African American Muslims. What’s their future?
A friend of mine sent me an older article that appeared in the USA Today discussing the spending habits of African Americans during hard times. This article struck me because of the fact that many African Americans bring many of these ills into Islam. It also made me think about the fact that while in America (nationally) there are 8 percent more women alive today than men (Any normal society will generally have more women) amongst the African Americans, there are 26 percent more black women than black men. In New York City (where they count the many African and
Caribbean immigrants as “African Americans”) the numbers are still even higher at 36 percent more women. Often our more literalist brothers wonder with what do all these stats “have to do with us?” (i.e., the Muslims) Well, these evils are following the African Americans INTO Islam. And because (surprise! surprise!) we live in America and these problems, as we see, don’t automatically fade away when we take shahaadah.
a) The number of African American women in Islam is dwarfing the numbers of African American men in many larger cities. This is probably partially because of what is above, but we are also seeing many African American women in general (especially the more intelligent ones) remaining unmarried (they say something like 45% of African American women never get married and the number increases with the education level). This is following African Americans into Islam as well as many African American sisters have a hard time getting married.
b) African American women in general are more educated than African American men, and we are beginning to see this in African American Muslim families as well.
c) Because of a and b, indigenous Muslims are putting less emphasis on education and developing Islamic institutions and instead focusing on intellectually bankrupt answers.
We can not solve these ills by continuing to look the other way. I fear for the future of Islam for our childrens’ generation with these current trends. If things do not change drastically, MANY in the next generation will be illiterate or near illiterate and unable to sustain a good job, which will lead to many being unable to get married, which will lead to a permanent underclass of feckless societal misfits. Not to mention problems like fornication, and possibly even apostasy! May Allah protect our children. Ameen
As a result of what I am saying here, some brothers have dismissed me or what I am saying as overly “negative” or alarmist. Others have seen what I see, and given up on saving the entire Cruise ship in favor of heading to the lifeboats with their own families. I can’t fault that approach at all, and that is where I am. Still I feel compelled to tell those on the ship that it is sinking and that something needs to be done SOON.
I think that the taboo of even raising this topic has crippled our ability to explore practical solutions. Even to begin listing the topics that need to be addressed reveals how stifled the conversation is. We need to stop being afraid of data that tell us a story we do not want to hear, stop pretending that we live in Riyadh or Abu Dhabi, stop the denial, and start facing reality before it comes to us in a form we don’t like.
Filed under: Black American Muslims, Convert Issues
Masha Allah, very good points and excellent “food for thought”. Insha Allah I hope your message reaches and sinks into the heart of many Muslims.
Priase be to Allah and may His Peace be upon His Noble Prophet(s) and all those who follow him untill the last day.
To Proceed:
Thank you brother tariq for the introduction into this topic. It is important for the African-American to realise one important factor; organization. Black people have been through alot. Some of it we have been drug through and the rest, we jumped into thinking that the water was shallow enough to swim in. But we, who are African-American and Muslim we have no excuse. We MUST learn from these ills we have experienced. We MUST learn to (a) come together and build together (b) learn to share our wealth with one another (c) learn to police ourselfs and or societies (d) Learn to not hate people with acsents and different skin colors and customs. We must form a non-profit organization and a credit-union (i.e. halal) to impower our ideas. The problem is planning. There is not enough of it and the importance of planning is unknown.
Jazzak Allah khayran ya Tariq.
Salaam ‘Alaikum
Good first post, off to a strong start.
I like is what you wrote in this first piece, and that is if we don’t have ourselves together, and we are running off to Yemen and then coming back and sellin oil on the corner, our children are going to suffer. So you see a lot of brothers who can’t maintain, and sisters who leave them and end up being Muslim “baby mammas”. I also have to address msyelf on this topic; because like a lot of young Muslims, I spent a lot of time in seach for knowledge and the Islamic Movement and neglected myself and therefore I am not in the position I need to be today, and nor are those around me. There are hadith about the merits of poverty and the ill-effects of poverty; but I can say from the American experience poverty is a bad thing for most Muslims as it relates to the deen and their children.
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.
FOI & MGT Classes in the NOI taught us about family life. These classes are still needed in each masjid, center and organization in the US, especially where AA muslims attend in large numbers.
We do not need to reinvent the wheel, we have a successful model, let’s use it!!!!
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