Americas Other Muslims: Imam W.D. Mohammed, Islamic Reform, and the Making of American Islam

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America's Other Muslims: Imam W.D. Mohammed, Islamic Reform, and the Making of American Islam explores the oldest and perhaps the most important Muslim community in America, whose story has received little attention in the contemporary context. Muhammad Fraser-Rahim explores American Muslim Revivalist, Imam W.D. Mohammed (19332008) and his contribution to the intellectual, spiritual, and philosophical thought of American Muslims as well as the contribution of Islamic thought by indigenous American Muslims. The book details the intersection of the Africana experience and its encounter with race, religion, and Islamic reform. Fraser-Rahim spotlights the emergence of an American school of Islamic thought, which wascreated and established by the son of the former Nation of Islam leader. Imam W.D. Mohammed rejected his fathers teachings and embraced normative Islam on his own terms while balancing classical Islam and his lived experience of Islam in the diaspora. Likewise his interpretations of Islam were not only American they were also modern and responded to global trends in Islamic thought. His interpretations of Blackness were not only American, but also diasporic and pan-African.

Reviews

While paying homage to African Islam and its role within the experience of enslavement in America, Fraser-Rahim (The Citadel) focuses on creating a more accurate depiction of the establishment of African American Islam. The title conveys the breadth of this exploration, implicitly covering over a century of acculturation attributable in various ways to both Islam and the vagaries of life for black Americans. The author situates early African American Muslim communities as foundational to the continued experience of African American Muslims in the 21st century. These discussions lead to a preliminary investigation of the community of Imam W.D. Muhammad, arguably the leader of the largest single community of African American Muslims until his death in 2008. Imam Muhammad sits firmly on the black American Islamic continuum that the book builds, which reveals a resilient American Islam being challenged by an immigrant Islam seeking its erasure. This domestic community avoids the chaos of the Muslim world, situating itself as Muslim and American. As research on Imam Muhammad is still in its formative stages, this seminal text relaying his impact on American Islam is a must read. Summing Up: Essential. General readers through faculty.

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I first met the legendary Imam W. D. Mohammed at President Bush's White House Iftar. The Imam impressed me immensely with his learning and humble bearing. I saw him as the Martin Luther of American Islam and yet was puzzled that he is so little known outside the community. Muhammad Fraser-Rahim's book, bursting with new ideas and research, bravely offers to introduce the Imam. A must read. -- Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University

The meticulous research in this book puts in perspective an important expect of the legacy of Imam W. Deen Mohammed and highlights the methodology on how descendants of enslaved Africans, upon the inherent aspiration of every human soul, made an independent entrance into the world of Al-Islam and became a healthy powerful resource not only to themselves, Islam in America and globally but also to the society they claimed citizenship.

-- Imam Dr. Talib Shareef, President, The Nations Mosque, Masjid Muhammad
This book provides in depth overview of the continuum of Islam from the west coast of Africa to the antebellum south, the proto-Islamic movements culminating with Imam W. D. Mohammed ushering Islam into the fabric of American society. -- Imam Earl El-Amin, Muslim Community Cultural Center of Baltimore
As a former revolutionary Islamist, African American Muslims - including Malcolm X - were influential in my quest for self discovery, self mastery and the early principles of Islamic reform in the West. Fraser-Rahim captures the Islamic zeitgeist of American and Western Muslims by illuminating the oldest and indigenous Muslim community in America. His original work documents the patron saint of American Islam Imam WD Muhamad, who was unapologetically American, Muslim and Black and offers a blueprint for Western and Muslims worldwide. This book is more important than you may realize. -- Maajid Nawaz, Founder, Quilliam International
The book offers a deep dive into a little-known diary. It adds to the burgeoning literature on the dark and deep connection of slavery that bound Bristol, Rhode Island and Cuba together. -- C. V. Carrington-Farmer, Roger Williams University

Author Bio

Muhammad Fraser-Rahim is executive director of Quilliam International and assistant professor at the Citadel.