Ieasha Prime – Early Sunni Movements and Jazz Musicians Islam and the Black American

Now we get into the early 20th century. What we find, we find

another very famous Muslim arriving on the shores of New York

into Harlem. You

in 1918

we find Sheik Daoud Faisal, who actually starts the first black

Sunni Muslim Mission inside of New York. Now this is actually 1918 he

and his wife start not only the Muslim Mission, which is like a

non profit organization, they also start the Bronx mosque. So his

wife, which is Lady Khadijah, also starts the Muslim ladies society.

And so this lady society was known that not only they would have

classes together, but they would also have, like womanhood

training. Now, both Daoud Faisal and his wife were responsible for

leading this movement together. Something very unique about Daoud

Faisal and his wife, they were both jazz musicians. This was

really significant, because in this time, this is the height of

the Harlem Renaissance, and they become responsible for a mass

conversion of jazz musicians into Islam. As a matter of fact, so

many jazz musicians became Muslim that it became known amongst the

community that those Muslims who had converted to Islam actually

enjoyed a higher status than some of their other counterparts. They

could get into certain restaurants, into certain stores.

And why is that because they were known for having a grasp of the

Arabic language, and when they would speak it to each other, then

they would oftentimes mistake them for not being African American,

thinking that they were from somewhere else, allowing them to

enter into places that they normally would not have. This

level of freedom of movement began to become something popular, and

people began to associate Islam with not only intelligence, but

Islam with a higher status. And so this began to spread. Now,

something interesting happens with Jazz at this time in America. It

actually becomes the music of social movement and social change.

The American government actually looks at jazz music as something

that should be spread throughout the world, and so interestingly

enough, they began to send these Muslim jazz musicians all over the

world as American ambassadors of culture. It was commented to

someone that you should not that you should be careful not to be

used by America. But interestingly enough, those jazz musicians said

America might be think that it's using me, but Allah is the one

using me in order to spread this Deen all over the world. And this

movement that was started by Daoud Faisal and his wife, which was

known as Lady Khadija, was known as the daughter Salam movement.

And that daughter Salam movement did not only remain inside of New

York. It's something that began to travel into Philadelphia, down

into the East Coast, into Washington, DC, all the way down

into Atlanta, it would then begin to spread west into Ohio. And as

that movement began to spread, it actually picked up more than a few

well known characters. One of them I want to list is the name, by the

name of Wally Akram. Wally Akram is actually later on from the from

the daughter Salam movement and its influence over him, he becomes

a well known Peacemaker amongst gang communities. As a matter of

fact, he's well known for negotiating a peace treaty between

the Bloods and the Crips in the 90s. Also, another famous, famous

Imam that comes out of that movement is none other than our

brother, Imam, Jamil el Amin, formerly known as h rap brown you