Art. #27:  ISLAM IN THE UNITED STATES: It is almost impossible to generalize about American Muslims: converts, immigrants, factory workers, doctors; all are making their own contribution to America’s future.  This complex community is unified by a common faith, underpinned by a countrywide network of mosques.  Muslims were early arrivals in North America.  By the eighteenth century there were many thousands of them, working as slaves on plantations.  These early communities cut off from their heritage and families, inevitably lost their Islamic identity as time went by.  Today many Afro-American Muslims play an important role in the Islamic community.

The nineteenth century, however, saw the beginnings of an influx of Arab Muslims, most of whom, settled in the major industrial centers where they worshiped in hired rooms.  The early twentieth century witnessed the arrival of several hundred thousand Muslims from Eastern Europe: the first Albanian mosque was opened in Maine in 1915; others soon followed, and a group of Polish Muslims opened a mosque in Brooklyn in 1928.

In 1947 the Washington Islamic Center was founded during the term of President Truman, and several nationwide organizations were set up in the fifties.  The same period saw the establishment of other communities whose lives were in many ways modeled after Islam.  More recently, numerous members of these groups have entered the fold of Muslim orthodoxy.  Today, there are about five million Muslims in the U.S.

REBUTTAL:  No, it is not impossible to generalize about Muslims, of the U.S. or of any other country, so long as the generalization holds true for a large part of a society, in this case, that of the Muslims.  A valid generalization of Muslims is that a large percentage are ignorant but devout followers of their religion, and would follow the lead of their local imam or of a higher authority.  A basic tenet of Islam, as repeatedly urged by the Koran (Allah / Muhammad), is to kill or enslave all non-Muslims.  Hopefully, most U.S. Muslims would refuse, but if only a small percentage were to join in Jihad, chaos would result.  Thankfully, the figure of five million Muslims given by the Saudi brochure is highly inflated for political purposes; the amount is probably closer to two million.

There were undoubtedly a few, but it is an outright lie, that any significant number, of black African Muslims, were shipped to the U.S.  Most of the Blacks were animists, not likely to have followed the religion of their oppressors.  The African slave trade, from the 8th century to the present, has been and still is, controlled by Muslims.  By the time that slaves were first shipped to the New World, a definite prohibition against a Muslim enslaving another believer was well in place.  The above disinformation, stating that many thousands of them were plantation slaves, is a blatant attempt to convert blacks of the U.S. to Islam.  And, it is certainly working; the rosters of professional and college sports teams are replete with Muslim names.  How sad that the race most exploited by Arab slavers  is rushing to embrace their old taskmasters.  See "Slavery in Islam" of the Archives.