History of Muslims in the US

The history of Muslims in North America is long and rich. At numerous points over the past four hundred years, Muslims have faced oppression and discrimination, having their identities as Americans and their rights to practice Islam challenged. At the same time, they have—like members of every religious group—shaped American history, making significant cultural, political, artistic, physical, and philosophical contributions. Muslim Americans have also exhibited tremendous creativity, resiliance, and resistance as they have envisioned particularly American forms of Islam and also sought to keep various traditions alive. They have developed distinctive forms of American Islam, made a home for Islam in America, and in the case of Muslim immigrants, made America home. Muslims have converted buildings into places for Islamic prayer, learning, and gathering. They have built traditional and modern masjids, edifices that enrich the architectural diversity of the American landscape. Today, there are an estimated 2,100 mosques in the United States.³ The first known mosque was created in 1915, and other notable early mosques were concentrated in the midwest.⁴ The mosque in Ross, North Dakota, built in 1929 was the oldest mosque built for this purpose, although it fell out of use and was eventually dismantled (although it was rebuilt on the same land in 2005).⁵ In 1934, the “Mother Mosque of America” was built in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and is the oldest purpose-built mosque still in use today.⁶Through time, Muslim Americans have preserved, transmitted, and transformed religious and cultural ideas and rituals—incorporating distinctive African American, South Asian, Persian, Arab, African, European Muslim customs—for the next generation.