mexico's indigenous community converting to islam

Thanks for the heads-up from Ahl al Hadith

two different models of inclusion

It is an interesting coincidence that these stories came out within a few days of each other. Together they show how the Nation of Islam and the ministry of Imam W. Deen Mohammed are both seeking to be more inclusive, but in very different ways:

Nation of Islam group reaches out to Latinos
Muslim leader urges shift from black theology

whatever happened to the league of the black stone?

I've been curious about the League of the Black Stone for a while now (since before I started to blog) so it is good to finally get an update. But I'm a bit skeptical about how their agenda can survive unless it has an organization to push it forward.

see:
laughing lions
the forbidden dialogues

cheikh lo

I'm going to have to check him out the next time I go to a CD store. Muslically, he performs African music tinged with Cuban sounds. Spiritually, he is a member of the Senegalese Sufi order known as Baye Fall Sufi (sometiems called "Muslim Rastas").

Myspace: Cheikh Lo
catching up

latino / "middle eastern" and the 2004 election

Elenamary's recent post Latino/”Middle Eastern” has multiple levels to it. On the one hand it's about how "we all look alike". On the other hand it gives a new 'complexion' to the fishiness around the 2004 US Presidential election.

illegal mexican immigrant or islamic terrorist?
yup, we definitely all look alike
post 9/11 blues

more on mccain's racially problematic politics

So in addition to the laundry list I included in my last McCain post (see mccain, racism and religious bigotry) I should have also mentioned McCain's support for George Wallace's son (who has links to the hate group, The Council of Conservative Citizens) and McCain's persistent opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1990. Election Day will be soooo much scarier than Halloween this year.

McCain's Southern Strategy
Stop John McCain 2008: Racism
Is John McCain a Racist?

“i look black, but i’m latino, too and we have to realize that this is divide and conquer being repeated."

The Final Call: Fear of a Black-Brown race war in Los Angeles by Charlene Muhammad

While law enforcement, politicians and community activists spar over whether recent gang-related shootings should be officially classified as race-related and investigated as hate crimes, community and peace activists say tensions between Blacks and Latinos continue to escalate, building anger, distrust and above all, feeding right into the hands of a common enemy of both communities.

mccain, racism and religious bigotry

I don't want to casually throw around the accusation that McCain is a racist, but between his "gook" comment and initial non-apology, his "tar baby" comment, the "bomb Iran" song, his ambivalence on the Confederate flag, his vote against a federal Martin Luther King holiday, his attempt to rescind the King holiday at the state level, and given some of the questionable people he is choosing to associate with (e.g. McCain's Florida campaign chair Bob Allen, who was caught offering a Black undercover cop $20 for a blowjob and cynically blamed his behavior on the scariness of Black people, paleoconservative, as in pro-Confederacy, political consultant Richard Quinn, George "Macaca" Allen, who McCain campained for heavily in 2006, and several others) McCain has accumulated a pretty f---ed-up pattern of behavior around racial issues. Let's see if it will make any kind of difference with the voters.

The Real McCain on Race and Immigration
Democrats Repudiate McCain Surrogate's 'Tiger Woods' Comment
John McCain Has a Racist on His Campaign Payroll
Jon Stewart Slams McCain’s Racist, Hypocritical, Disgraceful FL Campaign Chair
John McCain's MLK Day: "Pandering" to the Racist Right
DNC: John McCain's Real Record on MLK Holiday
McCain on MLK Holiday
McCain's problematic race record
McCain uses term ‘tar baby’

Grenada and McCain
john mccain: "i hated the gooks. i will hate them as long as i live."
mccain: no you can't
mccain's spiritual advisor hates muslims and islam
should john mccain reject and denounce minister john hagee?

the family, hillary clinton and the religious right

I'm generally not given to conspiracy theories but apparently Hillary Clinton is a member of a rather secretive DC-based religious organization known as the Family (also known as The Fellowship, The Fellowship Foundation, or The International Foundation). The group was founded in 1935 by Abraham Vereide, a Norwegian immigrant and traveling preacher who had been working with the city's poor, and who feared that "socialist" politicians were about to take over Seattle's municipal government. Eventually the group changed its focus to working with the affluent and powerful and moved its headquarters to Washington D.C. The Family's politics tends to lean to the right, with a strong anti-Communist, anti-Union component. Over its history the group has included several Republican Congressmen and prominent businessmen in the oil and aerospace industries, and at the more extreme end, the group has included a number of Third World dictators, ex-Nazis, as well as some homegrown American fascists. (In some respects The Family makes me think of a version of Opus Dei which is American-based and Evangelical instead of Spanish-based and Catholic)

So one question I have is why a Christian organization would associate with such "unChristian" folks? Secondly, why would Hillary Clinton be involved in a group skewed THAT far to the right? Thirdly, is this story going to get as much attention as Obama's involvement with Wright?

