Four Californian Lectures

Islam in U.s.a. Its Prospects & Problems

a lecture delivered at University of California, Santa Cruz, Oakes College on October 28, 1987 I am a student of religion; and therefore shall confine my talk to describing the religious problems and prospects of Muslims in U.S.A. This country is a land of emigrants, People from different countries have been landing on its shores since Columbus set foot on what he thought was India. They spoke different languages, belonged to diverse ethnic groups and followed various religions and beliefs. You will now find here followers of all major world religions; but the majority has been of white Protestant Christians.

ARRIVAL OF MUSLIMS: The first Muslims were brought here some two centuries ago, by European slave traders mostly from Western Africa. Those helpless Africans lost their liberty on the shore of Africa; their dignity was drowned in the Atlantic Ocean, and not long after their arrival at the plantations they lost their identity, culture and then religion in quick succession. But in recent past some of them reverted with vengeance to what they thought was their original religion, Black Muslims,. Now Imam Warith Deen Muhammad, the son of the founder of the movement, is bringing them to the mam Muslims tenets and beliefs. They have built hundreds of mosques for their use, and they preach mostly among black Americans.

Beginning with this century up to the end of World War II, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Muslims came to the Western Hemisphere. An overwhelming majority of them was from the Middle East, Turkey, and probably North Africa. A considerable number of them preceded ahead 10 South America and hundreds of thousands of them are now settled in Columbia, Brazil and Argentina, as well as in some Caribbean countries.

From 1950 onwards, other groups have emigrated from the Indian sub-continent, East Indies and Africa, apart from the former areas.