ISLAM
African-Americans and Islam: growth and change

IN THE NORTHEAST
• Ernest Allen Jr. is a professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. He has written about the evolution of the Nation of Islam from its roots as the Moorish Science Temple to the stepping down of Farrakhan. Contact 413-545-2751, eallen@afroam.umass.edu.
• Abdullah Farruuq is the imam at The Mosque for the Praising of Allah in Roxbury, Mass. He is also on the Inner-City Muslim Alliance Network’s new Community Re-Entry program, aimed at recently incarcerated African-Americans, especially those who are Muslims. Contact 617-442-2805, mosquepraiseallah@aol.com.
• Jeffrey Ogbonna Green Ogbar is director of the Institute for African American Studies at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. Contact 860-486-0641, jeffrey.ogbar@uconn.edu.

IN THE EAST
• Aisha al-Adawiya is the founder and director of Women in Islam, a human rights organization based in New York, N.Y. She is an expert on African-American Islamic women. Contact al-adawiya@womeninislam.org.
• Eddie Glaude Jr. is an associate professor of religion at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J. He specializes in African-American religious history and is the editor of Is It Nation Time? Contemporary Essays on Black Power and Black Nationalism (University of Chicago Press, 2002). Contact esglaude@princeton.edu.
• James Jones is an associate professor of world religions at Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y. He wrote a paper titled “Islam, Incarceration and the African American Male.” Contact 914-323-5134, jonesj@mville.edu.
• Craig Keener is a professor of New Testament at Palmer Theological Seminary at Eastern University in Wynnewood, Pa. He co-authored an article on the Nation of Islam for A Guide to New Religious Movements (InterVarsity Press, 2005). He is an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Contact 610-896-5000, ckeener@eastern.edu.
• Manning Marable is director of the Center for Contemporary Black History and the Malcolm X Project at Columbia University in New York, N.Y., and is currently at work on a biography about the African-American leader and Islam. Contact 212-854-7080, mm247@columbia.edu.
• Yusuf Saleem is the imam at Masjid Muhammad in Washington, D.C. The mosque was founded by members of the Nation of Islam but followed W. Deen Mohammed into mainstream Islam. Contact 202-483-8832, msjdmuhwdc@aol.com.
• Amina Wadud is an associate professor of Islamic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. In March 2005, she created a controversy when she led a group of New York Muslims in the Friday congregational prayer, the first time a woman performed as an imam and prayer leader. Contact 804-827-3406, awadud@vcu.edu.
• Abdul Khadir Muhammad is the leader of Muhammad Mosque No. 4, the Mid-Atlantic regional headquarters for the Nation of Islam, in Washington, D.C. Contact 202-575-4949.
• Kevin Muhammad is the leader of Muhammad Mosque No. 7 in New York, N.Y. Contact 212-865-1200.

IN THE SOUTHEAST
• Khalil Akbar is the resident imam at Masjid Ash-Shaheed, a predominantly African-American mosque in Charlotte, N.C. Contact 704-598-4274, imam@ashshaheed.com.
• Herbert Berg is an associate professor in the department of philosophy and religion at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. He wrote a paper, “Mythmaking in the African American Muslim Context: The Moorish Science Temple, the Nation of Islam and the Muslim Society of America,” which appeared in the 2005 edition of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion. Contact 910-962-3299, bergh@uncw.edu.
• Shaykh Abdullah Nooruddeen Durkee is caliph of Shaykh Ibrahim Muhammad al-Battawi, of the Shadhuliyyah-Badawiyyah (Sufi) order. Based in Charlottesville, Va., he serves as imam and works with prisoners, university students, Muslim immigrants and African-American communities in Charlotte N.C.; Columbia S.C.; Augusta, Harrisonburg, Bedford, Farmville, Richmond, Staunton and Charlottesville, Va. Contact 434-977-8812, and@an-noor.net.
• Plemon Tauheed El-Amin is the imam of the Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam. He is an aide to W. Deen Mohammed and The Mosque Cares. Contact 404-378-1600.
• Jamillah Karim is an assistant professor of philosophy and religious studies at Spelman College in Atlanta. Her expertise includes connections and tensions among African-American Muslims and immigrant Muslims in the U.S. Contact 404-270-5524, JKarim@spelman.edu.
• Abdul Sharrief Muhammad is the leader of Muhammad Mosque No. 15, the Southern regional headquarters for the Nation of Islam, in Atlanta. Contact 404-344-9399.
• Rasul Muhammad is the leader of Muhammad Mosque No. 29, the Caribbean headquarters of the Nation of Islam, in Miami. Contact 305-756-9136.
• Ellen McLarney is an assistant professor of the practice of Asian and African languages and literature at Duke University in Chapel Hill, N.C. She has taught a course called “Local Islams,” in which students study the diversity of Islam practiced in the Chapel Hill area, including interactions and relationships between local African-American Muslims and immigrant Muslims. Contact 919-681-4592, ellenmc@duke.edu.

