AHC: Get Islam And Orthodox Christianity (And Maybe Others) To Be Major Religions In The U.S Midwest

You actually just need the OTL U.S government- some Muslims did immigrate to America in this time period, just not in the numbers in this challenge. The article I linked to is about how some of them settled in North Dakota.

But if you have large-scale Muslim immigration, the government likely will respond with restrictions, as it did for Chinese and Japanese immigration in the 19th century. I don't think the OTL government was necessarily tolerant of Muslim immigration in the abstract; there just weren't enough Muslim immigrants for it to take notice.
 
But if you have large-scale Muslim immigration, the government likely will respond with restrictions, as it did for Chinese and Japanese immigration in the 19th century. I don't think the OTL government was necessarily tolerant of Muslim immigration as much as it didn't pay attention to it, given the tiny numbers.

Post Civil War, there was an emphasis by a lot of people for religious tolerance. That coupled with a lot of Middle Eastern people looking "white" could probably get large-scale Muslim immigration without restrictions to say, Minnesota, the Dakotas, and the Upper Midwest.
 
The closest thing we've gotten to this OTL, as far as Greek Rite Christianity is concerned, is the Ukrainian Catholic migration from Austrian-controlled Galicia to the Canadian Prairies.

What I'm not sure about is whether Austria would, in the 19th century, be comfortable enough to expand into the Balkans and Ruthenia to complement this migration with Orthodox and Muslims...and into the United States instead of Canada.
 
Your best bet is Alexis Toth. He was a Byzantine Catholic-turned-Orthodox leader in the Midwest, and was able to practically cripple the functions of the Eastern Catholic churches in America. Have him begin to convert other kinds of churches, especially Lutherans, when he was being quite missionary, and you could get at least the seeds of large amounts of conversions to Orthodoxy (Interestingly, mass conversions from American Protestant Churches has been on the rise recently, so it is not like Americans are against Orthodoxy).

As for Muslim Midwest... unless you mean like Andalusian Colonization of America... good luck. You will need to have a community open to Muslim missionaries in one of the most conservative areas outside the Deep South.
 
Your best bet is Alexis Toth. He was a Byzantine Catholic-turned-Orthodox leader in the Midwest, and was able to practically cripple the functions of the Eastern Catholic churches in America. Have him begin to convert other kinds of churches, especially Lutherans, when he was being quite missionary, and you could get at least the seeds of large amounts of conversions to Orthodoxy (Interestingly, mass conversions from American Protestant Churches has been on the rise recently, so it is not like Americans are against Orthodoxy).

As for Muslim Midwest... unless you mean like Andalusian Colonization of America... good luck. You will need to have a community open to Muslim missionaries in one of the most conservative areas outside the Deep South.

You don't necessarily need mass conversion, just enough immigrants from Muslim areas of the world.
 
The USA passed immigration quota laws in the early 1920s specifically to limit immigration from other than Northern Europe by basing quotas on the census taken well before the Eastern European bulge of the late 19th century/early 20th century. You either have to not have these laws (a huge social/political POD) or have immigration much earlier. Furthermore the frontier "closed" in the late 19th century, so immigrants would go to primarily urban areas, not the midwest/great plains agricultural areas. To get Orthodox/Muslim presence in large numbers there you need to begin immigration before the Civil War.
this and that was because of the Red Scare. You need to not have the USSR not come into being
 
You don't necessarily need mass conversion, just enough immigrants from Muslim areas of the world.
Yes, but the POD is between 1850 and 1950-ish. This means they you'll need not just white Muslims, but passingly American Muslims. And then there comes the problem of the fact that most Americans really don't wanna have to learn Arabic to be able to read their scripture in truth.

this and that was because of the Red Scare. You need to not have the USSR not come into being
Actually, that might just be the ticket. No Red Scare means that the debacle of the OCA, and all of the bickering in the Hierarchy never happens, and thus they can focus on missionary work to Lutherans/Anglicans/Episcopalians/anyone else who will listen without having to worry about communist intrusion.
 
Yes, but the POD is between 1850 and 1950-ish. This means they you'll need not just white Muslims, but passingly American Muslims. And then there comes the problem of the fact that most Americans really don't wanna have to learn Arabic to be able to read their scripture in truth.

A lot of Muslims already read translated versions of the Qur'an, although it's preferred to read it in Arabic. Different theology PODs could help with this.

Actually, that might just be the ticket. No Red Scare means that the debacle of the OCA, and all of the bickering in the Hierarchy never happens, and thus they can focus on missionary work to Lutherans/Anglicans/Episcopalians/anyone else who will listen without having to worry about communist intrusion.

