Al-Huda
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Newsletter for March 2010
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Muslims in America: Seven Centuries of History
The New York Times
estimates (Feb. 21, 1989) that there are approximately 7
million Muslim in America. The Chicago Tribune puts the number
at 16 million. Other estimates put the number at around
ten million, and the number is to double by the year 2027.
The reason for the discrepancy is that the Census Bureau
does not ask for religious affiliation and the 3000 mosque
membership rosters do not accurately represent all the
Muslims in the USA
Muslims are NOT new to America. We are not the Johnny come
lately. The History of Muslims in America is the history
of America itself. We all built America and will
continue to build it together. Like all other immigrants,
Muslims came to America in a variety of ways. From the
earliest times to the present Muslims came to America as
explorers, as slaves, as students, as economic refugees,
and as professionals.
There are 565 names of places (villages, towns, cities,
mountains, lakes, rivers,.. etc. ) in U.S.A. (484) and
Canada (81) which derived from Islamic and Arabic
roots. These places were originally named by the natives in
pre-Columbian periods. Some of these names carried holy meanings
such as: Mecca-720 inhabitants (Indiana), Makkah Indian
tribe (Washington), Medina-2100 (Idaho), Medina-8500
(N.Y.), Medina-1100, Hazen-5000 (North Dakota),
Medina-17000/Medina-120000 (Ohio), Medina-1100 (Tennessee),
Medina-26000 (Texas), Medina-1200 (Ontario),
Mahomet-3200 (Illinois), Mona-1000 (Utah), Arva-700
(Ontario)...etc. A careful study of the names of the
native Indian tribes revealed that many names are derived
from Arab and Islamic roots and origins, i.e. Anasazi, Apache,
Arawak, Arikana, Chavin, Cherokee, Cree, Hohokam, Hupa, Hopi,
Makkah, Mahigan, Mohawk, Nazca, Zulu, Zuni...etc..
889: Muslim navigator, Khashkhash Ibn Saeed Ibn Aswad, from
Cordoba, Spain sailed From Delba (Palos) in 889 CE,
crossed the Atlantic, reached an unknown territory (ard
majhoola) Source: ABUL-HASSAN ALI IBN AL-HUSSAINAL-MASUDI
(871-957 CE) wrote in his book Muruj adh-dhahab wa maadin
aljawhar
February 999CE: Ibn Farrukh, from Granada, sailed from Kadesh
(February 999CE) into the Atlantic, landed in Gando (Great
Canary islands) visiting King Guanariga, and
continued westward where he saw and named two islands,
Capraria and Pluitana. He arrived back in Spain in May 999 CE
Narrated by ABU BAKR IBN UMAR AL-GUTIYYA. Dr. Barry Fell
(Harvard University) introduced in his book 'Saga
America-1980' solid scientific evidence supporting the arrival,
Centuries before Columbus, of Muslims from North and West
Africa.
1100: The Muslim explorers accessed the interior of the
continent by using the Mississippi River. The traces of
their early presence may be found in the architecture and
calligraphy of towns such as St. Augustine, Florida
(America's oldest town), in the names of islands such as Islam
Dora, and in the customs of the American Indians
1178: In 1178, a
Chinese document known as the Sung Document records the
voyage of Muslim sailors to a land known as Mu-Lan-Pi (America).
This document is mentioned in The Khotan Amirs,
published in 1933.
1310: Abu Bakari, a Muslim king from the Malian Empire, leads a
series of nautical voyages to the New World in 1310.
1312: African Muslims from Mandinga arrive in the Gulf of Mexico
and explore the American interior via the Mississippi
River. There is documented proof of expeditions by Muslim
explorers to North America (Source Congressman Findley
"Silent No More").It is believed that Mansa Abu Bakr of Mali
traveled to the Gulf of Mexico in 1312. Ethno-linguistic
analysis shows connections between certain peoples of the
West African coast and the Native Americans living in the
Gulf of Mexico region of the Americas
1492: Christopher
Columbus departs from Huelva, Spain (Andalusia). The
entire area was full of Muslims and the earliest ships to
America had Muslims, Spaniards and Muslim Moors on
the ships. The Captains of Nina and Pinto Maria were
Arab origin. Martin Alonso Pinzon was the captain of the PINTA,
and his brother Vicente Yanez Pinzon was The captain of
the NINA. The PINZON family was related to ABUZAYAN
MUHAMMAD III (1362-66 CE), the Moroccan sultan of the
Marinid dynasty (1196-1465CE). Columbus admitted in his papers
that on Monday, October 21,1492 CE while his ship was
sailing near Gibara on the north-east coast of Cuba,
he saw a mosque on top of a beautiful mountain. The ruins
of mosques and minarets with inscriptions of Qur'anic
verses have been discovered in Cuba, Mexico, Texas and
Nevada
1513: Piri Reis completes his first world map, including the
Americas, after researching maps from all over the world.
