Mellon-Funded Video Series ‘American Muslims’ Produced by Radicals Bent on Destroying Western Civilization
- Waging Philanthropic Jihad, Part 2
By Claudia Henneberry
August 2026
Part 1
There’s an ongoing, all-out campaign by the political left to convince the American people that Muslims and Islamic culture have been an essential part of America since before the founding, and that Muslims should be recognized as an oppressed community that deserves special rights.
The reason behind such a campaign is the shared animosity both the left and Islam have for western traditions.
The series, American Muslims: A History Revealed, currently streaming on PBS, and on YouTube, is presented on the PBS site as a documentary that explores “the rich and often overlooked history of American Muslims.” According to PBS, “the collection tells stories that fill a knowledge gap” and addresses “misconceptions” about Islamic culture.
Viewers are exposed to the propagandistic nature of the six-part series that is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and others. The series is a sponsored project of the Filmmakers Collaborative, which is funded by Mellon. Mellon is the same foundation that is funding a resistance to civic education and viewpoint diversity. Thus, when the Mellon Foundation funds something, skepticism is warranted.
The episodes are hosted by journalists Malika Bilal, a Muslim Al Jazeera journalist, Aymann Ismail, a Muslim senior writer for the leftist publication Slate, and Asma Khalid, a Muslim White House correspondent for the hopelessly liberal NPR. Each host presents two episodes. After each episode, there are bullet points that expose concerning commentary from the episode.
The Series
American Muslims: A History Revealed begins with Episode 1: Is This One of America’s First Mosques?
In this episode, Aymann Ismail tells the story of Hassen and Mary Juma who homesteaded in Ross, North Dakota, in the early 1900s and built, presumably, the first mosque in America. Throughout this episode it is implied that America is racist because we had/have laws dictating who should be allowed into the country and that Muslims were pioneers who forged the west as they peddled their goods.
Episode 2: From Slavery to Freedom: The Untold Story of America's First Muslims
In Episode two, Asma Khalid is the host who tells the story of Mamadou Yarrow and asserts that “tens of thousands of Muslims were already present,” before the country was founded. They were “captured in West Africa and brought to colonial America in chains.” The Episode omits who, how, and why about the capture and transport.
Episode 3: Fighting for Freedom: The Little-Known Story of Muslims and the Civil War
Malika Bilal presents the stories of Muhammad Kahn and Nicholas Said, who fought in the Union Army, as well as a story of a Tunisian official who wrote to the U.S. government in 1864, urging the end to slavery. Omitted: America eradicated slavery, yet Muslim slavery still exists today.
Episode 4: How South Asian Muslims and Mexican Americans United in the 1920s
Asma Khalid presents the story of a South Asian (Indian) Muslim, Mir Dad, who made his home in the American Southwest after illegally entering the U.S. as a ship-jumper in 1917. “Asma discovers the prejudice faced by South Asians of all religions traveling to America in the early part of the 20th century and the race-based naturalization and immigration laws that shaped their lives.”
Episode 5: How Muslims Influenced Thomas Jefferson and America’s Founders
Aymann Ismail takes us from George Washington’s Mount Vernon to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello to discover how some Muslims were included in the founders’ vision of religious freedom while other Muslims were “denied all their rights, because of their race and legal status.” He finds “two books that symbolize the promise and contradictions of the early Republic.”
Episode 6: How Islam Influenced Black Americans In 1920s Chicago
Host Malika Bilal presents a revival of Islam among Black Americans in the 1920s “fleeing poverty and persecution in the Jim Crow South.” She discovers how Muslim groups “helped working-class Black Americans resist the confines of race in the United States and feel part of a global community of believers” in turn helping to “create a legacy of Islam that has been embraced by African Americans since.”
It is bad enough that this somewhat suspect series is available for public view, but it has been strategically packaged for the classroom for easy consumption by impressionable students. The American Muslims: A History Revealed discussion guide is available, along with classroom materials on the PBS site for teachers and students grades 6-8 and 9-12. And all this was made possible, in part, by the Mellon Foundation, the same foundation that is funding a resistance to civic education and viewpoint diversity in American higher education.
