Al-Muhajabah's Islamic Blogs: Islam in the African-American experience

Islam in the African-American experience

Date: October 18, 2003 | 21 Shaban 1424 Hijriah

I've just finished reading Islam in the African-American Experience by Richard Brent Turner. I also read the first part of Black Pilgrimage to Islam by Robert Dannin.

Turner's book is an essential resource for anyone who wants to learn about Islam and African-Americans. It traces the history of Muslims who were brought from Africa to America in slavery and then the modern development of Islam among African-Americans as part of pan-African and pan-Islamic movements.

Dannin's book has two parts, the first a general history and the second a series of conversion stories and experiences of African-American Muslims. The historical part serves as a useful supplement to Turner's book. Dannin's book is focused on African-Americans who follow orthodox Islam and he provides a history of this movement that Turner's book largely ignores. Dannin also examines the history of African-American Freemason groups in the late 1700s and the 1800s as a sort of transitional phase, an early alternative for "unchurched" blacks with some Islamic elements. This topic is not even covered in Turner's book but it fills in the gap between the stories of Muslim slaves and the pan-African movements starting in the late 1800s.

Additionally, Turner has certain theses that he wants to prove and at times this seems to affect his interpretation of the material he's presenting. Dannin offers a different perspective.

Some useful online resources include Early Black Nationalist Movements and Black Power, A Brief Look at the Roots and Development of the Nation of Islam, Islam, a Traditional and Growing Spiritual Point for African-Americans, Religious Movements: Nation of Islam, East of the Sun, West of the Moon, Black Gods of the Inner City, Islam in the Mix: Lessons of the Five Percent, Island in a Sea of Ignorance (by Dannin), and Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas.

Some contemporary issues are discussed in Are gangs and prisons breeding grounds for al-Qa'ida?, Jihadis in the Hood: Race, Urban Islam, and the War on Terror, and Rural Muslims Draw New, Unwanted Attention.

A comparison of these movements to the Black Jews (see also here) would also be instructive.

~ Posted by Al-Muhajabah, a member of the reality-based community, at 11:48 PM

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LauraJ said:

Total comments: 17 gold star

Subject: Re: Islam in the African-American experience

I'm really interested in your take on African American Islam. We've had snippets of this conversation before, but Richard Turner was one of my profs in Religious Studies undergrad, and I took a lot from his classes. But I have a problem with the sorts of studies that analyze Black Islam from a primarily political POV. So much has been said about that, and there is probably plenty more to say. But I still invariably end up asking, what about the folks who primarily wish to submit to Allah, and thus find Islam? Have you seen much on this aspect?

~ Posted at October 19, 2003 02:08 AM | Comment Permalink

Al-Munaqabah said:

Total comments: 996 gold star

Subject: Re: Islam in the African-American experience

That's one of the critiques that Turner makes in his book but I felt that he focused too much on his ideas of signification and identity. It seemed to me that at times he seemed to think that African-Americans have come to Islam because of a certain kind of identity they want to have. He critiques this because racial and ethnic bias and racism are of course as common in the Muslim world as anywhere else and at times he seems to think that if African-Americans were more aware of this, they wouldn't be so attracted to Islam. This overlooks that African-Americans might simply feel that it's the best way for them to submit to Allah or that they're fully aware of the problems in the Muslim world but choose to look at what Islam can be as their guide. That was my main issue with the book.

The Dannin book seems like it might take a broader view, because it's built on the actual conversion stories of African-American Muslims; however, I haven't read that part of it yet so I can't say for sure. I think that the Turner book is a good place to start in order to become familiar with the history, but one should continue reading to get different views on what it all means.

This is a topic of much interest to me, and one that my views have changed and matured on as I learn more. From a purely doctrinal standpoint, I tend to feel that the NOI and its related movements should be regarded as the Baha'i's are: coming out of Islam and closely related to it, but ultimately an independent religious tradition because the differences are so profound. A person should follow the religious path that they believe to be most correct, but they should also be aware of what their path is and is not. The NOI path is different from the orthodox or Sunni path and people should make their choice in full awareness of that fact. Especially with the NOI, a lot of the confusion is due not to the groups themselves but to how the media regard and portray Muslims.

When I first started studying this, I looked at it almost entirely from the doctrinal angle. Reading these books has helped me broaden my perspective and understand the context.

veiled4allah: Islam in the African-American experience

Islam in the African-American experience

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