Islam in the African-American Experience

Abstract

Islam in the African-American Experience is a historical account of Islam in the African-American community. Written by a scholar of African- American world studies and religious studies, this book focuses on the interconnection between African Americans’ experiences with Islam as it developed in the United States. While this scholarly work is invaluable for students and professors in academia, it is also a very important contribution for anyone seriously interested in Islam’s development in this country. Moreover, it serves as a central piece in the puzzle for Muslims anxious to understand Islam’s history in the United States and the relationship between African-American and immigrant Muslims. The use of narrative biographies throughout the book adds to its personal relevance, for they relate the personal history of ancestors, known and unknown, to Islam’s history in this country. Turner’s work furthers African-American Muslims’ journey toward unlocking their history. The main concept expressed in Turner’s book is that of signification, the issue of naming and identity among African Americans. Turner argues that signification runs throughout the history of Islam among African Americans, dating back to the west coast of Africa, through the Nation of Islam, to many of its members’ conversion to orthodox Sunni Islam, and through Islamic messages disseminated via contemporary hip-hop culture. According to Turner, Charles Long refers to signification as “a process by which names, signs and stereotypes were given to non-European realities and peoples during the western conquest and exploration of the world” (p. 2). The renaming of Africans by their oppressors was a method of dehumanization and subjugation. The author argues that throughout the history of African-American Muslims, Islam served to “undercut signification by offering African Americans a chance to signify themselves” (p. 3). Self-signification is an antithesis to the oppressive use of signification, for it facilitates empowerment and growing independence from the dominant group. In addition, “signification involved double meanings. It was both a potent form of oppression and a potent form of resistance to oppression” (p. 3). By choosing Muslim names, whether they were Muslim or not, Turner claims that ...