Thought Provoking Series
Abdur-Rahman Muhammad has a series of posts on the last 30-40 years of Islam amongst Blackamerican Muslims that I suggest everyone read. He essentially tries to get at he heart of how the culture of denial developed
I have been having some really insightful conversations with these “veterans” and in time, I hope to bring more history to the blogosphere and otherwise. There are many lessons to be learned from these brothers that were cast to the side by the time I became Muslim in the mid 1990’s. It is also instructive because many do not know that there were American Muslims doing positive things before the current major organizations arrived
Filed under: Black American Muslims, Muslim Isolation, The Culture of Denial and Pretense
I have blogged it as well:
http://www.mujahideenryder.net/2007/12/06/every-first-generation-muslim-needs-to-read-this/
ASA,
There is no doubt that the Salafi da’wah was a big blow to the activist spirit of Blackamerican Muslims.
There wasn’t a direct connection made in these postings that I would like to bring up in regards to the rise of Salafi da’wah in America as a counter-balance to the Iranian revolution. The Carter administration and Reagan’s were extremely worried about the influence of the Iranian revolution on all Muslims. No doubt, I’m sure they were scared of the spirit of this revolution infecting Blackamerican Muslims.
Shi’ism, especially the Wilaayatul faqeeh theory of Al-Khumayni, espouses revolution and activism unlike Salafism. Therefore, I truly think that the Salafi influence was welcomed with open arms be government officials to passify us and keep our minds occupied with pants leg length, beard length, hand positioning in salat, etc instead of doing something for ourselves and challenging the status quo.
I’m not implying that immigrant Shi’is have been anymore involved in social activism than immigrant Sunnis were in the 80s and 90s; they weren’t. I’m speaking about the influence of doctrine and methodology.
It was also related to me that Dr. Khalid Al-Mansour said years ago that during the Carter administration, there was also a expressed concern at the highest levels of government about the unification of immigrant Muslims with indigenous Muslims for a common agenda.
If there is veracity in this statement of Dr. Al-Mansour, a lot of conclusions can be drawn about the direction of our national leadership from the late 70s to the late 80s.
As salaamu alaykum,
Imam Dawud I was just having this conversation with a friend of mine last night and my conclusions were very similar to yours on this issue. Its very strange that a religious movement so very far from S.Arabia would put such emphasis on politics that have little to nothing to do with the indigenous peoples here.
I would say, though, that it wasn’t wilayat al faqih that was the heart of Ayat. Khomeini’s activism theory, but rather his dedication to “mustadhifeen bil ard” or the oppressed of the earth. I can also say, as something of an ametuer historian of Shi’a Islam in the U.S. (especially amongst Af. Americans), that there was a time during the 80’s and 90’s that there was some important grass-roots community activism going on from Shi’a communities especially in Masjid Ar Rasool in Watts, CA. In fact, the leader of that masjid negotiated a truce between crips and bloods in the area after the L.A. soon after the riots that erupted post Rodney King verdict.
There was, however, nothing on a national level and the causes for that were a lot of reasons primarily having to do with a lack of leadership.