A number of Muslims are known to have lived in New Netherland and
New York in the seventeenth century, among them Anthony Jansen van
Salee, whose Koran still exists. It is unclear what percentage of
them arrived as slaves, but they appeared to have congregated in the
vicinity of Gravesend in present- day Brooklyn, which was known to
have liberal religious attitudes.
Despite the known existance of Muslims in early New York there are no
known studies of them or their community as far as I am aware. It is
possible that the Muslim religion had some influence in laws
prohibiting Africans from gathering together in Kings County, Long
Island, after 1684. It appears that most Muslims eventually
converted to Reformed Christianity in the New York City, region,
though the community may have merely gone underground.