manifest liberation: the four gates

Even more from Amir Sulaiman (see also manifest liberation: virtue vs. vice)

In the Name of The One

Manifest Liberation is:

To Liberate Ones Self from Illusion
The world of illusion is the world of non-existence. In order to be effective, to move forward with high intent, one must be with Truth. How may one realize what is not real? How may one actualize what is not actual? In order to realize, to actualize, or to manifest ones liberation, one must be free from illusion and submit totally to Truth.

To Purify the Self
To truly purify ones self, ones purification must occur spiritually and physically, individually and collectively, internally and externally. Every self that has lived and will live is part of one Self, the Human Being. The lesser self is what allows the notion of ego and the greater Self is the collective consciousness that binds the Human Being together as one. One may not purify the self without purifying the Self nor may one purify the Self without purifying the self.

To Perfect Character
To perfect character is to perfect ones relationships. To perfect relationships is to perfect ones relationship between one and ones self, one and other selves, one and ones environment, and one and The One.

To Battle
To manifest ones liberation one must wage an unceasing war against vice and the vicious, against malice and the malicious, and against oppression and oppressors. Only through battle may the Self be free of the illusory shackles that bind the hands and restrain the mind. Only through battle, may one gain liberation and ensure sovereignty for virtue and the virtuous

the myth of la's race war

From Alternet: The Myth of L.A.'s Race War Former gang members say the violent Los Angeles jail riots aren't about race; they're about power, struggle and pain. See also: one people

re-examining the left hand of god

From Alternet: Re-examining 'The Left Hand of God' looks again at Michael Lerner's ideas and focuses on the religio-phobia of many secular progressives. See also: the left hand of god

manifest liberation: virtue vs. vice

I recently saw Amir Sulaiman perform some of his poetry so he's been on my mind. And since I've already blogged on him before, I thought it would make sense to share a larger sampling of some of his thinking. The following is from a piece of his called virtue vs. vice.

Freedom is in the soul, heart and mind. It is also in the limbs, land and wealth. The most important part of liberation is in the soul, hearts and minds of the people. Of lesser importance is the limbs, land and wealth of the people. If the limbs are free to move about as they like and money is available but the soul, heart and mind are still property of the oppressor then there is no hope for true manifest liberation. On the other hand, if the limbs are chained and the wealth is confiscated but the soul, heart and mind know and long for freedom then there is still hope for full manifest liberation. The freedom fighter needs only to fight to be free. Victory in any traditional sense of the term may come but is not necessary. The first gesture of revolt is a sufficient indication that the soul and heart are free from the system that oppresses. As all change, revolution begins in the soul as aimless nameless restlessness. Its energy works up until freedom condenses onto the walls of the mind. The intellect crystallizes it into the language of the people and all together like a mountain avalanche they come crashing down upon the gates of Empire.

It is faulty to think that the oppressed people of the world will enjoy manifest liberation by way of songs, poems, and letters to congressmen. The empire will not fall by way of hemp bracelets and long hair. The yokes will not be lifted by way of slogans and pamphlets. Manifest liberation will not be voted into office. Are we to think that simply because an oppressor received less votes than another that he will simply relinquish his power? The reason an oppressor is an oppressor is that he does not care for the beliefs and opinions of the people only the labor and wealth of the people. In the psyche of an oppressor, there is absolutely no occasion when he will willingly surrender his power. Throughout history, tyrants surrender not at the end of an open forum discussion but at the hot end of a rifle. They give back what they have taken only under the supervision of a sharp sword with its promise of retribution hovering above their neck.

It is equally faulty to think that the oppressed people of the world will enjoy manifest liberation only by way of bullets, Molotov cocktails and car bombs. Even if the people burned the White House to the ground tomorrow, the ills of society will not be rendered aright. Are we to think that a righteous society will be established by those with wicked ways? If the oppressed do not purify themselves of dishonesty, greed, lust, jealously, fear, envy and the other vices that plague the human family then there can be no real success. There may be a change of flag and a change of leadership but oppression will still loom over the heads of the powerless.

