Islam in New York City
[3] The history of Islam in New York City can be traced back to the 17th century, with the foundation of the New Amsterdam colony.
[5] As with other parts of the United States, small-scale Muslim migration to New York began in the 1840s, with the arrival of Yemenis and Turks, as well as Bengali and Levantine sailors and merchants and lasted until World War I.
Imam Majid played an influential role introducing large parts of the city to mainstream Sunni Islam.
The passing of the Hart-Celler Act in 1965 opened the way for a rapid growth of immigration into the United States from several Muslim-majority countries.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the city began receiving Muslim refugees from war-torn areas of the world, as well as green card lottery recipients from countries such as Bangladesh and the new Central Asian republics.
Through skilled employment visas and family reunification programs, immigration also increased from countries such as Pakistan, Senegal, Ghana, Guyana, Egypt, Palestine, and Yemen.
Alongside other foreign-born residents, they would play a key role in reviving the city's fortunes following the crisis years of the 1970s.
The 1970s also saw the formal foundation of a wave of religious community organizations, including the Nigerian Muslim Association (Masjid Ibaadurahman) in Fort Greene and the Muslim Center of New York in Flushing, which was built by South Asian migrants and funded by Saudi Arabia.
Keen to exert influence over these groups and to take advantage of their location at the centre of global political and economic power, many of these governments turned their attention to urban mega-mosque projects, such as London's Regent's Park Mosque.
The INS Special Registration System, which required that noncitizen adult men from 24 Muslim-majority countries register with the newly formed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, had a noted impact on the city's Muslim communities.
It is estimated that up to 20,000 Muslims fled Brooklyn alone during this period, as a result of FBI raids and widespread fear around deportation and religious persecution.
The NYPD focused specifically on Muslim institutions and neighborhoods, notably excluding from its scope the activities of Iranian Jews and Egyptian Copts.
[28] [29] New York's Muslims have responded to these challenges in a variety of ways, from filing lawsuits against the police to running for political office and focusing on business or stacking up.
The climate of the Trump years has also fomented the rise of progressive Muslim politicians, including New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and City Councillor Shahana Hanif.
Various Shia mosques can be found across the outer boroughs, and an annual Ashura procession has taken place in Manhattan since the mid-1980s.
Paterson has been nicknamed Little Ramallah and contains a neighborhood with the same name and an Arab American population estimated as high as 20,000 in 2015.
Mohammed Akhtaruzzaman was ultimately certified as the winner of the 2012 city council race in the Second Ward, making him northern New Jersey's first Bangladeshi-American elected official.