A second series is currently being developed that explores how:
Other Radicals Associated with the Series
There are several individuals, upon whom the American Muslims series relies, who have been tagged as unapologetically anti-Israel and/or who have an affinity for Muslim terrorists. These individuals are prominently featured throughout as scholars with unquestioned expertise on American Muslims. Below are brief overviews of their entanglements.
When the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funds something, skepticism is warranted. Their support for American Muslims: A History Revealed is yet another example of Mellon’s troubling use of philanthropic resources to promote a biased historical narrative. By casting Muslims and their limited contributions to America as overwhelmingly positive and as an indispensable part of our history, while omitting Islam’s doctrinal challenges to American values, the series advances Mellon’s defiant adherence to their current social justice mission – an agenda that prioritizes advocacy over balanced scholarship.
Most concerning is that Mellon’s propaganda is being disseminated into schools, indoctrinating future generations into Mellon’s distorted worldview of hate for America and her principles of liberty.
- Waging Philanthropic Jihad, Part 2
By Claudia Henneberry
August 2026
Part 1
There’s an ongoing, all-out campaign by the political left to convince the American people that Muslims and Islamic culture have been an essential part of America since before the founding, and that Muslims should be recognized as an oppressed community that deserves special rights.
The reason behind such a campaign is the shared animosity both the left and Islam have for western traditions.
The series, American Muslims: A History Revealed, currently streaming on PBS, and on YouTube, is presented on the PBS site as a documentary that explores “the rich and often overlooked history of American Muslims.” According to PBS, “the collection tells stories that fill a knowledge gap” and addresses “misconceptions” about Islamic culture.
Viewers are exposed to the propagandistic nature of the six-part series that is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and others. The series is a sponsored project of the Filmmakers Collaborative, which is funded by Mellon. Mellon is the same foundation that is funding a resistance to civic education and viewpoint diversity. Thus, when the Mellon Foundation funds something, skepticism is warranted.
The episodes are hosted by journalists Malika Bilal, a Muslim Al Jazeera journalist, Aymann Ismail, a Muslim senior writer for the leftist publication Slate, and Asma Khalid, a Muslim White House correspondent for the hopelessly liberal NPR. Each host presents two episodes. After each episode, there are bullet points that expose concerning commentary from the episode.
The Series
American Muslims: A History Revealed begins with Episode 1: Is This One of America’s First Mosques?
In this episode, Aymann Ismail tells the story of Hassen and Mary Juma who homesteaded in Ross, North Dakota, in the early 1900s and built, presumably, the first mosque in America. Throughout this episode it is implied that America is racist because we had/have laws dictating who should be allowed into the country and that Muslims were pioneers who forged the west as they peddled their goods.
- (7:43) Edward Curtis says, “Many Arabic-speaking immigrants were being turned away, putatively, because of an eye disease. But, lots of times because they were undesirable immigrants for racial reasons.”
- (9:45) Curtis says the land homesteaders were given had been “taken away from Native Americans 10 years prior” (10:15) Curtis pronounces “Homesteading was a policy of colonial settlement.”
- (10:20) Maytha Alhassen says, “These migrants became buffers between the U.S. government and the populations they were displacing.” Alhassen says at 11:20 “Syrian Peddlers were struck down because they were considered parasitic peddlers.” “That was not what a free white person would do.”
- (16:00) Curtis says: “Arab and Muslim women are so often stereotyped as people who are confined to the home; who have less freedom. These [pioneer] women were the opposite of that stereotype.” Curtis at 23:40: “It is lazy to think the rural Midwest has always been white. Its roots are multicultural and multireligious. And if we want to honor these people, we’ve got to rewrite our history to include them.”
Episode 2: From Slavery to Freedom: The Untold Story of America's First Muslims
In Episode two, Asma Khalid is the host who tells the story of Mamadou Yarrow and asserts that “tens of thousands of Muslims were already present,” before the country was founded. They were “captured in West Africa and brought to colonial America in chains.” The Episode omits who, how, and why about the capture and transport.
- “Khalid reveals the little-known story of America’s first Muslims, whose labor helped build the economic foundations of the early United States.”
- At 21:00, Terrence Johnson says he sees this period as a deep tragedy (after 1865) when black Muslims wanted to conform so they became Christians leaving their religion behind. “Enslavers who were writing the history thought these people were without intelligence, without a soul. The assumption was when they came, their gods died.” “So we spent the last 50 years to undo that undertaking.”
