ARTICLES + BLOGS

• The Dar-ul-Islam Collection Kamila Barbour & Khalil Abdul-Khabir

  • ​The Dar-ul-Islam Collection is a project that offers a compilation of photos, stories and blog entries that recount events of the Dar-ul-Islam movement as it took place between 1962 -1982. The Dar ul Islam Collection by photographer, Khalil Abdulkhabir embodies the most progressive years of this grassroots religious movement as it took form in and around Yasin Mosque. Between 1970 – when Abdulkhabir converted from a Baptist Christian background and 1982, he lent his talents behind the lens to serve the village that supported his new life as a Muslim and this website is dedicated to telling that story through his photos.
    Visual records from the Dar are a testament to the successful development of businesses, schools and cultural outlets that defined its congregants. The Dar ul Islam Collection contains pieces that are dramatic and artistic, exposing and illuminating Abdulkhabir's subjects in a way that are not stereotypical. It is our hope to present the Dar to the public and secure a place for it in history as an effort from common people who made significant contributions to the development of Islam in America.

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• Brooklyn To Silver Spring: Sharing The Story of the Dar al Islam Movement (2018) by Kamila Barbour

  • The Dar ul Islam community was a grassroots movement established primarily by African Americans in Brooklyn, New York around 1962. Its purpose was to uphold life as governed by Quranic teachings and the sunnah (example) of the Prophet Muhammad. It was at Yasin Mosque, an old three-story building tucked away on Herkimer Place that congregants gathered to establish the call to God. Though the Mosque was named after a chapter in the Quran, the community as a whole was loosely referred to as, the Dar.

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• Faith and Art in the Legacy of the Dar-ul-Islam (2020) by Kamila Barbour

  • In the midst of the Civil Rights Movement, a time of radical change and reform, the Dar-ul-Islam Movement was founded in 1962 by Black Sunni Muslims in New York City. Throughout its 20-year prominence “The Dar” served as a spiritual and cultural haven for its members, as well as a platform for Black Muslim business owners, educators and artists. This movement sent shock waves through the surrounding community, allowing members to establish their presence as Black Muslims and radically changing the course of Black Sunni Islam in America. Brother Khalil Abdulkhabir spent much of his time in the Dar photographing and documenting community members’ daily lives and their achievements. Unbeknownst to him or any of the Dar members, his photos would become an archive for the history of Black Islam in America long after the Dar ended in 1982. To preserve the Dar’s legacy, Kamila Barbour, Brother Khalil’s daughter, began exhibiting his photos in 2008. She spoke with Sapelo to share more about these photos and her experiences in the Dar.​

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• The Beginnings Of The Darul Islam Movement In America (2020) by Luqman Ahmad

  • Much of the history about Islam in United States of America and of the pioneering Muslims upon who’s shoulders we stand, has never been told. Some of them unfortunately may never be told and may die with the death of those who were there. When it comes to American Muslim history, the narratives of those who lived it is more poignant than that of those who only heard about it. As in the hadith of the Prophet , “He who is told is not like he who has seen”. Much of what is written about Black American Muslim Sunni pioneers is written about us but not by us. One story that has remained largely unchronicled is that of the Darul Islam movement. Darul Islam was an early indigenous Sunni Muslim community made up of Black American Muslims and converts to Islam.

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• Bedford-Stuyvesant's Dar-ul-Islam Movement [Brooklyn Public Library] - 2021

  • ​These photographs are from the Khalil Abdulkhabir photographs of the Dar-ul-Islam movement collection (2020.002), a new collection at the Center for Brooklyn History. Khalil Abdulkkhabir discovered photography during his work with Youth In Action, an anti-poverty program which was active in Bedford Stuyvesant between 1963 and 1978. Abdulkkhabir devoted his time to photography projects to educate and motivate youth. His photographs were also published in Jihadul Akbar, a monthly magazine published by the Dar-ul-Islam movement.