For most people, the history of Islam in America starts with Malcolm X and the Civil Rights Movement, but how many of us know about the Muslim travellers and explorers who came here before Columbus? Or the enslaved West African princes and scholars who left behind diaries and treatises in perfect literary Arabic? Or the brave Muslim warriors who fought for freedom in South America and the Caribbean before the abolition of slavery?
I, like many other young Muslims in The West, have always had a deep love, respect, and admiration for Malcolm X, and there was a time, along with most others, that I assumed that Islam in the USA began to spread with the arrival of immigrant communities and during the civil rights movement in the sixties after the impact of the Nation of Islam. However, after marrying an American Muslim who comes from an African-American Muslim community that is entering its fifth generation, as well as being able to tour the USA delivering my last lecture Beyond Bilal and coming into contact with elders and scholars who deepened my understanding of the History of Islam on the continent, I continued to research and discover a surprising, amazing and deep history that I am now ready to share with you all. And so after the success of Beyond Bilal, I’m excited to reveal to you all the next part of my lecture series, Before Malcolm X: The History of Islam in the Americas.
I will be sharing it first exclusively with the attendees of the Sacred Footsteps Roots & Culture Retreat in Jamaica (in collaboration with Burgundy Roots) next month in August, and after that, it will be available for booking in the USA for September and in time for UK Black History Month in October.
For questions and inquiries please email mustafa@floodplains.co
