{"id":137,"date":"2011-03-31T12:43:01","date_gmt":"2011-03-31T12:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/preserving\/?p=137"},"modified":"2012-06-25T09:08:15","modified_gmt":"2012-06-25T13:08:15","slug":"alexander-russell-webb-and-the-american-muslim-propagation-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/2011\/03\/31\/alexander-russell-webb-and-the-american-muslim-propagation-movement\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander Russell Webb and the American Muslim Propagation Movement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alexander Russell Webb (1846-1916: journalist, publisher, and U.S. ambassador) is noted as the first American to have converted to Islam.\u00a0 Raised as a Presbyterian,\u00a0 Webb eventually abandoned his Christian upbringing to investigate other faiths, ultimately converting to Islam in 1888.\u00a0 Ironically, while he declared himself a Muslim, Webb had not even met a single Muslim.\u00a0 Soon afterwards, he toured India, where he met a number of Muslims and gave speeches.\u00a0 Upon his return to the U.S in 1892., he established the Oriental Publishing Company in New York and began The Moslem World<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, the official organ of the American Muslim Propagation Movement.\u00a0 In this work, published in 1893, Webb tells his own story and explains the American Islamic Propaganda Movement and its proposed benefit to the American public.<\/p>\n

In his introduction, he states:<\/p>\n

<\/dl>\n

“The almost universal disposition, among liberal-minded Americans,<\/em>
\n to know more of the Oriental religions than their ancestors<\/em>
\n knew, has been productive of at least one good result, viz., the<\/em>
\n breaking away from soul-destroying religious superstitions; and the<\/em>
\n development of an independent, fearless spirit of thought and investigation,….<\/em><\/p>\n

The primary purpose of this book is not to destroy nor weaken<\/em>
\n any creed or system of theology, nor to make proselytes for Islam,<\/em>
\n but to arouse and encourage among English-speaking Christians a<\/em>
\n spirit of calm, persistent and unprejudiced investigation to bo<\/em>
\n applied to their own as well as other systems of religion.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
Description:<\/dt>\n
Webb, Alexander Russell. Islam in America :a brief statement of Mohammedanism and an outline of the American Islamic propaganda. New York : Oriental Publ. Co., 1893.<\/dd>\n
Persistent Link:<\/dt>\n
http:\/\/nrs.harvard.edu\/urn-3:FHCL:2562348<\/a><\/dd>\n
Repository:<\/dt>\n
Widener Library<\/dd>\n
Institution:<\/dt>\n
Harvard University<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Islam in America :a brief statement of Mohammedanism and an outline of the American Islamic propaganda.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alexander Russell Webb (1846-1916: journalist, publisher, and U.S. ambassador) is noted as the first American to have converted to Islam.\u00a0 Raised as a Presbyterian,\u00a0 Webb eventually abandoned his Christian upbringing to investigate other faiths, ultimately converting to Islam in 1888.\u00a0 Ironically, while he declared himself a Muslim, Webb had not even met a single Muslim.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2559,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2559"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions\/176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}