Abstract
This chapter addresses the issues of religion and political identity among three Islamic groups in the United States—the African American Muslims, African Immigrant Muslims, and the Arab community. Who are these groups, and how do they define themselves? Are they Americans or Muslims, and to what extent do they engage in the civil society of America? Can Muslims retain their Islamic identities, and participate effectively in American politics? Would their loyalty be questioned? Identity here refers to how an individual and the community are shaped and reshaped by each other. That is, what makes a person a Muslim, what differentiates a Muslim community from a non-Muslim community, and how does a Muslim relate to his/her community?1
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Notes
For more meanings of what constitutes an Islamic or Muslim identity, see Mohommed A. Muqtedar Khan, “Muslims and Identity Politics in America,” In Muslims on the Americanization Path, edited by Haddad and John Esposito (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 87–101.
Sodiq, Yushau. (2011). An Insider’s Guide to Islam. (Indianapolis: IN, Trafford Publishing, pp. 432–4.
Austin, Allan. (1995). African Muslims in the Antebellum America: A Sourcebook. New York: Garland Publishing Company.
For more information about African Muslim slaves in the United States, see Sylviane A. Diof, Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas (New York State University Press, 1998).
See Jeffrey Sheller, “Black Muslims: From Fringe to Bedrock,” U.S News & World Report, 8 October, 1990: p. 70; Asma Gull Hasan, American Muslims: The New Generation (New York: Continuum, 2002, p. 17).
Haddad, Y. & Smith, Jane. (1993). Mission to America: Five Islamic Sectarian Communities in North America. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, pp. 79–80.
McCloud, Amina. (1995). African American Islam (New York: Routledge, pp. 30–31). McCloud explains the agenda which the Nation of Islam attempts to achieve for the African American Muslims.
Turner, Richard B. (1997). Islam in the African American Experience. (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, pp. 107–8.
Elijah Muhammad, Message to the Blackman in America (Chicago: Muhammad’s Temple No. 2, 1965), pp. 53, 134.
Sodiq, An Insider’s Guide to Islam, p. 465. See also Larry Poston, The Changing Face of Islam in America (Penn, Camp Hill: Horizon Books, 2000, pp. 140–2).
For more information about Minister Louis Farrakhan and his role in the Nation of Islam, see Yushau Sodiq’s article “Nation of Islam” in Religion and Violence: An Encyclopedia of Faith and Conflict from Antiquity to the Present. Edited by Jeffrey Ian Ross. (New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc. 2011), pp. 488–493.
Barboza, Steven. (1993). American Jihad: Islam after Malcolm X. New York: Doubleday, p. 143.
For more information about the life and contributions of Malcolm X to African American’s identity and to Islam in the United States, see Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to by Alex Haley (New York: The Random House Publishing Group, 1965). Many other books have been written on Malcolm X and his impact on African Americans.
Moore, Kathleen. (1991). “Muslims in Prison: Claims to Constitutional Protection of Religious Liberty,” in The Muslims of America, ed., Yvonne Y. Haddad (New York: Oxford University Press, p. 138).
Ibid. p. 138. That Islam is a religion is expressed in the case of Falwood v. Clemmer as determined by the US District Court for the District of Columbia, 206 F. Sup. 370 (1962) at 373.
Johnson, Steve A. (1991). “Political Activity of Muslims in America,” in The Muslims of America, edited by Yvonne Haddad (New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 111–24).
For more information about this African group and their life in the United States, see Abdullah Zain, Black Mecca: The African Muslims of Harlem (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).
Haddad & Esposito, Muslims on the Americanization Path, p. 21. See also, Imam Warithu Deen Muhammad, Challenges that Face Man Today (Chicago: W. D. Muhammad Publication, 1985).
Turner, Richard. Islam in the African American Experience, p. 231, quoting Farrakhan Interview, “Cliff Kelley Show,” WGCI Radio Station, Chicago, IL, 1990.
Lo, Mbaye. (2004). Muslims in America: Race Politics, and Community Building. Maryland: Amana Publication, p. 135.
Mohammad Muqtadar Khan in Muslims on the Americanization Path, pp. 96–7. See also Steven Barboza, American Jihad: Islam after Malcolm X (New York: Doubleday, 1993, pp. 19–24).
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© 2015 Ibigbolade S. Aderibigbe and Carolyn M. Jones Medine
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Sodiq, Y. (2015). Islamic Communities in the United States: Issues of Religion and Political Identity. In: Aderibigbe, I.S., Medine, C.M.J. (eds) Contemporary Perspectives on Religions in Africa and the African Diaspora. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137498052_20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137498052_20
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