of two women, probably Muslim, who were named after the Prophet's daughter Fatima, spelled incorrectly here as Fatimer, F-A-T-I-M-E-R, and Little Fatimer. An estimated 15 to 20 percent of enslaved people in North America who hailed from West Africa were of Muslim origin. Historians identify this minority in part by their distinctive monikers. Enslaved on Washington's plantation, we cannot know if either Fatima a little Fatima practiced Islam privately or publicly. They were probably a mother-daughter duo. Whether we don't know if Washington ever recognized them as Muslims. However, because of race and slavery, neither woman named Fatima at Mt. Vernon retained rights or religious freedom. In his will, George Washington insisted that his slaves be freed. But whether either Fatima achieved emancipation remains unknown.”
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📸 The George Washington Paper
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24/05/2020

Sound up!
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We asked Denise Spellberg, Professor of History & Middle Eastern Studies and author of "Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an," to tell us about Jefferson’s views on religious freedom and the role he saw Muslims playing in the new nation. Here’s what she said:

We see Jefferson's first defense of Muslim religious freedom in October 1776, a few months after he wrote the Declaration of Independence. Tasked with ending religious persecution in Virginia among Protestants, Jefferson boldly included non-Protestants too. He copied from John Locke's 1689 treatise on toleration these pivotal words: "Neither Pagan nor Mahometan [meaning Muslim] nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion.” This may be the earliest attempt by any early American to envision Muslims as future citizens and to defend their religious freedom under the then novel phrase "civil rights." But Jefferson went further. In 1786, his famed Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom became law. It asserted: "Our civil rights have no dependance upon our religious opinions." How do we know that he included Muslims in this expansive vision of religious freedom? Because five years before he died, Jefferson wrote in his 1821 autobiography that he'd intended this legislation to be universal, specifically including within the mantle of its protection: “The Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mahomedan, the Hindoo, the infidel of every denomination.” In other words, every believer with no exceptions.
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24/05/2020

Celebrating Eid in Detroit, 1926
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Almost a century ago, Detroit’s Muslims prayed together across racial and sectarian lines—realizing a dream for which American Muslims are still working today. This photograph shows Muslims gathered to pray for Eid al-Fitr. Unlike most religious congregations in the United States, the Universal Islamic Society was racially integrated and theologically inclusive. The president was Duse Mohamed Ali, a Sudanese-Egyptian Sunni Muslim advocate of pan-African cooperation and a former writer for Marcus Garvey’s Negro World. The Imam was Kalil Bazzy, the most prominent Shi’a Muslim leader of Detroit. But the group also had South Asian board members and welcomed members from Turkey and other countries. They knew how special their multiracial community was, and they proudly touted it to their non-Muslim American neighbors as an example of what America could become.
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Eid Mubarak
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22/05/2020

Did you know Thomas Jefferson owned a Qur'an?
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Discover this and more in a series of fascinating posts by our project advisor, Denise Spellberg, author of the book "Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an" and Prof. of History & Middle Eastern Studies
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“This is a Qur’an purchased by the 22-year-old Thomas Jefferson in 1765. It provides important evidence of his early interest in Islam, which would continue throughout his life. When he ordered the Qur’an in Williamsburg, Virginia, Jefferson was a wealthy, budding bibliophile and a law student. He would have regarded the Qur’an as one of his books of law. George Sale, the British translator of the text, became the first to offer an English version directly from Arabic. Sale's Qur’an also became famous for its lengthy and mostly accurate introduction to Muslim belief and ritual. However, the translation had been bankrolled by an Anglican Protestant missionary society in Britain. It therefore also contained standard Christian polemic against Islam, namely that it was a false religion founded by an imposter. Jefferson initialed these volumes which now survive in the Library of Congress, but no other notes survive, which detail his reactions. Undoubtedly, he absorbed negative precedents about Islam from his Qur’an’s polemic. However, unlike the majority of his contemporaries, Jefferson found inspiration elsewhere to include Muslims within his capacious definition of American religious freedom."
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Stay tuned for more
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19/05/2020

In honor of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (who would have turned 95 today) we are so pleased to share with you a conversation with elders at
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Formerly the Nation of Islam's Temple No. 1, this historic masjid played a vital role in Malcolm X’s journey. It is a place he once called home and where he served as Assistant Minister. In this video, we hear from those who shared those formative days with him.
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Thank you so much for sharing your stories and for sharing the images. Special thank you to Sister Ameedah Abdullah for sharing your story and for the image of Shabazz Restaurant
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14/05/2020

Muhammad Ali at prayer. London, 1966. Many thanks to The Gordon Parks Foundation for letting us share this remarkable image of “The Champ,” taken as he was preparing to fight Henry Cooper in London in 1966, in a game he won 5 to 1 (a technical knockout).

