Islam is the third most widely professed religion inNew York City, afterChristianity andJudaism.[1] A 2018 study estimated that there are over 750,000 Muslims living in New York City, the largest population ofMuslims by city in theUnited States. Approximately 9% of New York City residents are Muslim, constituting 22.3% ofAmerican Muslims, with 1.5 million Muslims in the greaterNew York metropolitan area, representing the largest metropolitan Muslim population in the Americas.[2]—and the mostethnically diverse Muslim population of any city in the world.[3]
The history of Islam in New York City can be traced back to the 17th century, with the foundation of theNew Amsterdam colony. The first Muslim settler was most likely the Dutch North African merchantAnthony Janszoon van Salee (known by contemporaries as Anthony the Turk). He is recorded as owning aQuran, which was supposedly auctioned off in the late 19th century.[4][5]
It is possible that a small minority of enslaved West African andMadagascan Muslims lived in the city through to the 19th century, although evidence remains anecdotal and is based on assumptions around the names and regions of origin of various enslaved individuals.[5]
As with other parts of the United States, small-scale Muslim migration to New York began in the 1840s, with the arrival ofYemenis andTurks, as well asBengali andLevantine sailors and merchants and lasted untilWorld War I.[6][7]
In 1907,Lipka Tatar immigrants from thePodlasie region ofPoland founded the first Muslim organization inNew York City, the American Mohammedan Society. In 1931 they founded thePowers Street Mosque in Williamsburg, making it the oldest continuously operating mosque in the city.[8][9]
Following theGreat Migration in the early 20th century, New York City emerged as a center ofAfrican-American Islam, in significant part through theMoorish Science Temple of America and theNation of Islam.
In 1904, a Sudani imam by the name ofSatti Majid travelled to New York, taking up caretaking duties for the small population of South Asian and Arab Muslims residing in the five boroughs. Imam Majid played an influential role introducing large parts of the city to mainstream Sunni Islam.[10] One of these people was Shaikh Daoud Faisal, a Grenadian-born revert who helped found The International Muslim Society in Harlem, which linked African-American Muslims with their Somali, Yemeni, and South Asian co-religionists.[11]
Shaikh Daoud would later set up The Islamic Mission of America in Brooklyn Heights in 1939. Known today as the State Street Mosque, or Masjid Dawood, the institution is the second-oldest operating mosque in the city.[12]
New York wasMalcolm X's base for several years, before his assassination in theWashington Heights section of Manhattan in 1965.
Following the death ofElijah Muhammad in 1975, the vast majority of Nation of Islam adherents in the city converted to mainstream Sunni Islam, guided byImam Warith Deen Muhammad.
The passing of theHart-Celler Act in 1965 opened the way for a rapid growth of immigration into the United States from several Muslim-majority countries. Prior to this moment, immigration had been severely restricted by ethnic quotas. Beginning most notably during the 1970s, a wave of Muslims from Asia and Africa began arriving into New York City. The majority of current Muslim residents trace their history in the city to this wave.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the city began receiving Muslim refugees from war-torn areas of the world, as well asgreen card lottery recipients from countries such as Bangladesh and the new Central Asian republics. Through skilled employment visas and family reunification programs, immigration also increased from countries such as Pakistan, Senegal, Ghana, Guyana, Egypt, Palestine, and Yemen.[13] Most of these new immigrants settled in the outer boroughs, in neighborhoods such asBay Ridge,Jackson Heights,Midwood,Astoria,Boerum Hill, and theWest Bronx. Alongside other foreign-born residents, they would play a key role in reviving the city's fortunes following the crisis years of the 1970s.[14] As of 2024, a significant new wave ofChinese Uyghur Muslims is fleeingreligious persecution in northwestern China’sXinjiang Province and seekingreligious freedom in New York,[15] concentrating inQueens.
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With the arrival of new Muslim immigrants and the consolidation of the African-American Sunni community, Islam in New York began to flourish in the late 20th century. In the decades prior to 9/11 and thekilling of Amadou Diallo in 1999, the city emerged as a destination for working Muslims around the globe, developing a reputation as a land of relative opportunity where faith could be freely practiced. Halal butchers and other Muslim-owned businesses began dotting the landscapes of the outer boroughs. The 1970s also saw the formal foundation of a wave of religious community organizations, including the Nigerian Muslim Association (Masjid Ibaadurahman) inFort Greene and the Muslim Center of New York inFlushing, which was built by South Asian migrants and funded by Saudi Arabia.[17][18]
Other community masjids that date back to this period include:
As Muslim immigrant communities began to establish themselves in Europe and the US throughout the 1970s and 1980s, they began appearing on the radar of governments across the Arab world such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Keen to exert influence over these groups and to take advantage of their location at the centre of global political and economic power, many of these governments turned their attention to urban mega-mosque projects, such as London'sRegent's Park Mosque. In New York, these energies coalesced around the idea to build a new site for the city's Islamic Cultural Center, which had originally been founded on theUpper West Side in the early 1960s by a group of Muslim ambassadors to the United Nations. These plans eventually resulted in the construction of theIslamic Cultural Center in 1987 on Manhattan'sEast Side. The Center became Manhattan's first purpose-built mosque and, as intended by its original trustees, a New York City architectural landmark, a symbolic testament to the presence of Muslims across the city.
