eric robert rudolph

Well, Eric Robert Rudolph finally plead guilty in the case of the Olympic Park Bombing (along with other offenses).

An audio clip of the story from NPR can be found here

And a link to a decent article on the story can be found here

Of course it is rather cliche to point this out but it is "funny" that he has links to Christian Identity groups but he doesn't get called a "Christian terrorist" in the above pieces. I've heard that newspapers and tv/radio stations often have guidelines about this sort of thing (who is a "terrorist" as opposed to freedom fighter, insurgent, rebel, etc.) but I wonder what they are.

For what its worth, Wikipedia is willing to cite Eric Rudolph as an example of Christian terrorism. But I've seldom seen or heard those two words next to one another in other news media. I think the last time was many years ago when I read a newspaper article about a militant Christian group in Uganda. And the terminology "Christian terrorist" surprised me so much I clipped it out and saved it.

slave ships south

Slave ships landed south of the border
south of the border you know
bringing more than the rhythm of a drum and new shades of brown to Spanish skin.
slave ships landed South
trayendo mas que Tito tocando tambores
mas que Celia Cruz cantando canciones del corazon.
tambien trajeron a Maceo macheteando por montanas,
Albizu Campos cortando cana de libertad.
ships came bringing more than African noses to Olmec heads.
I think that more than kink came off the boat.
they came South, bringing thieves, ladrones like Guillen que cogio el
Castellano, who stole the Spanish from the Spaniards,
and later gave it b(l)ack to them.
ships landed South, bringing Yoruba to the tips of Taino tongues.
South, carrying strong hands that took earth from earth,
brought sea to sea,
splitting Panama in two down its middle.
They landed south of the border bringing more than Moors,
ships came, carrying gods in the cargo hold.
further south than Dixie
further south than soft cotton land,
cortaron cana,
dulce pero dura.
They travelled South, leaving a mark too dark for Spic and Span to wipe away.
El que no tiene de Dinga tiene de Mandinga
south, carrying orphans who have left their grandmothers on the shores of Africa.
Y tu abuela ... donde esta?
South, turning Brazil into Nigeria.
South, turning Cuba into the Kongo.
South to Borinken, Quisqueya, Mexico, Peru, Panama
They travelled south bringing more than the rhythm of a drum and new shades of brown.
But now we have to ask
Ahora que estamos en el Norte, ?que traemos?

April 30, 1993

jimmy smits and the west wing

This is just an observation which occured to me a few months ago and now I thought I'd just write it down to get it out of my system. For years now, Martin Sheen (second interview) has been playing Josiah Bartlet, a descendant of one of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence and Present of the United States on the NBC show The West Wing. And on the show, there have been more than a few interesting milestones in terms of the fictional U.S. Some which stand out are having the first Latino Supreme Court justice (played by Edward James Olmos) and a sexual romantic relationship between a black White House employee and the President's youngest daughter Zoe Bartlet.

This season the racial iconography reaches new heights. Actor Jimmy Smits plays Matthew Santos as the first serious Latino candidate for President of the United States, and in the season finale he wins the nomination for the Democratic party. The really ironic part of all this is that Martin Sheen (originally named Ramon Estevez) is *actually* Hispanic. So in a bizzarre twist, fans of the show have been watching a Hispanic man play the role of President for several years, but not until this latest season is when the idea of having a Hispanic president is explicitly addressed on the show.

I think this goes back to an earlier observation of how Latino (or Hispanic) is more of a space than a people. Jimmy Smits and Ramon Estevez (Martin Sheen) both come from the same "place" but Estevez is white (and has a certain invisibility), while Smits is mestizo. And so they arrive at different "positions" in the US racial paradigm.

Damn, I really need to reread Black Skin, White Masks

"sala de parejas"

Nothing Deep:
There is a show on Telemundo called Sala de Parejas which is a Spanish-language courtroom show with feuding couples. I only really caught the tail end of today's episode, but apparently the husband had been sleeping around, but then claimed to have converted to Islam and tried to defend his actions as polygamy. But when the judge asked him about other aspects of the religion, he really didn't seem to know anything. I was impressed. The show hovers somewhere above your typical scandal-mongering talk show, but the judge still made a point of saying that the husband was disrespecting Muslims and the Quran.

