Patheos (http://www.patheos.com)
(1) A Muslim in a New York State of Mind—Part 1
28 May 2013
by Precious Rasheeda Muhammad
Muslim History Detective’s log, 05/28/13
Recently I travelled to New York to give a speech and I have to say, as a Muslim History Detective, I feel like a kid in a candy store whenever I am there.
Everywhere I turn in the city there are always so many amazing connections to the history of Islam in America, going back several centuries.
For example, in a 1793 speech on the “universality of masonry” DeWitt Clinton included Muslims among those considered “friends and brothers” and warned against “the madness of religious hatred.”
He delivered his speech at New York City’s Holland Lodge No. 8, where he was a member, and which today is considered “one of the country’s foremost Masonic Lodges.”
“DeWitt Clinton mingling the waters of Lake Erie with the Atlantic”
DeWitt later became one of New York’s earliest mayors, US senators, and governors. He is also known as the “Father of the Erie Canal.”
It is quite likely that DeWitt gained some of his brotherly spirit, for harmony across religious divisions, from working with his uncle, Founding Father and first New York Governor George Clinton, for whom he served as a personal secretary from 1790-1795.
The elder Clinton was surrounded by strong proponents of religious freedom, even travelling with his close friend, Founding Father and President George Washington, on a 1790 campaign to get support for ratification of the Bill of Rights, which, as we know, includes the much fought for and won guarantee of freedom of conscience in the First Amendment.
During this campaign, President Washington assured a Rhode Island Jewish congregation, in a now historic letter, that the American government “to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance” and that in this country “every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.”
The Give Bigotry No Sanction project describes the letter as “a landmark in the history of religious freedom in America, and part of a founding moment in U.S. history when the country was negotiating how a democracy accommodates differences among its people.”
DeWitt’s uncle later became vice-president of the United States under Founding Fathers and Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison both of whom had fought hard for religious freedom in America and had specifically recognized Muslims among those deserving of that protection.
Interestingly—at least as far back as the days when New York was still the capital of the United States—Governor George Clinton and President George Washington were also members of the Holland Lodge, wherein DeWitt had made clear that Muslims were welcome as “friends and brothers” and the Qur’an was among the religious scriptures welcome in Masonic assemblies.
More than half a century after DeWitt’s 1793 speech at the Lodge, Masons were still referencing it in their publications—including in a reprint of a speech on the “Masonic character” of George Washington—and always beginning with his following words:
It must be made obvious to a mind of the least reflection, that were Masonry to prescribe particular tenets and opinions in religion for her votaries, that it would be utterly incompatible with the universality of the Order. For this, and the reasons before mentioned, she has wisely avoided an explicit patronage of any theological creed.
The commitment to unity across religious divisions articulated inside the walls of the Holland Lodge was not unlike the commitment to religious freedom outside the walls, clearly defined in the First Amendment of the Bill of Right’s adopted just two years earlier.
The Amendment reads in part:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . .”
Like the Masons, America too had “wisely avoided an explicit patronage of any theological creed” in order to preserve its union and universality.
(2) A Muslim in a New York State of Mind—Part 2
30 May 2013
by Precious Rasheeda Muhammad
Muslim History Detective’s log, 05/30/13
On October 4, 1865, the anti-slavery, Tunisian Muslim General Otman Hashem arrived in New York via the steamship Persia. The very next day, the New York Timesreported his stay in the city to be a one day rest stop before moving on to his intended destination of Washington, DC. But wouldn’t you know it, given how “colorful” New York City is, the stopover morphed into quite an eventful, days-long tour of the city, full of vibrant engagement with its residents and officials.
New York Times, October 5, 1865
Gen. Hashem had come to the United States, representing His Highness the Bey of Tunis, to convey to President Andrew Johnson, and the American people, condolences on the tragic assassination of President Lincoln and congratulations on the end of the “calamitous” Civil War.
I have written very briefly before about these reasons behind the general’s visit to the United States, but I have not shared, in any detail, how New York newspapers extensively covered the general’s stopover in the city before he proceeded on to Washington, DC to meet with the president.