Often the oppressed adopt the maliciousness of the oppressor. When the oppressed do so, they help proliferate the oppressor’s agenda. The oppressed who have accepted the diseased ways of the tyrants spread the virus of mischief and corruption like a contagion. In a strange yet common twist of fate, the oppressed are infected with oppression by the oppressors and inevitably the oppressed oppress. Then those who are oppressed by the oppressed oppressors, once infected with the virus of oppression, seek out others to oppress. What this creates is an endless wheel of coercion that cannot be broken except with an individual, independent commitment to prefer virtue to vice and justice to tyranny. Very few will have the foresight and courage to do such a thing but they will do so because that is their destiny. These brave virtuous souls are what constitute a true liberation front. They are the precious invaluable vanguard of righteousness. This group is rare but always arises. Just as sure as oppression will raise its ugly head this vanguard of purified souls will be there to smite it off. These souls inspire other souls towards success as that is their reason for being. Once the people purify their ranks, even if they number few, they can expect triumph.

No matter the battle strategy and no matter the weaponry the unjust will not and cannot establish justice. No matter the leadership and no matter the number of followers those given to vice will not and cannot establish virtue. This is the irresistible, irrefutable reality of universal law. To try to transcend it is futile and to ignore it is foolish. There will be no freedom for the oppressed one who oppresses others. There is no dignity for the humiliated one who humiliates others. With virtue comes liberation as with vice comes oppression. This is the only way. This is not a new method; this is true way since the first to come from the loins of Adam and it will be the true way until vice is wiped from the planet Earth.

Liberation will come by way of the spirited songs and sharpened swords. It will come by way of the scholar’s ink and the martyr’s blood. It will come by the way of the righteous soul and the firm hand. For the one who truly fights for Truth and Justice, firstly and forevermore must know that high virtue is what promises victory and lowly vice is what assures defeat.

Amir Sulaiman's myspace blog
more amir sulaiman
Manifest Liberation

our black shining prince

Tuesday was the anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X. Keep him in your thoughts by looking at Izzy Mo's post El-Hajj Malik as-Shabazz over at Third Resurrection

the good kind of fatwa

Umm Yasmin over at Dervish recently posted a Declaration of Fatwa by World Islamic Scholars about Danish Cartoons. But of course, this raises the eternal question: In the popular imagination, which will be seen as more representative of Islam, a clear, decisive unified statement by dozens of Islamic leaders from around the world? Or the violent actions of a few thugs?

an opinion on the riots

Brownfemipower recently posted An Opinion on the Riots which puts alot of this recent issue in perspective. In essence, what she says is, "it is the height of hypocrisy that the Western world is calling Arabs/Muslims violent barbarians for rebelling against the representation being used by violent occupiers to justify that violent occupation."

and also there is:
the dirty dozen
everyone has their sacred cows
shouting "fire" on a crowded planet
clash of the uncivilized: insights on the cartoon controversy
why muslims get mad
cartoon protests reach latin america

un calls guantanamo a us torture camp

I honestly don't know what to say anymore. I already had one blog entry from last week when an earlier draft of the UN report was released. Now the final draft of that report came out but the response is not really surprising.

US: Did not.
UN: Did too.
US: Did not!
UN: Did too!
US: Did not!...

Yahoo News: U.N. Calls Guantanamo a U.S. Torture Camp
earlier entry: treatment of guantanamo prisoners constitutes torture

new to the blogroll

Rasa'il Khalil al-Wafa' is a blog by a PhD student at the University of Chicago who studies Arabic language and literature.

brian gumbel is looking like malcolm x?

Brian Gumbell on the Winter Olympics:

Count me among those who don’t like them and won’t watch them ... So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention.

The Daily Cardinal: original story
from Dave Chappelle: negrodamus 1
from Common Dreams: White Blindness: The Winter Olympics and Defending Bryant Gumbel

"...being the last one around"

I feel funny about this post. And I would definitely welcome feedback from the female members of the audience (especially those who see themselves as progressive).

