Islam is at the heart of an emerging global anti-hegemonic culture that combines diasporic and local cultural elements, and blends Arab, Islamic, black and Hispanic factors to generate "a revolutionary black, Asian and Hispanic globalization, with its own dynamic counter-modernity constructed in order to fight global imperialism. (say what!)
I used to refuse things at the table. Now I shout for more wine.
In somber dignity, I used to sit on my mat and pray.
Now children run through and make faces at me.
-Rumi
This weekend has been rather poetic so far. Today I went to a youth poetry workshop (I work with kids as a part of my job). And yesterday I went to the local Unity Church which had a modest Middle Eastern meal followed by a peformance of Rumi's poetry accompanied by drum, flute and harp. Let's see what tomorrow will be like.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright's Speech on the theme "A Change is Going to Come" at the NAACP dinner in Detroit
Rev. Jeremiah speaking at the National Press Club (Parts I, II, III)
Some of the following clips (from the Q&A) are hilarious, but not politic. As Wright says over and over again, he's a pastor not a politician. My guess is that these appearances might help Rev. Wright's standing among those already disposed to like him. But in the long run, I don't think his comments will play very well among white voters who are on the fence about Obama.
On an unrelated note, I thought Rev. Wright's answer to the question on Islam was rather interesting:
MODERATOR: Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the father but through me.” Do you believe this? And do you think Islam is a way to salvation?
WRIGHT: Jesus also said, “Other sheep have I who are not of this fold.”
Given that Christian exclusivism was one of the major factors in my own rejection of Christianity, I occasionally wonder what my path would have been if I was brought up in a place like Trinity United.
It is actually a bit disheartening that some Christians will be upset with Rev. Wright because he is too inclusive for their tastes.
Jeremiah Wright Question/Answer at the National Press Club (Part I, II, III)
Can I just say that I'm starting to hate Fox News? I mean, I already knew that I disagreed with their politics before ("fair and balanced" is really a joke) but I never really watched much of it until this past year. Now after seeing a couple of months of their election coverage I've been awed by their capacity and willingness to kidnap video clips from their proper context and hold them up for political ransom. I think Aaron McGrudder got it right when in the Boondocks episode, "Return of the King" he had an O'Reilly-clone accuse Martin Luther King Jr. of being an unAmerican. "Al-Qaedah-loving", "Commie-bastard." Given the way Fox has been responding to the preaching of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, it is easy to see that had King been alive today, Fox would go after him with a passion.
In contrast, to hear Rev. Wright speaking about his beliefs, Trinity United's mission and the recent scandal from his own perspective, check out his interview with Bill Moyers at: PBS: Bill Moyers Journal (Rev. Jeremiah Wright)Part I , Part II (transcripts also available)
Outreach in the Latino community must address a variety of areas.
1.] It must address the problem of education in the Latino community. So da’wah should address education for social mobility and for understanding Islam.
2.] Da’wah efforts should focus on empowerment (economic) more than cultural identity and this is inter-related to what was just said.
3.] Da’wah must be a call to what is agreed upon in Islam before what is disagreed upon
4.] There should be a strong focus in teaching how to read the Qur’an and Qur’anic memorization and the importance of ibadah
5.] Da’wah should address family life and how to build a family and deal with nom-Muslim relatives
6.] Da’wah should address the problems of identity so we need counselors to be there for new Muslims
7.] Da’wah should address the need to build leadership in the Latino community
8.] Muslim Latinos must be taught to be a part of the larger Muslim community and how to deal with what that entails.
9.] Da’wah should encourage people to be self motivated and to have a relationship with scholars
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:
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.
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").
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.
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.
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.
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?
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
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.