I wonder if polls have actually been taken to indicate how positively or negatively Latinos feel about Islam releative to other groups. Historically, Spanish identity was defined as a rebellion against a Moorish background and that might make one expect a strong anti-Islamic current. But still so much of Hispanic culture actually comes out of Muslim sources; words and phrases, architecture, music, etc. Perhaps one can even argue that "machismo" has historical connections to Muslim notions of gender (or they are both stereotypes which come from the same source).

tuesday I had fruit loops

When I started this blog, I told myself that it wouldn't just be an online diary where I share the trivial and mundane details of my personal life with people who probably couldn't care less. I've seen blogs like that and some of them seem really boring. I didn't want to just have entries like: "Monday, I had Golden Grahams for breakfast. Tuesday, I had Fruit Loops. "

But recently a friend of mine suggested "maybe some of us would like to know what you had for breakfast!"

I'm not sure that I believe that, but I do think that it probably is sometimes hard to make a real sharp distinction between the strictly "personal" issues, and the larger "public" and "political" issues. History is just extended (auto)biography. And after all, these days even the question of whether you drink Coca-Cola or Pepsi is filled with political implications. So maybe I will be less "anonymous" and a little more forthcoming with personal details.

the spiritual left

Here are two more interesting pieces on the overlap between Islam (or religion generally) and a left-of-center political perspective.

The first is called Islam and the Greens written by, Larry Rinehart, a Green Party member who is interested in
exploring coalitions between Greens and Muslims.

The other is a piece by Michael Lerner which was written in the wake of the last U.S. Presidential election and its called The Democrats Need a Spiritual Left.

what is progressive islam?

At this point, I'm not gung-ho about the particular organizations which are waving the banner of "Progressive Islam", but the following is a nice description by Omid Safi of at least what a "progressive Islam" would ideally strive for:

What is progressive Islam?

Islam And The Blackamerican: The Third Resurrection

Here's a book which I'm definitely putting on my shopping/reading list.

Editorial Review:

Sherman Jackson offers a trenchant examination of the career of Islam among the blacks of America. Jackson notes that no one has offered a convincing explanation of why Islam spread among Blackamericans (a coinage he explains and defends) but not among white Americans or Hispanics. The assumption has been that there is an African connection. In fact, Jackson shows, none of the distinctive features of African Islam appear in the proto-Islamic, black nationalist movements of the early 20th century. Instead, he argues, Islam owes its momentum to the distinctively American phenomenon of "Black Religion," a God-centered holy protest against anti-black racism. Islam in Black America begins as part of a communal search for tools with which to combat racism and redefine American blackness. The 1965 repeal of the National Origins Quota System led to a massive influx of foreign Muslims, who soon greatly outnumbered the blacks whom they found here practicing an indigenous form of Islam. Immigrant Muslims would come to exercise a virtual monopoly over the definition of a properly constituted Islamic life in America. For these Muslims, the nemesis was not white supremacy, but "the West." In their eyes, the West was not a racial, but a religious and civilizational threat. American blacks soon learned that opposition to the West and opposition to white supremacy were not synonymous. Indeed, says Jackson, one cannot be anti-Western without also being on some level anti-Blackamerican. Like the Black Christians of an earlier era struggling to find their voice in the context of Western Christianity, Black Muslims now began to strive to find their black, American voice in the context of the super-tradition of historical Islam. Jackson argues that Muslim tradition itself contains the resources to reconcile blackness, American-ness, and adherence to Islam. It is essential, he contends, to preserve within Islam the legitimate aspects of Black Religion, in order to avoid what Stephen Carter calls the domestication of religion, whereby religion is rendered incapable of resisting the state and the dominant culture. At the same time, Jackson says, it is essential for Blackamerican Muslims to reject an exclusive focus on the public square and the secular goal of subverting white supremacy (and Arab/immigrant supremacy) and to develop a tradition of personal piety and spirituality attuned to distinctive Blackamerican needs and idiosyncrasies.

And Here's the link to Amazon Books

I haven't read the book but parts of the above really ring true for me. There is a certainly evidence to back up the idea of a "Black religion" which exists as a common framework, a common set of concerns, which can bring Black Americans together across formal confessional differences. (For example, consider the positive feelings for Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan among Black Christians.)

The task remains, however, to make the connection between Islam and Black Religion (or Black life in general) explicit and conscious so that the relation between the two can be well-understood.

the passing of the pope

Bukhari

Volume 2, Book 23, Number 399:
Narrated 'Abdur Rahman bin Abi Laila:
Sahl bin Hunaif and Qais bin Sad were sitting in the city of Al-Qadisiya. A funeral procession passed in front of them and they stood up. They were told that funeral procession was of one of the inhabitants of the land i.e. of a non-believer, under the protection of Muslims. They said, "A funeral procession passed in front of the Prophet and he stood up. When he was told that it was the coffin of a Jew, he said, "Is it not a living being (soul)?"

