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About Islam
What is Islam
Conscious Islam
Qur'an
Islamophobia
Popularity of Islam
Homosexuality and Islam
Racism & Muslims
Islamic Civilization
Contributions of Africa
Islam and Women
Hijab - Veil
Sharia
Myths About Islam
Facts on Islam
FGM
Challenges
Islam and Slavery
Islamic Empires
Muslim Legends
Nation of Islam
Timbuktu
Islam in Hausa Lands
Rites of Passage
Contributions to Islam
Capitalism or Socialism
Timbuktu
Slavery in America
African Holocaust
War and Religion
Slavery in Ethiopia
Africa Before Slavery
Arab Slave Trade
Ethiopia in 615.
And beyond argument remains one of the most fundamental sculptor of the African reality, past and
present. And with every step towards Islamization Africa has responded with the Africanization of
Islam creating Africa's own Islamic orthodoxies. And by the time of the Atlantic slave system approx
15-30% of the enslaved Africans that arrived in the New World were Muslim. Influence much of the
culture and traditions of African American people.[3] These enslaved Muslims stood out from their
compatriots because of their "resistance, determination and education"(Hill/Lippy 2005)
Islam has always taken on the cultures of the peoples it passes over. Just like water passing over a
rock. There is no such thing as African Purity, cultures smash through deserts and cross trade routes,
and they travel through immigration borders and disregarding our notions of geography and race.
Throughout history, Africa has influenced, and been influence. Names, foods, cultures, religions,
genetics have jumped between Asia and Africa from the dawn of humanity.
WHAT IS ISLAM?
Power concedes
nothing without a
demand. It never did
and it never will
Frederick Douglass
Hadith (Muslim)
Islam ( ) is a gloabl spiritual technology, which codifies a way of life and dictates
relationships between God, the environment and other human beings. Religion is the culture
of spirituality, the container that gives spirituality structure. The code of Islam serves to create
cohesion among its members by propagating certain core principles.
The highest ideal governing all forms of Islam is Tawheed, the oneness
of Allah (the absolute and only divinity). Communal activities form
ibadats that facilitate a relationship with God: (iman) , prayer (salaat),
pilgrimage (hajj) and fasting (sawm ) and alms giving (zakaat) . Zakat
serves as a socio-economic wealth distribution system, which has deep
parallels in ancient African practices. The ultimate aim of the Islamic
faith is to guide humanity to a successful balanced, and structured
society, with morality as the apex principle by showing obedience to the
laws of the Creator, Allah. The final destination is for the deeds of the
individual to be weighed to allow entry into paradise (al-Jannat), A
concept found in Ancient African Egypt thousands of years earlier.
Unlike Western Christianity, Islam--just like native African religions does
not dichotomize religion and state. Sharia is therefore just another
political system with Islamic ethics. Sharia is no more or less valid as a
system of governance compared to democracy, or communism.
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And Sharia, just like democracy (an ideology forced all over the world by war or threat of war) or
communism, extreme practices can have elements of oppression.
Islam is not only a 1400 year old religion, but moreover 1400 years of dynamic ideological evolution,
and constant adaptation based upon scholarship traditions. There is an entire science of fiqh
(jurisprudence) which constantly, reflexively evaluates the modern prevailing conditions Muslims find
themselves in. So that it stays relevant to modernity. So Islam can form policies and attitudes based
on new science because of the institutionalizing of the ancient traditions.
The Hajj was not only for religious worship, it was a centralized place for networking, exchange and a
kind of global market. This was where people aquired new information and ideas which they took
back to their local communities. Out of these networks came new business relationships, political
relationships, and development. (See Kanka Musa)
While most religions bear the following format, Islam is different: Christianity - Christian, Hinduism Hindu, Judaism - Jewish, Rastafarian - Rasta, Buddhism - Buddhist. But the followers of Islam are
called Muslims. This is because the name of the religion is not after its founder but after its theological
rootSubmission to God in peace (Islam). Muslim is one who submits. In Islam drawing images of
God, Muhammad, Jesus or any prophet is strictly prohibited. There is a total taboo (haram) on
discussing "What God looks like, and what race God is," therefore the issue of race are only temporal
not divine.
Leave no brother or
sister behind the
enemy line of
poverty.
Harriet Tubman
Muhammad (SAW)
Some unique under-discussed aspects of social Islam is it was in response to social-economic-racial
inequality in Arabia (Hijaz). Islam was born into a multicultural racialized world similar to today (i.e.
Black and White (Arab)). It was the first religion to be preach emancipation as a core doctrine.
Muhammad Shareef
See African contributions to Islam
The presence of Islam in Africa, predates all notions of an Africa by at least 1000 years. This is also
true for Judaism and Christianity in North-East Africa. So by the time a notion of an Africa and the
later formulation of an African identity superimposed on the people of that continent;, Islam was
already a standard identity in Africa. And this is a critical perspective in how we engage the study of
an authentic Africa, which is largely a modern construction projected backwards in time.
Islam entered Africa (Ethiopia) before it reached the Indus river of India,
or the poppy fields of Afghanistan, the heart of Palestine, Iraq or Persia or
even the city of Medina in Saudi Arabia. East Africa and the Arabic world
have a deep historical Afro-Asiatic relationship which is defined not only
by the Arab slave trade, but in cultural and linguistic, political
engagements.
