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1. Americans' Perceptions of Islam Q. Dear Sir, I am wondering to know about Islam, specially in the United States—what American people think and say about Islam, and also what they think about the Islamic revolution. Thanks, K. Shah A. Dear Sir, Americans have thought many different things about Islam over the nation's two-hundred-year history. Overall, the religion has been misrepresented in America and the West. Interpreters claimed that it was a militaristic religion that spread by the sword. That impression, unfortunately, has persisted. It predominated in American media coverage of the Iranian Hostage Crisis of the 1970s, and it resurfaces regularly. But more positive images have emerged, especially recently. The post-1965 Muslim immigrants have a significant presence now in many U.S. cities, and their peaceful and pious lifestyle has countered the longstanding misrepresentations of their faith. More local newspapers and more local television stations now run stories on Ramadan and other Muslim holidays and practices. Although misperceptions continue, there is some reason for hope. Sincerely, Thomas A. Tweed Associate Professor of Religious Studies University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2. Islam and African-American Slaves Q. I am a university student and was struck the other day by the thought of the Islamic faith in American slavery. I was hoping you might be willing to suggest some reading material. With thanks and abundant curiosity, Zarah A. Dear Zarah: Yes, it is interesting to think of slaves and Islam! I was not taught that either. There is some modest amount of scholarly literature on this. I would begin with Allan D. Austin, African Muslims in Antebellum America (Routledge, 1997). For a more confusing but ultimately helpful bibliography, see Michael A. Koszegi and J. Gordon Melton, eds., Islam in North America: A Sourcebook (Garland, 1992). Good luck! Thomas A. Tweed Associate Professor of Religious Studies University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
3. Islam and African Americans Today Q. Hello. I am an education student, studying to be a teacher. The Islam religion seems so interesting to me and enlightening. I'm bothered, though, by the African-American version. It doesn't make sense to me, if one reads the foundations of the religion, how the African-American version became anti-white. Are these versions accepted in the Asian, African, and European nations? What exactly happened and has it separated the Muslims? An always learning student, Charlotte A. Dear Charlotte: You suggest in your recent e-mail that you are "bothered" by "the African-American version" of Islam. In particular, you say you are troubled by the "anti-white" impulse in that tradition. And you wonder how other Muslims view this. This is an important, and common, question. Let me offer two responses. First, from the perspective of most members of the Nation of Islam—the smaller Islamic movement that usually is charged with "anti-white" sentiments—it is the wider American society that is racist and that should be condemned. To put it differently, there must be some reason that the story about the origin of whites as the mistake of a black scientist has seemed compelling to African-American followers since the 1930s. For those followers, the behavior of whites around them in the segregated South and the racist North seemed to confirm the Nation of Islam's traditional teaching that whites were "devils." Second, let me offer a response that is common among other Muslims in the U.S. and elsewhere.
They point out that the Nation of Islam represents only a small proportion of the African-American Muslim population. Most Muslims of African descent in the U.S. reject the principles
of the Nation of Islam as racist—and not in keeping with the tradition of Islam. On the latter
point, most Muslims proudly note that their tradition has stood for racial equality. In fact, racial equality might be a more central principle in Islam than in any other religious tradition. So, from this perspective, racist teachings are neither representative of the vast majority of African-American (or worldwide) Muslims nor in accord with the moral teachings of Islam.
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