The resilience of Islam
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Diouf in his piece entitled “Servants of Allah” explores enslaved African Muslim's experiences in the so-called “United States”. He writes how enslaved people used the five main pillars of Islam as a form of resilience and resistance against slavery. For example, Diouf writes about the experiences of Bilali Mohamed who remained a Muslim for his whole life and even “died uttering the shahada”. This experience highlights how Islam was used by enslaved people to resist and help maintain cultural and community connections in spite of oppression from settlers.
Diouf also writes how “The non-Catholic Europeans were allowed to continue their rites in the privacy of their homes, but the slave’s religion became illegal.” Highlighting how the denial of an enslaved person's religion was an attempt to deny their humanity. Yet the morals and identity found in Islam helped keep their humanity despite the dehumanizing conditions they faced. This ultimately underscores how Islam became a tool used by enslaved people to assert their cultural heritage and spirituality against their oppressors.