Worsening Plight of African Americans and why it DOES matter to Muslims
As if more proof was needed, another article was posted at MSNBC about the worsening plight of African American men in America.
Making matters worse, a forthcoming book, which includes a study of nearly 1,500 private employers in New York City, found that black job applicants with no criminal records weren’t any more likely to get a job than white applicants who were just out of prison.
This should serve as a further warning signal to African-American Muslims (especially those outside of W Deen Mohammed’s community) that if more emphasis is not put on paternal investment and education of the children, then they will not be able to compete in the future, and Allah knows best.
African Americans are being outdone in other areas as well. Consider also that Southeast Asian businessmen successfully petitioned the federal government to be declared “Asians” so that they’d be eligible for disadvantaged minority status.
Some, even African-American Muslims, have said: “What does this have to with Muslims?” or “This is not OUR problem”
In response, once again, three reasons:
a) Many of these same people are accepting Islam.
b) They are bringing these issues into Islam with them. and
c) We don’t live in a vacuum. Many of these people are our neighbors and in the case of African American Muslims…They are FAMILY
Also consider that many of the African American Muslims who embrace Islam in jail often return to jail in significant numbers. I fail to understand the insistence on sticking one’s head in the sand on very real problems that we as a community and our future generations are facing.
And finally on the issue of jobs and competition, one thing rarely mentioned in the illegal immigration debate is that it is driving large numbers of African-Americans out of the legitimate workforce. This is going to create a massive social problem and the Muslims (especially the African Americans) are indeed affected by this. Fact is that the illegal immigrants are not going to compete for the high level white collar jobs.
It is also a problem for Latinos as well. Latino gardeners, for example, will continue to make low wages as long as there is an endless supply of illegal immigrants coming in every year from Mexico. Bob Samuelson of Newsweek said:
“An increase of 10 percent in new immigrants can reduce the wages of earlier immigrants by 9 or 10 percent, says a report from the Urban Institute in Washington.”
How much moreso would this affect the African-Americans? If more and more African Americans Muslims are unable to financially establish and support Islamic Institutions because of this dire situation, then what will become of many masjids and Islamic schools?
Unfortunately, the Government seems to be showing no signs of ever cracking down on illegal immigration, so this problem will continue for the forseeable future, and Allah knows best. So we must take steps to prepare our children to be more marketable and compete for the higher wage professional jobs while maintaining their Islam.
When you bury your head in the sand, guess what? The rest of your body is still exposed.
Filed under: Black American Muslims, Muslim Isolation, Race
One of the most absurd things that I hear is when African-Americans Muslims say that they are no longer black or a part of the community. By nature of their very existence they are part of the community and what effects the greater African-American community effects them.
I can’t say that I have heard an African American Muslim actually deny that he is black, but I have heard several that think the society around them does not have any effect on them and pull themselves away
Every immigrant group to America and even their nativeborn children have suffered some type of discrimination and bigotry from one extreme to another. But there is no need for "preferential treatment" nor for "Affirmative Action" for such groups.
Affirmative Action is meant as a solution of gerations of discrimination, segregation and social injustices that cannot be overcomed any other way and that there is some type of need for retribution.
Even a recently arrived African from Africa or the Caribbean does not have the historical pattern of racism. We either start to take proper care
of those that have suffered literally for hundreds of years or continue to ignore them.
AA. I think it is an excellent opportunity for Muslims to help the injustice inflicted upon the Blacks in this country. This may used as Dawah too.
I would urge you to look into it. Thanks.
I have heard African-American Muslims say that they arno longer black or African-Americans they will say ” I am Muslim, khalas” but they arent getting pulled over on the way to fajr because they are Muslim. Also, Somalis will say they are not black and I tel the maybe you are not black in Africa but you are here.
[...] Successful Black Woman Syndrome According to the society watchers and commentators, Oprah has it.
[...] This as well would not necessarily be the case as long as there is lacking paternal investment, a stigma of marriage as being something negative is perpetuated (SBW syndrome), and a lack of concentration on education and nutrition for those that will be those future polygamous husbands. [...]
immigration in definately hurting everyone.in the state of georgia,construction has been taken over by illegals.brick masons who once made 17.00 an hour ,have been replaced by illegals making7.00 an hour.and the govt says WE SUPPORT A GUEST WORKER PROGRAM?just who are these people talking to?if the countrys leaders would just listen to what the people are telling them,nobody wants illegals here.even legal immigrants are against them cause they undercut them as well.this so called border wall if and when its ever built,could very well be a wall too late.besides as 9/11 proved.people get visas all the time come to america and then vanish.thats just what we need right?
