one.be.lo - s.o.n.o.g.r.a.m.

I had an interesting experience this weekend. I happened to be in a Tower Records in Seattle and at one of the hip-hip listening station I saw this new CD from One.Be.Lo. (his real name is now Nashid Sulaiman, formerly One Man Army of the duo Binary Star).

Now, I happened to see Nashid at a free local Michigan hip-hop show a while back and so I recognized him and knew he was Muslim. So firstly I was pleasantly surprised to see another Muslim artist getting a little more exposure in the hip-hop game, hopefully putting out some positive content in an arena which is too often surrounded by negativity.

Secondly, when I started to listen to the at the station it was gratifying to hear that the album didn't just fall into the trap of delivering weak beats and preachy lyrics but that the positive content was skillfully delivered over a strong soundtrack. (The album name, S.O.N.O.G.R.A.M. aptly stands for Sounds of Nashid Originate Good Rhymes and Music).

But what really blew me away was that two of the cuts feature a friend of mine named Abdus Salaam, and that was actually the first time I've heard him flow, and he can spit! Abdus Salaam is this Puerto Rican Muslim brother from New York.

Although it shouldn't have been too surprising that Abdus Salaam was on the CD since the first time I met him it was also in a musical context. I happened to be riding my bicycle outside one summer when the weather was nice and I come by this grassy area where some brothers are playing on some drums. I stop to listen. After a while, one of them (Abdus Salaam) starts to call out some phrases slowly, like an old style bomba y plena. After a moment I realize that he's speaking in Spanish and after a while I realize that the lyrics aren't just generically spiritual, but they are specifically Islamic! I actually have alot of respect for him. He had converted to Islam relatively recently when I first met him, but he certainly has dived whole-heartedly into the deen and grown alot in a way which is always encouraging to see and is an example for me to follow.

But getting back to One.Be.Low:
here is an exclusive interview with Vibe magazine.
here is a Metro Times piece about Binary Star and
here is one about the new album.
Some previews of the new album can be found here
And here is the label's website (SubterraneousRecords) with plenty of information about tours, other projects, etc.

zaid shakir and female imams

not to beat a dead horse, but here is a rather thoughtful and nuanced traditionally minded discussion about the current issue-of-the-week: females leading men in prayers.

It's called:
An examination of the issue of female prayer leadership

birth of a nation: a comic novel

It would be hard to adequately convey the anticipation I've had for this project. I've been literally waiting for most of a year when I heard that Aaron McGruder, Kyle Baker and Reginald Hudlin were getting together to make a graphic novel it was natural to expect the beginnings of a revolution.

Aaron McGruder is the creator of the Boondocks, which is without a doubt the funniest, most politically insightful and subversive comic strip out today.



Kyle Baker is the author of Why I Hate Saturn, a superlative graphic novel in its own right, full of engaging and hilarious dialogue on topics ranging from the battle of the sexes, the interplay of race and culture, the limits of sanity and family loyalty, and why NY city pizza joints never give you enough napkins.

Reginald Hudlin is one of the Hudlin brothers, filmmaking duo behind Bebe's Kids, House Party, Boomerang, and most importantly (at least in my opinion) Cosmic Slop, an afro-futuristic film reminiscent of the Twilight Zone where Rod Serling-style segues are delivered by the ever-funky George Clinton's disembodied head.



Originally the Birth of a Nation project was conceived as a film, and I strongly suspect that it would have been more effective in that medium. But the story still works as a graphic novel, and is highly entertaining.

The graphic novel begins with the story of the predominantly-black city of East St. Louis where the citizens gradually come to the conclusion that their political rights and local concerns are not being respected by the U.S. government, so they choose to secede from the United States and found their own nation of Blackland (whose anthem can be sung to the theme music from Good Times). The rest of the novel deals with the struggles of the mayor/president as he tries to negotiate with and survive the powerful forces which threaten the new nation's existence, while keeping his integrity intact.