As most of the world knows, Pope John Paul II passed away yesterday. I'm not sure exactly how to think about it. I'm not Catholic so I don't have the sense of losing a religious leader. But as a Muslim I would have to say that it seems Pope John Paul II was a pretty good pope, as far as popes go. I mean, we have to understand that the job comes with certain parameters, so as long as he's the Pope we can't really expect him to reject fundamental Catholic doctrines like the Incarnation or the Trinity anytime soon(although we can always pray) But apart from those kinds of "constraints", John Paul II has actually had a rather positive attitude towards Islam.

For example, the above picture of the Pope kissing the Quran was taken when he visited and worshiped in the Omayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria where tradition says that the head of Yahya (John the Baptist) is buried. And the picture is actually really widespread on many of the ultra-traditional Catholic websites as proof that the pope was way out of bounds on a variety of issues. And I would argue that the fact that he made such a gesture of respect to Islam, especially when it alienated him from segments of his own flock speaks volumes.

And then of course under his tenure we have the Catholic Church's (admittedly slow in coming) apologies for the Crusades, the Inquisition (and other examples of violent oppression) along with the (much more timely) opposition to the Iraq War and supporting a more balanced perspective in the conflict over Palestine.


It all makes me want to say that John Paul II was the first "Muslim" Pope in the same spirit that some people say that Bill Clinton was the first Black President.

....

which is a perfect segue into the question of who is going to be John Paul's successor....

The next Pope will be chosen by near-ancient and traditional election process. And for a while there has been some discussion that the Nigerian Cardinal Frances Arinze would be a logical choice. Catholicism is dying in Europe and the church's center of mass has definitely been moving south towards Africa and Latin America. Choosing Arinze, an African from the developing world, as the first Black pope of modern times would be a powerful statement of the Church's shifting position in the world. In addition, the Church's relation to Muslim is more important in today's world and coming from Nigeria, a country with a large Muslim population, Arinze has had a non trivial record of inter-religious activity.

In any case, whether Arinze becomes the next pope or someone else, they will definitely have some big shoes to fill.

islam and punishment

following up on the discussion of corporal/capital punishment, a friend of mine pointed me to the following link with some interesting comments on the subject by Tariq Ramadan, along with some responses and commentary from others.

april fool's and the fall of granada

Given the date and the background concept for this blog I feel obliged to touch on the following topic:

Often around April 1st, some version of the following story circulates among Muslims on the internet. (Here's the one I got this year)

APRIL FOOL

Most of us celebrate April fool day every year and fool each other. But how many of us know the bitter facts hidden behind it. It was around a thousand years ago that Spain was ruled by Muslims. And the Muslim power in Spain was so strong that it couldn't be destroyed. The Christians of the west wished to wipe out Islam from all parts of the world and they did succeed to quite an extent. But when they tried to eliminate Islam in Spain and conquer it, they failed. They tried several times but never succeeded. The unbelievers then sent their spies in Spain to study the Muslims there and find out what was the power they possessed and they found that their power was TAQWA . The Muslims of Spain were not just Muslims but they were practicing Muslims. They not only read the Quran but also acted upon it. When the Christians found the power of the Muslims they started thinking of strategies to break this power. So they started sending alcohol and cigarettes to Spain free of cost. This technique of the west worked out and it started weakening the faith of the Muslims in particular the young generation of Spain.

The result was that the Catholics of the west wiped out Islam and conquered the entire Spain bringing an end to the EIGHT HUNDRED LONG YEARS' RULE OF THE MUSLIMS in Spain. The last fort of the Muslims to fall was Grenada (Gharnatah), which was on the 1st of April. From that year onwards, every year they celebrate April fools day on the 1st of April, celebrating the day, they made a fool of the Muslims. They did not make a fool of the Muslim army at Gharnatah only, but of the whole Muslim Ummah.

We, the Muslims, were fooled by the unbelievers. They have a reason to celebrate April fool day, to keep up the spirit. Dear brothers and sisters, when we join in this celebration, we do so out of ignorance. If we had known about it, we would never have celebrated our own downfall. So now, that we are aware of it, and now let us promise that we shall never celebrate this day. We should learn our lesson from the people of Spain, and shall try to become practicing Muslims, never to let anybody weaken our faith.

