Ayuba Suleiman Diallo in the context of Thomas Bluett

Islam is the third-largest religion in the United States (1.34%) after Christianity (67%) and Judaism (2.4%). The 2020 United States Religion Census estimates that there are about 4,453,908 Muslim Americans of all ages living in the United States in 2020, making up 1.34% of the total U.S. population. In 2017, twenty states, mostly in the South and Midwest, reported Islam to be the largest non-Christian religion.

The first Muslims to arrive in America were enslaved people from West Africa (such as Omar ibn Said and Ayuba Suleiman Diallo). During the Atlantic slave trade, an estimated 10 to 30 percent of the slaves brought to colonial America from Africa were Muslims, however Islam was suppressed on plantations and the majority were forced to convert to Christianity. Nearly all enslaved Muslims and their descendants converted to Christianity during the 18th and 19th centuries, though the Black power movement of the 20th century would later influence the revival of Islam among descendants of slaves. Prior to the late 19th century, the vast majority of documented Muslims in North America were merchants, travelers, and sailors.