While there were some Muslims among the African slaves who came to work in plantations in the American South in the 18th and 19th centuries, very few retained an Islamic identity. Most scholars of Islam focus, then, on the immigrant Muslims who arrived in the West from the Middle East in the latter part of the 19th century. These Muslim migrations to America have taken place in what can be seen as a series of distinguishable periods, often called "waves," although historians do not always agree on what constitutes a wave.

The earliest arrivals came between 1875 and 1912 from the rural areas of present-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, and Israel. The area, then known as Greater Syria, was ruled by the Ottoman Empire. The majority of the men coming from this area were Christians, though some were from Muslim groups. Economically motivated single men for the most part, they worked as laborers and merchants, intending to stay only long enough to earn enough money to support their families back home. Some were fleeing conscription into the Turkish army. Gradually, they began to settle in the eastern United States, the Middle West, and along the Pacific Coast.

U.S. LAW AND WAVES OF IMMIGRATION

After the end of the World War I, the demise of the Ottoman Empire resulted in a second wave of immigration from the Muslim Middle East. This was also the period of Western colonial rule in the Middle East under the mandate system created to "govern" Arab lands. The war had brought such devastation to Lebanon that many had to flee simply to survive. Significant numbers of Muslims decided to move to the West, now for political as well as economic reasons. Many joined relatives who had arrived earlier and were already established in the United States.

A new U.S. immigration law, passed in 1924, soon curtailed this second wave of immigration by instituting the "national origins quota system" - which set immigration limits according to the national origin of the foreign-born population of the United States in 1890 (later changed to 1920). During the 1930s, under this system, the movement of Muslims to America slowed to a trickle. Immigration during this period was limited largely relatives of persons already resident in America since they had preference under the system. Many of those living in the United States were now beginning to realize that their dreams of returning home probably would not be fulfilled and that they needed the support and structure provided by their families.

The third identifiable period of immigration, from 1947 to 1960, again saw increasing numbers of Muslims arriving in the United States, now from countries well beyond the Middle East. The U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act of 1953 had revised the quota formula assigned to each country of origin. Because the law was based on U.S. population percentages in the United States in 1920, immigrants during this period were primarily from Western Europe. Still, Muslims began to come from such areas of the world as Eastern Europe (primarily from Yugoslavia and Albania) and the Soviet Union; a few emigrated from India and Pakistan after the 1947 partition of the Subcontinent. While many of the earlier Muslim immigrants had moved into rural as well as urban areas of America, those in this third wave tended to be from urban backgrounds, and they made their homes almost exclusively in major cities such as New York and Chicago. Some were members of former elite families abroad. They were generally more Westernized and better educated than their predecessors, and came with the hope of receiving more education and technical training in America.

The fourth and most recent wave of Muslim immigration has come after 1965, the year President Lyndon Johnson sponsored an immigration bill that repealed the longstanding system of quotas by national origin. Under the new system, preferences went to relatives of U.S. residents and those with special occupational skills needed in the United States. The new law was a signal act in American history, making it possible for the first time since the early part of the 20th century for someone to enter the country regardless of his or her national origin. After 1965, immigration from Western Europe began to decline significantly, with a corresponding growth in the numbers of persons arriving from the Middle East and Asia. In this era more than half of the immigrants to America from these regions have been Muslim.

Until the last several decades of the 20th century, then, most Muslims have chosen to come to the U.S. for purposes of economic betterment or education, with some emigrating after World War I because of political turmoil. But political turmoil in their home countries has been a primary motive for much of the recent Muslim arrival in America. Among the specific events that have brought immigrants and refugees to the West seeking escape and asylum were the military defeat of Arab states by Israelis in 1967 and the civil war in Lebanon and its aftermath.

The Iranian Revolution and ascent to power of Imam Khomeini in 1979, followed by nearly a decade of debilitating war between Iran and Iraq, brought some Iranians westward. Many have settled in America, with significant numbers relocating in California. It is estimated that there are nearly a million Iranians in the United States today. Since the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait and the Persian Gulf War, large numbers of Kurds have come to this country. Also newly arrived for reasons of political strife and civil war are Muslims from Somalia, Sudan, and other African nations, and Afghanistan, as well as Muslim refugees of ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia.

For decades various forms of strife in India and Pakistan have encouraged many from the Subcontinent to seek a calmer environment in the West. England and the United States have been especially popular destinations. While Pakistanis, Indians, and Bangladeshis have been a small part of the Muslim immigration to America all through the 20th century, in the last several decades their ranks have grown significantly and today probably number more than one million. Pakistani and Indian Muslims, many of whom are skilled professionals such as doctors and engineers, have played an important role in the development of Muslim political groups in America and in lay leadership of mosque communities. Today more and more Muslims are arriving from countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia; many of these immigrants are also highly trained and often assume positions of leadership in American Islam.

A COMPLEX COMMUNITY

Arab Muslims, both Sunni and Shi'ite, continue to comprise a significant proportion of the Islamic community in America. Increasingly, they are highly educated, successful professionals who are also leaders in the development of a transnational, transethnic American Islam. In addition, Turks, Eastern Europeans, and migrs from numerous African nations including Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Uganda, Cameroon, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Tanzania, and many others are highly visible members of the complex community that constitutes the American umma. Not only are immigrant Muslims working out how to relate to and work with each other effectively, but they also face the question of how to coalesce with members of various African-American Muslim movements. Recent African immigrants sometimes find the mix of religion and ethnicity particularly complicating.