Episode 3: Fighting for Freedom: The Little-Known Story of Muslims and the Civil War
Malika Bilal presents the stories of Muhammad Kahn and Nicholas Said, who fought in the Union Army, as well as a story of a Tunisian official who wrote to the U.S. government in 1864, urging the end to slavery. Omitted: America eradicated slavery, yet Muslim slavery still exists today.
- “Muslims have been present at every defining moment in American history, including the Civil War”
- (10:25) Jonathan Deiss says that Nicholas Said was in a white regiment and “it’s possible he was mistreated because of his color.”
- (12:27) Bilal says that “As a Muslim, Khan may have been inspired by traditional Islamic teachings about slavery. These urged Muslims to treat enslaved people with dignity and work for their freedom” and she says this: “The Koran urges Muslims to treat the enslaved with dignity and to see emancipation as a moral good.”
- (12:50) Bilal says she found evidence that Muslims tried to end slavery here. A Tunisian official, Hussein Pasha, wrote to the U.S. government and Senator Charles Sumner that they ended slavery there (based on Islamic teachings) and you must do the same in America. Bilal states that Senator Sumner referred to Islam in his speeches urging for emancipation and that [at 15:24] the American system of slavery was “uniquely brutal” compared to other forms. Sumner’s speech made the NY Times! [The truth is “The Koran acknowledges and accepts the Muslim possession of slaves. And Muhammad, the perfect example for Muslims, was a slave owner and dealer, and there are numerous authoritative reports in which Muhammad was personally involved in possessing, buying, selling, and giving away slaves.”]
- Bilal asks [at 22:29]: “Do you think his race factored into his struggle to get his pension?” Deiss, says: “Absolutely!” Bilal [at 23:55]: “Somehow he made the war that ended slavery his own war.”
Episode 4: How South Asian Muslims and Mexican Americans United in the 1920s
Asma Khalid presents the story of a South Asian (Indian) Muslim, Mir Dad, who made his home in the American Southwest after illegally entering the U.S. as a ship-jumper in 1917. “Asma discovers the prejudice faced by South Asians of all religions traveling to America in the early part of the 20th century and the race-based naturalization and immigration laws that shaped their lives.”
- The theme running through the series is that America is a racist country like no other. It leads the viewer to conclude that only dark-skinned people, Indians, blacks, Mexicans, or Muslims were laborers.
- (At :38) “As laws kept people out, communities joined together.” (:49) “And they forged a way forward in our country without having to try to aspire to whiteness. There was more than one way to become American.”
- (10:24) “As non-European immigration is increasing, there’s more anxiety about what this country will look like.” [At 10:33]: “There are, to this day, racial anxieties around “the browning of America or the blackening of America. That was there at that time too” [at the turn of the 20th century.]
- (11:15) In 1923, the Supreme Court ruled that a South Asian immigrant would not be considered white and could not become a U.S. citizen. Omitted in the episode is that Indian law restricted emigration from their country and that most countries regulate immigration.
- (At 13:18), Hardeep Dhillon says South Asians were forbidden from marrying white women in America. As a sweeping generalization, this is false. Mir Dad married a Mexican woman, so the subject of anti-miscegenation laws is irrelevant to this episode.
- (22:05) Khalid asks what Mir Dad’s history means for all Americans. Dad’s granddaughter responds, “If you ask me ‘what are you’ [you’re] going to get a history lesson. Especially after 9/11, and different people being attacked because they thought they were Muslim, so it was really important to educate people to what Islam was all about.”
- (23:23) Vivek Bald: “There’s a generation of South Asians, and Muslim Americans who have grown up in the shadow of 9/11 who’ve been told from a very young age ‘you’re not from here, you’re newcomers, you’re outsiders, you don’t belong, and I think for that generation, in particular, knowing that S. Asians, Muslims more broadly, have been a part of the U.S. for generations” - have been here just as long as Europeans…and they should realize that Muslims are connected with other communities of color – “it gives a sense of a different kind of future.”
