Black nationalist movements revived Islam among African Americans in the 1920s

Evidence

Religion played a vital role in the perseverance and resilience of African Americans, both during and after slavery, in the face of White supremacy. While most African Americans were Protestant, a group of newly freed slaves rediscovered Islam in their search for liberation from White supremacy. Some came into contact with Muhammad Sadiq, a spiritual leader of the Ahmadiyya Movement in India who traveled to the United States to proselytize Islam. Sadiq highlighted that Islam was a universal religion that treated all people equally during his frequent and dynamic public speeches about Islam’s antiracist tenets. Between 1920 and 1940, Sadiq undertook extensive missionary work, resulting in five thousand to ten thousand American converts, half of them African Americans. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 582 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Dus é Mohamed Ali (1866–1945), the founder of the African Times and Orient Review , was another. Ali traveled the United States first as a Shakespearean actor in the nineteenth century and returned from Great Britain to become a foreign affairs columnist for Marcus Garvey’s Negro World in New York in 1922. … In 1926, Ali became secretary of the American Asiatic Association, also called the America–Asia Society, which apparently gained support from the Iranian charg é d’affaires, the mayor of Detroit, and the Egyptian ambassador in Washington. But unlike Sadiq, Ali may have left little evidence of his impact on the development of Islam in the United States when he departed for Nigeria in 1931. Once there, Ali emerged as an elder statesman of the pan-African movement. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 381 (#expands, via linked claim)

Among the Indian Muslims who arrived in the early twentieth century was Dr. Mufti Muhammad Sadiq, an Ahmaddiya Muslim missionary. It is not clear whether he claimed to be white or Black, but he did eventually clear immigration, possibly because he was immigrating from Liverpool rather than directly from the British colony in India. Arriving in February 1920, he was placed in detention and denied entry because his religion permitted polygamy. He spent nearly two months incarcerated and was released because he promised not to practice plural marriage. While in detention, he converted several fellow prisoners to his sect of Islam. Once out of detention, Sadiq went on to convert Marcus Garvey, the leader of the United Negro Improvement Association (“UNIA”), and to influence the renaissance of a more public Islam among Black Americans. There was also a reforged link between Islam and Black identity. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 179 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The Ahmadiyya Movement converted thousands of African Americans to Islam in the 1920s-40s — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes…, 582; 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; Muslim pan-Africanists shaped early American Islam through pan-Asian and UNIA ties — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 381 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• The Ahmadiyya Movement converted thousands of African Americans to Islam in the 1920s-40s #qualifies (0.82) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 582
• Muslim pan-Africanists shaped early American Islam through pan-Asian and UNIA ties #expands (0.78) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 381
• Immigrant Muslim missionaries personally bridged Indian and Black American Islam movements #qualifies (0.75) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 179
• Early American Islam grew by fusing Qur’anic spirituality with black liberation and pan-African politics #expands (0.72) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 380