Muslim Milestones in America

30 Firsts Since 1788

BEFORE THE 19TH CENTURY, MOST MUSLIMS CAME TO the New World as enslaved Africans and were forced to abandon their faith upon their arrival on plantations. There are records that show people with Arabic names fighting on the American side of the Revolution, and the prospect that a Muslim could become president was one reason cited in 1788 for opposition to Article VI of the Constitution, which states that “no religious test shall ever be required” of any elected official in the U.S. The Founding Fathers kept that in. Some other key moments:

1778

Morocco, a Muslim theocracy, is among the first foreign nations to recognize the independence of the United States.

1805

President Thomas Jefferson hosts a Ramadan celebration at the White House while welcoming a Tunisian envoy.

1930

Wallace Fard Muhammad founds the Nation of Islam, a Muslim sect for Black Americans.

1930

The Mother Mosque of America, the oldest continuously operating purpose-built mosque in the U.S., opens in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

1957

Dwight Eisenhower is the first sitting president to visit an American mosque when he attended the dedication ceremony for the Islamic Center in Washington D.C.

1962

Omar Sharif is the first Muslim actor nominated for an Academy Award, for his supporting performance in Lawrence of Arabia. (He lost to Ed Begley of Sweet Bird of Youth.)

1964

Muhammad Ali, under the mentorship of Malcolm X, announces his conversion to Islam.

1965

President Lyndon Johnson signs the Immigration and Nationality Act, which significantly expanded the ability of people from Muslim-majority nations to emigrate to the U.S.

1967

Muhammad Ali refuses to be inducted into the U.S. Army, citing religious objections, and is stripped of his heavyweight title.

1991

Charles Bilal is elected mayor of Kountze, Texas, a town of about 2,000 residents, becoming the first Muslim elected to run an American municipality.

1996

First Lady Hillary Clinton hosts the first iftar, the dinner to begin Ramadan. Bush and Obama carried on the tradition; Trump skipped 2017, but resumed in 2018 and 2019.

SEP 11, 2001

Nineteen members of the Islamic terrorist group Al-qaeda crash four planes in New York, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon.

SEP 17, 2001

President George W. Bush visits the Islamic Center in Washington, D.C. to urge Americans not to blame all Muslims for the 9/11 attacks.

2003

The U.S. invades Iraq and overthrows Saddam Hussein on grounds, later debunked, that he had an illicit chemical weapons factory and connections to Al-qaeda.

2005

The Islamic Center of America, at 120,000 square feet the largest mosque in North America, opens in Dearborn, Michigan.

2007

Keith Ellison of Minnesota is sworn in on Thomas Jefferson’s Quran as the first Muslim member of Congress.

2009

Zaytuna College, the first accredited Muslim liberal arts college in the U.S., opens in Berkeley, California.

2011

The Learning Channel airs All-american Muslim, a reality show centered around Muslims in Dearborn, Michigan.

2014

Farhan Zaidi is hired as the general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the first Muslim in that role in any American sports franchise.

2015

Presidential candidate Donald Trump calls for a “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.”