[...] encourage you to stop taking care of responsibilities that are right around you and take up our insane cause - of which
first of all i would like to say i have heard african amer. muslims say that once they become muslim there is no one race I BEG 2 Differ. WE were born of african decient and yes we have takin on this deen but i have to agree with my brother “who are our nieghbors & family?” they are all our color and the problem lies in our community especially within our youth, here in cleveland we have younge brother killing each other everyday we have muslim community activist here and we work around the clock tring to mediate and intervien in these affairs but still something bigger MUST be done. Im open to opinions. Further more in cleveland they are crackin down on the “imagrent” in our areas i believe its deeper than taxes its that this country has been races,and still is. The willy lench sendrum is in full swing if you dont know read the paper.as musims we MUST be BIG impact on our community We need to be on the street like them “witnesses” giving douwwa even to them if they listen(lol) May Allaah help us INSHALLAAH.
[...] Right. This has nothing to do with Islam, but it is brought into Islam along with other baggage. [...]
Beig Muslim does not stop us from being Black. It also doesn’t create a force around us that makes us impervious to our responsibilities in our communities. “Who will loan to Allah a good loan?” How can we loan a good loan when we don’t due what Allah asks of us? We are seperated into sects which causes disrespect, we don’t return the greetings the same or better, we don’t cover our bro’s &sis’s faults: Allah says “give 70 excuses,” we pray for each other’s down fall, and we back-bite like crazy. We then have the audacity to say “we don’t have what we need.” Our children as well as other people are watching us. We are walking Dawaa. Once we come together as bro’s &sis’s then Allah will give us His wealth to enhance our standars of living.Lets be better Muslims & pray for each other and our cummunity. After all our homes and our Masjids are part of the blueprint..
Movement Thoughts from an ‘Old Head’
Sh. Mahmoud Ibrahim al-Amreeki
Dar ul Islam / Iqaamatiddeen
M. A. N. vs. B.A.M.
In contradiction to those who identify themselves as Black American Muslims (BAM), the primacy of which is Race…
I am a MAN. I identify myself as a Muslim American Nationalist. The primacy of which is Muslim…
I define this as follows :
Muslim means that I am informed by and obligated to the agreed upon sources of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jammah which is the Qur’an, the Sunnah and the Guidance contained in the examples of the rightly guided Caliphs. This rich heritage is the foundation of my belief system, Aqeedah and represents for me the core of acceptable behavior.
American means that I am the product of a specific historic and materialistic reality. This reality includes notions of class, race and culture. Contained within the parameters of this location are expectation and assumption. To deny these aspects would certainly be insane.
Nationalist means to have a vision of Muslim Americans living with some measure of autonomy under the Guidance of Allah (sharia) in America, sharing and protecting the national borders with our neighbors in a peaceful way.
This description contains the linear clarity of past, present and future.
The Dar ul Islam Movement ( 1962-1983 ) was the quintessential expression of Muslim American Nationalism or MAN. This movement sought to bring about a ‘consensus of identity’ for the American Muslim as a strategy in the realization of autonomy, i.e. self-governance. Amongst ourselves, the members often spoke about the ‘movement’ as one would a provisional government.
The forward thinking leadership of the Dar ul Islam Movement could have bought into the idea of racialism, as other Muslim communities did by granting special status to the membership because of a shared black (African-American) heritage, but they didn’t. The Dar leadership could have easily positioned itself as cultural-nationalists of the late sixties did and drawn on the connections of Mother Africa and it’s indigenous Muslim experience and garnered a significant constituency thirsty for some ancient connection, but they didn’t.
The Dar ul Islam Movement was crystalline clear. This Islam, on American soil, would blossom in it’s purity, on it’s own terms and with it’s own world view, independent of the view of the rest of the Muslim world that failed to sustain viable mechanisms of Islamic governance. The movement used the metaphor of the sun rising in the West as the timely arrival of Western Muslims, free from the cultural backwardness and underdevelopment of the Muslim world, in order to guide the Muslims towards a future in which the Muslims would regain their rightful place as leaders in all fields of endeavor which includes the arts, science and government.