I thoroughly enjoyed the graphic novel and would heartily recommend it. My only reservation is that, in my opinion, it didn't live up to the heights I expected given the previous work of the individual creators on their own projects. But I would still look forward to any future collaborations from this team and hope their work spawns a new politically conscious direction in popular culture (film, comic books, etc.) much as BDP and Public Enemy sparked a stream of consciousness in hip-hop. Yeah Booooy!

victor hernandez cruz

I actually met Victor Hernandez Cruz once. A good friend of mine introduced us. I read him one of my poems and he told me he liked my stuff which made me smile for a good long time. :) His latest book Maraca, New and Selected Poems, 1966-2000 actually really fits in with Planet Grenada. I need to study him some more. I believe his wife is Moroccan and he has actually spent a certain amount of time living in the Middle East being influenced by Muslim culture. Even the title of his latest book is in part a pun (Maraca/Morocco) which plays with this link. One of the points he was trying to get across was that both the Caribbean and the Middle East are places where parallel mixings of different races and cultures took place.

In at least one interview he is quite explicit about these connections and influences:

VHC: There’s a Brazilian guy in Italy who wrote a thesis based on my work and sent it to me. He’s fascinated with Ginsberg and all the Beat stuff. I told him thank you, you know. But I didn’t like it much because it’s full of cliché. And there’s another guy, Francisco Cabanillas, who has done critical stuff about my work, a professor who’s writing some kind of book. Cabanillas comes closer to understanding what I'm doing, puts me in perspective with the literature of the island of Puerto Rico. But there are some things that I am about that critics tend to ignore.

turnrow: What are they missing?

VHC: For one example, no one has asked me about my influences from Islamic culture. I read the Islamic-Arabic philosophers, thinkers, poets.... About the fact that I lived in Morocco for a period of time and the effect that would have on my writing, the connections with Islam that I’ve seen in Spain. No critic has ever written about that.

I need to dive into Cruz's work alot more but at some points at least the connections are actually really obvious and explicit for example:

Islam

The revelation of the revelation
The secrets offered in rhythms
The truth of heaven entering through
chorus
Yourself runs into yourself
Through a crack of understanding
As if Falcons landed on a
shoulder of your thoughts
With a letter from your guardian
angel -
Like Carribean mambo dancers
The whirling dervishes go off
spinning into the arms of light
Across a floor of endless squares
and circles
Calligraphy brushed into tiles
Painted inside the names of God
Love
Compassion.

arnaldo tamayo mendez

And if we are going to talk about Puerto Ricans on the moon, I feel ethnically obligated to mention that the first person of African descent in space, and the first Latino in space was the Cuban cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez. You can read a little more here and here

Actually, for a while now I've contemplated writing a poem about him but it seems hard to find really good source material that would help to flesh him out.

boricua en la luna

I don't know if there is actually a "Latino-futurism" movement, but if there is, this just might be one of its main texts. The last line of the piece, "I would be Puerto Rican, even if I was born on the moon" has become a powerful slogan for alot of folks, Nuyoricans especially. To be honest, I'm not sure how literally one can take that idea but I definitely think they should get a chance to make their case.

Actually, the site where I got this piece The Virtual Boricua has some pretty good resources in general and is worth exploring.

Anyway, without any further ado

Boricua en la Luna

Desde las ondas del mar
que son besos a su orilla,
una mujer de Aguadilla
vino a New York a cantar
pero no sólo a llorar
un largo llanto y morir.
De ese llanto yo nací
como en la lluvia una fiera.
Y vivo en la larga espera
de cobrar lo que perdí.

Por un cielo que se hacia
más feo que mas más volaba
a Nueva York se acercaba
un peón de Las Marías.
Con la esperanza, decía,
de un largo día volver.
Pero antes me hizo nacer
y de tanto trabajar
se quedó sin regresar:
reventó en un taller.

