OPINION
Are Muslims Free of Racism? Have Muslims internalized the Prophet’s Farewell Sermon, or do they just pay lip service to it? BY NOOR SAADEH
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re Muslims racists? Most would categorically deny it, unless called to account by others for their words or actions. It is a difficult label to apply, even if one is humble enough to recognize some of their very real prejudices on this subject. “There are Muslims of all colors and ranks here in Mecca from all parts of this earth,” wrote Malcolm X while performing the hajj rituals in 1964. “I have eaten from the same plate, drank from the same glass, slept on the same bed or rug, while praying to the same God — not only with some of this earth’s most powerful kings, cabinet members, potentates and other forms of political and religious rulers…their belief in the Oneness of Allah had actually removed the ‘white’ from their minds, which automatically changed their attitude and behavior toward people of other colors.” If Malcolm were to make the hajj again today, would he make the same remark? The Quran commands both justice and ihsan in our relations with others (16:90). Prayer, dkhir and du’a are only the first steps, and yet our halaqas, speeches and khutbas repeat them over and over again. Although Islam’s foundation is built upon the five obligatory pillars, we spend most of our time polishing them and paying less attention to those that define who we are based on our behavior and interaction with others. Dallas, my hometown, has become a land of suburban megachurches and mega-mosques, and yet we see an absence of Black faces in them. In interfaith events, Muslims bring a bit of color and diversity to the otherwise mainly white Christian and Jewish participants. Dallas is large enough to be cosmopolitan, but not so large as to create mosques catering to specific regions. Instead, our Black kin have their own mosques in the inner city. We are not so racist as to exclude Pakistanis, Yemenis or Africans. Yet the African Americans’ “Black” mosque is separated from others not only in physical proximity, but also in spirituality and kinship as well. Rarely do the two meet. Consider the Nation of Islam’s (NOI) astounding legacy in terms of their members’ habits, dress, manners and uplifting effects on surrounding neighborhoods. Can we credit our Arab or South Asian communities with the same effects? Have Arabs had a similarly remarkable impact on Dearborn, Mich.? Has any ethnic-majority Muslim community in the U.S. accomplished so much? Do we congratulate them, emulate their good works, ethics and manners, or distance ourselves and cry out kafir and bida’? Do we dismiss their good works and declare them void because they weren’t following what we define as the Sunna? Even after Warith Deen Mohammed embraced the more traditional Sunni path, did we welcome his followers or hold them at arm’s length — and continue to do so today? If we are honest, did their skin color and long-term second-class status prevent us from embracing them as kin in faith? Isabelle Wilkerson, in her extensively researched and thought-provoking “Caste System: The Origin of our Discontents” (Random House, 2020) [which 54 ISLAMIC HORIZONS MARCH/APRIL 2021
was featured on Oprah’s Book Club], offers undeniable examples of an unspoken caste system that has shaped the U.S. and other societies — how this hierarchy of human divisions still defines our lives today. Muslims, as a misunderstood minority and as fairly recent arrivals, are farther down the totem pole but still above — and try to distance themselves from — the Blacks and Hispanics. Do Muslims rush to integrate with white Westerners and their values to get as far away from the bottom or from the Blacks as they can? Even though most immigrants followed this same trajectory, are we being true to our Islamic tenets of justice and ihsan? We cannot complain that our fellow citizens know little or nothing about Muslims or only what they garner from the media and films if we don’t care to know our own brothers and sisters in the faith. Do we embrace African American Muslims only when they are famous imams, celebrities or politicians at fancy dinners in luxury hotels? The study of history is important. We know little of our own Islamic history beyond the Prophet (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam), his Companions (‘alayhum rahma) and perhaps the Righteous Predecessors. How much do we know about Islamic Spain, the Islamic capital cities of Africa and the Ottoman Empire — much less the history of North America? A great portion of our Muslim history in the U.S. begins
