In 2018, the Council on American-Islamic Relations reported that anti-Muslim bias incidents and hate crimes had increased 83 and 21%respectively from April 1 to June 30 of that year compared to the first quarter. Alarmingly, the report found that incidents involving government agencies such as the FBI and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, including incidents that involved the denial of religious accommodations, rose by 60% in the same time period.
It’s tempting to blame the presence of Islamophobia in the United States on the Trump administration, or to trace its systemic origins to anti-Muslim sentiment that grew across the nation following the attacks of September 11, 2001. Both are contributing factors, but neither fully laid the groundwork for violence we see today.
The history of Muslims in America extends beyond the creation of an assimilatory “Muslim American” identity or the racialization of Muslims as only non-Black. Enslaved African Muslims fostered revolts throughout the colonies, such as Haiti, and the 1959 documentary The Hate That Hate Produced introduced the Nation of Islam as a domestic threat to the country.
Presently, Black Muslims make up about a fifth of the American Muslim population. About half of those Black Muslims are converts to Islam. Black Muslims are not lost in history, even if their history has been disregarded. Understanding Black Muslims in the U.S. is essential not only to understanding America’s Islamophobia but to understanding pop culture, racial capitalism, surveillance, and more. Black Muslims have existed in the U.S. for centuries and folded themselves into every aspect of resistance within it. If you’re interested in learning more about these identities and experiences, I’ve put together the essential Black Muslim reading list.
1. Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas by Sylviane A. Diouf
It’s sometimes assumed that enslaved people lost the religions they brought to the Americas. Award-winning historian Sylviane A. Diouf’s groundbreaking book, originally published in 1998, challenges that assumption by documenting the efforts of enslaved African Muslims throughout the Americas to retain Islam.
“It is sobering to realize that next year, 2001, marks five centuries of ‘almost uninterrupted’ Islamic practices by people of African origin in the Western Hemisphere,” wrote one reviewer of Diouf’s book in 2000.
Diouf’s careful reconstruction highlights perhaps one of the most fundamental things to know about enslaved African Muslims and Islam in America: that even if their religion did not always survive in its “orthodox” form, Islam, and the Muslim, are embedded into the history and cultures of the African diaspora.
2) Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas by Michael A. Gomez
African Muslims were present throughout South America and the Caribbean, too, as the transatlantic slave trade transported forcibly displaced peoples throughout all of the Americas. In fact, those brought to the U.S. made up only about 3.6% of the total number of Africans transported throughout the slave trade.
Gomez’s 2005 book starts in Latin America during the 15th century. The second part looks into the resurrection of Islam in the United States with a focus on notable figures such as Noble Drew Ali, Elijah Muhammad, and Malcolm X.
3) “Du’as of the Enslaved: The Malê Slave Rebellion in Bahía, Brazil” by Margarita Rosa
Margarita Rosa’s article for the Yaqeen Institute offers a detailed retelling of one of the best-recorded rebellions by enslaved people in the Americas. Rosa guides readers through an exploration of Bahían Muslim intellectual society and the role it played within the eventual Malê rebellion. Perhaps most importantly, details of the aftermath of the Malê rebellion tie into [how early models of surveillance formed to target Black Muslims] (https://medium.com/the-establishment/in-surveillances-digital-age-black-muslims-are-hit-the-hardest-68f3a9377af), who posed a threat to social order. Readers can also view images made available by the Arquivo Público do Estado da Bahia in 2018, including pictures of the Qur’an found in homes or remains of letters written by Muslims.