Source: New York Times
By Hussein Rashid, Negin Farsad and Joshua Seftel
Muslims arrived with Columbus and have been leaving their mark on American culture and society ever since. Did you know that the Statue of Liberty was based on an Egyptian Muslim woman and that two of the oldest mosques in the United States are in Ross, N.D., and Cedar Rapids, Iowa? In the video above, we explain many other ways Muslim history is tightly woven into American life.
Hussein Rashid (@islamoyankee) is an adjunct faculty member in the department of religion at Barnard College and focuses his research on Muslim and American popular culture. Negin Farsad (@NeginFarsad) is an Iranian-American writer and comedian. Joshua Seftel (@jseftel) is a filmmaker and creator of the Emmy-nominated series The Secret Life of Muslims.
Statue of Liberty in New York. Did you know that the Statue of Liberty was based on an Egyptian Muslim woman? The Muslim Times has the best collection of articles for Muslim heritage
Suggested reading
Obama, Jefferson and the fascinating history of Founding Fathers defending Muslim rights
Was President Thomas Jefferson a Muslim?
Thomas Jefferson Was a Muslim
Thomas Jefferson Studied Qur’an, Advocated Full Rights For Muslims
Muslims in America: Separating fact from fiction
New York City’s forgotten Muslim past
Categories: Accepting Islam, America, American History, Americas, Muslim Heritage, The Muslim Times
Muslims were here before Columbus. King Mansa Musa had ships sail to the Americas. Islamic scriptures in Arabic had been found throughout the U.S., and rest of the continent(1 America). Columbus himself reported in his diary, that in N.E. Cuba he saw a mosque in top of a hill. It’s in the Library of Congress… look it up!!!