“Muslims in Brooklyn” is a new oral history project at the New York Historical Society that seeks to document the Muslim past and present in Brooklyn, New York. Launched last year, the project’s participants come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds – including African-American, Yemeni, Palestinian, Moroccan, Kashmiri, Bangladeshi, Tatar, Haitian and Puerto Rican – and from 18 different Brooklyn neighborhoods. They range from 24 to 74 years of age, from unobservant to conservative Muslim and everything in between, and represent occupations including entrepreneurs, community organizers, clerics, medical professionals, homemakers, business owners, laborers, educators, musicians, artists and more. Learn more about this project at the link below!
Messages of Love and Support
When a Muslim child in Boston, Massachusetts received hateful threats in her school cubby, people from across the United States responded in an amazing and inspiring way: by sending her more than 500 letters of love and support! Many of these letters came from members of the American Jewish community, who wrote in solidarity.
Finding Family, Faith, and Immigrant Roots
Lipka Tartars are descendants of Muslim Turkic migrants who settled in the Duchy of Lithuania in the 14th century. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, at the height of immigration to the United States from Southern and Eastern Europe, Lipka Tartars traveled to the U.S. alongside their Christian and Jewish neighbors and formed a tight-knit immigrant community in Brooklyn. Over the years, as people aged and moved away, the community has fragmented. But, now a collection of American Lipka Tartars have taken steps to reconnect with their cultural and religious identity. Read this story at the link below.
Muslim Immigrants from Africa Living the American Dream
There are thriving communities of African, and predominantly Muslim, immigrants across the United States, from Little Senegal in the neighborhood of Harlem in New York City to the Riverside neighborhood in Minneapolis. These communities are characterized by diversity and a great deal of economic, social, and political successes. Learn more about America’s Muslim African immigrants and a new book chronicling their experiences at the link below.
Minnesota Event Dispels Misconceptions about Islam and Muslims
This interfaith event, titled, “I Don’t Mean to Offend You, But…” in St. Cloud, Minnesota aims to break down stereotypes and misconceptions about Islam with a panel of Muslims who are ready and willing to answer even the most awkward or difficult questions.
