Mr. Jihad, a former Chicago police officer and statistician turned housing developer in Miami, shares his extraordinary journey from a Christian Baptist household through the Nation of Islam to orthodox Islam. His story is intertwined with the hidden history of Muslims in America — a history that stretches back 800 years before Columbus and laid the foundations for the nation’s economic and technological power.
Muslims in America Before Columbus
Long before European colonizers arrived, Muslims left their imprint across the American continent. Arabic writings, Quranic verses, and hadiths have been found on parchments, walls, and mounds in states like Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Louisiana — a state that has a city named Quran. The historical figure Mansa Musa’s predecessor set sail westward with 200 ships, and archaeological evidence suggests African Muslims reached the Americas 800 years before Columbus. Queen Isabella and Ferdinand conscripted Muslim navigators who could chart the stars using astrolabes they invented to make their voyages possible.
“When the missionaries came, we had the land and they had the Bible. But when they left, we had the Bible and they had the land. Muslims have been here foundationally — the African Muslims they brought over were literate, educated, knew agriculture, crop rotation, and the stars. No Muslim has to apologize for being in America.”
From White Jesus to the Nation to True Islam
Growing up in an African-American church with a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Jesus on the wall, Jihad describes how colonialism used religious imagery as a tool of subjugation. The Nation of Islam, despite its theological flaws, performed an essential service: it gave Black Americans pride, identity, and the knowledge that God is Allah and the Quran is His book. He credits the Nation with vanquishing the image of white Jesus from many Black churches and creating a staging ground for true Islam.
“Allah says in the Quran: I bring the living from the dead and the dead from the living. We were dead to the knowledge of our true selves, dead to our history and contributions. The Nation of Islam was the staging area to get to true Islam — we would not have gotten it without that movement.”
The Purpose of Life Answered
- Islam answered the question that philosophy courses at DePaul University could not: the purpose of life is to worship the Creator, who sent prophets as walking manuals for human conduct
- This life is a portal — the body wears out like a car, but the soul carries forward and will be held accountable starting in the grave
- The Prophet Muhammad’s last sermon declared that no black is better than a white, no Arab better than a non-Arab — Islam transcends race entirely
- Every Muslim, whether immigrant or born in America, should present Islam with confidence rather than apologizing, because Muslims have been foundational to this country from the very beginning
