USA
The fact that Muslims arrived in the Americas before the European colonial powers and that Muslim explorers crossed the Pacific Ocean and reached the Americas long before Christopher Columbus is a well-known fact today, even though it is not acknowledged by the dominant Eurocentric approach to history. However, it is commonly accepted that the first Muslims on the continent were African Muslims brought from Africa by European colonizers as slaves for labor. It is believed that about half a million people from West Africa were brought to what is now the United States as slaves in the 18th century and that about 20% of them were Muslims. However, a significant number of these people were separated from their faith and Christianized over time. At the time of the founding of the USA, it is known that there were a small number of Muslims in the country.
Today, Muslims constitute the third most populous religious community in the USA after Christians and Jews. The number of Muslims in the country is over 3.5 million (some say over 4 million), which is more than 1% of the population. Muslims are the richest religious community in terms of ethnicity, socioeconomic structure, etc. Two-thirds of the country's Muslims are Sunni. Muslims are mainly populated in cities and states such as Washington, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Texas, California, Detroit (Michigan), and Chicago (Illinois). However, Islam is the fastest-growing faith in the United States due to Muslim immigrants from all over the world, the natural increase in the existing Muslim population, and the growing interest of other members of society. In the coming years, Muslims are expected to become the second most populous religious group in the country. There are currently more than 2,000 mosques in the country.
The anti-Islamic statements and implementations adopted by the US administration on a global scale are also reflected in its policies toward the country's Muslims. The fact that the US made anti-Islamism its main policy during the Cold War and especially in the post-9/11 period has led to the classification of US Muslims as potential "terrorists" and caused them to face serious problems in education, trade, social, and daily life. Anti-Islamism is manifested in legal regulations, security policies, social trends, and political discourse and practices, making the lives of the country's Muslims extremely difficult. Research by civil society organizations shows that Muslims are the religious community most subjected to discrimination, and verbal and physical violence in the country.