The process of Islamization in West Africa was by African traders such as
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We picture Islam and picture Arabs on horseback, swinging swords and conquering Africa, chopping
heads of all who cling to "heathen ways" while screaming Allahu Akbarthat is Hollywood, that is the
deliberate fabrication of crusader mythology. Even when Islam came with armies, like in parts of
North Africa, tribal leaders agreedfor political and practical reasons to embrace Islam, and as
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North Africa, tribal leaders agreedfor political and practical reasons to embrace Islam, and as
was the custom the entire "tribe" embraced Islam. And we should never isolate religion out of the
1000 reasons people went to war. Why would Islam be the primary agent of conflict when so many
other reasons, like standard national expansion avail themselves? Why is Islam always the motive?
Who is inserting this undue emphasis. Even when war "for the sake of Allah" was declared, very
rarely were the motives any different to the standard "I want to expand my power." Everyone did this,
Muslim and non-Muslim. Even Muslim vs. Muslim was common place because the wars were about
gold not God.
And evidence of this is the gradual process of Islamization in places like West Africa and Egypt. Had it
been overtly forceful it would not have absorbed the cultures of the people who embraced Islam.
There is also a longstanding myth that the Arab slave trade Islamized Africa. There is no logic in
making slaves into new Muslim as it would lead the way to their manumission. Accepting Islam was
part of the self-determination of many nations to enhance their trade relations and political position. It
moreover allowed them to unify greater territories and create multi-ethnic polities. (just like was the
case for Ezna building a Unified Abyssinia)
RADICAL ISLAM
See War Myth
When Islam is defined by imperialism, it modifies
Islam to suit its objectives. Terms like Islamist,
radical Islam, political Islam, fundamentalist Islam,
which contrast the Western preferred moderate
Islam, apolitical Islam. There is certainly no
authentic version of Islam that is moderately
apolitical; impotent in face of tyranny, silent in the
face of oppression and exploitation. Islam is
political and there is zero fragmentation of Islam as
a religious system versus Islam as a system of
governance.
That split occurs when Western forces seek to pacify opposition from a faith that is equipped to be a
enduring tool of resistance. (Sudan, Crusades, Algiers, Somalia, Afghanistan, etc).
Radicalism and fundamentalism, when they exist, and they do exist, can only be defined by authentic
representatives of the faith, not by the Islamic scholars for dollars; but by the Qur'an and Hadith. We
cannot live in a multicultural world where elements of Islam are first filtered for Western acceptance
before being deemed acceptable. And there is no escape or propaganda that can change the core
tenants of Islam, there is no degree of acquiesce in leadership that can make Islam some spiritual
hocus pokus with no political teeth.
What is loosely, nebulous, hypocritically, termed the war on terror is a Western response to a failure
of convention treatment to resistance stemming from religious fervor. Conventional treatment for
Pan-Africanism, strains of socialism, and other social dissenting movements was be to throw money
at the problem, causing them to soften. However, this conventional treatment of trinkets for opinions
fails at every conceivable level with the so-called Islamist. You cannot offer them alcohol, positions,
money, not even a billion dollars, in exchange for acquiesce. Because the antibodies in the Islamist
ecosystem are vulgarly intolerant to accommodating anything which remotely smells Western. What
Islam, as the spiritual motivational energy, therefore representsin its most resistant strainis a
serious impasse, an unknown obstacle to any imposition. As it fails to respond to conventional
treatment, the West has deployed unconventional treatment. In comes the media to brand any and all
forms of religious dissent (violent or non-violent) to imperialism as extremist, hardliner, and radical.
The nebulous nature of language mask realities, blurs objectives, so much so the sole arbiter on what
constitutes terrorism, radicalism is detemined by one player in the fray.
And when there is a fundamentalist element in some applications of Islam, then we must also look for
the fundamentalist element in Western foreign policybecause one sometimes creates the other.
And why is Zionism, the Western created and approved system of extremist fundamentalist, which
governs Israel not classified in this way? Why are the numerous occupations under Western foreign
policy not labeled as a form of terrorism and extremism? It is very hard to engage actual cases of
extremism when disingenuous agendas labeling even people seeking Sharia governence as
terrorismit is not, unless self-determination is no longer a human right.
POPULARITY OF ISLAM
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About Islam
What is Islam
Conscious Islam
Qur'an
Islamophobia
Popularity of Islam
Homosexuality and Islam
Racism & Muslims
Islamic Civilization
Contributions of Africa
Islam and Women
Hijab - Veil
Sharia
Myths About Islam
Facts on Islam
FGM
Challenges
Islam and Slavery
Islamic Empires
Muslim Legends
Nation of Islam
Timbuktu
Islam in Hausa Lands
[Comments]
And like anything which grants this power, it can be used for good (Universities) or bad (Conquest
and Arabization). But It is this same real potential that captures those who seek success within its
ideological structures.
democracy puts their interest at a disadvantage. Part of the Western problem is in their arrogance
they assumed the world is what they say it is, hence they create dichotomies and assume everyone
else believes in them not the case. The campaign to push religion out has not worked, what is
happening the people see the pro-gay west, the immorality, the consequences of capitalism, greed,
and inequity in the West and do not want that future for their country.
