Muhammad Ali, whom American presidents and statesmen, non-black Muslim American clergy and leaders rushed to eulogize and honor on June 3, 2016, was one of the most visible faces of the Nation of Islam in the 1960s. Ali and Malcolm X remain the two most beloved and widely known Muslim Americans, so why is the specific demographic they represent, African American Muslims, still pushed to the fringe? And why, given that African American Muslims are the biggest plurality of the Muslim American population today, are discussions of Islamophobia divorced from assessments of anti-black racism?

QUESTION: The author poses an open question about why Islamophobia discussions separate from anti-black racism—worth investigating the systemic causes and history behind this separation. SEED: An essay angle: the erasure of Black Islam from mainstream Islamophobia discourse despite demographic majority. Could explore how media representation skews toward immigrant Muslim voices.

Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Unde…, loc. 451