De una lágrima soy hijo
y soy hijo del sudor
y fue mi abuelo el amor
único en mi regocijo
del recuerdo siempre fijo
en aquel cristal de llanto
como quimera en el canto
de un Puerto Rico de ensueño
y yo soy puertorriqueño,
sin ná, pero sin quebranto.

Y el echón que me desmienta
que se ande muy derecho
no sea en lo más estrecho
de un zaguán pagua la afrenta.
Pues según alguien me cuenta:
dicen que la luna as una
sea del mar o sea montuna.
Y así le grito al villano:
yo sería boricano
aunque naciera en la luna.

Juan Antonio Corretjer

en cuba no falta nada

I'm in a poetic mood today so I'm going to put in a few poetry related entries. The first piece I'm not going to *actually* include here due to some of the language but I'm still going to put in the link. I actually have a really vivid and fond memory of my dad reading this piece to his friends at the Cuban barbershop we would go to on the Northside. Not only did I learn a few new words, but I think I also learned a little about how to put them together...lol...

african islamic mission

A number of years ago I had heard (online) of a group called the African Islamic Mission. They were interesting to me at the time because they seemed to be concerned about the Black community without going to the extreme and narrow nationalism of certain other organizations. And they were intriguing because (like the Ansars) they believed the claims of Muhammad al-Mahdi from Sudan but at the same time they seemed mainstream and orthodox Sunni Muslims.

For a long time I've had the impression the group was relatively dormant, but just today I tried to find out more about them because they seem to fit in with the theme of Planet Grenada and found the following site.

I'm not certain what the group's current beliefs are. But judging from their website they seem to value unity and inclusion over orthodoxy (which certainly isn't the worst thing in the world but it means including some odd birds all under the same tent.) Nevertheless I'm eager to see how the movement grows and I hope they can do some positive things.

islam, prophet muhammad and blackness

This article by Zaid Shakir is shamelessly duplicated from Ginny's blog. And the piece is called Islam, Prophet Muhammad and blackness

It deals with several topics including positive linguistic uses of the term "black" in Muslim culture, some Islamic statements on human equality, and it gives several examples of "black" companions who were extremely close to the prophet.

last man to enter paradise

If God has a perfect sense of hearing (As-Sami) and a perfect sense of sight (Al-Basir) it shouldn't be hard to accept that he has a perfect sense of humor too. It is odd to me that many non-Muslims have the impression that Islam is a harsh, stark, cold, humorless religion where God is stern and unloving. To the contrary, God says "My mercy takes precedence over my wrath" and no one had to die on a cross before God would let himself forgive us. While on the other hand some Christian evangelicals emphasize the Bible teaching that "without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins", and as a result they turn God into some kind of Cosmic Shylock who is unwilling or unable to forgive without His pound of flesh.

The following is one of my favorite hadith. Don't tell anybody but it really moved me the first time I read a version of it, even in a poor English translation:

Narrated Ibn Mas'ud: Verily the Messenger of Allah said: The last to enter Paradise would be a man who would walk once, stumble once and be burnt by the Fire once. Then when he passes beyond it, he will turn to it and say: Blessed is He Who has saved me from thee. Allah has given me something He has not given to any one of those in earlier or later times.

Then a tree would be raised for him and he will say: O my Lord! Bring me near this tree so that I may take shelter in its shade and drink of its water. Allah, the Exalted and Great, would say: O son of Adam, if I grant you this, you will ask Me for something else. He would say: No, my Lord. And he would promise Him that he would not ask for anything else. His Lord would excuse him because He sees what he cannot help desiring; so He would bring him bear it, and he would take shelter in its shade and drink of its water. Afterwards a tree more beautiful than the first would be raised before him and he would say: O my Lord! Bring me near this tree in order that I may drink of its water and take shelter in its shade and I shall not ask Thee for anything else. He (Allah) would say: O son of Adam, if I bring you near it you may ask me for something else. He would promise Him that he would not ask for anything else. His Lord will excuse him because He sees something he cannot help desiring. So He would bring him near it and he would enjoy its shade and drink its water.