The above view as represented by MAN is how we believe the first three communities, the best generations of Islam, saw themselves in the context of a non-Muslim environment. The Prophet’s Community was not content with the status quo. They knew they were different. Understood that they viewed the world through the lens of Divine Revelation. They saw themselves as a nation unto themselves.
BAM or Black American Muslims have no vision of autonomy or independence. Essentially, the BAM is content with the status quo. As a matter of fact, there is no reason, in their view, to seek out any other type of existence except to advance their own personal status either by education or that much sought after ‘good job’. Yes, they are Muslim. And yes, they are Black. But in their writings there is nothing that distinguishes them from any non-Muslim Black American, in their perspectives, in their outlook or in their view of the world. The BAM has been fully integrated into the herd. The BAM has fully embraced the notions of servitude and cooptation, and like the Children of Israel, ask themselves,” where could Moses possibly want us to go?”
And this is the main difference between the BAM and the MAN.
Walaykum AsSalaam, Shaykh Mahmoud Ibrahim al-Amreeki,
Respectfully Shaykh, IMHO I don’t think there has to be an either/or situation, between BAM and MAN, rather something that incorporates the best of each. Before I go further, given that the internet is not always the best arena to discuss complex issues as nuance in an opposing view isn’t always conveyed, please read my comments as a son merely trying to make sense of the past rather than to impose some revisionist idea. InshaAllah, we will get sit and speak one day.
Sadly, the evidense suggests the Dar was torn assunder for the very reasons you mentioned as laudable. Centuries ago ibn Khaldun spelled out the importance of “social cohesion” or community cohesion.
IMHO, the Dar operated from an invalid premise that Islam could be implemented devoid of a reference to a cultural imprint to act as glue. Without that cultural glue the Dar was left vulnerable to outside influences which came from countries where social cohesion existed. Whether these outside movement influences from other countries came from Lahore Pakistan, Mewat India or Riyadh Saudi Arabia each professed to be nothing but Islam, yet in reality each of these movements came with its own cultural framework each with its own benefits and detriments, which nevertheless damaged the Dar. Then when combined with internecine violence ultimately ended the Dar.
As much as I love the brothers for forging ahead in there efforts to establish autonomous Islam here in America, there can be no denying that there was a lack of clarity with regards to delinating between “American” and “kufr” and not to view them as if they are one in the same. For example the development of the distain for higher education at American universities within the Dar was tragic in terms of the community acquiring the skills and wealth needed to sustain a functioning modern community. Doctors, lawyers, accountants, MEDIATORS, managers and other areas needed to be developed.
While I have full faith in Allah’s qadr, from a historian perspective the question has to be asked why couldn’t Imam Yahya Abdul-Kareem, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and Shaykh Hesham Jaaber (May Allah grant them each paradise) get their heads together in 1964?
Perhaps answering this question could lead us to correcting the current state.
Whatever we are called BAM or MAN, there has been a woeful failure to create the social cohesion under one leader necessary to establish a social contract with the government. At least from my perspective since the late 70’s and early 80’s there has been ongoing collusion between American, Pakistani and Saudi Arabian intelligence agencies along with added funding from Rabita to systemically undermind consolidation of Blackamerican Muslim leadership.
MANA has made strides to reverse this trend but there remains much to be mended. I’m still hopeful that Imam Siraaj will be able to convince stalwarts of Islamic movement in America such as Amir Abdallah Yasin, Imam Al-Amin Abdul Latif, Imam Abdullah Tawfeeq (Abu Muslimah), Imam Abdul Alim Musa and others to join with MANA.
below are links to some more thoughts
http://www.siiasi.org/yetanotherforum/yaf_postst21_Towards-a-Methodology-for-Uniting-Indigenous-American-Muslim-Communities.aspx
http://www.siiasi.org/yetanotherforum/yaf_postst23_RIBAT-an-urban-Muslimtown-enclave-or-a-rural-Muslim-Town-commune.aspx
http://www.siiasi.org/yetanotherforum/yaf_postst25_What-can-we-do-interim-while-striving-for-a-dignified-SOCIAL-CONTRACT.aspx