Wikipedia: The Family (Christian political organization)
The Nation: Hillary's Nasty Pastorate
AlterNet: Meet "The Family"
The Atlantic: Hillary's Minister Problem
Mother Jones: Hillary's Prayer: Hillary Clinton's Religion and Politics
EXPOSÉ: THE “CHRISTIAN” MAFIA by Wayne Madsen
Harper's: Jesus plus nothing: Undercover among America's secret theocrats

the compassion forum

CNN: Transcript of Obama and Clinton speaking on matters of faith and values at The Compassion Forum

franchisee sues islamic investment bank for racial discrimination

BlackEnterprise.com: Franchisee Sues Islamic Investment Bank for Racial Discrimination

duh! there are black mexicans

an "unusual" blend of cultures: mexican and black
tony gleaton aims lens at black mexicans
shades of mexican
tapping the third root
afro-mexicans represent!!!
from vicente guerrero to vicente fox
early mexican graves hold africans
the mexican stamp controversy
understanding pickaninnies and improving the race
no hay sangre negra
invisibility blues
a few afro-latino links

post colonial studies is the opiate of the people?

I'm not sure I agree with A Warning To Writers: Post-Colonialism As Opium by Ali Eteraz, but it is something to think about.

an "unusual" blend of cultures: mexican and black

Los Angeles Times: An unusual blend of cultures: Mexican and black is similar to other pieces I've linked to before. It seems like every couple of months I come across an article or webpage which touches on the communities of African-descent Mexicans who live along the coast. Personally, I think it will be a great day when the LA Times can do a story with the title: Duh! There are Black Mexicans

spain to senegal: stay home

In These Times: Spain to Senegal: Stay Home by Adrián Bleifuss Prados deals with the various Spanish responses to African immigration.

Other entires on Spain as a place of immigration:
is spain realy racist?
points to paradise
spanish immigration ploy: hire mothers

absolut aztlan

The above ad, showing Mexico's pre 1848 borders was shown on billboards in Mexico but has stirred up some controversy (and even drawn threats of boycotts) north of the Rio Grande.

Time: A Vodka Tonic for Mexico's Loss? by Joan Grillo

actions speak louder than words: rev. jeremiah wright, a true patriot

Counterpunch: Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a True Patriot by Lawrence Korb and Ian Moss thoroughly addresses the claim that Jeremiah Wright hates America or is somehow less patriotic than his critics.

latin america and the arab world: resistance and occupation

Progressive Podcast: Tariq Ali, author of Pirates of the Caribbean: Axis of Hope, delivers a lecture in Sydney, Australia entitled: Latin America and the Arab World: Resistance and Occupation on Hugo Chavez and the insights which the experience of Latin American leftist populism may hold for the Middle East.

A revolution is moving across Latin America. Since 1998, the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela has brought Hugo Chávez to world attention as the foremost challenger of the neoliberal consensus and American foreign policy. Tariq Ali shows how Chávez's views have polarized Latin America and examines the aggression directed against his administration. His lecture will guide us through a world divided between privilege and poverty, a continent that is once again on the march. The contrast with the Arab world could not be more striking. Here the resistance is divided and without the social vision required to unite a people.

the anti-imperialist left confronted with islam
Planet Grenada and Hugo Chavez
tariq ali

when is a christian not a christian?

Is it just me or does the media seem reluctant to describe the "polygamist sect" down in Texas as Christians? The group in question, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, are a splinter group of the Mormon Church which decided to stay polygamous when the rest of the church decided to ban the practice.

Religious Tolerance: Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Rick Ross' "Cult" Website: Polygamist Groups
Wikipedia: Polygamy
Biblicalpolygamy.com

r.i.p. charleton heston (1923-2008)

In spite of the wildly conservative political turn he took later in life, I really liked Charleton Heston in Planet of the Apes (both old and new) and Soylent Green. Even Omega Man (based on the same novel as Will Smith's I am Legend) wasn't a bad flick. His performance in Bowling for Columbine... not so hot. Still, he will be missed.