Episode 4 – Journey to Belonging
Is it important to belong?
You already belong.
I think some of us feel a pull or even a conflict between being American and being Muslim.
Part of this is a story of immigration,
and part of it comes from being asked to prove our Americanness to others.
Islam was here before this land was called a country.
There were Muslim immigrants here in the 1600s, from the Middle East and South Asia.
The Spanish coming to the New World passed laws trying to limit the number of Muslim slaves brought to the U.S.
because they feared the power and Unity the large numbers of Muslims would have.
In spite of Spain’s objections, the most conservative estimates say there were at minimum hundreds of thousands of Muslim slaves brought here.
And they did organize revolts across the Americas, in lots of cases.
Let’s connect these dots and take our rightful place here,
in a land of many contradictions,
in a land where we’re able to stand for justice,
in a land where we already belong.
Join us on our sacred journey to advance equality and justice for Muslims in America, in our courtrooms and communities.
Support today at mlfa.org/donate