America’s Other Muslims; Imam W.D Muhammad, Islamic Reform, and the Making of American Islam

America and Islam portrays an impression of an intricate fusion post 9/11, but an unremitting resilience to violent extremism by the black African American Muslims enslaved from Africa who preserved Islamic traditions and American nationalism during the arduous times is a unique phenomenon this book documents. The work connects the African Islam to African American Islam through the lived experiences of an American Muslim Revivalist Imam Warith Deen Muhammad (1933-2008) whose pedigree stretches back to agonizing sixteenth century forcible enslavement of western Africans who survived America’s long history of persecution and bondage. Muhammad Frazer Rahim, the author the book, has undertaken a pioneering research that delineates the perpetual endurance of Imam W.D. Muhammad and his fore fathers that evolved into an Islamic continuum, carried out at least forty-four-year counter-radicalization programme, and fostered thousands of sympathizers and adherents of American culture. Muhammad Frazer has an expertise on African Studies, and on Intellectual thought on countering violent extremism with a special focus on Imam Muhammad’s Islamic revivalism. The book comprises five chapters in addition to an introduction and a conclusion.

The chapter one “African American Islam in Context” presents the context of the book and the significance of Imam Muhammad’s study. As the discussion of the book revolves around the Imam Muhammad’s Islamic Revivalism cascading from West African Islamic Institutions, the author examines the genesis of his Islamic revivalism based on the American experience that encompasses the methods of “use of socio-cultural identity and different scriptural interpretation”. The author constructs an identity of Imam Muhammad as someone who  fused “Islamic orthodoxy, Black nationalism, Spirituality, American Protestantism, and a mixture of west African Islamic Revival to create a Black American Muslim Community”.  The chapter argues the significance of this study by documenting the high-minded research on Imam’s revivalism, Muslim Diasporas in America that is measured as “still in infancy and gravely under-researched” by the author. 

The chapter two Taffakur (‘To Think To Ponder To Reflect”) sets forth the origin of Islam in West Africa, egalitarian approach of Islam to accommodate black race, survey of various scholars, institutions, epistemologies, and the methods that  gave rise to Islam in west Arica.  As West Africa represents the black Muslims, the author introduces the audacious journey of Bilal ibn Rabah, an Ethiopian black slave and a companion of Prophet Muhammad (peace be Upon Him) who played an integral role in the early Islam and would serve as an inspiration for black Muslims globally and in America as well. Bilal’s narrative for the author is integral to the Islamic faith in the context that how a black slave who was discriminated by Arab white superiority rose to the position of preeminence by Islam’s egalitarian method, a possibility that author tries to dig out in America for black Muslims.  The author discusses how West Africa came into contact with Islam through Umayyad expeditions, religious reform movements like Almoravids, through trade and commercial exchanges, literacy and religious learning and through the growth of various Islamic centers of learning. However, for the author, the doctrines of Tasawwuf, Islamic Spirituality or Sufism practices provide an insight and key contributing factors in the advancement of Islam in Africa. “Sufism became a method in religious revivalism in Africa along with Arabic literacy”, and has preserved local customs that includes the “Ajamization’ of Arabic script while institutionalizing the religion of Islam”.

The Chapter three “Africanizing Dixie” is an excruciating narrative of enslaved Africans who were imported from Africa to the various places like Charleston, South California etc., and “between 1761 and 1775, nearly 57,000 enslaved Africans were imported”. The chapter discusses how black slaves suffered the racial abuse and subjugation, and resisted against Southern plantation owners attempt at forced assimilation and conversion to Christianity. The author recounts that the preservation of identity for these Black Muslim slaves was difficult and conversion to Christianity, “de-negrofication and de-Islamization” was a method used to Americanize the Africans. In this struggle assimilation of African and African American cultures brought about some unique traditions like “Gullah Geechee” and the individuals of Gullah and Geechee transmitted the cultural traditions from one generation to another through “language, agriculture and spirituality”. The author studies the life and journey of some African slaves of this tradition namely Omar Ibn Said, Ayyuba Suleiman, Ibrahima Abdur Rahman, Yarrow Mamout, Salih Bilali, and Edwar Wilmot Blyden who vibrantly participated in Africanizing the South California and the way they preserved their traditions is an intriguing mystery. In addendum, the author studies the rise of various movements particularly “Nation of Islam” that offered a fusion of Islam, mythology, and alternative theological narrative to address the social experience of black American life”.

