14 Muslims to Follow on #BlackLivesMatter

Precious Rasheeda Muhammad is an independent scholar of Islam in America, known for her ability to educate audiences of diverse faiths and backgrounds about America’s rich and unique Islamic heritage, and for her success in inspiring community-building across seemingly intractable racial, religious, and cultural divides through a deeper understanding of history. Precious earned a BA in Religion with honors from The University of Iowa and a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School.

She is widely recognized for her original research contributions to the history of the study of Islam in America. Her major contributions include her discovery of a 224-page autobiography of an African of Muslim heritage who served in the American Civil War, her Presidential Engagement with Muslim Communities exhibition for the U.S. Department of State, and her Muslims and the Making of America special report which was published by the Muslim Public Affairs Council. Her current projects include a novel and a nonfiction book, both of which connect the history of Islam in America from the Civil War to the present.

Precious’ writing and reflections have been featured on CNN.com and National Public Radio, and have also appeared at the Smithsonian and in classrooms around the country. Publishers Weekly describes Precious’ chapter “To Be Young, Gifted, Black, American, Muslim, and Woman,” published in Living Islam Out Loud: American Muslim Women Speak, as one of the “best” and “most absorbing essays” in an anthology that “opens the door for other writers to explore the important and understudied topic of Muslim American women.”

Precious works with communities from around the world in her pursuit of peace, as attested by her significant role in planning and implementing the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions convened in Melbourne, Australia. She is also an official ambassador for the 2015 Parliament of the World’s Religions.