Muslim immigrants

SIGNIFICANCE: By 2015, approximately 3.3 million Muslim immigrants were living in the United States. The Muslim immigrant community is diverse, encompassing followers of different Islamic sects and people from virtually all regions of the world. In the face of increasing American hostility, especially since the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, members of this diverse immigrant community have in the intervening years come to recognize their commonalities and mobilize for their rights.

Common data collection methods make it difficult to provide concise demographic information about the Muslim immigrant community in the United States. In January 2020, the US Religion Census released estimates of the Muslim population in the United States. The overall Muslim population was an estimated 4.5 million people, or 1.3 percent of the country's adult population. Pew Research Center offered the estimate that the American Muslim population would double by the year 2050.

Estimates of the numbers of Muslims in the United States produced by other organizations usually range between five and eight million individuals, and common consensus places the number at approximately six million. Since immigrants are estimated to constitute about one-third of the Muslims in the United States, the number of people who are both Muslims and immigrants is approximately two million people. This figure is consistent with the number of immigrants who have come to the United States from predominantly Muslim countries, after adjusting for the proportions of non-Muslims in those countries.

Earliest Muslim Immigrants

Some of the earliest Muslim immigrants to come to what is now the United States were slaves who traveled with Spanish explorers during the sixteenth century. Some of the African slaves brought to British colonies during the seventeenth century were also Muslim. Scholars have estimates that as many as ten to twenty percent of all slaves brought to the United States practiced some form of Islam in their homelands. Estimates on the size of this population range in number from as few as forty thousand Muslim slaves in the United States to three million Muslim slaves in all the Americas.

One of the most comprehensive records of the experiences of these early Muslim immigrants is the autobiography of Omar ibn Sayyidbrought to North Carolina from West Africa as an enslaved person during the late nineteenth century. Omar ibn Sayyid was literate in Arabicin 1831, he wrote a detailed account of his experiences. Slaveholders valued Muslim slaves for their literacy skills, but their religious practices were usually discouraged. Consequently, Islamic practices were not passed along to later generations of enslaved people. However, Islamic practices did survive in a few small and isolated communities. During the early twentieth century, oral historians found evidence of Muslim cultural and religious influences in African American communities living on islands off the coast of Georgia.

The first documented Muslim immigrants to voluntarily come to the United States arrived during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During the 1880s, thousands of Muslims immigrated from the Ottoman Empiremainly from parts of what are now the independent countries of Syria and Lebanon. Between 1890 and 1910, several hundred South Asian immigrants some Muslimscame to the United States to work on railroads and in lumber mills in the American West. The early midwestern auto industry also had many Arab immigrant employees, many of whom were Muslims. Some of the first social and religious Muslim immigrant institutions in the United States were established by these people.

Changes in US immigration laws restricting the entry of non-Europeans established a system of national origins quotas slowed down the rate of Muslim immigration to the United States during the early to mid-twentieth century. From the 1920s to the 1950s, most Muslim immigrants arriving in the United States came from eastern European regions. By the time the national origins quota system was abolished by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, only between 100,000 and 150,000 Muslims were living in the United States.

Post-1965 Immigration

The 1965 immigration law replaced national origin quotas with new criteria for admitting immigrants based on family relationships, work skills, and refugee status. After this law went into effect, Muslims began immigrating to the United States from countries all over the world. Research conducted by the Center for Immigration Studies suggested the largest numbers of Muslim immigrants immediately after 1965 came from South Asian countriesparticularly Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India. Immigrants from these former British colonies had the advantage of having learned English in school and were consequently highly competitive applicants for immigration based on their skills needed to fill American jobs. Large numbers of Muslims also came to the United States from the Middle East and Central Asia during this time.

During the late 1980s and 1990s. increasing numbers of Muslims came to the United States as refugees. Some were fleeing ethnic conflicts in Africaothers were escaping from religious persecution in South Asia and the Middle East. Many were refugees who had been displaced by military conflicts in Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, and the successor states to Yugoslavia.

