Historically and presently, African Americans represent the main converts to Islam in the United States. Although blacks comprise only 30 percent of the overall Muslim population in the United States, they constitute 64 percent of Muslim converts in the U.S. (Bagby 2001). Why are blacks more likely to convert, and what are the links between race and religion in this case? The beginning of an answer to this question lies in the discourse surrounding the word “conversion” itself. Many Muslims prefer the term “reversion” to describe the choice to practice Islam. “Reversion” refers to the idea that all people are born Muslim, but are led to other practices by their parents and other influences from their environment. When one chooses to practice Islam and accept submission to Allah, this involves “reverting” to the natural state.

But the term “reversion” has further significance for some. Many African-American Muslims 1 consider themselves to have pre-slavery Islamic roots in Africa, ties which were severed by the slave trade and by coercion to practice Christianity. Many consider the practice of Islam to be a return, or reversion, to those pre-slavery roots, believing that they would have been practicing Islam in Africa had it not been for slavery. In interviews that I conducted in Philadelphia, several African-American Muslims have pointed to a return to lost roots as an important aspect of their identities. My research and fieldwork have been focused on the extent of this notion’s influence on African-American “reversion” to Islam, and the relations between racial identity and religious identity in the context of African-American Islam.