Oral History Interview with Fahiym Abdul-Wasi: Muslims in Brooklyn oral histories: NYU Special Collections Finding Aids

Scope and Contents

In this interview, Fahiym Abdul-Wasi discusses his childhood in Brooklyn, his education, and his social life. He speaks at length about his experiences with religion, including his involvement with the Jehovah's Witnesses as a child and his exploration of different traditions of Islam, including the Five Percent Nation, the Ansaaru Allah Community, the Nation of Islam, and Sufism. He expands on his memories of Muhammad Mosque No. 7 in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan and the police standoff that occurred there in 1994. He also talks extensively about his work as a hip-hop journalist, particularly with regards to the music magazine The Source. Interview conducted by Zaheer Ali.

Biographical / Historical

Fahiym Abdul-Wasi was born in 1973 in New York City. He grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights neighborhoods of Brooklyn. He explored different Muslim traditions throughout his teenage and adult years, including the Five Percent Nation, the Ansaaru Allah Community, the Nation of Islam, and Sufism. His work as a hip-hop journalist was featured in a variety of publications and he served as the editor-in-chief of the music magazine The Source under the byline Joshua Fahiym Ratcliffe.

Conditions Governing Access

This interview can be accessed onsite at the Center for Brooklyn History's Othmer Library and online at the Oral History Portal.

Subjects

Organizations

Five Percent Nation

Topics

Places

Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.); Bushwick (New York, N.Y.); Crown Heights (New York, N.Y.); Harlem (New York, N.Y.); Manhattan (New York, N.Y.)