That's a good idea.
 
While the Red Scare did increase the anti-Eastern European sentiment, the "nativism" and racism that was the primary driver behind the quota laws of the early 1920s was there long before the Russian Revolution. No Russian revolution, or perhaps no Bolshevik victory might have made the quotas less stringent but given the temper of the times I doubt it. It was not only political/social but also economic. By 1920 the USA had no need for immigrants to fill up the empty spaces with farms, and there was no need for masses of immigrants to provide labor for the new factories of the "post-frontier" America. Turning off the spigot, or at least reducing the flow was doable without causing an economic disaster. OTL there were still immigrants from the "approved" countries, and smaller numbers from the less acceptable ones. In general between WWI and WWII the quotas from the "approved" countries tended not to be filled.
 
A lot of Muslims already read translated versions of the Qur'an, although it's preferred to read it in Arabic. Different theology PODs could help with this.
Is always to be in arabic, we used native languange as training wheels but we learn in arabic alongside reading in native one that is something vital, plus is something help to learn another language.
 
My great-grandfather was a Bulgarian Orthodox Ottoman (Vardar region) expat in Chicago and Detroit from the late 1900's to the mid 1920's. They had quite a sizeable community, I still have some glossy magazines about the Bulgarian community there (printed on high-quality paper -- they're as good as new) from his times there. I think most of them went to Bulgaria after the political situation after WWI in what is currently Bulgaria stabilized and they could sell their businesses and invest the money in Bulgaria, though.
 
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well beer goes with massive ottoman emgiration remplacing both german(and austrian) and scandivanians as their country got united during 1848 but they were most Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma zone(with things like a turkish-ottoman plurarity Kansas City with Kansas City Pashas and Jannisaries as their sports teams, even mention in tv series gunsmoke of the old mid west earlty ottoman settlement), so is possible, maybe russian filled both Minessota and Wisconsin to get the orthodox?(as muslim rarely like that cold climate)

I was going to "like" this post but that just wouldn't be enough. I live in Northeastern Missouri, and I am ROFLMAO because SHIT what a fella on a night like tonight wouldn't do for some decent homemade grilled kabobs and a big mug of homemade vodka over ice.
 
But if you have large-scale Muslim immigration, the government likely will respond with restrictions, as it did for Chinese and Japanese immigration in the 19th century. I don't think the OTL government was necessarily tolerant of Muslim immigration in the abstract; there just weren't enough Muslim immigrants for it to take notice.

My cynical streak tells me they're Caucasian, pay their taxes, keep to themselves, and vote in a politically inoffensive manner. I think governments at the state and federal level will welcome them. I think an event to drive them OUT of their homelands (Tunguska Blast #2 over the Caucasus? Anyone?) is the key POD. It was still a BIG country then.
 
My cynical streak tells me they're Caucasian, pay their taxes, keep to themselves, and vote in a politically inoffensive manner. I think governments at the state and federal level will welcome them.

If the US was intolerant of other white immigrants such as Germans, Irish, and Italians, or basically most non-Anglophone immigrants, why would they be any fonder of white immigrants who (from their perspective) are even less "white" than the aforementioned groups? It might be possible to get a larger Muslim population in, but they're all going to have to come in a pretty narrow and quick window because I can't see any AHC where immigration restrictions aren't put into place.
 
well beer goes with massive ottoman emgiration remplacing both german(and austrian) and scandivanians as their country got united during 1848 but they were most Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma zone(with things like a turkish-ottoman plurarity Kansas City with Kansas City Pashas and Jannisaries as their sports teams, even mention in tv series gunsmoke of the old mid west earlty ottoman settlement), so is possible, maybe russian filled both Minessota and Wisconsin to get the orthodox?(as muslim rarely like that cold climate)
OTL had seen a significant migration of Ottoman subjects to the States, mostly Christians, like Armenians and Greeks and Christian Arabs and others.
 
While there was a good bit of nativism in the 19th century, this was a function of how settled the area was. On the east coast there were several generations of "natives" but as you moved towards the frontier more or less everyone was new, even if they moved from the east. It got worse in the latter part of the 19th century when the frontier closed and the immigrants were concentrated in urban areas working in various industries from light (garment) to heavy (steel). IMHO perhaps the biggest issue for the Muslim immigrants would be polygamy - you know what a mess that was for the Mormons. Yes, I know less well off Muslims usually did not have multiple wives but...
 
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