Over at Dervish, in the entry We're Outbreeding Them, Umm Yasmin talks about how in Australia some are arguing in favor of limiting access to the abortion pill RU486 on the grounds that the non-Muslim ("white"?) birth rates are already low, and that if current trends continue, Islam will be the dominant religion in Australia in 50 years or so.

The whole discussion reminds me of the old Last Poets piece called The Pill (included below) which raises some related issues. The border between birth/population control and genocide can sometimes be unclear. In certain contexts, there is a slippery-slope from saying "There are too many people" to saying "There are too many of those kind of people".

This also reminds me of some conversations I had a year ago with a Catholic friend of mine (who I actually have recently bumped into again) on birth control. "Obviously" the Catholic position on artificial methods of birth control (absolute prohibition) is different from the usual Muslim position (sterilization and other permanent methods are prohibited, but most other methods are ok). But if you also throw in the Orthodox Jewish position (Adam was commanded to "be fruitful and multiply" so male contraceptives are prohibited) it seems like, in spite of their differences, we can loosely say that these three "traditional" religions have an ethos where having children is prized and at least some forms of birth control are discouraged. (Although I would argue that if we look at the most orthodox forms of each religion, Islam is the most liberal... permitting most forms of birth control and giving limited approval of abortion)

For example, the hadith: "Get married and multiply (have children), because I will be proud of you, in front of other nations on the Day of Judgment"

The Pill

Are you aware of the pill?
Its basic design is to kill
The fertile womb
becomes a tomb
for a new child unborn still.

I say are you aware of the brute
Whose job is to wither the fruit?
They'll cause us to fall
our history and all
by cuttin' us off at the root

They say "We'll stunt Africa's growth.
And Asia has too many folks.
Too large is the mouth
in the Latin South
We'll aid 'em by cuttin' their throats."

"No, we must approach as a friend
and do our job from within.
Let's feed 'em the pill
that's made up to kill
and make their beginning their end."

So poor folks of the world, be aware.
For their evil design is laid bare.
Watch out for the hag
with the little black bag
Marked "Birth Control: Peace Corps and CARE"

It's part of a game that they play.
And it's designed to make poor people pay.
It's part of a lie
to help you to die
while they cart your resources away.

I say conspiracy is in the air
To control the children that you bear.
Control of the land
is a part of the plan
as your kind grows increasingly rare.

It's a truth to be understood
through at first it may appear good.
But it's a menace to health
and to lineal wealth,
Since you can't reproduce when you should.

And in this respect I am told
it is better to use self-control.
For the future and truth
belong to the youth,
since you cannot prevent growing old.

So make sure that your reasoning's sound
before taking that potion down.
For it would be a shame
to come into fame
for being the last one around.

The issue can get complicated. Just between you and me, I'm not really suggesting that family planning is some genocidal plot. I'm just saying that the important thing is to make sure that people are empowered with information and resources so that they can make their own choices. And this should be done in a genuinely balanced way. In a modern Western context, reproductive freedom is often framed as the right to NOT have children. But if the issue is REALLY about choice, then we also have to acknowledge the right TO have children as well.


Sunni Path (Hanafi): Is contraception permissible?
From Al-Balagh is the article Overpopulation: Myths, Facts, and Politics which I'm not sure if I'm endorsing but questions the concept of overpopulation.

Past Grenada entries:
the men will look like the women... relates the Last Poets to Islamic attitudes on transgenderism. And race and sex discusses an interesting link between feminism and white supremacist movements and also brings up (Planned Parenthood founder) Margaret Sanger's connection to the eugenics movement.

mosques are struggling

Two days ago, the St.Louis Post-Dispatch published a story called Mosques Are Struggling which gives a good snapshot of the challenges faced by many African-American Muslim communities.

america's "other" muslims

I just put up an article called America's Other Muslims by Peter Skerry over at Third Resurrection. For the most part it describes the (African-American Muslim) community of W.D. Mohammed and compares and contrasts them with other Blackamerican Muslims, Immigrant Muslims, the Nation of Islam and the larger society.