Please forward this message to as many people you know. The more people you forward it to the greater will be the reward from your Lord in this world and the hereafter. Please try to do it before the 1st of April, to create awareness that WE ARE NOT FOOLS ANYMORE.

The funny thing about this story is that it is actually totally FALSE. One site where the story is debunked is here. And so in some weird post-modern way, the e-mail itself becomes an example of an April Fool's day prank being perpetrated on Muslims by Muslims.

I hate to say it but sometimes I get the feeling that as a group, Muslims need to develop a lot more critical-thinking and need to learn not to pass on everything we hear from so-and-so as the truth. As the saying goes: If a person repeats whatever he or she hears, that is sufficient for them to be considered a liar.

And there are some pretty spectacular examples of our (Muslims) capacity to pass on whatever we hear... except like a huge game of Telephone, the transmission isn't always perfectly clear.

One of my favorite examples is the story of how Neil Armstrong became Muslim. (He's not actually Muslim, at least not in the normal sense. And he and his press agents have had to go through a certain amount of effort to debunk that particular rumor.) Apparently what happened was that in an interview once, Neil Armstrong was commenting on the adhan (the Muslim call to prayer) and remarked that it sounded "spacey" and somehow that got morphed into a nice (actually quite beautiful) story of how when he was up in space he heard this strange music he didn't recognize. And then much later, he happened to be visiting Cairo and again heard the same strange sounds, and he tracked the sound down and realized it was the adhan. And he was so inspired by the miracle that he was moved to become Muslim.

It is understandable that occasionally, honest mistakes get passed on and errors would get propagated. But the fact that many of these stories are repeatedly told and pervasively re-appear even after being debunked suggests that these aren't just simple mistakes, but that the stories get repeated because they fill some kind of need.

The Neil Armstrong story is just one of a genre (the false conversion story). Another similar account is the Jacques Cousteau conversion story. This one centers on the Quranic passage: "He has let free the two bodies of flowing water, meeting together: Between them is a barrier which they do not transgress." (55:19-20) which is taken to refer to some specific natural phenomena. And the claim is that Jacques Cousteau recognized this special phenomena as real and was so impressed by the Quran's scientific accuracy that he converted. Both accounts are similar in that they involve white Westerners in scientific fields.

Issues around science and technology, I think, hit a real nerve with some Muslims. Many Islamic apologetical books, articles and websites place a very strong emphasis on the presence of scientific content in the Quran. (For example, The Bible, Quran and Science by Dr. Maurice Bucaille) Such an approach is fine if it strengthens people's faith but personally, I feel that some people emphasize it out of proportion to its actual importance. The Quran is the word of God, so if the Quran talks about scientific matters we'd expect it to speak the truth, and it does, but I'm not sure that the early Muslims made all of the great sacrifices they made, just to give us a science textbook. The Quran, is primarily a source of guidance for how to live our lives, morally, ethically, spiritually, and its main function isn't to explain fetal development or planetary orbits.

I suspect that one reason why Muslims, especially non-Western Muslims really gravitate towards the scientific miracle approach to Islam is that in the wake of Western colonialism, the Muslim (i.e. non-Western developing) world lags behind the West technologically. In some contexts being Western is strongly overlaps with being scientific (mira', que los blancos inventan.) And given the dissonance of that situation, Muslims can gain some measure of comfort by thinking that in spite of the West's momentary technological edge, that in fact all the secrets of modern science were already a part of Islam's inheritance because they can be found in the Quran.

If we go even further back (to a place more fitting for this blog, and this entry in particular) it might be possible to trace this desire for scientific validation to the Andalusian syndrome. i.e. on a deep civilizational level, the ummah is still in a certain kind of trauma from the shock of loosing Andalusia (Islamic Spain, arguably the greatest symbol and proof of Muslim scientific achievement) along with the other loses which followed.

As a result, there is a special "need" being satisfied by stories which involve icons of the West (especially Western science) being reconquered by the Islamic world.

Along similar lines, a Muslim friend of mine once commented that very often Muslims seem to fawn over the average white convert and turn them into celebrities while overlooking and taking for granted many african-american muslims, even those of some learning. I guess people can decide for themselves if this rings true with their own experiences.

......

