Abstract
The American-Muslim community is composed largely of first generation immigrants—mainly from South Asia and Arab lands—and first generation African-American converts. Although this demographic is changing as the second generation of both immigrants and converts slowly come of age, the reality remains that relations between African-American Muslims and immigrant Muslims constitute one of the most decisive dynamics in the American-Muslim community. Works on the African-American Muslim experience have described an uneasy and often contentious relationship between African Americans and immigrants. Peter Skerry, in a recent article observes, “African-American Muslims tend to see the world very differently from their immigrant coreligionists. Relations between African-American and immigrant Muslims are strained at worst, wary at best.”