The Encyclopedia of World Religions

226 S Islam in America

During the 19th century, Muslims from other parts of the world settled in the Caribbean region. They came from places as diverse as British India, Java, and China. Some came as indentured ser vants. They generally maintained their national identities. For example, while Indian Muslims retained their Islamic identity, they shared a com mon culture with Indian Hindus. During the 20th century, immigration to the Americas from the Muslim world increased tre mendously. Especially during the second half of the century many Muslims came to North America for higher education, in pursuit of economic oppor tunities, and as refugees. The immigrant Muslims quickly established Islamic institutions. During the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s they built MOSQUES in such places as Maine, Connecticut, South Dakota, Iowa, New York City, and Edmonton, Alberta. They formed chapters of Islamic associations, such as the Red Crescent (the Islamic equivalent of the Red Cross). They established Islamic educational institutions to pass on Islamic teachings and tradi tions to their children. One important problem was hardly unique to Muslims: how to negotiate the tension between a traditional Islamic way of life and the way of life prevalent in North America. As in J UDAISM and Christianity, the solutions define a wide spectrum of responses to these tensions. Also during the 20th century, some African Americans rediscovered Islam. In 1913 Noble Drew Ali established the Moorish Science Temple in New Jersey. It eventually died out. But another community was much more successful: the Nation of Islam ( see I SLAM , N ATION OF ), founded in the 1930s by Wallace D. Fard and his successor, Eli jah Muhammad. As originally founded, the Nation of Islam had little in common with S UNNI I SLAM or S HI ’ ITE I SLAM . But after his visit to Mecca in 1964, a former spokesperson for the Nation, M ALCOLM X, adopted Sunni Islam. In 1976 Elijah Muham mad’s son, Warithuddin Muhammad, transformed a portion of his father’s community into a Sunni group, the American Muslim Mission. Many Afri can-American Muslims (as distinct from the Black Muslims of the Nation of Islam) cherish the mem ory of Bilal, an African slave whom the prophet

blacks. It also provided African Americans with a lifestyle that emphasizes personal responsibility. Thus, Black Muslims observe strict rules regard ing diet and dress ( see DIET AND RELIGION ). They are forbidden to use alcohol, tobacco, or illegal drugs, and women are taught to dress modestly. They also refuse to fight in the armed forces. On these grounds the champion heavyweight boxer, Muhammad Ali, refused to be drafted during the Vietnam War. Many complain about the anti-white teach ings of the Nation of Islam. Both Malcolm X and Warithuddin Muhammad eventually rejected these views. In the 1990s, many also accused Louis Far rakhan of blatant anti-Semitism. Nevertheless, some believe that the Nation’s message of self-reli ance, pride, and personal integrity made a strong, positive contribution within the African-American community. Islam in America The practice of I SLAM in the Western Hemisphere. Muslim seafarers from Spain and northwest Africa may have come to the Ameri cas before Columbus. In any case, Muslims were expelled from Spain in 1492, and some seem to have gone to the new world, because in 1543 Charles V ordered Muslims to be expelled from Spanish lands overseas. That order makes sense only if Muslims were in fact living in Spanish lands overseas. By the end of the 20th century almost every nation in the Americas was a home to Mus lim communities. Before the 20th century, most North American Muslims were of African descent. They were slaves on southern plantations. Scholars estimate that as many as 20 percent of the slaves may have been Muslims. Some were clearly educated and literate. Accounts written by slaves in Arabic survive from the period before the American Civil War. Slave owners as well as some other Christians pressured all non-Christian slaves to convert to C HRISTIANITY . As a result, Muslim slaves practiced their religion in secret, but by the start of the 20th century, their descendants had lost most of the Islam that had been brought to the new world.