Can you clarify who or what the moors were? Were they the same as Arabs or were they different from the Arabs of today? By the way, there are a lot of black people who say that Islam was originally an African religion. Is this true or false? It doesn’t make sense that an African religion would result in the enslavement of millions of Africans, which is still going on. I know I am asking a lot. Thanks.

1. The Moors were not fully defined by Race, they were of the Muslim religion, their culture was more an amalgam of African and Arab culture, much like what we find in parts of North African where the Africans were not totally exterminated, driven out, or enslaved by the Islamic onslaught.  It is not really possible to define them in modern racial terms or concepts because racism as it is understood and practiced today had not fully taken root in the 8th century. 

The Moors were far from monolithic, and had many internal differences. John Henrik Clarke’s research concluded that they Moors lost their hold on Southern Europe due to internal conflicts concerning corruption, he articulated that the Black/African Moors were at odds with the Arab Moors due to their constant violation of Koranic Laws.  We know that the Islam of the Moors was heavily influenced by Africans because they allowed the Europeans to practice their own faiths and didn’t force conversions; Arabs when not under such African influence tended to force conversions.  Ultimately, as with all history that is rooted in Religions Myth and Folklore, there is a lot of mystery and confusion concerning the Moors; but accurate historical records and research are out there if your are willing to dig.

2. Islam is not only not African in origin, it has been anti-African in it’s practices since it invaded the continent.  When Islam first came to African and found its way to Ethiopia, it was rescued by the Africans, but when it returned home, took power, and consolidated the Bedouin tribes, it returned not as a friend, but as a vicious conqueror that waged war on African people, and our very culture and identity.  The history of Islam in much of African is one of atrocity, and division.  The areas that were too far from the Islamic seats of power were not taken my force because they could not field the Islamic armies as far as Senegal and Nigeria; in those areas they used subversion and division instead of direct conquest, but the ultimate results were still negative for the Africans.  So Islam is not Afrian, and it has no direct roots in Africa, it is as anti-African as Western Christianity.  In fact, Islam was simply icing on a caked called Arab Nationalism; that is its real purpose. 

If you study the roots of Isalm you will see that it is a combination of Arab poetry and folklore, Christian and Hebrew myths, along with sayings and statements of the Prophet.  Is is not a very original religion,  it was constructed from the religions and cultural material available to the Arabs at the time.  Dr. Clarke has called Islam, “the most unoriginal of the big three world religions,” for this reason.

If you want to stretch the logic, monotheism and human spirituality has its origins in Africa, so all religions can, if you follow them far back enough can be traced to African, just like humanity itself; but most of the Religions are so mutated from their African roots it would be inaccurate to call them African, or even to say they are rooted in Africa.

(Sorry for the long answers, I actually kept them as short as possible, but your questions are not the type that can be fully answered in this format, but I did my best.  Thanks for reaching out.)