COUNTRY STATS
Statistics on Islam (CIA) : Algeria 99%, Benin 15%, Burkina Faso 50%, Chad 50%, D.R
Congo 7%, Ivory Coast 60%, Djibooti 94%, Egypt 86%, Ethiopia 47%, Ghana 30%, Kenya 7%,
Libya 97%, Malawi 20%, Mali 90%, Mauritania 99%, Mozambique 20%, Niger 80%, Nigeria
47%, Senegal 92%, Somalia 98%, South Africa 2%, Sudan 70%, Tanzania 35%, Tunisia 98%,
Uganda 16%
The campaigns of Nasr al-Din's (Tubenan movement) anti-slavery and Western imposition
galvanized Africans in the region in the late 17th century.
Malcolm X
In recent history the list includes Elijah Muhammad, Farrakhan, Malcolm X, Duse Muhammad,
Cheikh Anta Diop, Edward Wilmot Blyden, and even African conscious musicians such Art Blakey
and many conscious hip-hop artist .
Farrakhan
about political power struggles. Why do people, even practicing Muslims, run when they hear the
word? Because of the Western indoctrination. If you lived on Mars for the last 1000 years you would
treat Sharia with the same academic neutrality as Democracy, Socialism, Capitalism and all the other
isms failing as builders of civilization. We have to ask our selves, are the best components of
democracy (justice, balance, fair play) absent from Sharia? Does anyone actually know what Sharia
means? Is Sharia a monolith? Is the Taliban and Saudi models the only examples of Sharia? The
point here is we cannot even begin the debate because of the prejudicial climate which was created
to frame the debate.
ISLAM COMPARED
Islam is closest theologically to Judaism, but socially to Christianity in terms of the
mechanism of expansion and cultural impact. Islam is second only in world followers to
Christianity with over 1.6 billion adherents.
It is the largest religion in Africa and the largest practiced religion on Earth. While the term practiced is
subjective because being a Muslim has a completely different set of demand on it compared to
Christianity. Islam's tenants are more observed by its followers than any other religion. Islam unlike
Christianity is not fragmented into denomination in the same way. For example in Christianity you
may have a Roman Catholic Church or a Baptist Church, generally speaking a Mosque is a Mosque.
There are no Shia Mosque and Sunni Mosque; a mosque is a mosque, Shia use Sunni Mosque and
no one is the wiser. And while denomination do exist it is radically different from denominations in
Christianity. Islam is therefore far more theologically homogeneous than most other religions. For
example no Muslim group will eat pork or hold partners with the supreme Deity. Honor is also an
intangibles quality found in the Muslim world which does not have a cultural counterpart in
Christianity. This maybe because of the old-world African, Asian and Middle Eastern cultures which
practice Islam. Islam integrates culture far more rapidly than Western Christian which is general
secular. This integration protects the cultures which are Islamized but sometimes cause non-Islamic
practices. to be treated as aspects of the religion for example FGM (which is an African tradition seen
in Ancient Egypt). But some Muslims and Western detractors associate it with Islam because African
Muslims communities do it.
Being a member of the Islamic faith requires more active declarations than most other religions.
Being a Muslim is therefore less flexible and far more specific than "being a Christian" or "being a
Jew." This radical difference means being Muslim has a inherent responsibility to adhering to the
Islamic doctrine. And while Judaism has an ethnic inheritance, this tendency in Islam is quasi-taboo.
Rabbinic Judaism claims Judaism as a matrilineally pass-down. Being Muslim requires the Shahada
( )and an acceptance of the canon of the Islamic doctrine. Committing blasphemy (shirk
| Arabic: ( ) challenging God as the supreme deity) can take someone out of the fold of Islam. In
the canon of Islam you cannot be technically born a Muslim (contrary to the culture of some IndoPakistani Muslims), you must accept the religion. Islam holds that all people are born in a state-ofIslam and thus all children are born Muslim. Christianity does not have such clear parameters.
Judaism is difficult to compare because the definition varies depending on whether a religious,
sociological, or ethnic aspect is being discussed. But Rabbinic Judaism holds that anyone who does
not follow the Talmud is not a Jew. The problem of White dominance is very true for the entire Jewish
discourse even more so than Christianity. Judaism today is not Judaism in antiquity. Mainstream
Judaism is a European cultural expression which evolved first Islamic Lands (Maimonides) and later
Medieval Europe. Islam suffers from the new dominance of Saudi and Iranian brand of Islam with the
same issues of Orthodoxy.
COMING OF ISLAM
When Islam arrived, war and servitude were features of African and Arabian life. Judaism existed
among certain Arab tribes as well as Christianity, and like them Islam did not blatantly out law
slavery; Islam did however blatantly outlawed chattel enslavement. The Qur'an with every reference
to slavery ask the believer to free the slave as atonement for sin, the term "emancipating a slave and
feeding an orphan" are repeated constantly throughout the Qur'an as acts which gain God's favor.
Islam is therefore the only abolitions m ainstream religion which contains within its
scared text a m essage of m anum ission . Also there were regulations which enhanced the
pre-Islamic laws with respect to the treatment of enslaved people. Ideally they were entitled to good
care, to the same clothing and food as their masters. These enslaved people were more akin to
indentured servants in Europe than Chattel slaves in the Americas.
(Taqwa).Therefore when people enter say a Mosque there is absolutely no hierarchy, may someone
be a president or a pauper. They wash (wudu) in the same place, they pray (salaat) in the same
place. There is no front row, or recognition of political or economic station in the canon of Islam.