Another genre of story which often gets told and re-told among Muslims, and probably sometimes serves some kind of psychological need is the conspiracy theory. At one point in my life I would probably have had a more skeptical and negative attitude towards most such claims. But like the saying goes: Just because you are paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.

Just think about it: In the last US presidential election, in some dark basement on Yale's campus, Skull and Bones celebrated the results several months before anybody else in the country (both Bush and Kerry are members of the secret organization)

Another disturbing nugget to chew on: Given all the things which the government admits to doing (involvement in the assassinations of Allende in Chile, Arbenz in Guatemala, the Tuskegee Experiment, COINTELPRO, etc.) what exactly are the secrets which they think the citizens are too fragile to handle?

I generally don't dwell on conspiracy theories. I wouldn't say they are central to my perspective. Specific claims need to be judged on their merits. But the fact is, the world isn't a democracy. Some people have more power over human lives than others, and some of these powerful people hang out.

"The rest", the names, the legends are smoke-and-mirrors. Whether these groups clothe themselves in an invented Indian past (like Michigamua or Skull and Bones) or an invented Muslim/Oriental past (the Shriners) or even a science fictiony "past" (the Vulcans). In the long run, it doesn't matter if there really is some smoke-filled room with some old white dudes who smoke cigars and plot on how to take over the world.

There is a certain fraction of the population with a great degree of power and influence. Judges, CEOs, senators, congressmen, media moguls, members of parliament, captains of industry, the owning class. Some of these powerful people were elected to their positions and are accountable to a constituency. Many are not. Some of these powerful people came from the same neighborhoods, went to the same schools, are members of the same organizations. Secret societies in elite colleges and universities are uniquely situated to find and identify people who are "going places" and hook them into a powerful network of associations. These networks clearly exist and have an impact and constitute a departure from egalitarian values.

That's the reality which we would be fools to ignore.

johnnie cochran died today

I guess it must be synchronicity. Just earlier this afternoon I was thinking about the death penalty and the criminal justice system. In principle, I'm certainly not opposed to the death penalty. Every once in a while out there in the world we can read about individuals who are so evil that they most definitely lose their I'm- a- decent- human- being- who- should- be- given- the- benefit- of- the- doubt- id- card.

At the same time, the criminal justice system (I always have "trouble" trying to diagram that phrase) is clearly perverted by classism and racism. An adequate defense is often only available to those who can afford it. And there have been far too many people wrongly convicted of crimes they didn't commit and even put on death row. (Only recently, some have been released due to DNA evidence or other forms of new information). Several years ago, Illinois wisely decided to put a moratorium on the death penalty, and hopefully more states will follow suit, at least until the deeper problems can be adequately addressed.

Which brings us to Johnnie Cochran; who came to national prominence in the OJ Simpson trial by proving to the country that a rich Black man's money can buy justice as easily as a rich white man. It's not exactly Martin Luther King's dream, but sadly enough, it actually represents progress.

(Recently, a white acquaintance of mine was telling me that just a few years ago when a rich black family tried to build a house in his affluent suburb, the construction site was subjected to arson 3 times to prevent the neighborhood from integrating)

Cochran continued to gain fame by defending several famous, and even iconic, black men, like P. Diddy, Michael Jackson, Todd Bridges, Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg, and most significantly Geronimo Ji Jagga Pratt (the former Black Panther, and political prisoner who fell victim to Hoover's COINTELPRO and spent nearly 27 years wrongfully imprisoned for murder until he was released, in part, due to Cochran's efforts. Ironically, Cochran actually participated in Pratt's unsuccessful defense the first time around. And even more ironically, part of his alibi which proved his innocence was the fact that government officials had him under surveilance at the time and knew that he wasn't anywhere near where the crime was commited)

Anyway, with Johnnie Cochran gone, it will be just a little harder for the brothers to get a fair trial in court. He will definitely be missed.

R.I.P.

not spiritual but religious

If spirituality is significant and objective.. if spirituality represents a real dimension of human existence, and isn't just make-believe, if living with integrity, compassion, patience, and hope are worth anything, then we ought to take seriously the task of becoming a good human being. We ought to take it as something real. San Francisco is a real city. And so if you want to go from Chicago to San Francisco, you don't just go any which way. There might be more than one way to get there, but some ways will work, and some ways won't. If the spiritual path has a real "geography" to it, then to go from A to B, we will need a map, proper equipment and a guide.

