AMST 2501 Course Pack C. Muslims and the Making of America

Muslims are incorrectly viewed as having little impact on the shaping of early America, but history reveals that they engaged and influenced its shapers and also contributed, both directly and indirectly, to the making of America. In fact, as religious studies scholar Edward E. Curtis IV makes clear, “Their contributions—some famous, some unknown—have changed the course of the nation’s life.” Compelling evidence of Muslim interwovenness in major aspects of America’s early development can be found in such sources as historical newspapers, government documents, plantation records, rare books, personal papers, and presidential diaries, to name a few.

In “Muslims and the Making of America,” Precious Rasheeda Muhammad offers sampling of Muslims presence and influence from some of the earliest days of colonial America to the present. Creatively told through selected vignettes of people, places, events, and documents, it is a true story that has a moral arc toward elevating humanity and productively co-existing as compatriots around shared ideals and freedoms.