IN THE SOUTH
• Curtis Austin is an assistant professor of history at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. He has written articles about Elijah Muhammad and Wallace Fard Muhammad for Holy People of the World: A Cross-Cultural Encyclopedia (ABC-CLIO, 2004). Contact 601-266-6973, curtis.j.austin@usm.edu.
• Felicia Miyakawa is an assistant professor of musicology at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. She is the author of Five Percenter Rap: God Hop’s Music, Message and Black Muslim Mission (Indiana University Press, 2005). Contact 615-904-8043, miyakawa@mtsu.edu.
• Rafeeq Nu’man is the imam at Masjid Ur-Raheem, a predominantly African-American mosque in New Orleans. The mosque was founded by members who were influenced by the Nation of Islam, but it now follows mainstream Islam. It was damaged in Hurricane Katrina, and approximately half the families have relocated. It reopened in late 2006. Contact 504-827-0017.

IN THE MIDWEST
• Kurt Buhring is an assistant professor of religious studies at St. Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Ind. He has written about Elijah Muhammad for the Encyclopedia of American Religion and Politics (Facts on File, 2003). Contact 574-284-4929, kbuhring@saintmarys.edu.
• Claude Clegg III is a history professor at Indiana University in Bloomington. He wrote An Original Man: The Life and Times of Elijah Muhammad (St. Martin’s Press, 1997). Contact 812-855-3236, cclegg@indiana.edu.
• Debra Mubashshir Majeed is an associate professor of philosophy and religious studies at Beloit College in Beloit, Wis. She has written about Clara Muhammad for the Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America (Indiana University Press, 2006). Contact 608-363-2318, mubashsh@beloit.edu.
• Richard Brent Turner is a professor of religious studies at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, where he teaches a course titled “African American Islam in International Perspective.” He wrote an article titled “Mainstream Islam in the African American Experience” that appears on the Web site of the Muslim American Society. Contact 319-335-2175, Richard-turner@uiowa.edu.
• Umar Al-Khattab is the imam at Masjid al-Fajr in Indianapolis. He is part of Inner-City Muslim Alliance Network’s new Community Re-Entry Program, an outreach program to African-American recently released from prison.  Contact 317-923-2847.
• Ausaf Farooqi is the Prison Project coordinator for CAIR-Chicago. The project does outreach to incarcerated Muslims, including African-American Muslims. Contact 312-212-1520.

IN THE SOUTHWEST
• Jabril Muhammad is a leader in the Nation of Islam and frequent contributor to The Final Call newspaper. His writings can be found at A Written Testimony. He lives in Phoenix. Contact via his Web site, customerservice@writtentestimony.com.
• Robert Muhammad is minister of Muhammad Mosque No. 45 in Houston, an affiliate of the Nation of Islam, and founder of ActionCDC, a nonprofit that works to establish community housing and other programs. Contact 713-926-2282.

IN THE WEST/NORTHWEST
• Frederick M. Denny is a professor of religious studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he teaches Islamic studies and is a specialist on Muslim communities in America. He has written about jailhouse religion as a challenge to the American Muslim community. Contact 303-492-6358, Frederick.Denny@Colorado.EDU.
• Tony Muhammad is the leader of Muhammad Mosque No. 27, the Western regional headquarters of the Nation of Islam, in Los Angeles. Contact 323-789-1095.
• Megan Reid is an assistant professor of Islam in the school of religion at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She is researching an article on the first African-American Muslims to make a pilgrimage to Mecca in the 1930s. Contact 213-740-0270, meganreid@usc.edu.
• Naim Shah Jr. is a Sunni Muslim who was raised in the Nation of Islam. He is chairman of the board of directors at the mostly African-American Masjid Ibaadillah in Los Angeles. Contact naimshahjr@msn.com.
• Imam Zaid Shakir is an African-American who converted to Islam during his service in the Air Force. He is a resident scholar at Zaytuna Institute in Hayward, Calif., which calls him a leader in an emerging indigenous American Muslim tradition. His areas of expertise include African-American Islam. Contact 510-582-1979.
• Faheem Shuaibe is the resident imam of Masjidul Waritheen, an affiliate of W. Deen Mohammed’s group, in Oakland, Calif. His Web site contains his teachings. Contact 510-436-7755, Sabilillah@aol.com.