Strategic pandering
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The Western empires accommodated African Muslims if they were deemed useful in furthering their economic interests, specifically expanding trade. At the same time, enslaved African Muslims disowned the black identity assigned to them (de-negrofication) in favor of the more lofty Muslim identity within which they found greater dignity and status: "African Muslims also displayed a certain sense of superiority. Most of the documented African Muslims in antebellum America, in fact, derived from noble and literate backgrounds, levels of cultivation that attracted the attention of white Americans" (GhaneaBassiri 22). Like J.J. Singh a century later, African Muslims utilized their socioeconomic standing to argue/assert their humanity. I'm sure they realized the value capital held in American society plus the respect that came with it and lay some fabricated claim to it. After all, not all of the enslaved African Muslims in antebellum America could have descended from noble lineage, at the same time that there exists bias in what ultimately gets recorded.
Besides capital, African Muslims also used religion to manipulate colonialists as we see with Abdul Rahman's faked appeal to Christianity: "Abdul Rahman’s purported conversion to Christianity and his promise to help its propagation in Africa was most likely a ploy to boost support for the manumission of his children, for once he was back in Africa, it was reported that ‘Abdul Rahman “died in the faith of his fathers – a Mahometan" (GhaneaBassiri 28).