The recipients included several contemporary celebrities such as Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and the then President of the United States, Warren Harding. As a consequence of colonization of Muslim lands, and thus the rising contact with the Muslim world, Islam was becoming an increasing victim of criticism from the American media. Sadiq, and the American Ahmadiyya Muslim Community utilized "The Moslem Sunrise" as a tool to defend Islam and the Quran against Christian polemics. Recognizing racial intolerance in the early 20th century America, Sadiq also popularized the Islamic quality for inter-racial harmony. The publication had a profound influence on African American-Islam relations, including the early development of the Nation of Islam and the Moorish Science Temple. On the other hand, the publication strained Sadiq's relationship with mainstream American Protestant Christianity and the American media. Whilst discussing the Detroit race riot of 1943, the magazine would describe the situation as a "dark blot in the country's good name." Roughly five years later, in 1948, the magazine documented 13,600 churches belonging to Presbyterian, Lutheran and Unitarian Christian denominations and concluded that only 1,331 had "colored members." When Sadiq arrived in the country, he envisioned a multi-racial movement and inter-religious harmony with the dominant Protestant communities in America. However, many white Protestants of that period, with whom Sadiq came into contact with, as Sadiq later realized, were unwilling to work towards the Ahmadi Muslim ideal of an American society. Consequently, the American Ahmadi missionary activity shifted more towards the African American populations. In 1950, the American Ahmadiyya movement shifted their headquarters to Washington, D.C., and established the American Fazl Mosque which served as the headquarters for over four decades, until the early 1990s. The 1950s was an era when many African American musicians were introduced to Islam and thrived as members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. Over the late 20th century, the Ahmadiyya influence on African American Islam subsided to a degree. The Community did not draw as many followers as it did in its early history. Multiple reasons have been postulated for this. Rise of black nationalism among African Americans, as opposed to Ahmadi ideal of multi-racial global identity has been cited as one possible reason. After the 1950s, the Nation of Islam, which generally caters for black Americans, began to draw more followers than the Ahmadiyya movement. On the other hand, with the rise of Muslim immigration from the Arab world, African Americans may have desired to "arabize" their Islamic identity, which contrasts to the South Asian heritage of early Ahmadi missionaries in the country.