America’s Other Muslims

America's Other Muslims: Imam W.D. Mohammed, Islamic Reform, and the Making of American Islam explores the oldest and perhaps the most important Muslim community in America, whose story has received little attention in the contemporary context. Muhammad Fraser-Rahim explores American Muslim Revivalist, Imam W.D. Mohammed (1933–2008) and his contribution to the intellectual, spiritual, and philosophical thought of American Muslims as well as the contribution of Islamic thought by indigenous American Muslims. The book details the intersection of the Africana experience and its encounter with race, religion, and Islamic reform. Fraser-Rahim spotlights the emergence of an American school of Islamic thought, which created and established by the son of the leader of the former Nation of Islam leader. Imam W.D. Mohammed rejected his father’s teachings and embraced normative Islam on his own terms while balancing classical Islam and his lived experience of Islam in the diaspora. Likewise his interpretations of Islam were not only American – they were also modern and responded to global trends in Islamic thought. His interpretations of Blackness were not only American, but also diasporic and pan-African.

I first met the legendary Imam W. D. Mohammed  at President Bush's White House Iftar. The Imam impressed me immensely with his learning and humble bearing. I saw him as the Martin Luther of American Islam and yet was puzzled that he is so little known outside the community. Muhammad Fraser-Rahim's book, bursting  with new ideas and research, bravely offers to introduce the Imam. A must read.

Muhammad Fraser-Rahim is the executive director, North America, for Quilliam International.