Then a tree would be raised for him at the gate of Paradise, more beautiful than the first two. He would say: O my Lord! Bring me near this (tree) so that I may enjoy its shade and drink from its water. I shall not ask Thee for anything else. He (Allah) would say: O son of Adam! Did you not promise Me that you would not ask Me for anything else? He would say: Yes my Lord, but I shall not ask Thee for anything else. His Lord would excuse him for He sees something the temptation of which he could not resist.

He (Allah) would bring him near it, and when He brings him near it he would hear the voices of the inhabitants of the Paradise. He would say: O my Lord! Admit me to it. He (Allah) would say: O son of Adam, what will bring an end to your requests to Me? Will it please you if I give you the whole world and a similar one with it? He will say: O my Lord! Art Thou mocking at me, though Thou art the Lord of the worlds?

Ibn Mas'ud laughed and asked (the hearers): Why don't you ask me what I am laughing at. They (then) said: Why do you laugh? He said: It is in this way that the Messenger of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) laughed. They (the companions of the Holy Prophet) asked: Why do you laugh, Messenger of Allah? He said: On account of the laugh of the Lord of the universe, when he (the desirer of Paradise) said: Art Thou mocking at me though Thou art the Lord of the worlds? He would say: I am not mocking at you, but I have the power to do whatever I wish.
[Sahih Muslim, Vol. 1, #359, 361]

That just blows my mind. Even when you are in the fire, pray. Even when you have made promises to God and broken them, pray. But never despair of the mercy of Allah.

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.

Afrofuturism / Rebirth of a Nation

The journal Callaloo, recently issues a call for papers on Afrofuturism which described the movement as follows:

"Afro-Futurism is an emergent literary and cultural aesthetic that combines elements of science fiction, historical fiction, fantasy and magic realism with non-Occidental cosmologies in order to critique not only the present-day dilemmas of people of color, but also to revise, interrogate, and re-examine the historical events of the past. Examples of seminal Afro-Futuristic works include the novels of Samuel R. Delany and Octavia Butler; the vibrant, frenetic canvases of Jean-Michel Basquiat and the provocative photography of Rene Cox; as well as the extraterrestrial mythos of Parliament-Funkadelic and Sun Ra, and the recombinant sonic texts of Paul D. Miller/DJ Spooky."

I think it will take some time for me to elaborate my thoughts on Afrofuturism as whole, anything I would say now would just be the tip of the iceberg. But I remember being pleasantly shocked and amazed to discover that a conscious movement existed along these lines because it seemed to sum up many of the creative goals which I try to achieve in my own poetry. (O.k. let me not front, I'm just a Black Trekkie trying to sound deep... lol). But I really can identify several of the "afrofuturist" themes in my poetry and I wonder what's the best way to come to terms with that fact. (Should I merely note the co-incidence and ignore the movement, or is it worthwhile to stop and actually explore this line alot further?)

In any case, once the label exists, it seems to open up a fissure where we can start to ask a whole series of questions. Is there a distintively Black attitude towards computers and technology? Can you build a ghetto/barrio in cyberspace? Is it possible to keep it "virtually real"? Why does science fiction seem like such a predominantly white genre? In many imaginings of the future (for example, even the Bahai faith's) humanity will be united and mixed in a kind racism-free wonderland. So will there still be Black people in a bazillion years? Why do most of the aliens on Star Trek look like white people with silly putty on their faces? And the list goes on. Much of the identity politics engaged in by people of African descent involves looking back to some idealized possibly mythical African past. So what will it mean to be Black in the future?

