Islam: 5 Things You Didn't Know

Islam: 5 Things Men Should Know

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4- Islam has deep roots in America

It is true that in the past 40 years, the population of Muslims in America has grown exponentially from around 100,000 to perhaps around 6 million. That growth is directly due to the changes of the 1965 immigration act, which was a positive step toward erasing the racist immigration quotas of the previous generations and opened up America if not to the “tired, poor huddled masses” of the world then at least to the most educated and skilled immigrants of Asia and Africa, many of whom tended to be Muslims. However, that dramatic rise has tended to obscure the older roots of Islam in America.

Perhaps no such presence is more significant than that of Islam among African slaves stolen and brought to America during the centuries of transatlantic slavery. Given the attempts of the white slave owners to erase the language, culture, religion, and ultimately identity of the slaves, it is hard to know the exact number of Muslim African slaves. However, our best scholarly estimates based on the part of West Africa that the majority of slaves were stolen from would lead us to think that during most periods no less than 10% to 15% of all slaves, and perhaps at times as high as 30%, were of Muslim background. That would easily amount to hundreds of thousands of Muslims in America prior to the arrival of most Christian and Jewish European immigrants who arrived in the 19th and 20th century.

5- Islam and Western civilization cannot be defined apart from one another

Western civilization is usually defined as the twin recipient of biblical revelation and Greek philosophy. Based on that definition, as well as history, Islam and Western civilization can’t be defined apart from one another.

The legacy of Abraham spread through three religious traditions, all of which trace themselves back to him, and to the God of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Indeed the Qur’an repeatedly and emphatically presents itself as the latest calling of the One God of Abraham to all of humanity, and honors Moses and Christ, Abraham and Noah, David and Solomon.

Muslims were present in Spain for some 700 years, and in many countries of Southeast Europe as part of the Ottoman Empire. Islam was always one of the three formally recognized religions in Russia. And today Muslims are the second-largest religious minority in Europe.  

If we wish to move past bigoted ideology, it becomes clear that attempts to define a Western civilization that excludes Islam is more an exercise in fiction and ideology than history. The task of seeing a pluralistic world for all of us is not an impossible project: the realities of our existence and history already include many resources for cross-pollination and tolerance.

Omid Safi is the author of Memories of Muhammad: Why The Prophet Matters (HarperOne, November 2009).  


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