Muslims Helped Shape America Long Before U.S. Born, Says American Academic

As the United States celebrated the 250th anniversary of its independence this year, an article published in The Conversation recalls an often overlooked historical reality: the Muslim presence on American territory dates back well before the founding of the American Republic.

Its author, Iqbal Akhtar, is associate professor of religious studies at Florida International University (FIU) and executive director of The East-West Foundation. His research focuses notably on questions of identity, religious affiliation and pluralism, with a particular interest in Muslim societies, from East Africa and the Indian Ocean to Muslim communities in the United States. He is also the author of works devoted to the history and future of American Islam.

The article appeared in The Conversation, an international non-profit media outlet that publishes analytical and insightful articles written by academics and researchers. Its particularity is to allow specialists from the academic world to make their work and knowledge available to the general public. Articles from The Conversation are regularly covered by numerous media outlets around the world.

In his text entitled “Muslims were part of America’s story long before the republic began”, Iqbal Akhtar returns to several episodes which show to what extent the Muslim presence is deeply rooted in American history.

A Moroccan Muslim in America before the Pilgrims

The author begins by telling the fascinating story of Estevanico, also known as Esteban de Dorantes. Born in Azemmour, on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, he was reduced to slavery and then taken to Spain before being sent to the American continent. In the 1520s and 1530s, Estevanico traveled through what is now Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

Its presence thus precedes by several decades the founding of Jamestown in 1607, the first permanent English colony, and by almost a century the arrival of the Pilgrims of Mayflower in Plymouth in 1620. According to Iqbal Akhtar, the information we have on his origins allows Estevanico to be considered Muslim.

This episode therefore calls into question a still common representation according to which Islam is a recent and foreign presence in American history.

Tens of thousands of Muslims among African slaves

The Muslim presence then became much more important with the transatlantic slave trade. Among the Africans reduced to slavery and deported to America were many Muslims originating in particular from Senegambia and the Sahel, regions deeply marked for several centuries by Islam and its educational institutions.

According to some estimates cited by the author, there were tens of thousands of them.

Some of these men and women knew how to read and write Arabic and had received training in the study of the Koran and Islamic law before their capture. One of the most remarkable testimonies is that of Omar ibn Said, a Muslim scholar from West Africa enslaved in the United States, who notably left an autobiography written in Arabic.

Traces of Islam even in blues and jazz?

One of the most interesting passages in the article concerns the possible influence of African Muslim musical traditions on American culture. Iqbal Akhtar particularly mentions field hollers, these improvised songs and calls used by African-American slaves working in the fields.

Several researchers have observed similarities between these vocal forms and certain Islamic traditions, notably the adhan, the Muslim call to prayer, as well as the recitation of the Quran. We find in particular the lengthening of syllables, variations in tone, ornamented notes and melisma, which consists of singing several notes on the same syllable.

The ethnomusicologist Gerhard Kubik has thus linked certain elements of the blues to the musical traditions of West Africa, themselves marked by centuries of contact with the Arab-Muslim world. Historian Sylviane Diouf also compared recordings of the Muslim call to prayer to those of African-American workers’ chants collected in Mississippi in the 20th century.

For these researchers, part of this African and Muslim vocal heritage would have participated in the birth of the blues, then indirectly of jazz and a large part of American popular music.

Muhammad Ali and religious freedom

Iqbal Akhtar then discusses another major figure in American history: Muhammad Ali. Born Cassius Clay, the world heavyweight champion announced his conversion to Islam and took the name Muhammad Ali. In 1967, in the middle of the Vietnam War, he refused to be drafted into the American army, citing his religious beliefs.

The consequences were considerable: he was deprived of his world champion title, banned from boxing while he was at the peak of his career and sentenced to five years in prison for refusing to enlist. Muhammad Ali ultimately took his fight to the Supreme Court.

In 1971, in the case of Clay v. United States, the judges unanimously overturned his conviction. For Iqbal Akhtar, this affair helped to reinforce an essential principle: a Muslim should be able to benefit from the same protections linked to freedom of conscience and religious freedom as members of other religions present in the United States.

An important contribution to American solidarity

The article finally focuses on a contemporary aspect of the Muslim presence: philanthropy. Islam makes zakat, generally assessed at 2.5% of certain accumulated assets, a religious obligation. It is completed by sadaqa, which designates voluntary donations.

According to work cited by Iqbal Akhtar, American Muslims, who represent around 1% of the country’s population, donated nearly $4.3 billion to charity in 2020. The average donation would reach around $3,200 per Muslim donor, compared to $1,900 among the non-Muslim donors studied.

Even more significant, approximately 85% of these donations would remain in the United States. And contrary to what one might imagine, a large part of these sums would not be exclusively intended for mosques or Muslim organizations. They would also finance the fight against poverty, social assistance, actions carried out during the Covid-19 pandemic and even the defense of civil rights.

Actors in American history, not “guests”

Through these different examples, Iqbal Akhtar ultimately defends a central idea: Muslims should not be considered newcomers in the history of the United States. From the Moroccan Estevanico traveling the American continent in the 16th century to Muslim slaves originating from West Africa, from the possible influence of Islamic traditions on African-American music to Muhammad Ali’s fight for religious freedom, their presence accompanies several major stages in the country’s history.

As the United States celebrated its 250 years of independence in 2026, Iqbal Akhtar invites us to take another look at the American national story.

Muslims no longer appear as foreigners who came late to America, but as men and women who, for several centuries, have also contributed to shaping its history, its culture and its institutions.

A story that shakes up dominant narratives

Beyond the historical facts it brings together, Iqbal Akhtar’s article raises a broader question: who has the right to be considered a full part of the American national narrative? For a long time, the history of the United States was told mainly through the country’s European and Christian heritage, relegating to the background the contribution of African, Muslim or other religious traditions.

Recalling that Muslims were present on the continent even before the birth of the United States is therefore not just a historical anecdote. This requires us to reconsider the way in which American collective memory is constructed. At a time when Islam is still regularly presented as external to Western identity, this story on the contrary reminds us that Muslims have been part of the social, cultural and political reality of the United States for centuries.