Race is real in Islam, and the purpose of race is a blessing to humanity. It is a gift to create a diverse
and beautiful world. It is also a challenge which test our development and humanity. But today we
see a Wahabbi imposed mono-cultural Islam which tries to destroy culture and religious diversity
within Islam. And while Wahaabism tries to make obsolete, it is the Arabized culture which they bring
as the norm for diverse people. So race is irrelevant as long as Islam is Arabized.
Nothing in creation is accidental, Black skin is not an accident, or a topic not to be discussed. In both
the Qur'an and Hadith, the Prophet refers to both Ethnicity and Nationality. Thus the issue of race can
never be smooth over with "it doesn't matter." If it did not matter then we are saying God made a
mistake.
Islam in Ethiopia
Islam became a permanent feature in Africa when the prophet Muhammad in 612 sent the first group
of the early Muslims to be protected from Arab persecution by the Negus of Ethiopia; this was the first
Hijirah. Islam was thus spreading in Africa before it even reached Medina.
African [2]
About Islam
What is Islam
Conscious Islam
Qur'an
Islamophobia
Popularity of Islam
Homosexuality and Islam
Islamic Civilization
Contributions of Africa
Islam and Women
Hijab - Veil
Sharia
Myths About Islam
Facts on Islam
FGM
Challenges
Islam and Slavery
Islamic Empires
Muslim Legends
Nation of Islam
Timbuktu
Islam in Hausa Lands
[Comments]
Such similarities between Islam and indigenous African religions facilitated a general peaceful
conversion and religious tolerance in West Africa. Islam hence left African culture uniquely African
and a traditional African Sufi Islam was formed over the centuries. This brand of Islam in time even
reshaped Islamic culture in the lands beyond Africa.
Diop: The primary reason for the success of Islam in Africa, with one exception, consequently stems
from the fact that solitary Arabo-Berber Travelers to certain Black kings and notables, who then
spread it about them to those under their jurisdiction, promulgated it peacefully, at first... What is to be
emphasized here is the peaceful nature of this conversion, regardless of the legend surrounding it.
(Pre-Colonial Black Africa, page 163.)
Asante: The religion of Islam made each Muslim merchant or traveler an embryonic missionary and
the appeal of the religion with its similarities to the African religions was far more powerful than the
Christian appeal. (Asante, Genocide in Africa 1991 10)
Diop: The Arab conquests dear to sociologists are necessary to their theories but did not exist in
reality. To this day no reliable historical documents substantiate such theories. ((Pre-Colonial Black
Africa, page 102)
When Islam proliferated in West Africa around the 9 th century,
one of the first universities was founded by African Muslims. It
was called Sankore, Arabs and others came to Sankore which
was built in Timbuktu to learn from the African erudite who
lectured on Islamic belief, Islamic jurisprudence, astrology,
science, and many other subjects. Timbuktu was reputed for
African erudition where books and those who traded in books
were the wealthiest elites of the merchant society.
Mosque at Timbuktu
The bulk of African history after the Ancient Egyptians Medew Netjer , was written in the Arabic
language by both Africans and Arabs. The Arabic script also served as an agami to write languages
such as Swahili, Wolof and Mande. For thousands of years Arabic served as the international
language of trade as English is today. Some of the hidden histories of Africa are locked in as many as
700,000 Arabic manuscripts written by ancient African scholars. One of these the Tariq-ul-Sudan,
details the history of Islamic West Africa, but this manuscript remains inaccessible to non-Arabic
speakers.
NATION OF ISLAM
See | Nation of Islam
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A sect of Islam, NOI teaches Black pride, economic empowerment within an Islamic framework. They
now teach that their founder Wallace Fard Muhammad was the Mahdi of God (Allah).
No other Diaspora leader has created such economic and social transformation since. By the 1970s,
the Nation of Islam owned bakeries, barber shops, coffee shops, grocery stores, laundromats, a
printing plant, retail stores, numerous real estate holdings, and a fleet of tractor trailers, plus farmland
in Michigan, Alabama, and Georgia. In 1972 the Nation of Islam took controlling interest in a bank, the
Guaranty Bank and Trust Co. Nation of Islam-owned schools expanded until, by 1974, the group had
established schools in 47 cities throughout the United States. In 1972, Muhammad told followers that
the Nation of Islam had a net worth of $75 million.
While controversial, from a sociological perspective, the Nation of Islam (NOI) are a Muslim
community. Disputes to their "validity" are internal religious issues. And such objections to their
inclusion under the 'banner of Islam' have been silenced by their reform to mainstream Islam
(praying, Ramadan, etc). It can be argued that their Islamic identity is just as valid as that of some
Shiite or other sects. Unfortunately elements of anti-African racism are nested in objections to NOI
because it is Islam on African-American terms they cannot be controlled or turned into little Black
Arabs or dressed up like little Black Pakistanis. Nation of Islam is on a spiritual journey and should be
embraced and encouraged into the Islamic brotherhood.
