Provide an overview of the history of Black American Islam until the nineteenth century

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The history of Black American Islam begins in the seventeenth century, when members of some Muslim tribes were forcibly brought to the American colonies. It is estimated that
10 percent of African slaves were Muslim. Slave owners discouraged anything that linked them culturally to Africa, including their spiritual beliefs. Furthermore, many in the South saw making slaves Christians as part of their mission in civilizing the enslaved people. Enslaved Muslims in the colonies and elsewhere often resisted the pressure to assimilate to the dominant group's faith and maintained their dedication to Islam.

It was exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, for a collective Muslim community to survive slavery. Organized Muslim groups within the African American community grew and dispersed in the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. Resurgence of Islam among Black Americans often centered around the leadership of charismatic people such as West Indian–born Edward Wilnot Blyden and North Carolinian Noble Drew Ali, who founded the Moorish Science Temple. Typically, followers of the movements dispersed at the death of the central leader; but with each movement, the core of converts to Islam grew within the African American community.