The map is unsurpassed in its practicality and artistry.
1527: The founding and
exploration, in 1527, of both Arizona and New Mexico by
Estevanico, a Spaniard from Morocco. After Estevanico, Muhammad
explains, the next wave of Muslims to come to America were
termed the Melungeons. This
group, like the Moors, left Spain and Portugal to escape the
Spanish Inquisition.
1539: It is a documented fact that a Moroccan guide Estephan
participated in the exploration of Arizona and New Mexico
for the viceroy of New Spain.
1717: Arrival in North America of "Arabic-speaking slaves" About
25% of the slaves from Africa were Muslim and against all
odds (Kunte Kunte in “Roots"), many maintained their
religion for many generations. In fact about 3.5 Muslim in
America today are descendants of Muslim slaves
1732: A Muslim slave by the name of "Ayyub Bin Sulaiman Jallon"
from "Boonda, Galumbo" is set free by James Oglethrope,
the founder of Georgia, and provided transportation to
England. In 1735, three years later, he returned home
1776: Thomas Jefferson had a copy of the Quran as part of his
library Civil War: Clear evidence of the presence of Islam in
America begins with the Moriscoes who accompanied the
Spanish invaders.
1790: Moors from Spain are reported to be living in South
Carolina and Florida
1807: An African Muslim by the name of Yarrow Mamout is set free
in Washington DC, after the United States Congress
prohibits the importation of slaves into America
after January 1st, 1808, and later becomes one of the first
shareholders of the Columbia Bank, the second charted bank in
America. It is implemented that Yarrow may have lived to
be more than 128 years old, the oldest person in American
history.
1809: A Muslim by the name of "Omar ibn Said" is enslaved in
Charleston, South Carolina, and imprisoned after running
away. Later in prison he was visited by John Owen,
who became later a Governor of North Carolina, and taken
to Bladen County to be placed on the Owen plantation. It is
reported that he lived to be 100 years old
1865: During the American Civil War, the "scorched earth" policy
of the North destroyed churches, farms schools, libraries,
colleges and a great deal of other property. On the
morning of April 4, when the Federal troops reached the
campus of the University of Alabama with orders to destroy the
university, André Deloffre, a modern language professor
and custodian of the "Rotunda library" at the
university, appealed to the commanding officer, to spare one of
the finest libraries in the south. The officer, being
sympathetic, sent a courier to General Croxton at
his headquarters in Tuscaloosa asking permission to save
the library, but the general's reply was negative, so the
officer reportedly said, "I will save one volume as a
memento of this occasion" and the volume selected was a
rare copy of the Qur'an"
1893: "Mohammad Alexander Russel Webb", the US Ambassador to the
Philippines and one of the earliest "White American
Converts", founds the "American Islamic Propaganda
Movement". And on September 20th and 21st, he appeared
at the First World Congress of Religions and delivered two
lectures: "The Spirit of Islam," and "The Influence of
Islam on Social Conditions."
1900: Earliest recorded Muslim group to organize for communal
prayers, in Ross, North Dakota. In the early part of this
century, waves of immigrants from various parts of
the Muslim world, most notably Palestine, Lebanon and what
is now Pakistan, appeared on these shores. These people
were mostly illiterate, unskilled Arabs who found work in
the auto factories of Detroit, or peasants from the Punjab
who set up house in such places as Sacramento
1908: Muslim immigrants from the provinces of the Ottoman
Empire, who are mainly Turks, Kurds, Albanians, and Arabs
arrive in North America.
1913: "Timothy Drew" (Noble Drew Ali) establishes an
organization in Newark, NJ, known as the "Moorish Science
Temple of America" (MSTA), responsible for many of today's
African-American converts to Islam, and who was reportedly
commissioned by the Sultan of Morocco at that time to teach
"Negroes" in the United States
1915 Albanian Muslims build a Masjid (Mosque) in Maine and
establish one of the first associations for Muslims in the
United States, and in 1919 they build another Masjid
in Connecticut.
