Today in the Western world, when we hear the word “Muslim” or “Islam,” many Americans tend to think of terrorists or people from the Middle East (the uneducated). As of 2017, there are at least 3 to 3.5 million Muslim Americans living in the United States of America. The majority ethnic group that makes up this population is the Afro-American people. However, the question “How does this happen?” arises If you want to know the history of Muslims in America and its wide spread, one cannot talk about this topic without mentioning the African or should we say African-American journey towards Al-Islam.

In the transatlantic slave trade there were between 15 and 20 million enslaved Africans and of these slaves there were between 2% and 4% African Muslims. These Muslims were from the Mandinka, Fulani, Wolof, Soninke, Songhai, Ashanti, Taureg, Nupi, Yoruba, Susa, Kanuri, Mandara and Vai tribes. We are all familiar with and have learned from Alex Haley’s book (and film) Roots, which tells the story of an enslaved African Muslim named Kunta Kinte, who lived in a small village in West Africa, practiced Islam, he was a student of Arabic and lived his daily African rituals. He was captured and brought to America as a slave, sold and named Toby. He attempted to escape captivity countless times and married a cook named Bell, where they had a daughter named Kizzy who had many children. There is also documentation and stories where you can find information about other enslaved African Muslims like; S’Quash, The Moor, Phillip The Fula, Sambo, Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua, Lamine Kebe, Lamine Ndiaye, Yarrow Mamout, Charles Larten, William Rainesford and many more who were well educated and literate in math, Arabic, science , and different languages ​​spoken. Throughout the years of slavery, the African people were oppressed and their cultural and religious practices were suppressed. Slaves took the names of their masters as identity of one’s property and Christianity was imposed on them. Generation after generation, Al-Islam had finally dissipated.

In the 20th century, between 1900 and 1975, there were many African-American civil rights activists and leaders, such as Marcus Garvey, Father Divine, Noble Drew Ali, and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, who brought different teachings and ideologies to African-American communities to make black more self-aware, self-sufficient and to improve socially and economically within these communities. Since the theme is “The African-American Journey to Al-Islam”, Noble Drew Ali and the Moorish Science Movement were one of the first and earliest movements to bring Al-Islam back to the African-American people. Ali’s teachings did not come from the Holy Quran nor did the Moorish Science Temple follow any practice of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), but his claim was to teach Islam or “Islamism”. The practices of the Moorish Science Temple had some correlation with mainstream Al-Islam. For example, followers stood and faced east during prayers, their church service and prayer were on Fridays, gender separation in seating, women were required to wear a headscarf or turban, men were required to wear a red fez at all times and dress modestly. Noble Drew Ali also wrote his own Qur’an for him, calling it “Circle 7 of the Qur’an”.

The number of Moorish science adepts at present is not specifically known, but it has been estimated that there are about 10,000 spread over 15 different cities in the United States. Following in the midst of this movement was the Temple of Allah of Islam, which was started by Fard Muhammad in 1930; the name would change to the Nation of Islam’s Lost and Found, where Minister Elijah Muhammad would succeed Fard Muhammad as leader and eventually lead the Nation of Islam. As time passed, he assumed the title of prophet and messenger of Allah, and Fard clearly identified himself as Allah or the incarnation of Allah. This is not what Muslims believe. Muslims believe that there is only one G-d and he alone has no partners, associates, was not born, would die or beget children and that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the seal of all prophets and he is the last messenger . The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught knowledge of G-d, self, and independence from oneself. In 1960, the Nation of Islam had 69 temples spread across 27 states, and membership was believed to have reached 100,000.

Two years later, some estimates placed NOI’s membership at 250,000 and at its peak 1 million members. The NOI was also extremely active in promoting the African-American economy and established a number of successful businesses in the 1950s and 1960s. For example, the NOI owned grocery stores, bakeries, clothing stores, restaurants, department stores and numerous establishments that provided various services. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad mentored Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Louis Farrakhan, and Imam Warith Deen Mohammed. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad had 7 children and of those seven children was Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, born Wallace Delaney Muhammad. The name was selected for him by Fard Muhammad, who predicted that the newborn would one day succeed Elijah Muhammad as leader of the Nation of Islam. Wallace was only about 12 years old when he first became aware of the discrepancies between the message of the Koran and the teachings of his father. Due to his refusal to be drafted into the army, in 1961 he was sentenced to three years in prison. He had time to study the Koran and when he returned to the Nation of Islam he hoped to transform it into a truly Islamic movement.

Following his father’s death on February 25, 1975, Wallace became Supreme Minister of the Nation of Islam and immediately began a process of change that would result in the largest conversion of people to Al-Islam in American history. In 1976, he changed the name of the Nation of Islam to the World Community of Al-Islam in the West and changed his own name to Warith Deen Mohammed. He led a massive and systematic movement of his followers into the fold of orthodox Al-Islam. He taught the five obligatory prayers, Ramadan, Zakat and encouraged Hajj. In 1992, Imam Mohammed became the first Muslim to hold morning prayers in the United States Senate. Today, Imam Mohammed’s teachings still serve as spiritual and religious guidance for some 2.5 million Muslims in the United States. He is likely to have influenced the conversion of more people to Al-Islam than any other Muslim in the world today.

To conclude, the journey to Al-Islam for the African-American people has been a long but successful struggle. It is a coincidence that there were approximately 3 to 6 million African Muslim slaves in the slave trade and there are currently about 2 million African American Muslims in the United States of America. It is a coincidence that even non-Muslim African Americans have Muslim names like: Ahmad, Rasheed, Jamal, Kamal, Aisha, Jamela, Tariq, Shakur, Jaleel, Malik, Malika, Khadijah, and Amina, just to name a few. Even though Al-Islam reached the African-American communities in a corrupt way, these pioneers were “stepping stones” for the African-American people to enter the light of the Holy Quran and follow the practices of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). If G‑d wants him, then he will be.