On Tuesday, September 19th, DISC professor, Professor Sylvia Chan-Malik, visited the University of Michigan and gave a lecture in the Hatcher Gallery, titled, “Being Muslims: A Cultural History of Women of Color in US Islam”.
Professor Chan-Malik began her talk with a picture, a picture depicting “Four American Moslem Ladies,” as the caption from a 1923 publication called them. A picture that has been used in publications and in academia, but with very little background information, Professor Chan-Malik sought to investigate why we, as viewers, academics and historians, look at these women, and use their image without inquiring as to who they were?
In order to begin investigating this question, Professor Chan-Malik began to explore how Islam re-emerged within the African American community in the 1920’s. From what little is known about the women in the picture, Professor Chan-Malik delved into another question, how and why Islam re-emerged in the African American community. The Great Migration, Bronzeville, the Black Church and respectability politics all played a part in the re-development of Islam within the community, specifically the Ahmadiyya branch of Islam, introduced by Mufti Muhammad Sadiq in the 1920’s.
This event was co-sponsored by the Digital Islamic Studies Curriculum, the Islamic Studies Program, the Arab and Muslim American Studies Department, the Afro-American and African Studies Department, and the Women’s Studies Department.