"Amrika"
The presence of Arab Muslims, as the Islamic faithful are known, is still relatively new in the United States. Despite their recent arrival, however, Arab-Americans of the Islamic faith have brought with them a religion and a culture rich in history and tradition.
Islam first began to make an impact on American life during the early years of the twentieth century. At that time, large numbers of Arab Muslims left the Ottoman Empire, which was centered in Turkey, to make the long and sometimes dangerous journey to the United States. For these immigrants, coming mainly from Lebanon and Palestine, the trek to "Amrika" was the beginning of a new life and new opportunities.
The new home to which the Muslims had come, however, was often less than welcoming. In the United States, they faced discrimination because of their exotic appearance, their strange language, their unusual customs, and their religions beliefs and practices, which many Americans found threatening. Arab-Americans did not have an easy time of it. Their native clothing sometimes also got them arrested for wearing "nightgowns" in public! Nevertheless, "Little Syrias" began appearing in urban areas throughout the country, complete with grocery stores, cafes, and social clubs that helped the new immigrants feel a little more at home.
At first, many Muslims found work in the automobile factories in Detroit. Many more made their living as peddlers, a type of salesman who traveled from town to town selling a variety of goods from buttons, ribbons, and lace to utensils, dishes, pots, and pans. Some even sold native handcrafts to curious buyers.
While male residents may have viewed the peddler's arrival with suspicion, more often than not women eagerly awaited his coming if only to see what new and exciting goods he had brought with him. Not only did Arab-American peddlers make money, but through their travels they gained a valuable opportunity to learn to speak English, to adopt American customs, and to assimilate to life in the United States. By the early 1920s, though, many peddlers had given up the road and settled down to open their own businesses. Soon Arab-American Muslims were operating restaurants, shoe parlors, fruit stands, butcher or tailor shops, and dry-goods or grocery stores. Some went on to found their own banks and import-export companies, while others entered the professions, becoming doctors and lawyers.
Women played an influential, and frequently overlooked, role in early Muslim immigrant communities. It was women who organized the funding for construction of the first mosques, as Islamic places of worship are called, in the United States. The first American mosque was built in 1915 in Maine. Shortly thereafter mosques opened for prayer in Highland Park, Michigan and Ross, North Dakota.
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