Imran Abdullah
From the beginning of the 17th century until the mid-19th century, the presence of Islam in North America was associated with African slaves brought from West African countries to work on agricultural lands.
While the presence of a large number of African Muslim slaves in the past may not be known to most Americans today, researchers believe that they left their mark on American culture even before it became a state, as some of the first immigrants to this land were Muslim immigrants who were forcibly transferred as slaves in the illegal trade That spread across the Atlantic Ocean at that time.
Although this important historical era does not receive the attention of American historians and Muslims alike, American sociologists have estimated that between 15% and 30%, or as many as six hundred to 1.2 million of the slaves in America were Muslims, according to the study "Muslims". Made by America "by the American Academy of Perseus, Rashida Mohamed, who specializes in the history of Muslim slaves in America.
In South America, 46% of slaves were kidnapped from West Africa, which had large Muslim populations, according to an article by Khaled Beydoun, an Iraq professor at the University of California Law School for Al Jazeera English.
And it was known about the enslaved African Muslims in the new world, their strong desire to follow the teachings of their religion and meet the demands of their faith, especially the fasting of Ramadan, which was a difficult struggle and also the performance of prayers, halal food and social duties, and historical sources recorded this clearly, whether in the United States of America or South America and the Caribbean.
Religious assembly and activity are banned.
Muslim workers on farms and in regions such as the southern states of America and Brazil have sought to follow religious assumptions, to maintain cultural and autonomy in the face of universal slavery laws that completely absent their personalities and link religious activity to the insurgency and enact legislation that limits their practice of the teachings of their religion.
American laws in this era prohibited the slave gathering in southern states and Virginia, and imposed penalties on the gathering that were applied brutally, and the impact of this on the African Muslims slave celebration of the advent of the month of Ramadan and eating breakfast and their performance in groups
Although the Qur'an allows Muslims to refrain from fasting in the event of travel and hardship, many enslaved Muslims chose to perform fasting despite harsh conditions, as a kind of affirmation of their own identity at that time.
Many of the enslaved Muslims held Ramadan prayers and worship in private slave places, and they gathered for iftar even though it violated the abusive slave laws that restricted gatherings of any kind.
The first American Muslims were exposed to challenges and consequences when practicing their faith. Like Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, who was kidnapped from his African country and sold as a slave to work on tobacco farms, where he was abused while performing the prayer, he fled and was arrested.
Many were forced not to fast during Ramadan while many apparently converted to Christianity, to protect themselves and their families from the oppression of the gentlemen, such as Lamine Kebbi, who converted to Christianity in order to secure a return to Africa through the American Colonial Society.
Others, such as Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, refused to budge from their faith. The slave was so impressed that he was released and returned to Africa, according to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
In recent writings such as Sylvian Diouf's work "Obaidullah: African Muslims enslaved in the Americas" published by New York University Press, 2013, and Allen Austin's book "African Muslims in Pre-War America: Stories and a Transatlantic Spiritual Struggle" published by Routledge Press, 2011, There are many stories about the suffering of African Muslim slaves in fasting Ramadan in the New World.
Sociologists estimate that up to 30% of the African slaves brought to the United States, from West and Central Africa countries such as The Gambia and Cameroon, were Muslims. Among the difficulties they encountered were those related to their faith, according to Saeed Ahmed Khan, an academic at Wayne State University.
Khan says that African slaves were forced to abandon their Islamic faith and practices, to separate them from their culture and religious roots, as well as to prepare them and convert them to Christianity, according to his article on the website Conversion.
The struggle against slavery by fasting
African Muslims enslaved in America considered that fasting brings them some kind of contact with their indigenous communities and their religious culture.
And in Brazil, where free and enslaved Muslims have fewer restrictions on their daily lives than their North American counterparts, they are allowed to eat together and go to their places on occasions, such as a crescent and month break.
The non-Muslim population in Brazil observed how Muslims exchanged gifts during fasting, and the Brazilians understood them as "saka", which is a distorted name from the Arab-Islamic term "Zakat".
Another suffering among enslaved Muslims of African descent was the halal food that was difficult to obtain, as pork was the least expensive and most abundant meat, and they were encouraged to use alcohol to allay fears.
Thus, fasting was not merely the imposition and religious worship performed by enslaved African Muslims in America, but rather was a way of asserting their independent identity and a form of struggle in the face of being considered private property and slaves on the masters' farms.
Although the Muslims of the United States of America currently constitute an Islamic community that is the most diverse in the world, the history of Muslims in the beginnings of the new world still lacks recognition and appreciation.