'Alik Shahadah
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The hijab is a alternative paradigm of beauty, style and femininity. Some have noted that the hijab refocuses it on areas of the woman's non-sexualized beauty-- like the eyes. Any woman therefore
wearing the hijab is instantly transformed to another paradigm of beauty. [Google result on Hijab
diversity]
The Hijab has extended its influence far beyond the corridors of Islam. What is rarely written about is
the profound influence of the Hijab on what is widely now considered an African headdress style. All
of these stylistic variations seen from Erica Badu to Nigeria come from the consequence of cultural
sharing between when Islam entered into Africa. What is largely considered "African dress" is a direct
variation of "Islamic dress."
The false focus on a woman head-dress is part of the Eurocentric tradition of removing "the other" to
bring diversity into a European notion of acceptability. Thwarting the very diversity they claim to
support in their human rights rants.
This is the continuation of the tradition in orientalist thinking which misunderstood everything in
African culture it saw. It is ironic that the issue of "liberation" in the West is anchored almost
exclusively to sex: Freedom is an expression of excessiveness and immorality.
And while they would say "choice" when it comes to Western societies, the word is "coerced, and
brainwashed" for Islamic communities. However, the majority of Hollywood actresses and singers
always end up 1/2 naked in FHM and the like to appease the sexualization and commodification of
Western markets. Yet this is not labeled as a form of denigration and oppression. There is a serious
social expectation in Western societies to sexualized women, from Rihanna to Beyonce, all of them
express themselves with degrees of nudity. The hijab mirrors the "halal' beauty of a woman, her
grace, her composition, her humanity. Her femininity as a women is not suppressed by transmitted
within different paradigms.
So what is the real issue the West has with the Hijab? The Hijab is a cultural political symbol of the
face of the rise of Islam. Every year more of the West sees women wearing this "alien" dress on their
high streets. It is a political sign of a world they have always been at odds with. But now the Muslim is
again in Europe, but not with weapons of war, but weapons of culture. Now in the UK we see White
skinned British girls walking down Oxford street in hijab. A serious threat to the "Europeanization"
which is being diminished in the face of multiculturalism.
NIKAB (NIQAB)- FACE VEIL
The Niqb (the extra veil that covers some Muslim
women's face in public) can be viewed from different
perspectives. Some have raised the issue of security
where face identity maybe required (banks, ID cards etc).
That can easily be fixed with regulations that are
sensitive to both parties interest. Because in all honesty
when is the last time a woman in a Niqb held up a
bank? However, from an Islamic perspective there is
zero demand for a Muslim woman to wear a Niqb. It is
an self-inflicted "extra" sign of piety people place on
themselves (like monks self-enforcing celibacy).
Islam makes it clear that Mizan (balance) is key to the religion, that not to make the religion a burden:
No one was wearing a Niqb at the time of Muhammad. While subjective, the Niqb does become a
excessive burden that adds no true spiritual reward. It does have some cultural value where it is an
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excessive burden that adds no true spiritual reward. It does have some cultural value where it is an
aspect of identity and social piety. Either way this is an internal issue for Muslim people to debate. As
long as we have true freedom if women feel like the Niqb is an aspect of their spirituality then no one
nowhere has a right to stop them from their version of Islamic spiritual expression.
ISLAMIC THREAT
Another sale, $30 billion to Saudi Arabia, so much for fear of radical Islam. If radical Islam has $30
billion dollars to spend on arms you can be our friend, if you don't well you can just be plain old AlQaeda fundamentalist Islam. The deal secures 50,000 jobs in America. And for public performance,
and public performance alone Islam is factored as enemy number one. Now and then it has almost
exclusively been about the politics of money and resources. If Iran is in America's pocket and buying
arms and getting its energy from the Western alliance and helping Israel then the debate over
"Islamic fundamentalism" doesn't come up. If the Taliban were happy allowing American soldiers to
train in the mountains then the issue of the Burqah would never get to the New York times. Religion is
used to persuade the public of a course of action to support Western economic and political interest.
For the last 1000 years the biggest threat to European imperialism was Islam. The one thing that
almost took over all of Europe. The one force that was mightier and more long-lasting the
communism. Now tracing back a lot of the antagonism becomes clear. Edward Said claimed a
"subtle and persistent Eurocentric prejudice against Arab-Islamic peoples and their culture." He
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"subtle and persistent Eurocentric prejudice against Arab-Islamic peoples and their culture." He
argued that a long tradition of false and romanticized images of Africa and the Middle East in Western
culture had served as an implicit justification for Europe and the US' colonial and imperial ambitions."
He goes on to state "So far as the United States seems to be concerned, it is only a slight
overstatement to say that Moslems and Arabs are essentially seen as either oil suppliers or potential
terrorists."
In the mid Prince Henry the Navigator expeditions were sent to create much-needed maps of the
West African coast, to defeat the Muslims, to spread Christianity, and to establish trade routes. Prince
Henry attacked the Muslim port of Ceutha in Morocco. This successful attack in 1415 inspired Prince
Henry to explore West Africa, most of which was unknown to Europeans. Prince Henry wanted to find
the limits of the Muslim world to circumvent and destroy the Islamic advantage. He was also looking
for the mythical Christian empire of the priest-king Prester John.
A royal edict, for a while, prohibited the taking of African Muslims as slaves due to the likelihood of
rebellion. The rise of Islam in America among African-Americans has been seen as an extension of
this threat. And it must be remember that Spain for 800 plus years was controlled by Berber Africans,
West Africans and Arabs.