Episode 5: How Muslims Influenced Thomas Jefferson and America’s Founders
Aymann Ismail takes us from George Washington’s Mount Vernon to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello to discover how some Muslims were included in the founders’ vision of religious freedom while other Muslims were “denied all their rights, because of their race and legal status.” He finds “two books that symbolize the promise and contradictions of the early Republic.”
- (9:47) John Quincy Adams wrote about the only meeting we know of between President Jefferson and a Muslim on American soil – A Tunis Ambassador. (11:00) Jefferson historian, John Ragosta, describes the dinner as an “Iftar” dinner because Jefferson changed the time to after sunset in keeping with Islamic beliefs during Ramadan, but that is false. The time for dinner was changed to accommodate Muslim tradition, but it was not an Iftar dinner. Wine was served which was forbidden in Islamic culture.
- (11:40) Vincent Brown: “The Founders are thinking about Islam [and Muslims], but they’re thinking about the great centers of Islamic learning and power in the Middle East – they’re not thinking about Muslims who are in the U.S. Thousands upon thousands of enslaved African Muslims were being shipped to the U.S.”
- (12:07) Jeffrey Einboden: Places in West Africa where slaves were taken were impacted by Islam, therefore, the expert is implying that there must have been thousands of Muslim slaves in the U.S. But, at 12:24, Ismail admits there is no firm evidence there were Muslims enslaved at Monticello, “but this is still a plantation,” he says angrily.
- (14:05) Ismail: “This gap between ideals and reality and what it meant for Muslims comes into focus at another historic site – Mt. Vernon” - where Washington enslaved about 600 people over his lifetime. (14:31) “Their names suggest some were Muslim.” (14:38) Mary Thompson shows Ismail a 1774 tax list that contains the names “Fatimer” and “Little Fatimer.” He jumps to the conclusion that they are Muslim. “That’s the name of the Prophet’s daughter!” he exclaims excitedly. [The Prophet’s daughter was Fatima]. The name “Fattimore” is on a purchase list , yet Ismail and Thompson continue to repeat the name ‘Fatima.’ (15:50) Thompson: “It gives you the idea of how hard it was to pass on Islam in a family, because, if they are a mother and daughter, they are being split up.” They are clearly changing the names in real time to satisfy their narrative.
- (22:39) Ismail: “Keith Ellison was elected to Congress against the backdrop of anti-Muslim sentiment.” (22:49) “Here was a Muslim descended from enslaved people” This may be one of the biggest lies of the entire series. Ellison is a descendant of slave OWNERS. He was sworn in on Thomas Jefferson’s Quran.
- Edward Curtis: (23:40) Ellison’s swearing-in on the Quran says that Muslims “have always been here and …we’re writing a new chapter.”
Episode 6: How Islam Influenced Black Americans In 1920s Chicago
Host Malika Bilal presents a revival of Islam among Black Americans in the 1920s “fleeing poverty and persecution in the Jim Crow South.” She discovers how Muslim groups “helped working-class Black Americans resist the confines of race in the United States and feel part of a global community of believers” in turn helping to “create a legacy of Islam that has been embraced by African Americans since.”
- (10:19) Edward Curtis: In the Midwest, immigrants and Blacks were promised “streets paved with gold.” That wasn’t the case for either. (10:32) Sylvia Chan Malik: Blacks migrating to the North from the South encounter similar racist conditions – “another betrayal.”
- (12:00) Bilal: “What was lost in Chattel Slavery” was being responsible for yourself and your family. Religion after slavery became that sense of community for blacks. Through religion, Blacks were able to exercise their agency.
- (14:18) Curtis: “Islam is associated with resistance to European colonialism and imperialism. And not just military and physical colonialism, but mental colonialism.” Blacks saw Islam as a path to freedom, dignity, and liberation. (16:12) “There is no racism” in Islam.
- (17:45) Malik and Bilal comment on how “empowering” it was for these Black women to convert to Islam and “creatively” cover themselves with bedsheets. This writer personally finds it offensive and very sad for the women.
- The filmmakers’ summary of Episode 6: “The 1920s witnessed a resurgence of Islam among Black Americans fleeing the South as part of the Great Migration.” However, the India-based Ahmadiyya movement (considered heretics by other Muslims), the homegrown Moorish Science Temple movement, and Nation of Islam featured in the episode, that Blacks encountered in the North in the 20s, are not truly Islamic.
