I came into this course moderately confident that there wasn’t much for me to “discover” about Islam in America, being an American Muslim myself. Among the earlier topics we discussed was that of slavery and its surprising connection to Islam and Muslims. It had never really occurred to me that the coasts of Africa would have been full of Muslims, and their captivity and subsequent abduction would have introduced a new continent to the faith.…
I found the film very enlightening as to the experience of a Muslim raised in a non-Muslim household. I grew up around a very large city (Paterson), and I saw firsthand people deviate away from their families in favor of the streets and drugs/gangs, and what that kind of life can do to people. For someone to move from such a life into Islam and live their life with a focus on piety and good…
The double standards in the United States are prevalent in many ways, but the extraordinary religious surveillance of Muslims is something altogether un-American. In the wake of 9/11 and the heightened senses in the Nation, Americans were united in a way that hadn’t been felt in years prior. Still, to the shock and dismay of Muslim-Americans, some people were closed off in fear or anger toward “Arabs” which was a term loosely used to refer…
Sultan Almosbeh Dr. Sharon Albert Islam In America 13 April 2025 Faith Reimagined: Islam and the Nation People who feel they have nothing will seek out anything, and that is precisely what occurred in the late 1960s and early 70s in the United States as whole communities of Black Americans shifted their beliefs to the preachings of Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam: a radical and racially charged Afro-centric religious movement that drew from…
Among the many, many interesting points made in this article, one stood out to me, and I don’t feel that it was harped on as much as it should have been. The basis of the work is that of inequalities between general (mostly academic) responses to the Gaza genocide and the difference in presentation of antisemitism vs Islamaphobia. Oftentimes, university workshops or speakers do not even mention the ladder, as they fund tremendous DEIB efforts…
The Nation of Islam is a group that I’ve heard a lot about growing up as a Muslim; they were always discussed with some level of secrecy, and not very much was ever really known about them. I found it incredibly interesting how the NOI frames women’s “duties” as a method of resistance against white supremacy and normalized behaviors. A black woman to cook/clean held weight in the sense that it was a remnant of…
The Malcolm X movie (day 2) was interesting and thought-provoking, based on my previous knowledge. While I don’t know that the falling out between Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam was nefarious in nature, Black leaders have historically been targeted and persecuted by the government, like Dr Martin Luther King. The movie had me thinking about the relationship between historical, especially black anti-government, leaders and the response they elicit from the state. Dr King…
I was immensely confused by this piece of writing when I read it on my own time, so many questions culminated in me barely understanding what I had read at the end of it. I pieced together some key moments in the text, but Omar’s strange and uncharacteristic depictions of enslaved life complicated the situation further. He was sold to a violent and dangerous slaver who he ran away from and then was brought by…
The life and story of Omar Ibn Said is one of detail and nuance beyond what is normally seen regarding the trans-Atlantic slave trade. In reading his autobiography, one must conclude that his captor treated him fairly and humanely, at least in one’s initial reading of the work; as thoughts process, however, the realization that he may be unwilling to go into truthful detail begins to dawn. Why does he speak so highly of the…