TheSeptember 11 attacks were a defining moment for New York's Muslims, and led to a wave of Islamophobic backlash against residents deemed to be Muslim. Following the launch of theWar on Terror, Muslims across the city came under suspicion by individuals and the government alike. TheINS Special Registration System, which required that noncitizen adult men from 24 Muslim-majority countries register with the newly formedImmigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, had a noted impact on the city's Muslim communities. It is estimated that up to 20,000 Muslims fled Brooklyn alone during this period, as a result of FBI raids and widespread fear around deportation and religious persecution.[24]
In 2002, theNYPD's Intelligence Bureau began surveilling Muslim communities across the New York metro area, recruiting informants to spy on mosques and Muslim student groups. The NYPD focused specifically on Muslim institutions and neighborhoods, notably excluding from its scope the activities ofIranian Jews andEgyptian Copts.[25] The program was denounced as unconstitutional and declared illegal in court, with the police department settling the lawsuit paying $72,500 in damages.[26]
According to the report of the Muslim Community Network, more than 26% of black Muslims and approximately 32% of Asian Muslims have experienced or witnessed hate crimes in 2023 in New York city.[27]
The election of Donald Trump in 2016 marked another chapter for Islam in the city, with state-sanctioned nativism targeting Muslims in particular. In 2016, in the midst of Trump's election campaign, a Bangladeshi imam and his assistant were shot dead in theOzone Park section of Queens. Although a motive was never uncovered, some congregants blaming the presidential candidate for cultivating a climate of anti-Muslim hatred.[28][29]
New York's Muslims have responded to these challenges in a variety of ways, from filing lawsuits against the police to running for political office and focusing on business or stacking up. In January 2017, following the signing of Executive Order 13769 (commonly known as the Muslim Ban),thousands of protesters of all faiths convened at John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens, setting off a national protest movement in solidarity with Muslims across the country. Members of the New York Taxi Workers' Alliance, a predominantly Muslim taxi worker union, went on strike at the airport and refused to pick up passengers.
The climate of the Trump years has also fomented the rise of progressive Muslim politicians, including New York State AssemblymanZohran Mamdani and City CouncillorShahana Hanif.
The ethnic background of New York City's Muslims reflects the diversity of the city at large. No other large city in the world contains such a well-proportioned split of Muslims by region of origin. The largest groups areSouth Asians, followed byAfrican-Americans andWest Africans. Other large communities includeNorth Africans,Caribbean people,West Asians,Balkan Europeans, andCentral Asians.[3]
As across the world at large, Sunnis form a majority among the city's Muslims, representing a range ofmadhahib. However significant communities ofShia Muslims also call the city home. Various Shia mosques can be found across the outer boroughs, and an annual Ashura procession has taken place in Manhattan since the mid-1980s.[30][31][32]
TheNew York metropolitan area is home to 275mosques, more than anywhere else in the country.[33] Notable mosques in the New York metropolitan region include theIslamic Cultural Center of New York,Masjid Malcolm Shabbaz, and theIslamic Center of Passaic County inPaterson,New Jersey.
In 2023, Mayor Eric Adams announced new rules allowing mosques in the city to broadcast theadhan on Fridays, and at sundown during the holy month of Ramadan.[34]
Paterson, New Jersey, in theNew York metropolitan area west of New York City, was estimated to have become home to 25,000 to 30,000 Muslims as of 2011. Paterson has been nicknamedLittle Ramallah and contains a neighborhood with the same name and an Arab American population estimated as high as 20,000 in 2015.[35]
"LittleIstanbul" (Turkish:Küçük İstanbul)[36] is an area ofSouth Paterson centered on Main Street. This rapidly growingTurkish American enclave is the largest in the United States in addition to housing manyPalestinians,[37] Lebanese, Syrians,Jordanians, andArab immigrants from a variety of other countries. Paterson is home to the largestTurkish-American immigrant community in the United States (Little Istanbul) and the second largestArab-American community afterDearborn, Michigan.[38] Therefore, it also called "LittleRamallah" (Arabic:رام الله الصغيرةRām Allāh al-Ṣaḡīra). The Paterson-based Arab American Civic Association runs anArabic language program in the Paterson school district.[39] Paterson's Arab American population was estimated as high as 20,000 in 2015.[40]
The area is also part ofLakeview, which lies to the east of East Railroad Avenue. The area is bounded on the south byClifton, on the west byNJ 19 and on the north byI-80. There are many Middle Eastern restaurants, grocery stores and stores in the area. Main Street has the largest concentration of these, but there are other Turkish and Arab stores and restaurants throughout the area. The area is mostly residential with commercial zoning along Main Street.
Paterson, New Jersey, is home to a significant and growing Bangladeshi American community. Many Bangladeshigrocery stores and clothing stores are locating in the emergingLittle Bangladesh on Union Avenue and the surrounding streets in Paterson, as well as a branch of the Sonali Exchange Company Inc., a subsidiary ofSonali Bank, the largest state-ownedfinancial institution in Bangladesh. Masjid Al-Ferdous is also located on Union Avenue, which accommodates Paterson's rapidly growing Bangladeshi pedestrian population in Paterson.
Mohammed Akhtaruzzaman was ultimately certified as the winner of the 2012 city council race in the Second Ward, making him northern New Jersey's first Bangladeshi-American elected official. The current 2nd Ward Councilman is Bangladeshi Shahin Khalique, who defeated Akhtaruzzaman in 2016 as well as in 2020.[41]
On 11 October 2014, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Shohid Minar Monument in West Side Park in Paterson took place. The monument pays tribute to people killed inPakistan in 1952 while protesting that country's policies that banned Bangladeshis from speaking theirBangla language, and replicates similar monuments in Bangladesh, according to the World Glam Organization, the Bangladeshi cultural group working on the Paterson project. The Shohid Minar was completed and unveiled in 2015.[42] This project reflected the increasing influence of Paterson's growing Bangladeshi community, as reported inThe Record.[43]
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