About National Muslim American Heritage Month in the United States

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Muslim American Heritage Month celebrates and explores the impact and achievements of Muslim Americans in the United States. Canada also observes Muslim Heritage Month in October.

Muslim Americans currently account for 1% of the US population (Pew Research 2016) and will continue to grow as a community over the next century.

A SHORT HISTORY OF MUSLIM AMERICANS

The first Muslim in America came in 1528 when the slave ship he was on was shipwrecked. Estevanico of Morroco washed ashore in today's Galveston, Texas. Native Americans welcomed him, and Estevanico lived his life free, becoming a healer and medicine man.

The arrival of slavery in the United States in 1619 brought the first wave of Muslims to American shores, though not willingly. An estimated 30% of the slaves arriving from West Africa were originally Muslim and forced to convert to Christianity.

Several Muslim Americans fought in the Revolutionary War, including Bampett Muhamad, Peter Salem, and Yusuf ben Ali.

President Jefferson kept a copy of and consulted the Qur'an and other texts in drafting the US Constitution. He was the first acting president to participate in an iftar, breaking the fast during the holy month of Ramadan with the Ambassador of Tunisia in 1809.

The first country in the world to recognize the United States as a nation was a Muslim majority country, the Sultanate of Morocco, in 1777.

During the civil rights movement in the United States, segments of African Americans seeking to reclaim their heritage began converting to Islam. Approximately 30% of the current African American Islamic community in the US converted within the past seventy years.

The decline and eventual fall of the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries saw the first formal wave of Muslims to the United States who were not part of the slave trade. These men and women came predominantly from Syria, Palestine, Yemen, and Turkey. Due to their light skin tone, many changed their names before arriving and did not present as Muslim. They assimilated within white culture, practiced privately, and thus avoided many of the racist laws of the time.

After WWII, turbulence in the Middle East and Persia, the establishment of Israel, the fall of the Soviet Union, and the rise in authoritarianism, especially after 1979, have increased the number of Muslims seeking a new life in the United States.

The first mosque in the United States was created in 1921 outside of Detroit in the Highland Park neighborhood. The oldest standing mosque in the United States is the Al Sadiq Mosque in Chicago, Illinois, commissioned in 1922.

Today, Muslim Americans are a vastly diverse group with 25% of African heritage, 26% Arab, 34% South Asian, and 15% other. Like Christianity, the faith has many different faces. Sunni, Shi'a, and to a lesser degree, Sufi are the primary divisions (think Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox). Within these groups are various interpretations and doctrinal customs, and what binds them together are the five pillars of Islam:

Fasting during Ramadan (Sawm)
Praying five times a day (Salah)
Charity (Zakat)
Pilgrimage (Hajj)
Belief in one God, with Mohammed as his prophet (Shahada).

ISLAM, CHRISTIANITY, AND JUDAISM: ABRAHAMIC COUSINS IN FAITH

Islam teaches it is a continuation of Hebrew and Christian beliefs, and it follows many of the Hebrew customs of the Old Testament.

Examples include:
Halal (kosher) eating
Structured prayer times and rituals
Faith-based law (Jewish Halacha and Islamic Sharia)
Conservative dress/head covering

Christians and Muslims believe in Jesus Christ, with Islam seeing Him as a prophet rather than the Messiah. When His name is spoken in the faith, like the names of Abraham, Moses, and Mohammed, the words "Peace be upon him" (PBUH) follow. It is a sign of respect. The Virgin Mary is revered above all women in Islam; the virgin birth is acknowledged, as is the crucifixion, but not the resurrection. Both faiths believe Jesus will return.

All three faiths recognize the first five books of the Old Testament, The Pentateuch to Christians (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), with some differences in interpretation. The Hebrew faith includes these in its book, the Torah, and Islam has them in its holy book, the Qur'an or Koran.

Like Catholicism before the 1960s, when mass was conducted in Latin, Islam is primarily taught in its original language, Arabic. The word for God in Arabic is Allah, and the word for God in Latin is Deus, and both refer to the same God in the Torah and Old Testament.

This month is an opportunity to get to know your Muslim neighbors and support them as part of the American dream. Islam entered the American experience before the Mayflower (1620), and it will continue to grow with the nation. By 2050 sociologists expect Islam to surpass Christianity as the most widely worshipped faith in the world.

Curious about the Muslim experience in the US?

The first four chapters of Peter Oborne's 2022 book, "The Fate of Abraham," covers this and is highly recommended. The description is here: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Fate-of-Abraham/Peter-Oborne/9781398501041.