Program Tonight! Islam: An Old American Religion - 7pm @ Hewes

Petra Kuppinger, Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, will present Islam: An Old American Religion: The Long Journey from the 17/18th Century Africa to the 21st Centuries, at 7:00 pm in the  Barnes Electronic Classroom on the Lower Level of Hewes Library.  All are welcome.

This presentation chronicles the arrival and dynamic existence of Islam in the USA, starting from the arrival of Muslim Africans forced into slavery, to a survey of contemporary Muslim communities and movement in the 21st century. Special focus is given to the difficult period of Muslim religious practices during the era of slavery and the first decades afterward. The second part of the presentation focuses on "new" Muslim movements (e.g. the Nation of Islam) in the early 20th century, and the large scale influx of Muslim immigrants beginning in the 1960s. A central question in the discussion of American Islam is whether or not the two historical experiences (Islam as a slave religious and 20th-century Muslim movements and communities) are connected.

The Bridging Cultures Bookshelf: Muslim Journeys is a project of the National Endowment for the Humanities, conducted in cooperation with the American Library Association, the Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies at George Mason University, Oxford University Press, and Twin Cities Public Television. Support was provided by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York. Additional support for the arts and media components was provided by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art.