It is evident that people of Muslim origin are known to have accompanied Columbus and subsequent
Spanish explorers to the New World. Also it is reported that the descendants of Kanka Musa of Mali
made and epic voyage with a 2000 strong fleet in search of the Americas. Recent linguistic, cultural
and archaeological finds in Brazil and Peru offer documentary evidence" that West African Mandinka
Muslims explored the early Americas.
makes something African or Arabian culturally? Only its values and principles. It is therefore critical
that a paradigm-shift in intellectual debates deal with the value formulations of Islam as oppose to
some colonial monolithic understanding of an Islam (which they saw as an competing adversary). It
is regressive and anti-intellectual to keep throwing 1960's reactionary arguments at a continent so
diverse. "foreign", "Invasion" is the languages of victims, not people of agency. Aksum was no victim
when they embraced Christianity, no more so than when Rome did.
What part of the ablution ritual is "foreign", What part of communal pray is foreign to Africa? Islam
hugs a large constitutions of values under one umbrella. Polygamy was not introduced by Islam,
neither was the sexual modesty. Zakat is neither foreign nor harmful? So what are these pillars in
Islam that are so deeply destructive to Africa? Asante would argue that it created a disloyalty for
things Africa and reassigned value to things Arabian and in principle we must concede this as a valid
observation across all mainstream religions. But beyond the Hajj and the usage of Arabic, it would be
fair to say that the majority of the Islamic faith does not do this. More over how is it then possible for
Islam to create might Ottoman empires in Europe? (who used Arabic). How is it possible for a religion
that reassigns values at the scale Asante discusses able to create such superpowers which ultimately
annexed Arabia and oppressed the very same Arab people? If the Ottomans (who are not an Arabic
people) fit into Asante's theories how did these cultural orphans create a massive empire which
lasted for 600 years and creating some of the most marvelous arts and science the world has seen?
And what about the Mughal Em pire of India, or the Islamic people of Indonesia and China?
Something is not adding up when theory attempts to make the jump to reality. It would be far more
correct to say, that regardless of what system you bring, African or otherwise, if AGENCY is lacking
you will witness cultural disloyalty in preference of a "foreign" cultural transplantation. Because Islam
did not create weak statelets of pseudo-Arabs in the Sahel of Mali and Nigeria. And it is for this very
reason that Timbuktu was sacked by outsiders (Berbers and Morocco), despite all parties on both
sides of the conflict being Islamic.
If Islam was incompatible with Africans then how was it able to be used to create the libraries of
Timbuktu? Or the scholarship of the university of Sankore, which still exist? How was it able to
produce Malcolm X and Askia? Where is the massive history of this idealistic Africa that they speak
of? Even the dress we today globally associate with "being African" is an Islamic import.
If Islam or African Christianity in Ethiopia is foreign, and hence undesirable, then was Christianity not
also foreign to Europe? How has that "foreign" product serve Europe? Has it been an agent of
advancement or destruction? So "Foreign" is a baseless anti-intellectualism for a pub debate not in
an progressive African historiography. Even with Europe losing a part of its culture to Christianity it
has undoubtedly been the backbone of its political supremacy.
So with the conversion of Islam you get an imposition of Gujarati Islamic flavors. The same is true for
Durban, South Africa. In Cape Town the Malay culture dominates and flavors the Islam to that cultural
orientation. In America the process of Islamization is via the Black consciousness of the Nation of
Islam. In Indonesia the process of Islamization (making new Muslims) carries the cultures of
Indonesia Asian people, which is very different from the Arabization process. So in Ramadan you see
the ritual of breaking fast might be relatively standard across all these groups but the foods used is
culturally unique to each group. In Indian communities Indian food is used, in Ethiopia they use
Ethiopian food in the Iftar ritual (evening meal to at the end of fasting).
All of these examples show how many non-Muslims authors have oversimplified and reduced Islam
with very poor understanding of the diversity of Islam. The assumption of Arabization (as what
happens in Sudan) is not true for Ethiopia and Senegal. The Fulani people that brought Islam into
these regions would have been the dominate depositors of cultural to the variation of Islam in these
territories. Cultures fracture and reform creating new realities which seed progress and usher in
diversity. That has always been the way of the world.
Africans, like all other Muslim people, must separate out the culture ( ) from the religious ideology
( )in shaping new flavors of Islam. The Prophet Muhammad was not only a prophet in the religious
sense; he was a man, an Arab Qureshi, and a 7th century person. So the sunnah (way) of the prophet
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sense; he was a man, an Arab Qureshi, and a 7th century person. So the sunnah (way) of the prophet
would be informed by all of these considerations. Maybe the Prophet licked his fingers after eating his
favorite Arabian food (honey, meat and wild birds). Had he been Chinese that would be chopsticks
and chow mein, and he would not have licked his fingers. Had he been French it would have been a
knife and fork with a croissant, had he been Ethiopian it would have been ingera and Wot. None of
this is an aspect of the faith, but a cultural trend, which is inescapable. The Islamic etiquettes of eating
and leaving space for breathing however are acultural, and applicable independent of culture. This
wholesale taking of traditions is sometimes stifling, unproductive, tedious, and regressive. And while
being all of these things the most critical values, and ethics are lost.
