photo credit: Khalil AbdulKhabir
A DAR-UL-ISLAM HISTORY PROJECT
The People's Effort
Project Director: Dr. Kameelah Mu'Min Oseguera | Founding Executive Director, Muslim Wellness Foundation; Assistant Professor of Psychology & Muslim Studies, Chicago Theological Seminary
The Dar-ul-Islam Movement (also called “the Dar”) was established in the United States in 1962 by three African American converts to Islam: Imam Yahya Abdul-Karim, Rijab Mahmoud and Ishaq Abdus-Shaheed. It has been called one of the first and most significant grassroots movements established by African-American, orthodox (Sunni) Muslims in America.
"Dar-ul-Islam is the people’s effort to return to Allah.” This simple yet profound statement appeared in the July 1974 issue of Al Jihadul Akbar, the Dar-ul-Islam monthly magazine. At its height, the Dar included a network of 30-40 Masjids [houses of worship] the country, mainly in predominantly African American urban hubs, including New York City, Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Baltimore, and Los Angeles. The movement founded its own businesses (including an incense factory and halal meat store), formed schools, operated its own printing press, and hosted a number of community programs.
As influential as this movement has been to the overall history of faith, race, and community building in America, there is a gap in knowledge, understanding and documented resources exploring this rich history. Narratives of Black American Sunni Muslim movements are not as well-known or readily included in the historical timeline of the emergence and evolution of Islam in America. In fact, focus typically shifts to discussion of what is often referred to as ‘proto-typical’ Islamic movements such as Moorish Science Temple and Nation of Islam. This unwittingly contributes to the illusion (in the broader American imagination) that Sunni Muslim movements were either insignificant, non-existent, or only emerged after the assassination of Malcolm X. This is hardly the case but unfortunately, this entrenched notion continues to reinforce an erasure of present-day Black American Sunni Muslim communities, and their influence, particularly in urban cities around the country.
Project Director: Dr. Kameelah Mu'Min Oseguera | Founding Executive Director, Muslim Wellness Foundation; Assistant Professor of Psychology & Muslim Studies, Chicago Theological Seminary
Dar-ul-Islam is the people's effort to return to Allah.
Jihad-ul Akbar Magazine, July 1974
Project Director: Dr. Kameelah Mu'Min Oseguera | Founding Executive Director, Muslim Wellness Foundation; Assistant Professor of Psychology & Muslim Studies, Chicago Theological Seminary
Photo credit: Khalil AbdulKhabir
Oral History Project
Project Director: Dr. Kameelah Mu'Min Oseguera | Founding Executive Director, Muslim Wellness Foundation; Assistant Professor of Psychology & Muslim Studies, Chicago Theological Seminary
The People's Effort to Return to Allah:
The Formation, Dissolution and Reconfiguration of the Dar-ul-Islam Movement in the United States
"The People's Effort" is an oral history project led by Dr. Kameelah Mu'Min Oseguera, Founding Executive Director of Muslim Wellness Foundation and Assistant Professor of Psychology and Muslim Studies at Chicago Theological Seminary. Using archival research, in-depth oral history interviews and a Black Muslim centered appreciative inquiry process, the People’s Effort project aims to correct the gap in the documented history and presence of this movement and expand the literature on Black religion in the United States and African American Muslim communities. This project also centers the exploration of racial-religious identity development and the unique role of African American Muslim women in community building. Apart from several brief mentions in the texts on history of Black Islam, a smattering of online articles, two short personal histories and a breathtaking photo collection series by former Dar member Khalil Abdul Khabir, the birth, growth, dissolution and reconfiguration of the Dar-ul-Islam movement movement is largely unknown to the general public. For the first time, the history gathered in this project includes a Dar community map, timeline, curated bibliography [of references to the Dar] and analysis of themes related to belonging, race, class, gender and faith based intentional communities.
This research was funded by a Community Fellows Grant from The Crossroads Project, a collaborative research initiative co-directed by Anthea Butler, Lerone Martin, and Judith Weisenfeld, based at Princeton University and supported by the Henry Luce Foundation and a Black Interfaith Fellowship grant from Interfaith America; institutional and technical support provided by Muslim Wellness Foundation's Omar ibn Said Institute for Black Muslim Studies & Research.