Islam in the African-American Experience

Abstract

African-American Islam, especially as practiced by the Nation oflslam, continues to engage the attention of many scholars. The racial separatist tendency, contrasted against the color blindness of global Islam, has been the focal point of most of these studies. The historical presence of African Americans in the midst of American racism has been explained as, among other things, the main impetus behind African-American nationalism and racial separatism. Islam in the African-American Experience is yet another attempt to explain this historical position. Originally the author's Ph.D. dissertation, the book spans 293 pages, including notes, select biographies, indices, and thirteen illustrations. Its two parts, "Root Sources" and "Prophets of the City," comprise six chapters; there is also an introduction and an epilogue. The book is particularly designed for students interested in African-American Islam. The central theme of the book is the signifktion (naming and identifying) of the African American within the context of global Islam. The author identifies three factors that explain the racial-separatist phenomenon of African-American Islam: American racism, the Pan-African political movements of African-Americans in the early twentieth century, and the historic patterns of racial separatism in Islam. His explanations of the first two factors, though not new to the field of African-American studies, is well presented. However, his third explanation, which tries to connect the racial-separatist tendency of African-American Muslims to what he tern the “historic pattern of racial separatism” in Islam, seems both controversial and problematic. In his introduction, the author touches on the African American’s sensitivity to signification, citing the long debate in African-American circles. Islam, he argues, offered African Americans two consolations: first, a spiritual, communal, and global meaning, which discoMects them in some way from American political and public life; second, a source of political and cultural meaning in African-American popular culture. He argues that a black person in America, Muslim or otherwise, takes an Islamic name to maintain or reclaim African cultural roots or to negate the power and meaning of his European name. Thus, Islam to the black American is not just a spiritual domain, but also a cultural heritage. Part 1, “Root Sources,” contains two chapters and traces the black African contact with Islam from the beginning with Bilal during the time of the Prophet, to the subsequent expansion of Islam to black Africa, particularly West Africa, by means of conversion, conquest, and trade. He also points to an important fact: the exemplary spiritual and intellectual qualities of North American Muslims were major factors behind black West Africans conversion to Islam. The author discusses the role of Arab Muslims in the enslavement of African Muslims under the banner of jihad, particularly in West Africa, a behavior the author described as Arabs’ separate and radical agenda for West African black Muslims. Nonetheless, the author categorically absolves Islam, as a system of religion, from the acts of its adherents (p. 21). This notwithstanding, the author notes the role these Muslims played in the educational and professional development of African Muslims ...