Post-9/11 Issues

Negative stereotypes of Muslims and Muslim immigrants have been common in the United States since the colonial era. International events, particularly wars and other conflicts, have clearly contributed to negative American views of Muslims. Since the early 1970s, airplane hijackings and terrorist actions strengthened negative public perceptions of Muslims, especially when such actions have directly affected Americanssuch as the late 1970s Iranian hostage crisis. However, the Muslim extremist attacks on the United States on September 11, 20019/11elevated negative American views of Muslims to a new level and inaugurated a new era of discrimination and violence directed against Muslims in the United States. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s annual survey of hate crimes for 2001 recorded a dramatic increase in crimes against Muslims: from 28 reported incidents directed against Muslims in 2000 to 481 in 2001—a seventeen-fold increase.

The first decade of the twenty-first century saw the involvement of the United States in seemingly intractable wars in the predominantly Muslim countries of Afghanistan and Iraq. According to post-9/11 public opinion polls conducted by both the Pew Research Center and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, most Americans have come to associate Islam with violence. Most Christian Americans also do not recognize commonalities between their own religious beliefs and those held by Muslims. Meanwhile, hate crimes directed against Muslims continued to rise. According to data collected by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the number of assaults and incidents of discrimination against Muslims in the United States rose from 1,019 documented cases in 2003 to 1,972 cases in 2005.

Both immigrant and nonimmigrant Muslims have been victims of hate crimes and discrimination since 9/11, but immigrants have been more frequently targeted. Significantly, many persons who have committed hate crimes seem to believe that all Muslims in the United States are immigrantsas many of their hate crimes are accompanied by cries of “Go Home.”

In addition to the threat of hate crimes faced by Muslim immigrants, there are numerous allegations of post-9/11 legal discrimination against this community. The Patriot Act of 2001 required many immigrants from Muslim-majority countries to register with the federal government, and it enacted new restrictions on travel by individuals from those countries. By 2003, fewer green cards and visas were being issued to people in Muslim-majority countries, particularly people from Pakistan, Morocco, and Iran. Muslim immigrants generally have faced increased problems traveling as they report being profiled for more rigorous security checks than other passengers in airports.

Although there is little demographic data about the impact that these crimes and legal discrimination have had on the number of Muslim immigrants in the United States, anecdotal evidence suggested many Muslim immigrants chose to return to their countries of origin or move on to other countries, such as Canada, rather than remain in the hostile social and political climate of the United States. At the same time, however, many of the Muslims remained in the United States began to organize to educate the American public about Islam and Muslim peoplethey have also worked to educate members of their own communities about their legal rights in the United States.

US Civil Society and Political Life

By 2010, 1.6 billion Muslims lived in countries around the world, and seventy-two countries in 2011 had a million or more Muslim inhabitants. Moreover, several large countries in which Muslims accounted for much smaller percentages of total populations nevertheless had large numbers of Muslimsincluding India, Russia, and China. India had the third-largest Muslim population in the world, even though its 160,945,000 Muslims accounted for only 13.4 percent of its total population.

Although Muslim immigrants have come to the United States from a wide variety of countries and cultural backgrounds, Muslims living in the United States have been able to organize around common social and religious interests. The first national Muslim conference was held in Iowa in 1952. This conference was attended by only four hundred Muslims from the United States and Canada,it marked the inception of the International Muslim Society. At a later conference in 1954, American Muslimsincluding a sizable number of immigrantsformed the Federation of Islamic Associations of the United States and Canada (FIA). The primary organizational goal of FIA was to address religious and cultural issues in the United States. However, members of this organization also worked as an advocacy group for the US Muslim community. The FIA also provided a forum in which Muslim immigrants could come together to develop a sense of shared identity across cultural boundaries. However, although these organizations fulfilled an important role in the Muslim community, they always had small memberships. As late as the 1980s and 1990s, Muslim Americans appear to have had fewer political organizations than other ethnic and religious groups of similar sizes.

