Muslims have been arriving in the New World from the sixteenth century to the present. The horrors of the lives of Muslim slaves mark the first accounts, while the horrors of the lives of Muslim immigrants in the aftermath of the tragedies of September 11, 2001, mark the latest accounts. Muslims have settled in almost every part of the Americas. Their relationships with other immigrants and with indigenous peoples have been as varied as their success in planting Islam in the religious landscape.

There have been problems with accurately documenting the earliest arrivals. Various accounts of Muslims arriving in North America prior to Columbus have yet to be proven. Recent research on Muslim slaves from West Africa, however, has been much more definitive. It is now documented that Muslims were among the first African slaves to arrive in the New Worlds, as early as...