Qur'anic legislation brought two major changes to ancient slavery which were to have far-reaching
effects: presumption of freedom, and the ban on the enslavement of free persons except in strictly
defined circumstances (Lewis). It became a fundamental principle of Islamic jurisprudence that the
natural condition, and therefore the presumed status, of mankind was freedom. Despite this, there
were the greedy and the vindictive that sought to make slaves of their Muslim brothers and sisters as
well as other Africans.
Despite the Arab dominated Middle Eastern and Trans Saharan slave trade in African captives the
religion of Islam is the only mainstream faith to activity emancipate enslaved people as a aspect of
religious devotion. "Free the slave" is repeated constantly in the Qur'an Hadith. The natural condition
of humanity in Islam is therefore freedom and justice. Islam therefore is a revolutionary religion born
into a world where slavery was part of the fabric of that society. On paper and in the living traditions of
the prophet of Islam emancipation was part and parcel of the Islamic belief. So the question is the
same question posed to other faiths, where did things go wrong? How can a religion so open about
abolition be practiced by the Arab slave traders? How is it possible to oppress Africans and then pray
five times a day reciting the very verses that say:
Malcolm X
What in the message of Jesus said "Go to African and get as many Africans as you can?", Where in
the Qur'an does it say "Where ever you find a Black make him a slave"? Democracy right now is
making a job and a half of creating new colonies, this does not invalidate the principles of democracy
just because of Obama and Bush's misuse.
If these mainstream religions are the principle agent of mentally enslaving people why is there the
same problems existing in countries that do not have the influence of these faiths? Does Benin have
some superiority claim over Ethiopia? But if the argument was correct then we should see this. We
should see more agency in Benin than in Islamic-Christian Ethiopia. Because if these Abrahamic
faiths, as separate elements, are enslaving people then how do you explain Ethiopia's rich and power
history? In treating a prostate cancer it is usually a good idea not to cut out the bladder and leave the
prostate. Mis- identifying religion is a detrimental to Africa; it is only convenient for people who do not
want to waddle through the complexities of the Africa's problem. And the language of "destruction
and domination" is political language, not historical language. The script destroyed oral tradition, the
car destroyed the donkey, the cd destroyed the record, and the turntable destroyed the musical
instrument. It is no different with culture and religion anywhere.
Many religion or spiritual systems, for hundreds of years, in West Africa practiced, and still practice,
Trokosi: The giving of virgin girls to the gods for services or religious atonement. Similar practices
were also found in the royal court of the Kingdom of Dahomey (in what is now Benin), in the 18th and
19th centuries. Wives, slaves, and in fact all persons connected with the royal palace of Dahomey
were called "ahosi", from "aho" meaning "king", and "si" meaning "dependent" or "subordinate." In
traditional Efik societies It is believed that Abassi gave certain tribesmen the ability to heal the sick
through necromancy. If the witch doctor was unable to heal the ill person, they were thrown on a fire
because it was believed that Abassi did not want them to be healed. So we must understand the
"flaws" of spirituality and religion are not exclusive to the Abrahamic faiths. And with the coming of
Islam many of these harmful practices were destroyed. Islam was not selective and some serious
aspects of culture were also washed away with its rise. And this must be considered in a holistic
understanding in presenting valid arguments regardless of our position on religion and Africa.
More wars are caused over land and resources than God. The largest wars in human history had
nothing to do with religion. Even during the crusades (which were supposed to be a Muslim-Christian
conflict), the crusaders killed many non-Western Christians. However, far more emphasis has to be
placed on greed, wealth disparity, and its effect on the human condition. In the absence of religion,
slavery would have taken place. In the absences of democracy and communism, wars would have
taken place. If we look at the most ruthless dictators most of them do not kill in the name of religion,
(Mao for example said religion was poison). The problem with Mao et al was religion competed with
him as a god-head. The biggest wars in history are not really in the name of religion; even the
crusades were about Europeans acquisition of trade routes, which Muslims controlled. Outside of
Islam and Christianity slavery existed, the largest slavers on the continent were neither Muslim nor
Christian. All arguments support that religion is not the primary agent in the oppression of Africa, now
or then.
It might not be right, but one thing we need to swallow is that all "advances" and "civilization" is the
product of degrees of imperialism and conquest: Take a look at Ethiopian history. Kmt in her brutal
conquest of Nubia, and Nubia's conquest of Kemet? Or the bloody Mfecane of Shaka Zulu as he
forcible united the Ngoni people. If our primary issue is with conquest, then the only thing to celebrate
is hunter-gatherer societies. There is a profit from conquest which every society of technological
sophistication has inherited, and we must deal with this. The human challenge is therefore how to
advance without exploitation.
Terms like "Islamic Invasion" and "foreign religions" are painted all over African history as if this was
the only process by which Christianity and Islam came into Africa. Islam has been a native part of the
African landscape for 1418 years, Christianity for 2000 and Judaism for far longer. Yet history paints
Christianity in Europe as if it was fundamentally a European institution. Europe Europeanized
Christianity just like how they paint Buddhism in China as if its origins where Chinese. So the notion
of Christianity being a European project needs to be challenged. They were Churches in Africa long
before the Vatican.
Europeans and Arabs did not walk into Africa to enslave Africans because of a deep hatred for dark
skinned people: The primary motive was profit. South African apartheid was the same. It was a
system, which protected European privilege and opportunities. Race was used as a justification to
secure this privilege and most found justification in the Bible, the same Bible that Martin Luther King
and Nat Turner used for liberation.