After 9/11, Muslim immigrants and other Muslims in the United States participated more actively in civil organizations that would represent their concerns and work as advocates for their community. Education and advocacy groups were formed to oppose the backlash against Muslims living in the United States. According to the American Muslim Task Force on Civil Rights and Elections, several grassroots organizations worked to register Muslim voters, educate Muslim immigrants about their rights, and lobby against federal policies that were harmful to Muslim immigrants. Islamic centers have expanded their social programs to offer English classes and free legal assistance to Muslim immigrants. Groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations have collected data on hate crimes against Muslims, offered advice on promoting community safety, and increased outreach work to address negative stereotypes about Muslims and Muslim immigrants in the United States.

Following several events in 2015, the United States saw an increase in anti-Muslim sentiment and a renewed push to limit Muslim immigrants and refugees granted asylum. The Syrian Civil War began in 2011, with fighting going on between several groupsincluding the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)and has displaced thousands of Syrians sought refuge in other countries. By 2015, the number of displaced refugees seeking asylum in Europe reached crisis levels. After a large-scale terror attack in Paris, France by ISIS on November 13, 2015, and a mass shooting by ISIS sympathizers in San Bernardino, California on December 2, 2015, many Americans became more suspicious of Muslim immigrantsparticularly Syrian asylum-seekers. President Donald Trump even proposed a ban on all Muslims traveling to the United States. The House passed a bill limiting Syrian and Iraqi refugees in November 2015the Senate later blocked the bill.

By the second presidential debate in October 2016, Trump stated his policy regarding a ban on Muslim immigrants changed to a practice that would require "extreme vetting"including an ideological litmus testof immigrants from certain areas of the world. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clintonwho had always opposed Trump's proposed banagreed tough vetting would be necessary, but emphasized a country founded on the ideal of freedom of religion could not ban anyone based on religion. Both national and international critics lamented the topic of Muslim immigration was being used for political gain in campaigningsome commentators argued it would be too difficult to properly determine which individuals actually pose a risk.

After President Joe Biden was elected president in 2021, he repealed many of the Trump-era restrictions that effectively banned Muslim immigrants from entering the country. However, more than half of Muslim immigrants in mid-2022 felt there was more to be done to restore their rights. Travel restrictions from 2021 to 2022though much more lenient than the Trump era restrictionsstill created frustration and family separation among Muslim family immigrants.

October 7, 2023

On October 7, 2023, Hamasa group designated as a terror organization by many international countrieslaunched a devastating surprise attack on Israel. Emerging from Gaza strongholds, Hamas breached Israel's massive wall complex separating Israel from Gaza. Hamas proceeded to attack both Israeli civilian and military targets. Hamas inflicted approximately 1,200 civilian deaths and kidnapped approximately 250 Israeli hostages. Israel countered with military operations in Gaza to destroy Hamas. Many suggested Israel's offensive disproportionally targeted Palestinian civilians. Media reports suggested Israeli attacks in Gaza had resulted in over 40,000 deaths by mid-2024.

The October 7 attacks were a galvanizing moment for Muslim Americansparticularly those of Arab descent. Widespread demonstrations in favor of the Palestinian cause emerged throughout the United Statesmost notably on college campus. While many interpreted such demonstrations as anti-semeticand indeed many public statements did cross this lineothers were encouraged that Palestinians were seen in terms other than as terrorists. In addition, the Palestinian cause now evoked more mainstream American support. In states such as in Michigan, sizable Arab American populations were significant voting blocs in tightly contested "battlegroud" states. Nonetheless, in the 2024 presidential election, many Arab Americans felt disenchanted between their choice between the initial Democratic nominee Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump. After Kamala Harris replaced Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket in July 2024, Harris made a renewed effort to win back Arab American voters.

As a negative trend, following the events of October 7, 2023, hate crimes against Arab Americans again showed a spike. In April 2024, the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee announced 2,500 reports of anti-Arab hate in the six-month period between October 2023 and March 2024.his number was five times higher than the previous year. Some of these crimes were horrificIn October 2023, the stabbing of a six-year-old Palestinian boy named Wadea Al Fayoume in Illinois led to his death. In November 2023, three Palestinian college students were shot in Vermont.

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