In the early days of Arab immigration to America around the turn of the century, many Muslims - like first-generation immigrants of all nationalities - often seized the opportunity to better themselves through menial work such as migrant labor, petty merchandizing, or mining. Many Arab Muslims became peddlers, a trade requiring little in the way of language skill, training, or capital. Others served as laborers on work gangs such as those involved in the rapidly expanding business of railroad construction in the West. As Muslim women began to join male immigrants in America, they often found employment in mills and factories, where they worked long hours under very difficult conditions. These early years were hard for Muslims in America; many suffered from loneliness, poverty, lack of English, and the absence of extended family and co-religionists.

Gradually, however, as they stayed longer, more and more Muslims realized that returning home was no longer a viable possibility, and they began to settle into the American context. They married one way or another - young men who could not find Muslim partners imported their brides from their home country or, in some cases, married outside the faith. They began to find employment in more permanent kinds of businesses, often relying on traditional skills to begin restaurants, coffeehouses, bakeries, and grocery stores. They learned English, began to become more economically independent, and sought out other Muslims for the formation of communities in which they could begin the religious education of their children.

Seldom, however, did Muslims find life in America to be easy. The United States is often said to be "a nation of immigrants," a "melting pot" for all races and ethnic identities, but racial prejudice, particularly in the era before the civil rights movement of the 1960s, certainly existed.

For many years, then, the response of many Muslim immigrants was to attempt to hide their religious and ethnic identities, to change their names to make them sound more American, and to refrain from participating in practices or adopting dress that would make them appear "different" from the average citizen. Gradually, as the Muslim immigrant community became much larger, much more diversified, much better educated, and much more articulate about its own self-understanding, attempts to blend into American society have given way to more sophisticated discussions about the importance of living in America but, at the same time, retaining a sense of one's own religious culture. Part of the context for such discussions has come from the formation of Muslim communities, Sunni and Shi'ite, across rural and urban America, and in more recent years of national Islamic organizations representing religious, political, professional, and social forms of association.

SETTLED ACROSS THE LAND

Today there are few places in the United States where one does not find Muslims living, working, and sending their children to public schools; recognizable facilities for Islamic worship (mosques, renovated houses, even storefronts) are common.

The first Muslim communities in America were in the Middle West. In North Dakota, Muslims organized for prayers in the very early 1900s; in Indiana, an Islamic center was begun as early as 1914; and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is the home of the oldest mosque still in use. Dearborn, Michigan, outside Detroit, has long been home to both Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims from many parts of the Middle East. Many were drawn by the opportunity to work at the Ford Motor Company plant, and having formed a community, they have been joined by other Muslims. Together with Middle Eastern Christians, these Michigan Muslims form the largest Arab-American settlement in the country.

Other major American cities have figured prominently as favorable locations for Muslims immigrating to America. The shipyards in Quincy, Massachusetts, on the outskirts of Boston, have provided jobs to Muslim immigrants since the late 1800s. The current Islamic Center of New England, the dream of a small group of families who settled there in the early part of the 20th century, is now a major mosque complex serving business people, teachers, and other professionals as well as merchants and blue-collar workers.

Islam has been present and visible in New York City for over a century. For most of its history the largest city in the United States, New York has been home to a rich variety of ethnic groups, and its Muslim population has included merchant seamen, tradesmen, entertainers, white-collar professionals, and owners of major businesses. Muslims in New York represent a broad spectrum of nationalities from virtually every country in the world. Mosque-building activity has flourished in New York. National Islamic organizations find the city a particularly fruitful place to extend their activities, and a large number of elementary and upper-level Islamic schools, as well as Muslim stores and businesses, are springing up all over the city.

Another early home to immigrant Muslims was Chicago, Illinois, which some claim had more Muslims in residence in the early 1900s than any other American city. Today Muslims in Chicago are from the Middle East, India, Central and South Asia, and many other parts of the world. They are active in promoting their faith, providing a range of services to the Islamic community and interacting with one another as well as with non-Muslims. More than 40 Muslim groups have been established in greater Chicago.

Similarly, Muslims in the California cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco have found an agreeable climate in which to flourish. They too represent most areas of the Muslim world, most recently Afghans and Somalis and citizens of other African countries. The Islamic Center of Southern California is one of the largest Muslim entities in the United States, its well-trained staff widely known for their writings and community leadership. The center's impressive physical plant provides virtually every service that the immigrant Muslim community might possibly need.

Modern-day immigrant Muslims continue to face challenges as residents of the United States, and they are addressing these in a variety of ways. Questions of identity, occupation, dress, and acculturation are particularly significant for many American Muslims. Other major issues include the relationships among different racial and ethnic Muslim groups as well as with other American Muslims; how and where to provide an Islamic education for one's children; and appropriate roles and opportunities for women. Many are moving from a phase of dissociation from mainstream American life to much more active participation in political and social arenas. American Muslims appear to be moving into another stage of identity in which these kinds of issues are being confronted and resolved in new and creative ways. The result may well be that a truly American Islam, woven from the fabric of many national, racial, and ethnic identities, is in the process of emerging.