The chapter four finally reaches to the life of Imam W.D Muhammad, the fulcrum of the debate in the book, who continued the tradition of reform and revival of Nation of Islam. Imam Muhammad’s revivalism is the predominant theme of the book who tried “to indigenize mainstream Islamic beliefs and practice and re calibrate the old Nation of Islam teachings into mainstream Islamic beliefs”. The author explores the Nation of Islam, its teachings and leaders, discovers how Imam W.D Muhammad took over NOI in 1975, and intentionally made an effort to fuse together religious and culturally appropriate themes that appealed to large number of people. Imam W.D Muhammad distinguished himself from NOI and author explicates this argument by stating that “he repeatedly engaged in ideological conflicts with his father Elijah Muhammad” on “Black Nationalism and proto-Islamic concepts”.  Despite these differences Imam was able to ‘institute new reforms and reorganize, dismantle, and decentralize the strong command that NOI had marinated, that he did at first by renaming the organization from “NOI to (WCIW) World community of Al-islam in the West”.  Imam’s new moment dismantled the Godly image of Elijah Muhammad, restored the legacy of Malcolm X and introduced the new term for Black Nationalism namely “Bilallians” (named after an Ethiopian black companion of Prophet Muhammad Hadhrat Bilal).  During these reforms according to the author Imam Muhammad’s language of interpretation was “Pro-American and American Muslims Perspective”. He moved beyond the African identity and embraced a broader identity of Islam, and at the same time rooted in the American context. The author compares this reform and revivalism with other American reformist like Martin Luther king and Fazlur Rehman (American Muslim Revivalist), whose revivalism was filled with American patriotism and filtered through Black American experience in order to create a “cultural, theological and religious narrative that fused a unique American style”. By making the followers fully integrated and contributing members of American society, according to the author the Imam had created an opportunity in the era of “transnational terrorism and violence”. 

The final chapter of the book “Walking with Brother Imam” confirms Imam Muhammad’s Community as a Counterweight to Extremism. The author demonstrates the method and strategy used by Imam Muhammad for forty years to counter terrorism and extremism. The method of instilling the American patriotism, Islamic religious dogma that include spiritual teachings of Islam, building inter-faith relation with Christians, black empowerment, black-social uplifting techniques, “his openness to American society, culture and politics, supporting group pride, race consciousness and independence, and maintaining American-ness” within his community proved a great success in tackling terrorism and radicalization. The truth of this success, states the author is that no Black Muslim from his community have been affiliated to Al-Qaida or ISIS.

The books ends with a conclusion that Imam Muhammad’s techniques of countering violent extremism can offer best solutions in certain environments and can be used as a model for US policy makers to engage communities like these to fight against extremism and might offer one antidote in “soft power approaches”. 

Although, there are numerous works available on counter terrorism, Peacemaking and dialogue from an American perspective but Muhammad Fraser Rahim’s encompassing argument of the book offers a method of resilience against the violent extremism that he recognizes in the teachings and ideas of Imam Muhammad is essential for the Muslims living in the west who are struggling for spaces, accommodation and contribution. We see an example of Imam in the Indian context, and the pioneer of such a reform who fused Indian nationalism with Muslim consciousness was Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in 19^th century, Abul Kalam Azad in 20th century and Maulana Wahidudin Khan in 21^st century. But the success of this fusion need state narratives to accommodate ‘other’ voices that this book may not provide. In the American or global context the discourse on violence and extremism is seen through Muslims only, and it occurs that Imam Muhammad does not want to hurt the state. In this context we perceive maintenance of status quo by Imam Muhammad that the author appears to be comfortable with, but a critical point that many Muslims would fail to understand keeping into consideration the Muslims fighting against the state violence in many parts of the world, including the American assertiveness in middle-east and Afghanistan.

The book is a must read for African studies, middles-eastern studies, colonial studies, Islamic Studies and International Relations, and besides that the book can provide great insights to the students of Peace and conflict resolution and religious scholars around the globe who want to make a difference in their communities by minimizing and regulating violence and conflict by reading the legacy of Imam W.D. Muhammad.