Islam is growing fast among African Americans, according to recent survey data.

Converts within the black community say they are attracted to the disciplines of prayer, the emphasis within Islam on submission to God and the religion's affinity with people who are oppressed.

Some blacks are also suspicious of U.S. government warnings about the emergence of new enemies since the 2001 attacks because of memories of how the establishment demonized civil rights leaders Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.

As a result, they are willing to view Islam as a legitimate alternative to Christianity, the majority religion among U.S. blacks.

The future of African American Islam

"It is one of the fastest-growing religions in America," said Lawrence Mamiya, professor of religion at Vassar College, speaking of Islam among black Americans.

He said there were up to 2 million black U.S. Muslims but acknowledged there are no precise figures.

Black Americans typically attend mosques separate from Muslims from immigrant backgrounds despite sharing common beliefs, according to Aminah McCloud, religious studies professor at DePaul University in Chicago. 

Many blacks converted during the civil rights era, when Malcolm X helped popularize the Nation of Islam, attracting boxer Muhammad Ali among others. Islam still attracts prominent blacks such as rapper Scarface, a recent convert.

The future of African-American Islam weighs heavily on  the children of parents who joined and later left the Nation of Islam, the religion's black nationalist offshoot.

Now in their 20s, 30s and 40s, this new generation, born into the faith, confronts new challenges, starting with the perception that all black Muslims are converts, members of the Nation of Islam or somehow not quite "authentic."

Keenly aware of their parents' legacy, they face pressure to maintain communities built with racial pride and religious zeal, as well as struggles for acceptance by Muslims from traditionally Islamic countries.

The Nation of Islam, the introduction to Islam for many of the younger generation's parents, was founded in 1930 by Fard Muhammad, who preached black unification through Islam on the streets of Detroit. Followers regarded Fard Muhammad as a divine figure, and Elijah Muhammad, who led the movement after Fard's disappearance a few years later, as his messenger.

But when Elijah Muhammad died in 1975, his son, Warith D. Mohammed, took the movement into mainstream Islam. W.D. Mohammed still leads the movement today under the name The Mosque Cares. In 1978, Louis Farrakhan revived the Nation of Islam, including many of its black nationalist ideas.

While most black Muslims have distanced themselves from the Nation of Islam and embraced more traditional Islam, the movement's legacy, coupled with the perception that they are converts, still dog relations with immigrant Muslims.

Many immigrants assume black Muslims don't know Arabic, the language of the Quran and Muslim worship, and don't take them as "serious" or "authentic" Muslims. In some cases, black Muslims say, its simple racism.

While it is important to learn Arabic for worship and reading the Quran in its original text, many devout black Muslims say it is also important not to confuse Arab culture with religion.

Black Muslims have advantages over their immigrant counterparts, including cultural icons like boxer Muhammad Ali, comedian Dave Chapelle and rapper Mos Def. What's more, being black sometimes spares them suspicion of terrorist links, given the association of some Arab and South Asian Muslims with radical Islamist groups.