In our secular society, alot of people are very willing to blame religion for many of the problems in society. But you could do alot worse things with your time than regular go to a building, or read from some book, or hang out with some people who remind you not to lie, cheat and steal. The alternative to organized religion is disorganized religion, or none at all.

day after day after day...

Recently, I've been thinking a little more about the nature of time, and the irony of my father passing on Easter last year.

One of the most meaning-packed holidays on the Islamic calendar must be the celebration of Ashurah (literally means "ten") which is celebrated on the 10th day of the first month of the year.

For Shia Muslims in particular, it marks one of the saddest events in Muslim history, the anniversary of the martyrdom of Muhammad's grandson Hussein (ra).

From authentic Sunni sources, the day marks the day God rescued Moses and his people from pharaoh. So in some respects it is similar to Passover. But on the other hand, like Yom Kippur, it is celebrated with fasting, and occurs on the 10th day after the start of the New Year, and is also associated with the idea of receiving forgiveness for the sins of the previous year.

In addition, some less authentic accounts, also associate this day with other examples of Allah's mercy to us throughout history.

According to one account taken indirectly from a work by Abdul-Qadir Jilani:

Ashura is a day of great historical significance. On this day: Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) accepted the repentance of Sayyidina Adam ('Alaihis-Salaam) after his exile from Paradise; Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) saved Sayyidina Nuh ('Alaihis-Salaam) and his companions in the ark; Allah extinguished the fire in which Sayyidina Ibrahim ('Alaihis-Salaam) was thrown by Nimrod; And Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) spoke directly to Sayyidina Musa ('Alaihis-Salaam) and gave him the Commandments. On this same 10th of Muharram, Sayyidina Ayyub ('Alaihis-Salaam) was restored to health (from leprosy); Sayyidina Yusuf ('Alaihis-Salaam) was reunited with his father Ya’qub ('Alaihis-Salaam); Sayyidina Yunus ('Alaihis-Salaam) was taken out from the belly of the fish; and the sea was divided as the nation of israel was delivered from captivity and pharaoh’s army was destroyed. ‘Ashura is also the day when Sayyidina Dawud ('Alaihis-Salaam) was forgiven; the kingdom of Sulaiman ('Alaihis-Salaam) was restored; Sayyidina Isa ('Alaihis-Salaam) was raised to Jannah and Sayyidina al-Husayn (Radiyallahu 'anh) (the Holy Prophet’s, Sallallahu ‘alayhi wa Sallam, grandson) achieved the honor of Martyrdom.

So by including Jesus' ascension as well in the collection of meanings, Ashura becomes like a kind of Easter (and in yet other accounts, a Christmas), in addition to Passover and Yom Kippur. Taken together, the result is a beautiful and multi-layered concept for a holiday, whether all those events actually happened on the same date or not. Mercy is mixed with tragedy, sweetness with sorrow. And when we understand the way of the world, it helps us to take it all in stride.

laughing lions

[Here is an excerpt from The Forbidden Dialogues by Uthman Ibrahim-Morrison, the section is originally called "a new breed". This is probably the least analytical and most lyrical and moving passage in the book, although I'm not certain how I feel about the last paragraph. There are some interesting connections between this book, the League of the Blackstone, Aisha Bewley (a scholar whose page I've linked to), Shaykh Abdalqadir as-Sufi and the Murabitun movement (which is really active in Spain and Mexico among other places). The Murabitun movement is the common denominator and as far as I can tell they seem to have a decent program which is doing some positive things. They are promoting a traditional approach to islam, with a healthy respect for sufism, they are fluent with western culture, they have a specific political program, and they are comfortable with pan-africanism. That's not to say they are perfect. No group is, and the Murabitun certainly have their reasonable critics. But compared to a number of groups out there, I like them more than not.]



By now it should be clear that the purpose of this book is not to offer an alternative response to the dilemma of the black man in Europe and America who finds himself alienated from his African roots, but to give notice of an event. It announces the advent of a new breed who have overcome the diseased psychology of ressentiment and who have unearthed from beneath layers of deliberate distortion and concealment the hidden keys to the recovery of a complete and genuine Islam without whose vital contribution there can be no effective unlocking of our human predicament. These keys are the spiritual sciences of Tassawwuf which reveal the true human being, and the Madinan civic patterns which have revealed the politically explosive economics of open trade.

They have already begun to share these knowledges with those of their Muslim and non-Muslim counterparts across Europe, Africa and America and the message is invariably well received by those who have retained enough command over their intellectual integrity and independence not to have succumbed to the emotional prejudices and conditioning generated by the misleading dialectics of race and religion. So the fuse is lit and it is now simply a question of time.