One of, if not the, the most important things I took away from Frantz Fanon's Wretched of the Earth is the idea that culture is something living and dynamic. Fanon gives the example of the colonized intellectual who goes to Europe and feels inferior, but then has a counter-reaction where they embrace a fossilized folkloric static idea of their own culture. They wear certain clothes. And practice certain rituals. And eat certain foods. Because "these are the traditions of my people" but in reality "the people" have already moved on to something new. It's not about wearing dashikis because the ancestors used to. The trick is to just live with "the people" and then do whatever makes sense. And remember change is a part of life.


...


I recently saw DJ Spooky perform "Rebirth of a Nation" which was a modern reply to D.W. Griffiths racist, but cinematically important silent film "Birth of a Nation" about the Civil War Reconstruction, and the Birth of the KKK. (Scenes from the original film were distilled, repeated, edited, combined with superimposed computer-generated images, and throughout "That Subliminal Kid" (another monicker of Miller's) was dj-ing on stage. The new film began with a sequence combining images of flags from all over the world juxtaposed to interesting political effect.

But that leads me to the most disturbing realization I had while watching the film: If I take "North" and "South" out of their normal context within United States history and instead think of "North" and "South" on the global scale, then all my normal associations of heroism and villany get overturned. So is the film really about the United States, racism and slavery or is it about nationalism and globalization in the contemporary world?

The global South is obviously being exploited by the global North and probably should "secede" in different ways (i.e. reclaim and maintain their autonomy in the interests of their citizens). Globalization really does threaten an older, traditional (possibly more humane ways of life. This is exemplified in the recent concept of Jihad vs. McWorld where "jihad" isn't specifically Islamic but also includes other struggles in many parts of the world towards local control and autonomy (whether in the Basque region of Spain, the nationalist struggles in the former Yugoslavia or the former Soviet Union, or anywhere else on Earth).

It was honestly a bit disturbing (in a good sense) to see DJ Spooky play around with those associations of "North" and "South". It makes me want to get a new compass.

canary in a coal mine

I have been thinking back to a talk I saw by Lani Guiner where she had a very intriguing take on affirmative action. She claimed that women and people of color or other oppressed groups are more vulnerable in institutional settings. And so if there is a problem where the institution isn't properly serving all its members, if there is a "toxicity" to the environment, in reality everyone is affected. But women and people of color will feel the brunt first. And so when these groups agitate for change, its not just a request for some kind of special status, in reality, its a sign that there is something wrong overall. And when the basic concerns of women and people of color are addressed, in reality, it makes the environment better off for everyone.

It is an interesting idea, I just wish it could be implemented without the brids suffocating.

light as a feather...

I never realized until recently just how deeply a current of internalized institutional racism runs through some liberal organizations.

The analogy which makes the most sense to me is to the party game of "light as a feather, stiff as a board". I've never actually played the game, but from what I've heard, what happens is that in a group of about 20 people or so, the lightest person in the room would lie on the floor, flat on their back, "stiff as a board". Everyone else would kneel down around this person and each would place a single finger underneath the person's body and as a group chant "light as a feather, stiff as a board" over and over again, while gently lifting the person. And if there are enough people then the work can be divided by so many people that it almost feels like they are levitating the person with little or no strain.

If you have a large enough community or organization where many of the members are unconsciously a "little bit" racist, the effects can still add up. You can have a system where each individual is unaware of the ways in which they contribute to the problem, but still, everyone does their part to make the system hard to change.

Latinos and Islam

The relation between Latino history and Islam is an interesting one to consider. Alot more research could bear to be done on the topic. The interaction is complex and multilayered. On the one hand, Spain itself was a Muslim country for ceveral centuries, which certainly left its mark on subsequent Spanish culture and learning. The Spanish language itself has many loan-words from Arabic.

But then at the same time, the founding myth for Spanish identity is wrapped up in opposition to the Moorish culture. The Reconquista the Inquisition. "In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue". The same year marked the expulsion of the Jews and the Muslims from Christian Spain and into the Ottoman Empire.

