Hat tip to Frontpage Magazine
I am cross-posting two articles from Frontpage Magazine that hopefully, will stimulate some debate on the hypocrisy of accusations of racism. The first is by Daniel Greenfield and concerns the history of slavery in Africa-as practiced by Arabs. The second is by a Norwegian blogger who goes by the name of Fjordman and concerns the rape epidemic in Scandinavia, which is overwhelmingly dominated by Muslim immigrants.
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/black-slavery-and-islamic-racism/
When it comes to the trans-African slave trade (which I researched while writing my book, "The Story of Papiamentu-a Study in Slavery and Language"), I learned that it was the Portuguese sailors who first discovered the coast of West Africa and began the trans-Atlantic slave trade in concert with the discovery of the Americas. Eventually, other European nations like the Netherlands, became involved. However, centuries before the Europeans arrived in Africa, Arabs from North African were enslaving blacks from sub-Saharan Africa and bringing them to North Africa. This is essentially how African blacks were introduced to Islam, just as they were introduced to Christianity through slavery.
In the 19th century, the West gradually abolished slavery, first in England in the first decade of the 19th century. The Netherlands abolished slavery in 1863, followed by the US in 1865. It was the English who led the Atlantic effort to intercept slave ships during the 19th century.
Even after the Europeans abolished the slave trade, the Arabs continued it. In Mauritania and parts of Sudan, it continues to this day. The genocidal tragedy of Darfur essentially involves northern Sudanese Arabs (Muslims) committing vast human rights abuses and murder upon black Christian and animist believers from the South.
Yet how ironic is it that so many African-Americans like the Nation of Islam and others have converted to Islam as a rejection of Christianity, which they consider the religion of the white enslavers? The founding of the Nation of Islam in the 20th century by Wallace Muhammed was a specific rejection of white society. The Nation of Islam was brought to prominence by Elijah Muhammed and Malcolm X (The former ordered the murder of the latter.) Today, this theme continues under Louis Farrakhan (long suspected as being part of the conspiracy to kill Malcolm by his widow, Betty Shabazz). Yet, Islam continues to attract African-American converts in spite of its own history with slavery.
Is it racist to point this out?
Or should we cover this up?
Now comes Fjordman, a Norwegian blogger. His name remains guarded because he is under threat both of being murdered by Islamic radicals in his own country and because he is also under threat of prosecution for so-called hate speech. I am not a regualr reader of Fjordman, so I cannot vouch for everything he has said or written. When Anders Breivik carried out his massacre in Norway a couple of years back, there was initial speculation that he was, in fact, Fjoirdmnan, which turned out to be false. In this piece below, Fjordman writes about the rape epidemic in Norway and Sweden and why the press is afraid to identify the background of the perpetrators.
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/fjordman/importing-islamic-nightmares-while-denying-them/
A year or so back, there was a study done in Norway on the past year's rape statistics. There had been 86 cases of violent/forcible rape (I presume as opposed to date rape where knockout drugs were used. Naturally, I consider all forms of rape as violent.) I believe the year was 2010. At any rate, out of 86 "forcible" rapes, all 86 were committed by immigrants from Africa or the Middle East. If you ask why, the answer is that the perps consider Western women to all be "whores" and thus, they are free to take whatever advantage of them they wish. Other European countries are having the same problem. ( I should point out that we do not see this problem among Muslim-Americans, who come from a higher educational background.)
Is it racist to point this out?
Or should we cover this up?
Writing separately on the history of various Islamic trends in North America, it was Elijah Muhammed, not Wallace Muhammed, who started the "National of Islam" as the "true religion for the black man." Wallace Muhammed was Elijah's son, who brought his father's patrimony more into line with traditional Sunni Islam.
ReplyDeleteElijah Poole, aka Elijah Muhammed, may or may not have been inspired by the mysterious W.D. Fard. Of course the notion that "Islam is the true religion for the black man" was a fraud, perpetrated upon people with limited education and real grievances, and generally regarded with suspicion by most of the Muslim world. It grew, not because it was true, but because it provided peace, discipline, order, and a sense of pride, as well as economic self-help, to people who had some very real grievances about their life in the USA.
There were also Americans of African descent who took up a more conventional form of Islam, including Ammadiyah Islam, partly because it was imported from Trinidad and Tobago, where Islam came with enslaved Africans who never let go of it.
Yes, its always fun to play with people's cherished myths, and throw water on them with inconvenient truths. (Oh no, now Gary will think I'm comparing him to Al Gore). Its true, Arab merchants invented the African slave trade, when their traditional source of slaves, northern Europe, was less accessible. The Portuguese invented the association of slavery with race, the Dutch, French and British invented the pattern of slavery for life, inherited through the mother.
But there were plenty of dark-skinned Africans who converted to Islam, without ever being slaves. In some cities south of the Sahara, slaves were distinguished from free people by the fact that free people wore clothes, and slaves didn't. Color didn't serve, so they implemented an extreme version of the way boys gym classes used to identify teams: shirts and skins.
Siarlys,
ReplyDeleteWD Fard was also known as Wallace Fard Mohammed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Fard_Muhammad
I believe you are correct that Elijah had a son Wallace, who took over after his father died.
As for your tortured explanation about Arab slavery, I am merely stating that black Africans were introduced to Islam the same way they were introduced to Christianity-by way of slavery. later or modern conversions don't change that fact. I just wonder if American black converts are aware of the history.
As for the betterment of former convicts who adopted Islam in prison or later, I would agree that the NoI has led most to disciplined lives, yet it has also directed their anger to the white establishment-rightfully or wrongfully. I would still maintain that the Nation of Islam members hold a hatred toward white society that they feel has wronged them.
Siarlys,
ReplyDeleteAhmadiya Islam, as I have recently written was founded in the 19th century in British India. The Ahmadis are hardly considered conventional Muslims since they claim their founder was the successor messenger to Muhammed, which virtually all other Muslims do not accept. This group is basically not tied to terrorism and are more peaceful, and are badly persecuted in places like Pakistan. I recently attended an Ahmadi event at UCI and posted on it.
By the 1930s Ammadiya Islam was embraced by Trinidadian musicians in North America.
ReplyDeleteI generally don't rely on Wikipedia as authority for anything -- occasionally as a good starting point, if an article is well foot-noted. From the article you linked to, it sounds like tacking "Muhammad" onto W.D. Fard's name is something Farrakhan concocted. Its not the way he is referred to in the Autobiography of Malcolm X.
He certainly wasn't an authentic practitioner of Ammadiya Islam, and he certainly was a con artist.
Not all Americans of African descent became Christian via slavery, nor did all Africans come to Islam via slavery. You are starting to sink into pat little stereotypes, not unlike the people you criticize, only different stereotypes.