By Claudia Henneberry, Guest Contributor
Arlington, Virginia - There is a sustained effort on the political left to present Muslims and Islamic culture as integral to America from its earliest days, and to frame American Muslims primarily as an oppressed community entitled to special recognition. This campaign reflects a shared hostility toward traditional Western norms shared by the progressive left and Islamic jihadists.
The six-part series “American Muslims: A History Revealed,” streaming on PBS and YouTube, is presented as a documentary that “explores the rich and often overlooked history of American Muslims.” According to PBS, it fills a “knowledge gap” and addresses “misconceptions.” The series is a sponsored project of the Filmmakers Collaborative and has received support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, among other funders. Mellon has also funded initiatives that resist traditional civic education and viewpoint diversity. Given that record, its backing of this series invites scrutiny.
The episodes are hosted by journalists Malika Bilal (with Al Jazeera), Aymann Ismail (with Slate), and Asma Khalid (formerly with NPR). Each host presents two episodes. Classroom discussion guides and materials for grades 6–12 are available on the PBS site, extending the series’ reach into schools.
The Episodes: A Pattern of Selective Emphasis
Episode 1 – “Is This One of America’s First Mosques?” Aymann Ismail recounts the story of Hassen and Mary Juma, early 20th-century homesteaders in Ross, North Dakota, who built what is presented as one of the first mosques in America. The episode frames immigration restrictions and homesteading as expressions of American racism and colonial displacement of Native Americans. Scholar Edward Curtis describes homesteading as “a policy of colonial settlement” and calls the rural Midwest’s roots “multicultural and multireligious,” urging a rewritten history that includes these pioneers.
Episode 2 – “From Slavery to Freedom: The Untold Story of America’s First Muslims” Asma Khalid asserts that “tens of thousands of Muslims” were already present in colonial America as enslaved West Africans. The episode highlights their labor in building the early economy, but largely omits the roles of Sub-Saharan African and North African Arab slave traders in the capture and sale of those individuals. It portrays later conversion to Christianity among Black Muslims as a tragic loss of identity.
Episode 3 – “Fighting for Freedom: The Little-Known Story of Muslims and the Civil War” Malika Bilal profiles Muslim Union soldiers such as Muhammad Kahn and Nicholas Said, and cites a Tunisian official’s letter urging the end of American slavery, while not objecting to Islamic slavery in Tunisia. The episode claims Islamic teachings inspired opposition to slavery and that American slavery was “uniquely brutal.” It does not note that classical Islamic sources and practice historically and today all accept slavery, or slavery persists in Muslim-majority contexts today.
Episode 4 – “How South Asian Muslims and Mexican Americans United in the 1920s” Khalid tells the story of Mir Dad, a South Asian Muslim who entered the United States illegally in 1917 and settled in the Southwest. The episode emphasizes race-based immigration and naturalization laws as uniquely American prejudice. It underplays the fact that most nations, including India at the time, regulated emigration and immigration. Claims about anti-miscegenation laws are presented broadly even though Mir Dad married a Mexican woman.
Episode 5 – “How Muslims Influenced Thomas Jefferson and America’s Founders” Ismail examines Jefferson’s ownership of a Quran, a dinner with a Tunisian ambassador, and plantation records at Monticello and Mount Vernon. The episode suggests significant numbers of enslaved African Muslims and interprets names such as “Fatimer” as evidence of Muslim identity. It presents Keith Ellison’s 2007 swearing-in on Jefferson’s Quran as a symbolic affirmation that Muslims “have always been here.” (Ellison’s ancestry includes both enslaved people and free people of color with complex Louisiana Creole histories that involved slaveholding; the series’ framing of him simply as “descended from enslaved people” is incomplete.)
Episode 6 – “How Islam Influenced Black Americans in 1920s Chicago” Bilal explores the appeal of Islam among black migrants during the Great Migration of blacks from the American South to the big cities of the Northeast and Midwest from 1910 to 1950. Scholars describe Islam as offering resistance to “mental colonialism” and a community free of racism. The episode features movements such as the Ahmadiyya, Moorish Science Temple, and Nation of Islam—groups whose doctrines diverge significantly from mainstream Sunni or Shia Islam.
Across the series, the dominant narrative is that America has been uniquely racist and exclusionary, while Muslim contributions are presented as consistently positive and foundational. Doctrinal tensions between classical Islamic teachings and liberal democratic norms receive little attention.
Featured Contributors and Their Activism
Several scholars and producers featured in the series have records of anti-Israel activism:
• Maytha Alhassen (executive producer and on-screen contributor) has supported BDS, participated in Students for Justice in Palestine activities, and co-led anti-Israel solidarity efforts.
• Edward E. Curtis IV (frequent on-screen commentator) has served as faculty advisor to pro-Palestine groups, endorsed BDS, and co-authored pieces for outlets critical of Israel.
• Zareena Grewal (Yale professor, appears in Episode 4) has described herself as a “radical Muslim” and, immediately after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, posted statements affirming Palestinians’ “right to resist through armed struggle” against what she called a “genocidal settler state.” A petition sought her removal.
• Salah Hassan (Michigan State) has been active in the academic boycott of Israel (USACBI) and expressed solidarity with figures linked to Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Conclusion
The video series “American Muslims: A History Revealed” recovers some genuine and under-taught stories of Muslim presence in America. Yet its framing consistently emphasizes American racism and exclusion, while minimizing or omitting less flattering aspects of Islamic history, doctrine, and contemporary political activism. Classroom materials amplify this selective narrative to high school students.
The Mellon Foundation’s support for the project is consistent with its broader pattern of funding initiatives that prioritize certain “social justice” perspectives. Whether this constitutes balanced historical education or advocacy packaged as documentary remains the central question. When a major philanthropic institution underwrites material that enters public-school classrooms, the public is entitled to examine both the content and the worldview it advances.
____________________
About the Author: Claudia Henneberry is a retired high school teacher and a member of the Potomac Tea Party.