Islam also has some connections with the non-Spanish roots of Latino people. When people like Ivan Van Sertima suggest that there were groups who discovered the Americas before Columbus, typically the candidates are from Muslim civilizations. And so some researchers in this area have pointed to evidence which seems to suggest an early Muslim presence among the Indians of North America (for example, place names like T-ALLAH-assee, Florida.

Then on top of that, many of the slaves brought into Latin America from Africa, originated in Muslim areas of Africa. And so, for instance, in "Islam, Black Nationalism and Slavery" we can read about how for a time, many of the slaves in Brazil were taken from Muslim areas and fought jihads to gain their freedom. This gave the "owners" so much trouble that significantly stopped importing Muslim slaves.

So, from three different directions Latinos have organic connections to Islam. (well, you wouldn't have guessed that if you went by how much chorizo gets eaten.)

Muslim Poetry (Suheir Hammad)

I love Suheir Hammad. I love her voice (on the page). She strikes the right tone, or at least one I would like to emulate in my own writing. The famous Muslim writers of the past, like Rumi and Hafiz seem to have written from the top of the mountain. They have walked the path and reached the destination and now they are showing us the slide show. (Not that they didn't come back with gorgeous pictures, but still it's hard to relate if you haven't seen the Grand Canyon yet.) And much of modern religious Muslim poetry is quite pietistic, and comes out more like rhymed sermons. (Not that we don't need to hear more sermons but they don't really satisfy a distinct need for poetry). But Suheir is different. She's experienced much, but takes us with her. Her words aren't so much sermons, but quiet night-time conversations on a porch. She has the most beautiful 9/11 poem called "first writing since" and an amazing collection of other pieces called "Born Palestinian, Born Black" which is out of print last time I check but might be available in used bookstores.

What I like about her writing is that it is current, casual, colloquial, spiritual but not preachy, politically engaged but also human and concrete. Alot of the material reflects her Arab/Muslim family background but it doesn't beat you over the head with it.

To be honest, I'm not sure where she is exactly in terms of her individual religious commitments. In fact, I'm not sure that she does either. but at the same time, her honest doubt and self-reflection is something which the Muslim community (whether poetic or otherwise) could use some more of.

It will at least be interesting when there are more Muslim poets who get down from the pulpit and find multiple vantage points from which to speak. Even if its the bedroom as in Mohja Kahf's love poem "More than one way to break a fast" (I just love the title)

That's it for now

Progressive Islam?

I've read the book Progressive Islam, edited by Omid Safi and I've occasionally looked at the "Progressive Muslim" website called Muslim Wake Up! and I'm both encouraged, excited and concerned by the idea of "Progressive Muslims". On the one hand, especiialy after the Muslim endorsement of Bush back in 2000, which made me worry that political conservatives had hijacked Islam in America. So it was a breath of fresh air to find that there was actually a movement of Muslims who did have a progressive political vision and had a beautiful conception of Islam as a positive force for change in the world. An Islam which was opposed to sexism and racism. An Islam concerned with social justice the needs of the oppressed. A liberation theology which would reform individuals and communities to their full humanity. A slave to no one but Allah.

On the other hand, at least a few of the people who seem to wave the banner of "progressive Islam" seem to be taking some positions which have the potential to be corrosive to faith.

I think part of the difficulty in talking about these issues is that "progressive" is too big an umbrella and can't really define a unified group.

For example, it might be illuminating to distinguish between Muslims who find traditional approaches to Islam deeply flawed and in need of reform (e.g. those who want to significantly change the role of hadith or the traditional schools/madhabs) and those who find the traditional religious foundation to be basically sound but are also motivated by certain political commitments.

[It might not always be useful to make comparisons to other religions but I imagine the distinction I am trying to draw here somewhat like the distintion between Protestant "reformers" who rejected the authority of the Church and between those Catholics who basically accept traditional forms but who have a religious-inspired concerned for social justice.)