It is bad enough that this somewhat suspect series is available for public view, but it has been strategically packaged for the classroom for easy consumption by impressionable students. The American Muslims: A History Revealed discussion guide is available, along with classroom materials on the PBS site for teachers and students grades 6-8 and 9-12. And all this was made possible, in part, by the Mellon Foundation, the same foundation that is funding a resistance to civic education and viewpoint diversity in American higher education.
A second series is currently being developed that explores how:
- In the 1930s, cities like Detroit saw the rapid growth of diverse Muslim communities and the development of important American Muslim institutions.
- In the 1940s and 50s, Muslim musicians played a key role in the development of jazz - just one of many contributions Muslims have made to American culture.
- Muslims have played a vital role in the Black Freedom Struggle, with Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, and the Nation of Islam leaving an enduring legacy.
- Immigration reform in the 1960s opened the US up to Muslims from around the world and encouraged an influx of Muslim professionals, including doctors, engineers, and scientists.
- From the 1970s onwards, Americans of the Muslim faith have experienced conditional citizenship, been impacted by American foreign policy, and built new institutions in the reality of a post-9/11 United States.
Other Radicals Associated with the Series
There are several individuals, upon whom the American Muslims series relies, who have been tagged as unapologetically anti-Israel and/or who have an affinity for Muslim terrorists. These individuals are prominently featured throughout as scholars with unquestioned expertise on American Muslims. Below are brief overviews of their entanglements.
- Maytha Alhassen is an executive producer and host of the series, appearing in Episode 1 [6:20]. She has expressed support for terrorists; co-led an anti-Israel trip with Dream Defenders; participates in National SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) conferences; endorsed BDS [10:50].
- Edward E. Curtis IV appears repeatedly in Episodes 1,3, 5, 6. He is faculty advisor of the Interfaith Coalition for Palestine at Indiana U.- Purdue U. Indianapolis (IUPUI); Founder of IUPUI Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine; Chairman of Christians for Peace & Justice in the Middle East (CPJME). All 3 endorse BDS and promote it on campuses. He endorses BDS denying it is anti-Semitic; co-wrote article with Bill Mullen published on Mondoweiss (anti-Israel hate site); signed a statement with the anti-Israel group (Jewish Voice for Peace).
- Zareena Grewal appears in Episode 4 [7:40]. She is an Associate Yale Professor focusing on “race, gender, religion, nationalism, and transnationalism across a wide spectrum of American Muslim communities;” Described herself on X as a “radical Muslim;” posted series of tweets applauding the bloody attack on Israel in 2023; a petition called for her to be fired; In her first book, “Islam is a Foreign Country: American Muslims and the Global Crisis of Authority,” Grewal wrote about transnational Muslim networks that link U.S. mosques to Islamic movements in the Middle East.
- Salah Hassan appears in Episode 1 [6:04]. He teaches English and is core faculty in Muslim Studies at Michigan State; leader in the BDS movement; member of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI)’s “Organizing Collective;” Has discouraged colleagues from attending academic conferences in Israel; supported a terrorist, Khader Adnan, who was a senior member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist organization. A 2007 YouTube video showed Adnan praising and encouraging suicide bombings…On February 20, 2012, Hassan signed/shared a petition (#324) on Facebook called “Scholars in Solidarity with Khader Adnan.”…On February 19, 2012, Hassan shared on Facebook a video of a “Belfast vigil for Khader Adnan,” which was featured on the anti-Israel propaganda site Electronic Intifada (EI). 2015: Hassan tweeted Modern Language Association members should join MLA Members for Justice in Palestine.
When the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funds something, skepticism is warranted. Their support for American Muslims: A History Revealed is yet another example of Mellon’s troubling use of philanthropic resources to promote a biased historical narrative. By casting Muslims and their limited contributions to America as overwhelmingly positive and as an indispensable part of our history, while omitting Islam’s doctrinal challenges to American values, the series advances Mellon’s defiant adherence to their current social justice mission – an agenda that prioritizes advocacy over balanced scholarship.
Most concerning is that Mellon’s propaganda is being disseminated into schools, indoctrinating future generations into Mellon’s distorted worldview of hate for America and her principles of liberty.