Are Native Americans Muslims? The Truth Behind the Myth

The question “Are Native Americans Muslims?” might sound humorous at first, yet social media platforms today are flooded with claims asserting that Native Americans were Muslims long before Columbus. Some even allege that Muslim explorers discovered America before the Europeans, and that Western powers erased all evidence of this truth. Among those who promote this idea is Jihad al-Turbani, author of “One Hundred Greats of the Islamic Nation”, who argued that the Native Americans were part of the Islamic civilisation and that Europeans exterminated them because of their faith. However, these claims have no historical or scholarly foundation — they belong to the realm of myth and imagination.

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What Does “Discovery” Really Mean?

Before delving deeper, it’s important to clarify what we mean by “discovery.” The Arabic root كشف (kashafa) means to uncover or to find something previously unknown. In science, we say someone discovered penicillin or uncovered the law of gravity — not because the phenomena didn’t exist before, but because they revealed something hidden.

In that sense, America wasn’t “discovered” by Columbus, nor by any single nation. The lands were already known to indigenous peoples who had inhabited the Americas for thousands of years — nations and tribes later called “Native Americans.” Even the Vikings reached North America around 1003 CE and founded a short-lived settlement called Vinland in present-day Canada.

However, the European “discovery” of America marked the moment these continents were connected to what Europe called the civilised world. This event transformed the political and cultural landscape of the globe, bringing both technological advancement and horrific exploitation.

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Did Muslims Reach America First?

Even if we were to assume — purely hypothetically — that Muslims reached the Americas before Columbus, this would not be a point of pride. On the contrary, it would raise questions about why they failed to deliver the message of Islam to those lands. Islam commands believers to convey the truth wherever they go. Had Muslims truly reached America first, they should have spread the faith and established a civilisational presence there.

Furthermore, no credible Islamic historian ever mentioned such a discovery. Ibn Khaldun, the father of sociology, who died around the same century as Columbus’s voyage, never wrote a single line about a civilisation beyond the “Sea of Darkness” (the Atlantic Ocean). Likewise, Ibn Kathir, known for his meticulous chronicling in Al-Bidaya wal-Nihaya, did not refer to any Muslim kingdom or people living in the Americas. Neither did Ibn al-Athir nor any other historian of the Muslim world.

If there had truly been Muslim nations across the Atlantic, would no one have travelled from there to perform Hajj, or mentioned them in centuries of rich Islamic literature? The absence of evidence is, in this case, evidence of absence.

The True Story of America’s “Discovery”

The roots of the European discovery of America go back to the Crusades. After being expelled from the Levant by the Mamluks in 1291 CE, the Crusaders sought new ways to strike back at the Muslim world — by sea. Their ambition was to reach Makkah and Madinah through a maritime route, sailing around Africa and entering the Red Sea via Bab al-Mandab.

The Portuguese achieved this when they reached the Cape of Good Hope in 1487. Seeing this, Spain aimed to outdo them by finding a western route to India. This ambition led to Christopher Columbus’s expedition in 1492, which unexpectedly reached the Caribbean islands — an event that changed world history.

With this “discovery,” Christianity spread across four continents, while Europe, ravaged by wars, famine, and plague, found new lands to exploit. The Europeans enslaved Africa, exterminated indigenous peoples across the Americas, and built their so-called civilisation on the blood and bones of millions of innocent souls.

The rise of Western power was thus not a triumph of enlightenment, but a colonial resurrection built on genocide, slavery, and greed.

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Debunking the Myth of Muslim Native Americans

The claim that Native Americans were Muslims has no basis in historical, archaeological, or linguistic evidence. All surviving records — from temples, idols, and carvings — clearly show that the indigenous civilisations of the Americas were polytheistic, worshipping spirits, stars, and celestial beings.

Attempts to claim otherwise often rely on misinterpretations and fabrications. For instance, Turbani referenced a story from al-Idrisi’s Nuzhat al-Mushtaq, where Andalusian youths sailed westward and encountered fair-skinned people speaking some Arabic. But upon examination, the account refers to the Canary Islands, then under Norman control, where Berber translators spoke Arabic — not the Americas.

Similarly, claims about the Piri Reis map are exaggerated. The Ottoman admiral’s 1513 map was based on Spanish charts of the time, depicting crude coastlines of South America, not Antarctica or pre-Columbian voyages. No Ottoman historian ever recorded Piri Reis as having reached the Americas.

Thus, the theory that Native Americans were Muslims collapses under even basic historical scrutiny.

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The Reality of the Indigenous Civilisations

The Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas, like other indigenous peoples, were idol-worshippers. Many regarded invading Spanish conquistadors as divine beings — the Aztecs even worshipped Hernán Cortés as the “god of storms.” This misplaced reverence allowed 600 Spanish soldiers to annihilate an empire of millions.

Their tragedy, like that of many colonised peoples, serves as a reminder of how ignorance and misguidance lead to downfall, while faith and truth bring strength and unity.

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Conclusion

The notion that Native Americans were Muslims may sound appealing to those seeking pride in Islamic history, but it distorts reality. True honour lies not in imagined glory, but in acknowledging truth, learning from history, and fulfilling the duty of da‘wah — to spread Islam through knowledge, justice, and mercy, not myth.

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