Five Things You Didn't Know about Islam

Five Things You Didn't Know about Islam. Islam continues to be in the news on a daily basis, yet many Americans are in the dark about the faith and its founder, the Prophet Muhammad. Even fewer of us are aware of how long Islam has been part of the American landscape -- and the significance of its impact on American culture. Here are five things you didn’t know about Islam and its relationship with the West.

Islam: 5 Things You Didn't Know

1- Our founding fathers had favorable views toward Islam

Benjamin Franklin famously stated that the standards of religious freedom in America had to be so broad that "Even if the Mufti [chief jurist] of Constantinople [from the Muslim Ottoman Empire] were to send a missionary to preach Mohammedanism to us, he would find a pulpit at his service."

This openness to Islam was actually quite commonplace among America’s founding fathers. When George Washington was asked in 1784 what kind of workers should be hired to work on Mount Vernon, he responded by stating that they should hire the best workers, regardless of their background: “If they are good workmen, they may be from Asia, Africa or Europe; they may be Mahometans, Jews, Christians of any sect, or they may be Atheists...”

2- Thomas Jefferson studied the Qur’an

If there is a figure more quintessentially American than Benjamin Franklin or even George Washington, it would have to be Thomas Jefferson. In 1765, Jefferson was studying for his bar exam to qualify as a lawyer. In order to acquaint himself with what various traditions had to offer about law, he purchased for his own private use the most recent and accurate translation of the Qur’an available, a work by George Sale called The Koran: Commonly Called the Alcoran of Mohammed, which had been translated from the original Arabic in 1734. Jefferson’s personal copy of the Qur’an eventually became part of the holdings of the Library of Congress, and recently gained a great deal of attention when it was used in the swearing-in ceremony of Keith Ellison, the first Muslim American elected to the United States Congress.

3- The Obama administration believes that understanding Islam is key to improving the U.S.'s international image

The most powerful declaration of support for Islam from an American political leader was the June 2009 speech of President Obama in Cairo. In this historic speech, Barack Obama began by saying, "I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles -- principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings."

Obama then went on to cite from the Qur’an ("Be conscious of God and speak always the truth”), and offered that he too promised to follow the spiritual and moral guidance of this verse and speak truthfully. In quite possibly the most emphatic statement of support any American president has ever made on behalf of Islam, he stated: “And I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.”

4- Islam has deep roots in America

It is true that in the past 40 years, the population of Muslims in America has grown exponentially from around 100,000 to perhaps around 6 million. That growth is directly due to the changes of the 1965 immigration act, which was a positive step toward erasing the racist immigration quotas of the previous generations and opened up America if not to the “tired, poor huddled masses” of the world then at least to the most educated and skilled immigrants of Asia and Africa, many of whom tended to be Muslims. However, that dramatic rise has tended to obscure the older roots of Islam in America.

Perhaps no such presence is more significant than that of Islam among African slaves stolen and brought to America during the centuries of transatlantic slavery. Given the attempts of the white slave owners to erase the language, culture, religion, and ultimately identity of the slaves, it is hard to know the exact number of Muslim African slaves. However, our best scholarly estimates based on the part of West Africa that the majority of slaves were stolen from would lead us to think that during most periods no less than 10% to 15% of all slaves, and perhaps at times as high as 30%, were of Muslim background. That would easily amount to hundreds of thousands of Muslims in America prior to the arrival of most Christian and Jewish European immigrants who arrived in the 19th and 20th century.

5- Islam and Western civilization cannot be defined apart from one another

Western civilization is usually defined as the twin recipient of biblical revelation and Greek philosophy. Based on that definition, as well as history, Islam and Western civilization can’t be defined apart from one another.

The legacy of Abraham spread through three religious traditions, all of which trace themselves back to him, and to the God of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Indeed the Qur’an repeatedly and emphatically presents itself as the latest calling of the One God of Abraham to all of humanity, and honors Moses and Christ, Abraham and Noah, David and Solomon.

Muslims were present in Spain for some 700 years, and in many countries of Southeast Europe as part of the Ottoman Empire. Islam was always one of the three formally recognized religions in Russia. And today Muslims are the second-largest religious minority in Europe.

If we wish to move past bigoted ideology, it becomes clear that attempts to define a Western civilization that excludes Islam is more an exercise in fiction and ideology than history. The task of seeing a pluralistic world for all of us is not an impossible project: the realities of our existence and history already include many resources for cross-pollination and tolerance. ( askman.com )

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