Riyadh- Wael Salama

Clearly, Islam has reached New York for many centuries. It is has been said that the first Muslim arriving to New York was in the 16th century, and he was an Egyptian. It seemed that he traveled to New York for trading and living. Additionally, there were some African Muslims who traveled forcibly from Europe for working in the agriculture sector and the other works lacking the labor. Among these immigrants were a good deal of Muslims who could hold their Islamic faith though the horrible hardships they faced.

Growing the number of Muslims in New York

As time passes, the number of Muslims in New York has begun to increase. In this regard, some documents dating back to 1717 revealed some Islamic names belonging to some of the African slaves, known as the �Documents of the Slavery Trade�.

Concerning the great immigrations to America, they started in 1880; a great number of Arabs immigrated from many Arab countries, notably Syria and Lebanon, and most of them were Muslim. The newcomers settled in New York, and majority of them was from Yemen.

The number of Muslims in US generally has been decreased since 1920, yet the Muslims increased notably in New York since 1966 after facilitating the immigration procedures and increasing the number of the learned Muslims working at the governmental and educational institutions.

The number of the Muslims in New York is estimated now as about one million, half of them under the age of 30, 33% of Afro-American, 28% Arab ,25% from Eastern-South Asia, 3% Turkish, Albanian, Bosnian and Tatar. Most of the newcomers of the Muslims in New York are Afghani and Bosnian.

Most Muslims take their residence in the small towns and villages ; they usually keep at a far distance from the over-crowded cities.

The American Muslim in America
The first and famous Muslim from an American origin in New York was the diplomatic figure Alexander Russell Webb ( 1846-1916). He was the first to adopt Islam, in 1888, when he was a counsel in Manila. Russell was impressed by Islam that he founded a center for preaching in New York in 1893, and published many publications and reports on the Islamic world for spreading Islam among the American people.

Russell�s Islamic center is the first center established in New York , followed by an Islamic association in 1942, then the Ummat Al-Islam Association was established. The latter had a great activity in New York, setting up many mosques there. The number of Islamic centers and mosques then increased in this big city, among them the North America Islamic Association, the Islamic Circle, etc.

Names of Islamic cities in New York
One may wonder on hearing some small towns named with Islamic names in New York like Cairo, Baghdad and Aden.

It is seemed that the first visit paid by a Muslim ruler to New York was the visit of Sultan Oman happened in the middle of 19th century.