Europeans saw enslaved African Muslims as semicivilized aids for Christianizing other Africans

Evidence

Recent scholarship has unearthed the previously unknown or under researched history of Muslims in the United States. These works have gone back to the archives and demonstrated that among the Africans brought to these shores were a significant number of Muslims. As Kambiz GhaneaBassiri’s research shows, Muslims were not wholly unfamiliar to Europeans, who had first encountered them in the Crusades and then been in contact with Ottomans and North Africans in their attempts to dominate the Atlantic trade routes. Even if their knowledge was superficial and biased, Europeans were aware that Muslims followed a religion that was not entirely alien to Christianity. While Islam was already considered a false religion, some Europeans saw it as a civilizing force among Africans. Muslims themselves were then regarded as a semicivilized group that could aid in “civilizing” other pagan Africans. The goal, however, was to Christianize all Africans regardless of their original creed. Islam was merely a waystation on the journey. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 130 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Racial ideology about Muslims was transferred onto enslaved Africans.; Europeans first encountered Africans chiefly as Muslim soldiers, fusing racial and religious identity; African Muslim slaves preserved Islam until Protestant abolitionism pulled them into Christianity (+11 more)

Related

• For early modern Europeans Islam functioned as a civilizing intermediary toward Christianizing Africans (similarity 0.95)
• Nineteenth-century travelers credited Islam with civilizing enslaved Africans beyond Christianity’s reach (similarity 0.91)
• African Muslim slaves preserved Islam until Protestant abolitionism pulled them into Christianity (similarity 0.86)
• Europe’s first racialized view of Africans came through Islam’s armies (similarity 0.86)
• A Muslim slave was recommended as a Christian missionary to Africa (similarity 0.85)
• Islam’s racialization dates to American slavery, not modern immigration debates (similarity 0.85)
• Islam was historically perceived as a non-white and Black religion by Europeans (similarity 0.83)
• Roughly one in five enslaved Africans in America was Muslim (similarity 0.82)
• Anti-Muslim racial templates were transferred to justify African slavery (similarity 0.82)
• Africans served prominently in Islamic armies from Islam’s earliest century (similarity 0.82)
• Tens of thousands of colonial slaves were Muslims (similarity 0.81)
• American racism against Muslims extends back to enslaved Africans (similarity 0.81)
• Islamic societies originated modern racial stratification and racialized slavery (similarity 0.81)
• Islamic slavery offered slaves mobility and rights unmatched in Christian law (similarity 0.81)
• Ten to twenty percent of enslaved Africans were Muslims. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• For early modern Europeans Islam functioned as a civilizing intermediary toward Christianizing Africans #corroborates (0.95) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 130
• Europeans first encountered Africans chiefly as Muslim soldiers, fusing racial and religious identity #expands (0.85)
• Racial ideology about Muslims was transferred onto enslaved Africans. #expands (0.82)
• African Muslim slaves preserved Islam until Protestant abolitionism pulled them into Christianity #corroborates (0.80)
• Anti-Muslim racial templates were transferred to justify African slavery #expands (0.80) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 190
• Europe’s first racialized view of Africans came through Islam’s armies #expands (0.80) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 462
• Enslaved African Muslims preserved Islam for generations until Protestant abolitionism absorbed them. #corroborates (0.80)
• American racism against Muslims extends back to enslaved Africans #expands (0.78) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 223
• Nineteenth-century travelers credited Islam with civilizing enslaved Africans beyond Christianity’s reach #qualifies (0.75)
• Religion served as a status axis in the racial hierarchy among enslaved Africans #expands (0.75) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 193
• The successful resistance of Muslims to conversion and flourishing Islamic proselytizing seemed twin roadblocks to the cherished goal of Christianizing humanity. Without any apparent sense of… #complicates (0.75)