A couple of days ago I wrote about how, as a Muslim History Detective, I always feel like a kid in a candy store wherever I turn in New York because of the centuries of amazing connections to the history of Islam and Muslims in America that can be found in this luminous city.
So, how about we briefly explore a few choice nuggets of history regarding media coverage of Gen. Hashem’s visit there that further underscore this point?
For example, the New York reporting on the general’s visit highlighted how well he was received and hosted, including an excursion to Central Park; going to the opera at the Academy of Music, which used to be located at East 14th Street and Irving Place in Manhattan; and touring the Brooklyn Navy Yard, full with a drum-roll welcome for him. Marines were even lined up to present arms in a show of respect for the distinguished general.
A visit with the mayor at City Hall in Manhattan was also documented. The meeting went so well that the mayor allowed Gen. Hashem to serve as a witness at a marriage ceremony he was officiating that day and even had the Muslim sign his name in Arabic on the marriage certificate.
(I would love to track down a copy of that certificate, let me know if you beat me to it!)
We also know from newspaper reports that the general even had a chance to witness some of the charitable efforts for destitute and troubled children taking place on Manhattan’s Randall’s Island, where he had been invited by the New York Commissioners of Charities and Corrections.
In welcoming remarks, addressing the Muslim, one of the youth captured the fascination of the visit for them all:
“You have traveled many thousand miles from your land of the sun, and the mosques, and have come on a mission of condolence and friendship from your high and mighty master to the President and people of the United States.”
Regarding the visit to the island and the resources made available to those in need there, Gen. Hashem later remarked:
“A people that are so charitable must enjoy the special favor of God.”
When Hashem finally made his way to Washington DC, he met with President Andrew Johnson at the White House. The DC visit was also covered extensively in New York papers.
During the meeting, which took place in the Blue Room, President Johnson acknowledged the anti-slavery perspectives of his Muslim guest and reflected on the United States’ current challenge around liberty post-Civil War.
The president declared, in part:
“You are favorably known to us as a soldier and a scholar, and, above all, as a statesman devoted to the extinction of slavery. You will be able to report to His Highness the Bey that the American nation are trying a humanitarian experiment. It is nothing less than this: Whether a people can save liberty and at the same time govern itself.”
Interestingly, this all took place before slavery was constitutionally outlawed by the ratification and adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment.
Gen. Hashem seems to have been quite taken with his experiences in our country, once even stating, in response to concern about how far he and his entourage had to travel to get here, that “the congeniality and hospitality they had met with in the United States would make them forget twice the distance.”
There is much more to be shared about the Muslim general’s visit to the United States. But I have learned that part of the joy in detective work is leaving clues to be uncovered for another day—even though it is hard not to history binge and tell it all at once!
So, I will not talk to you today about the very sympathetic and benevolent letter, from the Bey of Tunis, to the widowed Mrs. Lincoln that Gen. Hashem had to deliver.
I will not speak of the general’s very interesting visit to Harvard and Brown.
I will not get into details about the reception held in his honor at Boston City Hall, hosted by the city’s mayor, nor will I discuss the letter the general wrote, upon his return home, to the American Ethnological Society wherein he expressed that he was“deeply interested in the history and amelioration of the different races of the globe.”
These, and so much more, are all clues to explore perhaps another day, God willing!
(3)A Muslim in a New York State of Mind—Part 3
3 June 2013
by Precious Rasheeda Muhammad
Muslim History Detective’s log, 06/3/13
New York Times, December 11, 1893
At 11 A.M. on Sunday, December 10, 1893, the adhan(Muslim call to prayer), heard throughout the world wherever praying Muslims are found, could be heard three stories above New York City’s famed Union Square.
This was the same call, which, by the appointment of the Prophet Muhammad, had first been called and perfected in the seventh century by Bilal ibn Rabah, a Meccan ex-slave of Ethiopian origin. Bilal had become a close companion of the prophet and was among the first several people to embrace Islam as a faith.
In a New York Times article, headlined “New-York’s First Muezzin Call” and published December 11, 1893, the esteemed paper carefully documented the “melodious” call that sonorously floated out from the third-story window of the Union Square Bank building at 8 Union Square East.
