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January 22, 2005
African American Muslims lament
loss of Islamic heritage
New York – A perusal through the annals of American history brings back bittersweet memories for African American Muslims, who pride themselves on being the indigenous people of this country and lament the loss of the Islamic heritage throughout ages.
“Not only were there African Muslims who were here in America as explorers before Christopher Columbus, but a third of the African slaves who were brought here during the slave trade were Muslims,” Imam Al-Hajj Talib Abdur-Rashid told The Newsday.
“We, the indigenous Muslims of America, particularly the African Americans, are still waking up from a 400-year coma.”
Abdur-Rashid, 53-year-old, acrimoniously recalled how his Muslim ancestors were brought to America as slaves and forced to convert to Christianity.
“We suffered psychic and blunt-force trauma to the head, and forgot everything, including who we are and what we are. We were told, 'Your name is not Ahmed, your name is Charlie. You don't worship Allah. You worship Jesus,'” he told the paper.
“But this could not erase the genetic code. So lo and behold, 400 years later ... our historical memory as Muslims is being rebooted,” added Abdur-Rashid, who was born a Baptist.
Many African American Muslims further decry the prevailing stereotypes that their community was mainly made up of criminals, as some of them embrace Islam in prison. “I have never been in prison except in my work as a chaplain,” said Abdur-Rashid. “And I have people in leadership in my mosque who are college professors, and I also have people who are ex-offenders.”
African American Muslims also feel offended by affiliating the whole community with the Nation of Islam, especially that estimates showed that only a few thousands of some two million African American Muslims follow the group’s tenets.
Leading Muslim scholars have ruled that “the teachings of the Nation of Islam were extremely far from mainstream Islam in many matters especially those of doctrine”.
The Newsday said that the community is keen on playing an active role in developing American society.
It cited one of their famous mosques, the Islamic Brotherhood in New York, as a case in point with boy scout meetings, breast-cancer fund-raising and programs to combat AIDS and homelessness.
“Many here see Islam not just as a path to salvation but also as a social-action program and an authentic expression of black American identity,” the paper commented.
Many African American Muslims also complain about being marginalized not only by American society but, alas, by Muslim immigrants from Arab and southeast Asian countries. “We are the single largest Muslim community in America. Yet the media often relegates us to the margins,” said Amir Al-Islam, a professor of Islamic Studies at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York.
He further regretted that other Muslim communities in the States treat African American Muslims as less authentic despite the fact that they have been practicing Islam for decades in the country. “Muslim organizations from the immigrant community often view us as new Muslims who are seen as not proficient in the Islamic canons and, therefore, lacking in authenticity,” Al-Islam told the paper.
Abdur-Rashid added that the marginalization of his community was very much evident in the 2000 presidential election when the American Muslim Political Coordination Council (AMPCC), comprising four American Muslim groups, endorsed George W. Bush— without any African-American input. "It was deeply polarizing," Abdur-Rashid says. "Not because a group of Muslims decided to vote Republican, but because of the way they went about it. There was no consultation whatsoever with those of us who have any history in this land. And then, to project their collective decision as representative of all Muslims in America was an insult."
Things have been moving in a different direction since Sept. 11 as Muslim communities across the ethnic spectrum are united by a sense of being under siege. "When Amadou Diallo was shot by police, immigrant groups said, 'Well, that's a shame,' but they didn't make a big deal about it," said Abdur-Rashid, referring to the mistaken killing of an African immigrant by four New York police officers in 1999. "Some of them didn't even understand profiling. But since Sept. 11, every Muslim understands it."
One sign of a new determination to build bridges was the dramatically broadened Muslim coalition formed in 2004 to make a presidential endorsement. "There was a great deal of outreach to African-Americans, and it helped heal a wounded relationship," said Abdur-Rashid, who participated in the process. Yet he believes there is still a long way to go, he added.
"In their pursuit of the American dream and whiteness, the new arrivals have largely ignored African-American Muslims, and have assumed that they can impose their own understanding of Islam on African-Americans," African-American Islamic scholar Aminah Beverly McCloud said at a conference last year. By the same token, she said, African Americans feel their own engagement with Islam qualifies them to define Islam in America.
"We who have served in the armies of America as Muslim African-Americans since the American Revolution are not at odds with the West," said Abdur-Rashid. "We are the West."
The history of the Mosque of the Islamic Brotherhood is in many ways illustrative. Many here see Islam not just as a path to salvation but also as a social-action program and an authentic expression of black American identity, the Newsday said.
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