Book Spotlight: Islam, Race and Rebellion in the Americas by Daud Abdullah
I’ve been reading - Islam, Race and Rebellion in the Americas by Daud Abdullah
Let’s start with this fact. Muslims were among the enslaved Africans who were forcible kidnapped and taken to the Americas.
Islam was already embedded in west Africa and many slaves were taken from Muslim dominated areas such as Senegambia.
This groundbreaking work challenges how we understand the history of slavery, race, and resistance in the Americas.
Abdullah traces how the hatred of Muslims born in the Crusades and Iberian wars was carried across the Atlantic — shaping both colonisation and the enslavement of Africans.
He says:
“For all intents and purposes, Columbus was not only a Christian zealot but a neo-Crusader — what we’d call an Islamophobe today.”
🕌 some Key insights:
• The first recorded slave rebellion in the Americas (Hispaniola, 1521) was led by Muslim Wolof captives from West Africa.
• The West African jihad movements inspired revolts in Brazil, Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti.
• Arabic literacy among enslaved Muslims became a secret weapon — a language of resistance.
• Islam offered a moral and intellectual framework that refused submission to “infidel masters.”
• Far from passive victims, enslaved Muslims shaped the struggle that led to abolition.
Abdullah shows how the story of Islam in the Americas is one of faith, resistance, and cultural survival — but sadly erased from dominant narratives, yet crucial to understanding the roots of both rebellion and racial ideology.
He says:
“The Muslims had brought with them much more than rituals… they brought ideological and political views, which they retained and used to resist the slave regime.”
📖 A must-read for anyone interested in decolonising the histories of slavery, race, and the African diaspora.