This building faced Union Square where, among many other remarkable events, an estimated 200,000 people, or more, once rallied for the Union in 1861 just days after the start of the American Civil War.
It is also where Emma Goldman, the anarchist activist against poverty, injustice, and oppression, once told a crowd of 3000 unemployed, who had been affected by the economic depression known as the “Panic of 1893”:
Go into the streets where the rich dwell. Ask for work. If they do not give you work, ask for bread. If they do not give you work or bread, then take bread.
And it is where, in the agonizing weeks immediately following September 11, 2001, people from all walks of life gathered to reflect, mourn, and pray for peace.
Appropriately then, it would be in such a place of historic precedence, with regard to collective action, that one of the earliest documented Islamic calls to congregational prayer in the history of the United States would take place.
John Lant, the muezzin (one who calls the adhan), who had leaned out the third-story window to give the call that Sunday in 1893, had been affiliated with the Islamic outreach programs of the nineteenth-century American statesman Mohammed Alexander Russell Webb. Webb, a New Yorker, remains one of the earliest documented converts to Islam in the nation’s history.
Of note, Webb was the main representative for Islam at the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions (World’s Congress of Religions) hosted in Chicago. There, this former U.S. ambassador to the Philippines gave two lectures, one titled “The Spirit of Islam” and the other titled “The Influence of Islam on Social Conditions.” Today, the 1893 Parliament is “recognized as the occasion of the birth of formal interreligious dialogue worldwide.”
In his lecture on social conditions, Webb declared the following thoughts on religious prejudice that still ring true:
It is unfortunate, perhaps, that among the masses of believers religious prejudice is so strong as to prevent the exercise of a calm and just discrimination in the examination of an opposing creed … It would be neither just nor truthful to assert that every man who lives in an American city, town or village, is a Christian and represents in his acts and words the natural effects of Christian teachings. Nor is it fair to judge the Islamic system in a similar manner … If one or a dozen [people who call themselves Muslim but who are not truly knowledgeable about Islam] should commit an act of brutal intolerance or fanaticism, would it be just to say that it was due to the meritable tendencies of their religion?
In order to maximize attendance, the Parliament ran somewhat parallel to the Chicago World’s Fair (World’s Columbian Exposition). Interestingly, some of the Muslims passing through New York City from the Fair, and possibly the Parliament too, were also present at the religious services held at the Union Square Bank building on December 10th.
After the congregation prayed that day, the inaugural meeting of the Society for the Study of Islam ensued. Fittingly, the meeting closed with a discussion on “Islam in America.”
Today, some non-Muslim Americans view hearing the adhan in public as an encroachment on American culture, even though Islam and Muslims have been a part of the American cultural, religious and historical fabric since the before the birth of our republic.
For an example of anti-adhan sentiment, one need only look to the 2004 controversy involving a Hamtramck, Michigan, mosque’s request to broadcast the adhan over speakers in their once majority Polish and Roman Catholic city. This request set off a national debate, became international news and even ignited protests from, among many others, the National Alliance, a white nationalist and white separatist organization.
In the end, the mosque was allowed to broadcast the adhan daily after an unanimous vote from the City Council and a majority vote from residents on an amendment to Hamtramck’s noise ordinance.
The amendment made permissible “‘call to prayer,’ ‘church bells’ and other reasonable means of announcing religious meetings to be amplified between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. for a duration not to exceed 5 minutes.”
Many Americans would be surprised to know that 111 years earlier, a Muslim call to prayer in the heart of New York City’s Union Square did not seem to cause any controversy at all.
In fact, the author of the 1893 New York Times article appeared surprised that,“cosmopolitan as the city is, the melodious call of the Muezzin” had only just happened “for the first time in New-York’s history.”
Today’s post, adapted from an article I wrote in 2007, marks the final segment in my “A Muslim in a New York State of Mind” trilogy. As discussed in Part I and Part II, the vision behind writing this trilogy came from my reflections on how, as a Muslim History Detective, I feel like a kid in a candy store whenever I am in New York because of centuries of amazing connections to the history of Islam and Muslims in America that can be found in this luminous city—wherever I turn.
(End)