The image comes from a photo-essay that Gordon Parks created for Life Magazine called "The Redemption of the Champion.” This work served as a counter narrative to the mainstream portrayal of Ali, which vilified him for becoming a Muslim, joining the Nation of Islam and declaring himself a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War. In capturing Ali's inner peace and strength, Parks offers a striking foretaste of the inspirational character Ali would become.

14/05/2020

Head over to our site to explore our interactive timeline. We cover major moments in history that make up the American Muslim story. These stories help us get a better sense not only of the American Muslim experience, but of America itself (Zaheer Ali). Parents, if you're looking to supplement the home school experience (or just give them something to do ( ) this timeline will help! https://www.ammuslimstories.com/

11/05/2020

"By conjuring our American Muslim ancestors, we unearth a shared past, new memories of who we’ve been, and new hopes for what we might become” —Prof. Edward Curtis, Indiana University

Too few Americans are aware of the profound impact Muslims have had on this soil. Muslims of every generation have participated in the American experiment—as Africans who were enslaved, homesteaders, soldiers, community leaders, business leaders, sportspeople, political activists, artists and more. In telling their stories, we will expand our notion of what it means to be American today.

We’re committed to building a new narrative, but we need your help to do it. Join American Muslim to reclaim the past and reimagine a future where everyone belongs.

09/05/2020

“These stories need to be surfaced. They need to be highlighted. Once that happens, we will come away not only with a better understanding of Muslims in America, but a better understanding of America itself.” —Zaheer Ali

Thrilled to share our project trailer featuring just some of our many wonderful advisors, who have worked so hard to illuminate the history of Muslims in America! Hussein Rashid, Sally Howell, Sylvia Chan-Malik, to name a few.

And if you can’t get enough of Muslim American History head over to our site to check out our interactive timeline covering over 400-years of Muslim American history. Parents — we know you’re out there looking for something for the kids to do, please include the website on their “to do” list.

Tell us what you think in comments! We’re excited to hear your feedback.

08/05/2020

Thousands of Muslim Americans have fought for their country, taking part in every conflict as far back as the Revolutionary War. As we mark the 75th anniversary of the Allied Force's' Victory in Europe, we remember the hundreds of American Muslims of all backgrounds who fought in World War II. Among them was John Omar (pictured,) a second-generation Arab American who won a Purple Heart in 1944 for "meritorious achievement in accomplishing aerial operational missions over enemy-occupied Continental Europe." According to the citation, "Sgt. Omar's actions reflect great credit upon himself and the armed forces of the United States."

07/05/2020

Ramadan on the prairies! This is Mary Juma, a Syrian-Lebanese immigrant who arrived in America in 1901, before homesteading in Ross, North Dakota. Here, she joined a community of about 500 Muslims who, in the late 1920s, built one of the first mosques in the United States. In 1939, the Depression-era Works Progress Administration interviewed Mary. Looking back, she said: “My religion in the Old Country was Moslem. We attended services every Friday, the same as we do here … Our home has always been a gathering place for the Syrian folk. Before we built our church (mosque), we held services at different homes. We have a month of fasting, after which everyone visits the home of another, and there was a lot of feasting.” American Muslims have always been adept at adapting their traditions to their changing environment. As we find new ways of observing Ramadan this year, what new traditions could we be starting? DM us with your ideas.

Photo Credit: Rosie Juma Chamley

06/05/2020

For Ramadan—have you considered bean pie? The essential and only American Muslim food invention! History, creative cuisine and rapturous deliciousness all in one bite!

"The pie would have been impossible without the advent of Islam in the African American community,” says historian Zaheer Ali. The (navy) bean pie was invented by Elijah Muhammad’s daughter. Muhammad believed sweet potatoes and rich soul foods were legacies of slavery to be rejected. He set out to replace sweet potato pies with bean potato pies. A tasty American Muslim classic was born!

It's an anti-slavery symbol, a rap favorite, and the only true Muslim-American food.