Muslims of early America: Muslims came to America more than a century before Protestants, and in great numbers. How was their history forgotten?

I would love to leave a comment of actual discussion about this piece as it disappointed me there was nothing of substance on here yet. I want to point out from the beginning that I'm not religious but find humanity's use of religion fascinating and am not wholly ignorant on the topic. What follows is a summary and some thoughts of what I read:

• The author is clearly setting out to make a case that Islam has been involved in America, specifically the area that constitutes the United States, from the beginning. I believe the author makes a strong case for this to be true, however I do question the level of impact the author may or may not be attempting to imply. Regardless, I think all the information put forth is well thought out (not conjecture) and is important for understanding Muslim origins in the United States.

• I found the beginning interesting on how the early Spanish explorers used Islam as the lens to view Native Americans with. The Moorish culture had been a Catholic other for years and I thought the author did a good job of showing how the Catholics used that same lens of otherism on Native Americans.

• The author shares some stories about meaningful Muslim individuals that had some role to play in early America. These are important stories and should be preserved and remembered. However, these stories are of individuals, not groups, which is important because their impact - albeit important on an individual level - was not of any organized Muslim leadership in early America.

• The author talks about large groups of Muslims that were brought over to America as part of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in the tens of thousands. Due to the trade being led by European Christians conversion to Christianity was pushed upon them and many names were changed. In short, a lot of Africans brought over had be Muslim first even if they were later coaxed to become Christian. I think it's also important to note that a similar coaxing likely occurred in the 11th century and beyond when Muslims converted West Africans to Islam you begin with. The imposition of Abrahamic religions on the people of African origin has remained a topic of interest to me that I feel is not looked too closely at because of such embracing of these beliefs by the same people today. I did not know so many African Muslims were converted to Christianity during the time of slavery until I read this article though. They also mention Muslim slaves were common but that they were treated differently if they had learned Arabic and could read.

• The article goes on to talk about the Puritan culture being at the foundation of the American education system and how this has contributed to the muting of the impact of Islam in America. The accusations of blind spots and overlooking of a variety of cultures due to this system by the author are fairly well recognized by historians in the west despite still working in institutions originally founded on these puritan ideals. I liked how the author mentioned that the Puritan ideals that make up the American education foundation were largely fringe or extremist beliefs that have their own history of persecution.

• Overall, I found this piece very informative and the Anglo-Christian impact on America has muted the Muslim story in America. And these stories should be recognized. However, I was not convinced that Islam had any organizational impact on early America, in the same way the Chinese didn't have any organizational impact on the west coast. Their stories are no less important though for this and they should be emphasized that they were here in large amounts early on.