Faizel Patel – 23/06/2020
Photo: International La Croix
The co-author of the book “What’s going on here? US experiences of Islamophobia between Obama and Trump” Saeed Khan says the history of Islam in America predates the establishment of the country by more than 800 years.
Khan was speaking to Radio Islam live from the US on Monday about the new book co-authored with Saied Ameli.
In the book, Khan and Ameli take a comprehensive approach positioning the attitude of the American government towards Muslims both from an international and a domestic view.
Khan says Muslims played a role in the establishment of the United States from its earliest stages.
“Muslim navigators made their way to the Americas well before the second millennium of the common era. There’s evidence of native American engagements with Muslim traders on the shores of the Americas and Canada and even farther south into Central America, the Caribbean and South America.”
Khan says the “creation myth” about America is loaded and privileged to a Western/European model.
“Current debates in America are now interestingly enough because of the whole ‘Black lives matter movement’ starting to cause many to not only reconsider it and reevaluate it, but in fact making their move to help redefine the early American period.”
The book also contains cases about Muslims in America enduring bouts of Islamophobia and racism.
Khan says among the many reasons for this is that Muslims are considered non-Christian which is highly problematic including that Islam began initially with the African American community and specifically with the heritage of slavery.
Listen to the interview with Saeed Khan
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