Starting this weekend, a new series on PBS dives into the early history of Muslims in the United States. The six-part documentary, “American Muslims: A History Revealed,” looks at notable figures and communities spanning more than 200 years. Geoff Bennett speaks with Asma Khalid of the BBC, one of the series’ three hosts, for more.
Geoff Bennett:
Starting this weekend, a new series on PBS dives into the early history of Muslims in the U.S., looking at notable figures, communities, and spanning more than 200 years uncovering stories that few people have heard.
Man:
There’s never been an America without Muslims.
Woman:
I’m one of three journalists following the trail.
Man:
Each of us exploring a defining moment in American history.
Woman:
Tracing a legacy that’s coming back into view.
Man:
That’s Jefferson’s initial.
Man:
There was one of the founding fathers imagining Muslim Americans.
Woman:
A completely new nation that included more than just Christians.
Geoff Bennett:
It’s a six-part documentary called “American Muslims: A History Revealed.” It launches this weekend on PBS stations across the country and on the PBS app.
Asma Khalid of the BBC is one of three hosts exploring all of this and joins us now.
Great to see you.
Asma Khalid, BBC:
Great to see you. Thanks for having me.
Geoff Bennett:
So what’s the story that you’re aiming to tell with this documentary series? And why does it matter right now?
Asma Khalid:
So, Geoff, I’ve been a long-time political reporter. I covered a lot of campaigns.
And I will say that there’s long been an active debate in our country about who gets to be an American. And I think that those conversations and that debate has become even more right now as we’re inching closer to our nation’s 250th birthday, debates over who is an American, what it means to be an American, and whose story is told.
And I think what’s really interesting about this series and what attracted me to being a part of it is ultimately that the story is a lot more complex, it’s a lot more nuanced.
And I think that that’s what people will find when they would see the series, is that there’s a really diverse part of America that we’re not always told about, not just sort of on the margins, but central, stories around slavery, around the founding of this nation, a Muslim who was involved in the Civil War.
And I just love the idea that we’re really engaging with that as our country…
(Crosstalk)
Geoff Bennett:
Well, let’s talk more about that, because there’s one episode where you focus on a man who had been enslaved who ultimately becomes a property owner in Georgetown. Let’s take a look.
Narrator:
We know that some African Muslims left their names. They show up in plantation records and runaway slave ads. Others left their writings, many of them in Arabic. A few left their image.
Among them was Mamadou Yarrow, also known as Yarrow Mamout. He was painted not once, but twice. It’s one of the things that makes him stand out.
Precious Rasheeda Muhammad, Author:
He gives us a story of what it was like to gain freedom and then live after that and practice as a free person. I don’t think we have any other story like that.
Geoff Bennett:
What did you learn about his life that really stayed with you?
Asma Khalid:
So, I would say what stayed with me the most is that I didn’t know this story. I didn’t really know the details of it all yet.
And, Geoff, I admit I’m embarrassed to say that, because Mamadou Yarrow was a slave in Montgomery County, Maryland, where I live. As you say, he bought a house. He lived in Georgetown, the streets that I have walked so many times. And I just wasn’t intimately familiar with his story.
We used primary sources in a lot of these documentaries relying on letters, archive material, portraits, as you say. I mean, Mamadou Yarrow’s portrait hangs now in the Philadelphia Art Museum. And, to me, that was just so important to know that here I am walking these same streets and there’s a part of American history that resonates back with Muslims being here also for generations and generations that I had not really known.
Geoff Bennett:
The series also traces Muslim communities coming to the U.S. from South Asia. What’s the through line there?
Asma Khalid:
Yes, I mean, there’s a lot of stories that we looked at that I think are grappling with some of the key debates that we’re grappling with now as a nation, right, around issues of religious freedom, around issues of immigration.
And the episode that you mentioned there around South Asian migration dates back to the early, let’s say, 20th century. We had people coming from what is now India and Pakistan, which was then the British Empire, coming, settling in sort of California, Arizona, often intermarrying with Mexican women because of the racial laws at that time period.
And long story short, there is a lot in those conversations and those stories that deal with immigration and questions of exclusion and inclusion that we are to this day dealing with around our immigration system.
Geoff Bennett:
When viewers finish this series, what do you want them to walk away with or to understand differently that they might not have known before?
Asma Khalid:
I’d love for people to get a sense that the American story is a lot more complex than perhaps we all initially thought, right, and that Muslims are a part of that story.
I think often, candidly, as a Muslim, I think people sometimes might see you as being foreign or other or a secondary person who moved here later. And I loved what the story showed, because they showed that Muslims were a part of shaping our American story. And that’s been really meaningful for me as well to report on.
Geoff Bennett:
Asma Khalid, one of the hosts of “American Muslims: A History Revealed” airing this weekend on PBS.
Asma Khalid:
Thank you.
Geoff Bennett:
Great to see you.
Asma Khalid:
Great to see you.