my private casbah

My Private Casbah is a blog I recently found by Bint Alshamsa (daughter of the sun). Based on some of her discussion on religion and other things brought up in her blog, I would guess that she's a Black ex-Bahai but to be honest I really don't know her precise background. In any case, she has an intriguing perspective on things.

the revelation will not be televised

From Radical Torah (a site which does Torah commentary from a "radical" perspective): The Revelation Will Not Be Televised gives an interesting Biblical take on one of the accounts which also appears in the Quran, namely the Exodus narrative.

one people

Gregory Kane's article about the recent race riot in a Los Angeles County correctional facility, ‘People of Color’ are All One? made me sad. And at first I was not sure how much the prison race riot would relate to the degree of racial harmony in society overall. After all, Tookie Williams aside, I'm not exactly sure that we really expect inmates to sit in a circle holding hands singing "Kumbaya" living out Martin Luther King's dream. So some part of me thought, "hey I've seen Oz... prisoners aren't going to get along anyway. That's just how things are Inside."

On the other hand, prison isn't really seperate from life Outside. "They" are "Us". Especially since many of "Us" might have family and friends in prison who grew up in our same communities and will rejoin those communities when they get out. And so what happens in prison is a reflection of what happens in the larger society.

Right now, I'm wondering what impacts, if any, the riot has on Black-Mexican interactions in LA. I also wonder what the interactions are like in East Coast prisons (where more Hispanics are Afro-Hispanic - Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans, etc.) Anyone know?

the islamic movement and the bolivarian revolution

In a Grenada-esque turn, Umar's recent entry on Defending the Islamic Movement and the Bolivarian Revolution talks about how in his own life, people are seeing what happens in Venezuela and what is happening in Iraq and Palestine and the developing world generally as all part of the same struggle.

It reminds me of an interesting thought experiment. From time to time, I wonder what are the long-term implications of my political sympathies. I mean, what if I could replace all the petition-signing pen with a magic wand. What if in one feel swoop, all the governments and other institutions legalized, banned, funded, divested from and pulled out of all the things and places they are supposed to legalize, ban, fund, divest from and pull out of. Is there a coherent pattern to the changes you'd want to make? How would the world be better? And also more realistically, what would be the costs? What would be gained and what might be lost?

Personally, I keep getting a certain amount of insight just from trying to imagine that "another world is possible". But a further question you could ask yourself is how do we persuade people that the new world is worth the price?

more muharram posts

We are still in Muharram, the first month of the Islamic lunar calendar, and in the spirit of the Sunni-Shia blogring it seems appropriate to point folks to Other Muharram Posts in the Blogistan which is a set of Ashurah/Muharram links collected over at Sister Scorpion's site.

It seems like every year, Muharram is a time for tension to come out between Sunnis and Shias. I wonder how folks out there, especially su-shi blogring members but in reality everyone, think about the issue. What's being done to encourage unity. I hear hints in the wind here and there, but I wonder if anything has been happening lately.

colours of resistance

Through reading about Andrea Smith and Colorlines, I found out about Colours of Resistance and it seems like a powerful and interesting network of activism:

Colours of Resistance is both a thinktank and an actiontank, linking the issues of global capitalism with their local impacts. For us, this means working locally on issues such as anti-war, police brutality, prison abolition, indigenous solidarity, affordable housing, healthcare and public transportation, environmental justice, racist immigration policies, and many more. Colours of Resistance acts as a network for us to share support, ideas, and strategies with one another across our diverse communities.

Colours of Resistance: Articles and Analysis

lantern torch

Lantern Torch: Creative Illumination is a new addition to my blogroll by Tavis Adibudeen. Who is Tavis Adibudeen?

I am a servant of Allah, Most High, a Muslim, primarily. I accepted Islam in 1995, by the grace of Allah, Almighty. [...] I cannot bear the arrogant burden of calling myself Sunni, although I strive to live by the Sunnah. I cannot hold myself in such esteem as to call myself Shi’a, although I endeavor to follow Ahlul-bayt. I cannot imagine myself to be Sufi, although I dream of achieving such a state. These are qualities of a Mu’min, which I have not achieved. I pray that Allah can grant me such qualities.

Check him out