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MuslimBridges.org - Special message to African American friends - Find your roots - Get to know Islam
Several years ago, on our first trip to perform pilgrimage in Mecca, we stopped at New York JFK airport in transit.
Immediately upon entering the JFK terminal; I could not believe my eyes. I have never seen so many African Americans in one place. Amazingly, they were all Muslims. It was an amazing sight to see thousands of Muslim, African-Americans accompanied by their families to wish them a safe trip to Mecca. You could see the women with their Islamic headscarves, and dressed in a very modest and respectable manner. Men were in their modest dress and behavior which can only be admired and respected at first glance.
They all seemed very happy, cheerful, extremely friendly and warm with each other. I even spotted some young couples, where the wives were black Muslims, and the husbands were white Muslims. They were completely integrated with their group. I could not resist to chitchat with some of the brothers and satisfy my burning curiosity. I found out that the airport terminals are packed every day during the entire pilgrimage season (for about 2 weeks) with similar number of Muslim African Americans. They came from all over the states, but many were from the east coast, and a large number were in their 20s and 30s, which surprised me since I assumed most people who were on pilgrimage were old school. I discovered that many have just recently become Muslims, and one young man told me that at first, some of his friends became Muslims; he then became Muslim, and then later followed his brother and mother.
While waiting at the airport, I just had a flashback of a conversation that took place much earlier with one of my relatives. She is not a Muslim and not an African American. Her position was that African Americans came from Africa without any beliefs, culture, and were even cannibals. She added that it was the slave masters who blessed them with their sir names, Christianity, and the culture! I replied that Islam was spreading very fast in African nearly 1400 years ago. Many of the Africans that were brought to America and Europe against their will, were in fact Muslims. They had culture, wisdom, wealth, and a proud heritage.
During the last days of pilgrimage, we spent it in a camp near Mecca. There again, I had a chance to meet many African American Muslims and I always wondered what would compel anyone to take such a step and adopt Islam as a way of life. The answers varied but had a number of common factors:
One brother stated that it was really very easy for him to become Muslim, and it is a logical progression as Islam is a continuation of the prior messages from God, but unlike prior scriptures, the Quran is 100% authentic and preserved in the Arabic language that is widely practiced today.
Another brother said he appreciated Islam to be the righteous religion and there is equality.
One of the brothers told me that he did not convert to Islam, but reverted to Islam because first, when he was born, he was a Muslim to start with (he meant born without sins, and has the human nature to seek god, the one God), and second, his forefathers most likely were Muslims but were forced to depart from their religion, Islam. He said "look around you, how many African American who are not Muslims but kept the tradition alive from their forefathers by naming their kids Kareem, Jamal, Kadija, Shakeel, Shakor. These are the names of family members or companions of prophet Mohammed PBUH."
I wish to leave you with three questions:
1) Are your sources of knowledge about Islam similar like my relative who has misguided knowledge of African Americans? 2) Do you know a good Muslim African American, I don't mean people like Malcolm X, or Mohammed Ali, or Kareem Abdel Jabbar, but people you actually know on a personal level? 3) Have you read the page titled Shahada ?
You were listening to Thanks to Allah by Zain Bhikha
Several years ago, on our first trip to perform pilgrimage in Mecca, we stopped at New York JFK airport in transit.
While waiting at the airport, I just had a flashback of a conversation that took place much earlier with one of my relatives. She is not a Muslim and not an African American. Her position was that African Americans came from Africa without any beliefs, culture, and were even cannibals. She added that it was the slave masters who blessed them with their sir names, Christianity, and the culture! I replied that Islam was spreading very fast in African nearly 1400 years ago. Many of the Africans that were brought to America and Europe against their will, were in fact Muslims. They had culture, wisdom, wealth, and a proud heritage.
One of the brothers told me that he did not convert to Islam, but reverted to Islam because first, when he was born, he was a Muslim to start with (he meant born without sins, and has the human nature to seek god, the one God), and second, his forefathers most likely were Muslims but were forced to depart from their religion, Islam. He said "look around you, how many African American who are not Muslims but kept the tradition alive from their forefathers by naming their kids Kareem, Jamal, Kadija, Shakeel, Shakor. These are the names of family members or companions of prophet Mohammed PBUH."