Islam and the Blackamerican : Looking Toward the Third Resurrection [Hardcover] (Dr. Sherman A. Jackson)

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ISBN: 019518081X
Author: Sherman A. Jackson, Ph.D.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (2005)
Pages: 235 Binding: Hardcover w/ dust jacket

Description from the publisher:

Why has Islam spread among Blackamericans but not among white Americans or Hispanics? Thus far, no one has offered a convincing answer to this question. The assumption has been that there is an African connection, but the historical record does not bear this out. In Islam and the Blackamerican, Sherman Jackson offers a trenchant examination of the career of Islam among Blackamericans. In fact, Jackson shows, none of the distinctive features of African Islam appear in the proto-Islamic, black nationalist movements of the early 20th century. Instead, he argues, Islam owes its momentum to the distinctively American phenomenon of "Black Religion," a God-centered holy protest against anti-black racism that emerged out of the experience of American slavery. Islam in Black America began as part of a religiously oriented communal search for tools with which to combat racism and redefine American blackness. The 1965 repeal of the National Origins Quota System, however, led to a massive influx of foreign-born Muslims, who soon came to outnumber the Blackamericans who were practicing an indigenous form of Islam.

These immigrant Muslims would ultimately come to exercise a virtual monopoly over the definition of a properly constituted Islamic life in America. For these Muslims, the nemesis was not white supremacy but "the West," and the West was not a racial but a religious and civilizational threat. In time, Blackamerican Muslims would discern that opposition to the West and opposition to white supremacy were not synonymous. Indeed, says Jackson, one could hardly be anti-Western without also being on some level anti-Blackamerican, since Blackamericans are essentially a Western people. Like Black Christians of an earlier era struggling to find their voice in the context of Western Christianity,

Black Muslims now began to strive to find their black, American voice in the context of the super-tradition of historical Islam. Jackson argues that Muslim tradition itself contains the resources to reconcile blackness, American-ness, and adherence to Islam. It is essential, however, Jackson contends, to preserve within Islam the legitimate aspects of Black Religion, in order to avoid what Stephen Carter calls the "domestication of religion," whereby religion is rendered incapable of resisting the state and the dominant culture. At the same time, Jackson insists that Blackamerican Muslims must reject an exclusive focus on the public square and the secular goal of subverting white supremacy (and Arab/immigrant supremacy) and develop a tradition of personal piety and spirituality attuned to distinctive Blackamerican needs and idiosyncrasies.

Identifies an 'African connection' to the spread of Islam in America

Reviews --

"No one has ever analyzed the actual dynamics of Blackamerican Muslims with more acute insight, or more palpable good will, than Sherman Jackson. For both black and white Americans, Jackson sets forth a vision of Islam that is at once holistic and pragmatic: a source of inner strength, a builder of human character, and a bridge to salvation. This book is required reading for anyone who has ever pondered how the long span of Muslim history connects to the Blackamerican stake in an ongoing and enabling Islamic identity."--Bruce Lawrence, author of New Faiths, Old Fears: Muslims and Other Asian Immigrants in American Religious Life

"No author is better positioned than Sherman Jackson to write Islam and the Blackamerican. A prominent scholar of Islam and major Muslim leader, Jackson draws on his impeccable scholarship and experience, providing a perspective on the past and charting a future course for Blackamerican Muslims."--John L. Esposito, author of What Everyone Needs to Know about Islam

"This seminal examination of Blackamerican Islam is an excellent theoretical seating for and analysis of various communities since the beginning of the twentieth century. What makes this text groundbreaking is that it stands the tradition of the only real religion among African Americans is Christianity on its head. For almost all of the 20th century, Black Christian scholars have claimed hegemony over what is said about religion in the black community without mentioning the influences of Islam or even its increasing adherence. Well, Sherman Jackson has forced a new conversation with a skilled and sophisticated investigation from the point of view of a Blackamerican Islamic scholar. Things will never be the same again in the scholarship around black religion."--Aminah Beverly McCloud, author of African American Islam

"A must read for anyone interested in an important and challenging interpretation of Islam and African Americans."--James H. Cone, author of Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or a Nightmare

"This talented historian, legal scholar and social analyst presents a dazzling challenge to the white elitism of American society and the immigrant elitism of Western Islam. Terrific!"--Jane I. Smith, author of Islam in America