Black Muslims

Salaam,

Black muslims is the topic of the day, so boys and girls take out your pen and paper and start writing...

The reason I write about this subject, or this subject has been forced upon me, is that my current flat-mate is a black revert from the US; most of the brothers he hangs out with are African-American brothers and so i've been spending a lot of time with these guys over the last few weeks and thought it would be an interesting topic

In the UK, in Burnley, I knew zero black muslims, at Cambridge I think I knew of one or two but didn't really know them, yet globally I think at least 20% of the Muslim population would be considered "black" but I, and I think a lot of muslims in the UK have had very little contact with them

One thing I always prided myself on is Islams stance on racism; I think Islam is the only major world religion which makes the unity of man, despite nationality, tribe (take note Arabs) and colour a Very central role in its teachings. Yet it's shocking to see how much racism and tribalism exists in the Ummah today, and this has been brought to a front by what some of these guys have been saying.

Basically every conversation we have ends up on this topic; about how (in the US anyway) black muslims are treated as "inferior" by the rest of the Muslims, and how this has led to a lot tension in mixed areas. A major factor in the states is the class differences which exist; in the US most of the Asian muslims are white collar workers whereas the black muslims are more concentrated in manual labour, and because of this there's a big difference in outlook, behaviour, interests etc making it difficult for them to get along.

But the US aside, even in "Muslim" countries racism is rife with darker skinned people always seen as inferior. I think the history of this (in Asia anyway) is that the poor people were forced to work out in the field all day and so got dark whereas the rich people didn't. But the unequal treatment and the stereotypes which go with this are as un-Islamic as you can get

One of the brothers (the one who sorts out Egyptian wives if you want one..Abdul Hakim (AH)), has lived in Egypt for six years and was saying how that on Egyptian TV it's always the dark skinned people who are the servants, the criminals, the low life people and the light skinned people are always the stars. My flat mate was also saying that he saw an Arabic textbook where the three times it had black people in it, one was a beggar, the other was a cleaner and the third was robbing a car...!

Islams stance on this is as clear can be - there's soo many hadiths and verses in the quran emphasizing how everyone is equal except in terms of belief. AH (who also happens to be a Al-Azhar student) was saying how all the scholars are agreed upon the fact that Adam (alayhis salaam) was "coloured" and the word "Adam" itself means "derived from black". Also the fact that the Prophet made Bilal (RAW) the first muazzin in Islam clearly shows his stance on this issue.

I think most people reading this will be saying "yes yes yes I know all this...I aint no racist" but I think you are. Most people are. Due to the constant biased news, films, TV shows we watch ALL of us have or are at at least partially tainted with this problem - we all prefer our own kind and usually within our own kind the lighter the better. Its sad that this situation is present but I think it is.

I think this is something which can't be solved overnight but I think the global problem anyway Is improving - its becoming "cool" to be black, or tanned skinned anyway, as more and more famous people are African-Americans and coloured people are being portrayed in amore positive manner in the media. I remember well how a white middle-class friend of mine from university one said he wished he was black...! (he listened to a lot of rap/hip-hop music...). So who knows, the days of "Fair and Lovely" being an Asian/Arab bestseller may soon be over...

Salaam