If someone's religion informs their lives to be righteous, care for the sick, to feed the poor and stand
up against oppression and inequity, to speak truth in the face of lies, to seek social advancement, to
feel guilt when in error, to be critical of self, to have honor in the face of challenges, to treat others with
respect and dignity, to be equitable in business, to be fair in all dealings and to do the work necessary
for progressive advancement of humanity; then that is a good religion. It makes no difference what
you call that religion or where it comes from if it does not function in cultivating a better human being.
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you call that religion or where it comes from if it does not function in cultivating a better human being.
RELIGION
1.1K Regardless of what is published, all great nations achieve greatness by solidifying
polities and empires around spiritual or political uniformity: Kemet did it, Songhai did it,
Like and Aksum did it. Therefore, religious or ideological conformity has been at the
backbone of greater human conglomerations.
And even in Rome with its many gods and plural religious ideology there was political uniformity on
the notion of being Roman. As is the case with the Pax-American national identity and culture of
diverse groups of immigrants. The God concept does not survive long outside of the bottle of religion;
religion is an institutionalized set of rituals which securely pass on the God concept from generation
to generation. The paradigm shift demands a new center of gravity in revisiting these facts as they are
inseparable from human sociological development.
Many of the philosophies manifesting in the Diaspora are claiming Africa origins but are inefficient at
navigating the moral corridors of life. While there are academic ring-tones and sound bites, they fail
to have systems, which address the human spiritual thirst. Their subjects are left wanting; floating
spiritually disconnected to be ultimately annexed in the worst expressions of Eurocentric conduct or
the primitive world of spookism.
It might not be right, but one thing we need to swallow is that all "advances" and "Civilization" is the
product of imperialism. Take a look at Ethiopian history. Kmt in her brutal conquest of Nubia, and
Nubia's conquest of Kemet? If our primary issue is with imperialism, then the only thing to celebrate is
hunter-gatherer societies. There is a profit from imperialism which every society of technological
sophistication has inherited, and we must deal with this.
get there by letting religion divide us? Those using religion to cause tension, or those using religion
as a tension are one in the same. How can it be Pan-African if it is not tolerant of ethnic, religious,
color, national differences among African people?
About Islam
What is Islam
Conscious Islam
Qur'an
Islamophobia
Popularity of Islam
Homosexuality and Islam
Racism & Muslims
Islamic Civilization
Contributions of Africa
There is not one major indigenous African faith that had an issue with
slavery, not one African native religion had principles that denounced
slavery. Therefore, the challenge which is posed to Islam and
Christianity for having a tolerance for slavery is also true for the
religions native to Africa. If these mainstream religions are mentally
enslaving people why is there the same problems existing in
countries that do not have the influence of these faiths? Does Benin
have some superiority claim over Ethiopia? But if their argument is
correct then we should see this. We should see more agency in
Benin than in Islamic-Christian Ethiopia. Because if these religions
as separate elements are enslaving people then how do you explain
Ethiopia. In treating a prostate cancer it is usually a good idea not to
cut out the bladder and leave the prostate. Mis- identifying religion is
a waste of time; it is only convenient for people who do not want to
waddle through the complexities of the African problem.
Now Islam did destroy some good aspects of West African culture but
how do we weights this from the comfort of our current location in
time? One might as well say anything that changes is destruction;
The script destroyed oral tradition, the car destroyed the donkey, the
CD destroyed the record, and the turntable destroyed the musical
instrument.
Islam has been used to impose Arab culture, but this is because Africa was lacking agency. Turkey
held its own, so why don't we? And yes Christianity was the excuse used to drive a trade in Black skin.
It was also the vector for mental slavery. None of this is in denial. No where in history do cultures stay
static in a world in motion, change is part of the cycle of life. And just as in life, after the fire the rains
come and bring life. The challenge is realistically salvaging from the ashes of history a clean place to
start from.
In the northern parts of West Africa, human sacrifice had become rare as Islam became more
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In the northern parts of West Africa, human sacrifice had become rare as Islam became more
established in these areas such as the Hausa States. There was a rise in general justice, education,
nation building, health, etc. We must be careful judging good and bad with our modern eyes because
we take for granted many moral norms were absent in the historical record. For example we all know
you don't kill a man and take his wife, or steal someone's car if it is unattended. But in antiquity this
would not have been considered a problem. The Afar of Ethiopia have no problem with any of the
above, so clearly this African habit which is not unique to the Afar is a problem in modernity. Because
our first location is truth, which harmonizes our lives verse leaves us at risk. In Islam there is a
tradition of justice, in some ancient African systems in the belly of the Sudan if the rains do not come
they killed the king. In other victims had to be ritually sacrificed to feed the lust of gods. Now these are
some extreme examples but we must be realistic when we understand that the world we recognize
as civil has a lot to do with the morals, which come from Islam and Christianity. And to finalize the
most critical point both Islam and Christianity as well as Judaism are philosophical children of
Ancient Kemet, an African civilizations. Now Kemet spiritual systems are physically dead and it is
neither practical or wise to reprise them from the dust of the Nile Valley. What we do have in front of
us is a continent which is either Christian or Islamic. Which path makes more sense to fix the
dilemma of Africa? Convert everyone or Africanize these faiths?
REFERENCES
Encyclopedia of religion in the South. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. p. 394
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