History of American Islam - Essay Example

History of American Islam The account of Islam in America starts in the background of rivalry, and encounters of the Atlantic earth that twisted the American state. The existence of Muslims in the territory that finally formed the United States of America dates back to the initial arrivals of Europeans in the America. Muslims neither came to America in large numbers at that time nor did they play a primary role in colonizing the Americas. Muslims from the North and West Africa were dynamic participants in Africa, and many of them ended in America as slaves.

At the start of the twenty-first century, the United States is the dwelling to about three million Muslims, who possibly consist of the most varied Muslim inhabitants in any single state in the world. On the other hand, Muslims vary in cultural and sectarian course from each corner of the world and have migrated to the United States. Latin and local American ancestries have transformed to Islam as well. This essay will examine the history of Islam in America from the time of Azamor to Warith Deen Mohammed.

Estevanico was the first Muslim to enter the historical records in the North America. He was a barber who originated from North Arica and explored the states of Arizona and New Mexico in the 1530s for the Spanish Empire. In 1586, Sir Francis Drake brought around two hundred Muslims the then English colony of Roanoke, which is the present Carolina. Drake’s convoy of some thirty ships had freed these Muslims from Spanish colonial forces in the Carribean where they had been condemned to hard labor as galley slaves (Haddad et al 32).

Approximately 15 to 30% of the slaves who were brought to America were Muslims. Some documented cases include abdulrahman Ibrahim Sori and Ayubu Suleiman Diallo 1701-1773. Yarrow Mamout one of the Muslims who bought his freedom had his portrait painted by renowned American artist Charles William Peale, and it is kept at Philadelphia Museum art. In 1831, Omar Ibn said who was an educated native of West Africa managed to write the only well-known American slave description in Arabic. In 1939 Sayyid Said, the ruler of the Oman ordered his ships to set sail to American on a trade mission, and this marked the point of Muslims friendly relationship with America.

In 1854, the Ottoman Empire sent a gift to be included in the Washington Monument. In 1857 Bilali Mohammad, a slave on Sapelo Island, Geogia, managed to write the first and the lone existing book on Islamic Law printed in America and this book was called Bilali document (El‐Aswad 114). The first documented Muslim cemetery called the Ross which is found in the North Dakota has tombstones dating from 1882. Originally there was a Mosque at that place but it was torn down, and a new mosque was built in 1929.

Muhammad Alexander Russell Webb was the first American to convert to Islam. Muhammad is the founder of the American Islam press and the earliest mosques found in the New York City which was established in 1895. He also formed the first Muslim organization called the Muslim mission. He also published he first Muslim periodical in the U.S (Conser et al 50). In 1920, the first American Muslim charity that was called the Red Crescent was formed. In 1934, the first Islamic school was formed, and it was called Muhammad University of Islam schools.

In 1938, the first Canadian mosque the Al Rashid in Edmonton Alberta was formed. In 1992, the first Muslim to lead the invocation in the American senate was Warith Deen Mohammed. The history of American Muslim is wide. At the moment, there are more than three million Muslims in the United States. Works cited Conser, Walter H, and Sumner B. Twiss. Religious Diversity and American Religious History: Studies in Traditions and Cultures. Athens, Ga: University of Georgia Press, 1997. Print. El‐Aswad, El‐Sayed.

"A History of Islam in America: From the New World to the New World Order–By Kambiz GhaneaBassiri." Digest of Middle East Studies 20.1 (2011): 113-116. Haddad, Yvonne Y, Farid Senzai, and Jane I. Smith. Educating the Muslims of America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Internet resource.