Muslims have been part of America since the 1500's, and it is estimated that 10-15% of the 10 million African slaves brought to the U.S. were Muslims. In 1527 Spanish Muslim explorer Estevanico of Azamor was the first known Muslim to reach American shores. In 1777 the Muslim nation of Morocco was the first country to officially recognize the newly independent U.S. In 1870 the Reverend Norman, a Methodist missionary, becomes the first known white American convert to Islam. And in 1920, the first official mosque in America opened in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, followed quickly by mosques in Maine, Connecticut, and Brooklyn, N.Y.
During the early 1900’s, the lower west side of Manhattan (around today’s WTC site) became the "mother colony" of all Arab immigrant communities. Both Christian and Muslim, these Arabs came from what was then called the Greater Syria region of the Ottoman empire which covers present-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel/Palestine. This lower westside NY neighborhood, now the Financial District and Battery Park, was called "Little Syria." The stores that dotted its streets were lined with signs written in Arabic, and men with long mustaches gathered around water pipes to smoke them like they did in the old country. For these early immigrants, the promised land was known as – “Amreeka” (America in Arabic).
Today, there are between 7 to 10 million Muslims in America - more than Jews, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Methodists, and Mormons; more than Christian Scientists, Unitarians, Seventh-day Adventists, Quakers, Mennonites, and Jehovah’s Witnesses combined; and even more than the combined Muslim populations of Kuwait, Qatar, and Libya. In the US military over 9,000 Muslims are on active duty, and there are 3,000 mosques across the nation. American Muslim’s heritage comes from dozens of different ethnicity's, nationalities and colors around the world.
In the U.S., Muslims enjoy a "higher socioeconomic status" than other minority groups. "On average, Muslims live in households earning $50,000 annually -- more than any minority except Asian, and only $2,000 less than non-Hispanic white households. American Muslims have lower poverty rates than either blacks or Hispanics, and more years of education than any of these groups, including whites and Asians." (source: Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research at New York's University at Albany)