Their deen does not belong to the category of corrupt Islamic regimes which terrorise the ordinary people caught in their grip, nor is it that of the young black men dressed according to Arab or Pakistani tradition or in the specially customised variations which have become common sights on the streets of New York and London. You will not find them haranguing passers-by on street corners. You will not find them gratuitously attacking their own people verbally or otherwise, Muslim or not.

Their purpose is to bring to bear by the best means at their disposal the benefits of the knowledge and the political significance of the spirituality they themselves have come to embody by virtue of their overcoming of the distortions and contradictions resulting from the historical departure of the inward spiritual path (tassawwuf) from the limits of outward behavior which had always contained it (the shari'ah). This has led to the dismissal of sufism by the shari'ah to the shari'ah's own detriment since it is left distorted and disabled by the rejection of it's most vital internal organ, while the sufis for their part recoil from what they see as this limping deformity which cannot possibly be what Islamic shari'ah is supposed to stand for.

These new men have emerged neither as devotees of an unrestrained sufi mysticism, nor as men of a shari'ah reduced to the rigid fundamentalism of mullahs and terrorists. Rather, they have emerged through a middle way resulting in a breed of men whose form is superior to both of the previous alternatives. They are men of Allah, men of pure deen, laughing lions who have sat with vigorous appetites at well laid tables where masters have served them with the best of Tassawwuf. They have eaten every dish and the essential nourishment, finally back where it belongs, has fed their hearts and suffused itself throughout their limbs, eliminating along the way any waste matter or useless residues.

Their demeanor is urbane and self-assured. They value intelligence, courtesy, trustworthiness, courage, loyalty, sincerity and generosity above all other personal qualities. They disdain all forms of vulgarity or whatever lacks dignity and they do not suffer patiently the prevarications of the fainthearted. The inner path of their deen takes them on a journey of genuine transformation by tasting of the inwardly hidden realities and knowledges which alone can bring true mastery over the self and freedom from fear and anxiety with respect to confronting the world and the powers that claim to govern it in defiance of the Power that is the origin of all power. This is the import of Tassawwuf when it lies at the heart of Islam and without which the results is the familiar hollowness of organised religion, a sad deformity, a body without a soul.

This new breed have surpassed the familiar melancholic song of the African Diaspora whose melody floats lost between Africa, the Americas and Europe. Historical destiny has taken them on two journeys and his delivered them to their appointed places. They have surpassed the values of survival and resistance, they are not concerned with that or with fighting for rights, and they have surpassed the politics of race and religion in favor of a life transaction based upon harmony with the natural order of the universe and the Lord of the Worlds. They are the songmasters of a new spirit and they sing to a score written and orchestrated since before endless time by the Unifier of existence. Their voice is the voice of Overman culture which sings of the transvaluation of values and the arrival of the heralds of a New Wave. From the heart of Europe and across the Americas they sing the will to power of Marcus Garvey, they sing the ultimate song of Hajj Malik al Shabazz, they sing the battle cries of Nietzsche, Wagner and Pound, and they sing the searching flights of John Coltrane for a Love Supreme. They sing the strains of spiritual home-coming.

Good Friday

[...] they said (in boast), "We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah.;- but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not:- Quran 4:157 (Yusef Ali translation) 

 For a long time now it has occured to me that the Islamic concept of the non-crucifixion seems almost like an inversion of the doctrine of transubstantiation. The Catholics say that even though it looks like wine and crackers, the substance underneath the appearance is the body and blood of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, the Quran says that even though it looked like the body and blood of Jesus Christ was up there on the cross, in reality, underneath the appearance, something else was going on entirely. 

Sometimes modern-day evangelicals and anti-Muslim missionaries will dismiss the non-crucifixion without any consideration, but it is interesting to note that even before the revelation of the Quran, several different ancient Christian groups also had radically different understandings of what happened on Good Friday which might also be considered "non-crucifixions".

The followers of the 'heretic' Basilides taught that Simon Peter took Jesus' place on the cross. (And in the Gospel of Barnabas, an interesting but highly flawed document, after Jesus prays for the cup to be taken from him, Judas miraculously is made to appear like Jesus and is crucified in his place) Adoptionists taught that Jesus' essence or power left his body so that he never really experienced death (those who take this view argue that this gives the real meaning of "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"). According to the Acts of John, Jesus appears to John in a cave at the same time that the crowds believe he is up on the cross. And some of the Gnostic groups questioned whether Jesus had a flesh-and-blood body to begin with.