1934: First building designated as Mosque, in Cedar Rapids,
Iowa.
1952: Muslim servicemen allowed to identify their religion as
“Muslim” by the US government. Then, beginning in the
'50s, the picture changed drastically. An influx of Muslim
professionals, many of them physicians, finding conditions
in their homelands inhospitable, settled in this country
after completing their studies. The black movements, the
back-to-Africa groups, had come into flower by this time. Great
numbers of Muslim students from all parts of the world also
began to arrive in this country.
1960s: Immigration of Muslim doctors etc. It was this period
that also witnessed the formation of national Islamic groups,
such as the Muslim Students Association (MSA) of the United
States and Canada, later to be replaced by the Islamic Society
of North America (ISNA), and their supporting institutions.
1970: Muslim students in Engineering and Science
1980: Large-scale immigration of Muslims during the USA-Muslim
alliance that destroyed the USSR
1982 The "Islamic Society of North America" (ISNA) is
established in Plainfield, Indiana, which is now the umbrella
organization.
1987 Muslim Alert
Network was established in Chicago to mobilize Muslim response
to media and discrimination against Muslims. Later on the
same concept was used to establish CAIR.
1991 Imam Siraj Wahhaj offers an invocation (opening prayer) to
the United States House of Representatives. He was the first
Muslim to do so.
1995 Oklahoma Bombing took place which launched a hate campaign
against Muslims in America
1996 Iftar-Dinner on Capitol Hill sponsored by American Muslim
Council February 13 hosted by Senator Joseph I. Lieberman (D
CT), Congressmen Nick J. Rahall (D W. VA), Dana
Rohrabacher (R CA), Thomas M. Davis III (R VA), James P. Moran
(D VA) and attended by ambassadors and representatives from most
of the Muslim countries.
2000: Muslims endorsed Governor Bush for bloc vote who won in
one the most narrow election in the history of the US.
2004: Muslims and Jews overwhelmingly vote for John Kerry but a
large percentage voted for President Bush
1. AGHA HAKIM, AL-MIRZA Riyaadh Al-Ulama(Arabic),Vol.2
P.386/Vol.4 P.175
2. AL-AMEEN, SAYED MOHSIN Aayan Ash-Shia(Arabic),Vol.7 P.158/Vol
8 P.302-3
3. AL-IDRISSI Nuzhat Al-Mushtaq fi Ikhtiraq Al-Afaaq(Arabic)
4. AL-MASUDI Muruj Adh-Dhahab (Arabic), Vol. 1, P. 138
5. AL-ASFAHANI, AR-RAGHIB Adharea Ila Makarim
Ash-Shia,Vol.16,P.343
6. CAUVET, GILES Les Berbers de L'Amerique,Paris 1912,P.100-101
7. COLUMBUS, FERDINAND The Life of Admiral Christopher
Columbus,Rutgers Univ.Press, 1959, P.232
8. DAVIES, NIGEL Voyagers to the New World,New York 1979
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Cruz de Tenerife, 1844
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11. FELL,BARRY America BC, New York 1976
12. GORDON,CYRUS Before Columbus,New York 1971
13. GYR,DONALD Exploring Rock Art,Santa Barbara 1989
14. HUYGHE,PATRICK Columbus was Last,New York 1992
15. OBREGON ,MAURICIO The Columbus Papers,The Barcelona Letter
of 1493, The
Landfall Controversy, and the Indian Guides, McMillan Co.,New
York 1991
16. THACHER,JOHN BOYD Christopher Columbus,New York 1950,P.380
17. VAN SETIMA,IVAN African Presence in Early America,New
Brunswick,NJ 1987
18. VAN SETIMA,IVAN They Came Before Columbus,New York 1976
19. VON WUTHENAU,ALEX Unexpected Facts in Ancient America,New
York 1975
20. WEINER,LEO Africa and the Discovery of America,Philadelphia,
1920,Vol.2 P.365-6
21. WILKINS,H..T. Mysteries of Ancient South America,New York
1974
22. WINTERS,CLYDE AHMAD Islam in Early North and South
America,Al-Ittihad,July 1977,P.60
courtesy: Moin Ansari
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