Another interesting book along these lines is: The Final Imperative: An Islamic Theology of Liberation by Shabbir Akhtar Which is more a defense of political engagement in general, than a defense of a particular perspective on the political spectrum but is a good short read nonetheless.

In any case, the important question we have is whether being a "progressive Muslim" necessarily means making compromises with orthodoxy. For the moment, I would say no, and that it is possible to combine the two consistently. But it is definitely a question which bears to be asked again from time to time.

Palm Sunday

So today is Palm Sunday. I've sometimes wondered how to think of the difference between Islam and Christianity on this point. Both in the Hegira to Medina, and then the Return to Mecca, Muhammad (saaws) was able to have a triumphal entry without a crucifixion. Not that sacrifices weren't made, but that a community was actually established and managed to persist and grow, despite certain significant setbacks, without Muhammad facing the kind of dramatic violent gory death experienced by others. A state was established, tribes were brought in. And after the passing of the prophet, the community was lead by "rightly-guided" successors.

In the case of Christianity, the true kingdom of God never materialized on earth as a living community. Or at least, that seems to be the thinking of most of the Christian groups around today. The Roman Empire was the dominant political order. The Jewish institutions and leadership had a measure of influence underneath them. It wasn't till later (Constantine I believe) that Christianity had a government and by that point it had already gone radically off track anyway.


I wonder if it is appropriate to introduce the prophet's grandson Hussein (as) into the equation. Muhammad (saaws) had the triumphal entry but Hussein was beheaded and his death is remembered in vivid passion plays.

What is it about the world that it needs to assassinate its truth-tellers. The world can't allow them to live. John the Baptist (as), Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Lincoln, Gandhi, etc.. (I'm going to stop before including 2Pac and Biggie.. to paraphrase Chris Rock "They didn't get assassinated. Them two n****** got shot")

Gentle Bahai

There was an episode of the Simpson's which showed the Flander's kids playing a video game where they had to convert non-Christians by shooting them. Zap! And the shirtless (or possibly turbaned) heathens got converted and suddenly appeared in suits and ties. "Look, the gentle Bahai!" says Lisa. Before he too gets zapped by the Flader's evangelical ray gun.

I've been thinking about the Bahai faith alot these days. I'm not sure I can sum up all of my thoughts in a single entry. I think that overall, the Bahais I've met are well-intentioned and polite people. But at the same time they actually do have a plan to take over the world. It's kind of weird, I don't want to sound like some crazy fundamentalist who can't quite decide if the anti-Christ will come from the Vatican or the UN. But the Bahais actually do have a vision for the future involving a one world government based on Bahai principles. And they are gradually taking steps to try to make that vision a reality.

It's great news if you are Bahai. But it is less clear what it will mean for the rest of us.

And what is more than a bit disturbing is the complex Bahai attitude towards Islam. On the one hand, the Bahais actually grew out of Persian Muslim roots. They claim to believe in Muhammad (saaws) and the Quran, and even the 12 Shii imams. So it would almost be natural to expect them to believe many of the same things which traditional Muslims believe. But then they say that the validity of Islam expired in 1844 with the coming of the Bab.

So in the Bahai view, Islam, like all religions, like spoiled milk, has an expiration date.

On top of that, there are some uncanny parallels between the Bahai relation to Islam, and the Christian relation to Judaism. Islam and Judaism are each the older religion, with a rich sense of tradition and ritual. The Bahai faith and Christianity are in certain respects less strict. And these latter religions both have a kind of replacement theology, where they claim to co-opt or invalidate what came before. Another aspect is that as upstart faiths, Christianity and the Bahai were both persecuted at their outset by Jews and Muslims respectively. So the founding story of the Bahai faith (which will presumably be told over and over again to generations of Bahais) involves stories of martyrdom and opposition at the hands of Muslims. And so just as Christian theology and narratives (as pointed out in the recent contraversy over Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ) have fueled anti-semitism through the centuries, it would not be surprising to me if at some future point in time, assuming the Bahai faith spreads and grows, Bahais would also round up Muslims on trains and put them in ovens.