The idea that Jesus only "appeared" to die on the cross (or that he only "appeared" to have a body) is called Docetism, and this concept had many varied expressions in early Christianity. The Gospel of Peter (which in many respects is quite similar to the canonical gospels, was also excluded from the Bible specifically because of alleged docetic tendancies.

Some of these theories make more sense than others, but I tend not to hang my hat on any one in particular. As the Quran says: those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow. From a certain point of view, Islam has benefitted greatly by not insisting on using Greek philosophy to do its theology. Instead of trying to describe the abstract mysteries of what happened or didn't happen, it sticks to the concrete. You may think that he died, but your eyes sometimes lie to you. And things aren't always as they seem. Even when it comes to saying who is alive (in reality) and who is dead (in reality). More than that leads down to the road of angels-on-pinhead-counting. 

 [2.154] And do not speak of those who are slain in Allah's way as dead; nay, (they are) alive, but you do not perceive.

The Forbidden Dialogues

One of my favorite books is "The Forbidden Dialogues : The Impact of Islam on the Future of the African Diaspora" by Uthman Ibrahim-Morrison. I sometimes think it's the kind of book which would have written by Malcolm X if he had lived (and gone to grad school). The "dialogues" in the title were an actual series of discussions held in England among the community of young Black intellectuals on issues related to Pan-Africanism, although Ibrahim-Morrison doesn't pretend to transcribe or even represent the full range of opinions of the various groups. The dialogues were only a starting point, and Ibrahim-Morrison really just spreaks from his own unique perspective as a Muslim, with strong Garveyite leanings.

One of the many things I find refreshing about the book is that it is a book by a Muslim, who deals unapolegetically with racial issues from a Black perspective, but without getting into the-white-man-is-a-blue-eyed-devil mess of some organizations, and on the other hand, without retreating to just a vague in-Islam-we-are-all-the-same-and-equal-just-like-Malcolm X-at-hajj approach.

The book really explores the situation of young educated Afro-Caribbeans (especially in England but the conclusions are still relevant to others) from an Islamic perspective.
Check it out

(When I have more time I'll add my favorite passage from the book)

perfect for this blog

Secret CIA Map indicating the location of the Taliban

Latino 2

Of course, just because Latino is a space, an area code, an address, rather than a people doesn't mean that certain forms of solidarity can't occur. Of course, the non-white, Spanish-speaking (or Spanglish-speaking, or Spanish-accent-having) salsa-eating-and-dancing folks who live in the United States and trace the roots back to Latin America will tend to have common experiences, will tend to understand one another, will tend to have common interests and agendas.

But peoplehood can't be taken for granted.

The most recent time I was sharply reminded of this fact when I was at a surprise birthday party (actually half-birthday) for a friend of mine and was introduced to a Peruvian classmate of hers. I guess she introduced us to one another because we would presumably have a little more in common... and we did in the sense that we both spoke Spanish, but on the other hand, he was also a white Jewish man married to a Jewish woman, and we talked about how they were thinking of moving to a new town so they could put their child in a Jewish school. And here I am, an Afro-Hispanic Muslim with a different constellation of concerns and interests.

Even though we were both definitely Latino, there was no real sense of "Latino solidarity" and we shared little beyond a common language our common humanity, and a mutual friend. That didn't mean we had to be enemies. But any friendship would have to be based on some other foundation besides Latin peoplehood.

Latino

It is common for "Latino" to be constructed as a racial identity alongside (or in opposition to) "Black", "Asian" , "white" or "Native American" but in reality this is more than a bit misleading. Aside from the usual objections that race is a social construction anyway, Latin America is a place more than a people. It's not just a magical land where Latinos come from and spring out of the earth (although some indigenous groups do have that as part of their founding myth). Instead, Latin America is a space where different people come and meet, and a certain dynamic can play itself out. For example, Cuba, before the Revolution was segregated not unlike the US. In fact, it was proverbially, if not literally true, that there were country clubs so exclusive that Batista, the mulatto dictator of the country couldn't get into. In Mexico there are conflicts between the "white" rulers and the "Indian" Zapatistas in Chiapas. etc. Using "Latino" as a racial category is a blanket which covers over these differences. When in reality, "Latino" is more like an address.