This morning I read a comment that really struck me. It was from a Black Muslim, he was informing me that Africans could never unite, at the same time he was defending Islam. He was dissing Pan-Africanism and embracing Arabism! This was crazy to me; a Black person could better imagine unity with Islam than with his own people. It just shows how ignorant some of us are of both history and current practices.
I started to go all into how Europeans fought two World Wars and countless other lesser wars but are still able to unify for their common interest, how the Asians are forming a trading and economic block, or how Arabs were nomadic tribes who raided and killed each other for centuries but are now working towards Pan-Arabism; I started to go into all that shit to show this individual that there is not only a necessity for Pan-African unity, the fact that we have internal beefs is not an insurmountable obstacle. But then I though, this individual don’t want to hear all that. He wants to sit on the Arabs lap and play Muslim and couldn’t give a damn about Africa or Africans.
So I decided, since Africans “will never unify,” to do post about some fundamental points about the Islam that all Africans should know.
1. Islam is icing on a cake called Arab Nationalism.
2. There is no such thing as Muslim Names, or Islamic Names. Muhammad’s name was Muhammad decades before Islam. Bilal, and all other names associated with Islam predate the Islamic faith, so they are Arab, Persian, Asiatic, ect., names, but the name Muhammad is no more Islamic than Peter or Bob. If you adopt these names they don’t move you closer to Allah, they just further demonstrate your subservience to Arab culture and history.
3. There is no such thing as Islamic garb/dress. The clothing associated with Islam are nothing more the the clothing of the Bedouin Culture, they wore such garments to allow them to navigate the arid environment they lived in. These were nomadic people who traveled a harsh land that required them to COVER THEIR HEADS, and wear long flowing fabrics that allowed for cooling air to flow, but protected them from the hot sun at the same time. We got Black Muslims dressing like 16th Century Bedouins in the Urban slums of America! How ridiculous is that? We have Black women in the hood covering their heads and faces like it’s some homage to some God when it is noting more than mimicking of women who lived on top of shifting sands who’d covered their heads and faces (leaving a slit for sight) to block out the intense desert sun and blowing sand and dirt.
4. Dr. John Henrik Clarke stated that “Islam is the most unoriginal of the major religions,” because it is the newest of the Big 3, and simply amalgamated the tenants of Judaism, Christianity, along with Arab poetry and folklore. The reason Muslims have to so violently and brutally defend their religion is because it cannot hold up to scrutiny; so it is better for Muslims to threaten or even kill those who question the faith than for them to actually engage in civil debate and discussion. Don’t be too hard on the Muslims tho, they are new to the game. The Jews and Christians also went through their burning at the stake, cutting out of tongues, and public execution phases too. Just give Islam another 300-400 years, it should mellow out and adopt more sophisticated means of oppressing and terrorizing it’s followers just like Christians and Jews have done.
5. Islam has utter disdain for all things African, starting with African people and ending with African culture. Islam is a major threat to Africa and has colonized most of North African, and the Islamic nations are in a bitter race with the West and Asia to take the rest of Africa. Islam spread into Africa at the point of a scimitar, it’s entrance into African was lubricated by the blood of millions of Africans. Areas like Senegal and Nigeria were not brought to Islam through bloody conquest like areas in East African because their lands were too far beyond the Arab supply lines to mount effective conquest, so they were brought to Islam through less violent but more insidious means; through cultural subversion and divide and conquer tactics. Ultimately, Islam has been a scourge on the face of Africa and continues to divide and weaken African unity all over the world.
6. Finally, Muslims are only rivaled by the US in the number of Africans they hold in bondage…right now, today. There are Chattel slaves in North African as you read this. Arabs, White Moors, and even Black Muslims hold Africans in slavery in Mauritania, the Sudan, Egypt, Morocco, the Western Sarah, and throughout the Middle East (Excluding Palestine). There are numerous UN reports, and reports produced by NGOs and Human Rights Organizations that prove this, you can check out Samuel Cotton’s classic text, ‘Silent Terror: A Journey into Contemporary African Slavery,’ or ’ Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy.’ The Koran supports the holding of slaves, but instructs that they must be released if they convert to Islam. You know damn well that ain’t happening; no more than Massa would let our ancestors go after they found Jesus.
If you wanna be a Black Muslim, fine that’s your choice, and unlike Arabs; African tradition informs us not to prevent people from following their chosen spiritual paths; but don’t expect us to share your delusions about your faith, or to allow you to share falsehoods about Africa while you boost your chosen Alien Faith. We will express our truths as strongly as your express your faith. If you wish to avoid any criticism or mockery of your faith then do as Malcolm X suggested and “keep your religion in the closet, leave it at home.”
