Black American Islam functioned as post-Reconstruction resistance to white supremacy

Evidence

If Arab Americans were accepted into a proximity to whiteness, black Muslims faced a different situation. Starting in 1931, the FBI began a program of surveillance and intimidation of the members of the Moorish Science Temple of America (MSTA). For black Americans, Islam represented a mode of resistance in the postreconstruction era just as Protestantism was a means of challenging slavery in the antebellum period. At its height, the MSTA had tens of thousands of registered members. Founded in 1926, it drew inspiration from a number of quarters, including the Ahmadiyya mission, which emerged in South Asia and sought to promote racial harmony. The MSTA not only advanced criticisms of white supremacy but also of Western imperialism in Muslim majority countries. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 231

Categorization

• XREF: Directly extends the reader’s deep knowledge of racialized Islam as the FBI surveilled the Nation of Islam decades later; connects to COINTELPRO patterns. — connects to: Black Islam’s theology refused non-violence and made equality a prerequisite for reconciliation — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 194; Islam shaped African American racial identity formation throughout U.S. history; Early American Islam grew by fusing Qur’anic spirituality with black liberation and pan-African politics — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 380 (+3 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 231

Broader Connections

• Islam shaped African American racial identity formation throughout U.S. history #expands (0.85)
• Black liberation movements embraced Islam as a rebuke to White Christian supremacy. #corroborates (0.85) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 565
• Early American Islam grew by fusing Qur’anic spirituality with black liberation and pan-African politics #corroborates (0.70) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 380