Black Muslims in the US History, Politics, and the Struggle of a Community

From the labeling of jihad as a 'holy war' to the generalization of all black Muslims as 'converts' to the religion of Islam, myths and deficiencies in today's rhetoric and scholarship foster stereotyped images of black Muslims. Black Muslims in the US provides historical and contemporary analyses of political Islam among mainstream black Sunni Muslims in the US who—despite being the least-examined group by scholars— represent the largest, oldest, and fastest growing Muslim group in the US. Rashid seeks to correct deficiencies in scholarship by identifying alternative ways to recognize black and other indigenous Muslims in early America, offering more authoritative descriptions of the black American Muslim experience, and citing new evidence of a strong black Islamic presence in contemporary American society. Using both new and re-examined research from historical records, field study data, ethnographic reports, and oral accounts, Rashid examines the status of black Muslims in the US from their arrival to the influential role that they continue to play in contemporary US society.

Samory Rashid is Associate Professor of Political Science at Indiana State University. His articles have appeared in Islamic Studies, the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, the Journal of Islamic Law and Culture, and the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences.

PART I: A THEORETICAL AND HISTORICAL CRITIQUE

1. Hidden Transcripts

2. Political Islam in Florida?

3. Divergent Perspectives

PART II: AN ALTERNATIVE PORTRAYAL OF ISLAM AND MUSLIMS

4. Beyond Malcolm X

5. Cases

6. Comparisons of Aspects of U.S. Policy

7. Conclusions