Not that the Bahai faith would necessarily endorse the practice, but in the sense that groups of Bahais who didn't live up to the true ideals of their faith might take matters in their own hands. Actually, already in Babi/Bahai history, members of the faith took up arms and tried to over throw the Iranian government (also without the approval of the leaders). So the bleak scenario suggested above wouldn't be too surprising.

In da club...

I have to ask myself why I react or feel the way I do when I see other Muslims doing things that I myself do. It gets complicated. Part of it is a certain amount of disappointment. Here is this beautiful deen, and sometimes I struggle with it. But then here are some people who are raised with it and they don't appreciate what they have.

From another perspective, however, we all struggle with it, we all have to do that internal jihad and do the things we know we should be doing, and avoid the things we know we shouldn't be doing. And that situation is the same whether you are raised in a Muslim home or whether you converted.

It's kind of funny though. I've often thought that I'm glad I was raised Christian, and travelled on the train (of thought) I've been on and found my way to Islam. I could totally imagine that if I had been raised Muslim, in the United States, especially in certain schools of "thought", I might have converted to Christianity!

Easter Memories

My father died last year. The anniversary is approaching soon. Technically it was on Easter (Saturday after sunset). The irony was definitely not lost on me.

Time has gone by very quickly. It doesn't feel like a year. It still feels like... a little while ago.

politics of prayer

This issue of whether a woman can lead a prayer is interesting. It taps into a number of other questions. For example, what is the political content of the prayer anyway? What does leading a prayer mean? What does following the leader (imam) mean?

More generally there is this whole question of how traditional religious understandings interact with modern sensibilities. How spirituality and piety interact with political concerns.

take a step to the left

I've been thinking about the role of religion and politics/economics these days.

At one point I remember thinking that Islam in certain respects seems leftist. Or to be more precise, it is critical of capitalism in a deep way. I mean, there are too many ethical constraints on the uses and abuses of wealth for anyone to say with a straight face that Islam gives unqualified suport to a laissez faire economy or gives unfettered freedom to the market. There are rules against charging interest, on hoarding wealth, on price gouging, limitations on sharecropping, on the uses of natural resources. etc. Not all economic behavior between consenting adults is permitted. One of the 5 pillars of the religion is a wealth redistribution program. Ramadan is a month-long reminder on the plight of the hungry. The Eids come with their obligation to feed the hungry as well. The money that we "have" isn't really ours anyway. It is just a trust, and we are accountable to God for what we do with it.

And then on top of that, due to "recent" historical events, the Muslim world has been very much on the receiving end of colonialism, globalization, and the modern manifestations of McWorld.

In varied ways, Muslims suffer from imposed identities. Where that could mean "Russian" (instead of Chechen) or "Chinese" (instead of Ughyar) or "Filpino" (instead of being from Mindanao) or "Indian" (instead of Kashmiri) etc. Instead of naming themselves and defining an autonomous existence they/we are being defined by others. It seems like an all-too-common story.

Islam is almost perfectly suited and situated to be the ultimate liberation theology, not just in terms of its principles but in terms of its demographics.

In terms of economic principles it would strive to moderate the excesses of capitalism. And in national struggles it can be a strong force for unity and solidarity.

So why should progressive Islam be so contraversial in some circles?

Some elements of the Muslim community are conservative, but it isn't exactly clear to me where their attitudes and beliefs are grounded. In the US presidential election before last, a coalition of Muslim organizations actually endorsed Bush ?!?! But in the election before, Clinton was the most popular candidate among Muslims. And actually, in both of the last two elections, Nader did rather well with Muslims.

The factors which conceivably played a part in all this are varied. Perhaps some wealthy immigrant Muslims were simply voting their pocketbooks and went Republican. Perhaps they believed the family values rhetoric. Anti-Semitism against Gore's choice of Lieberman as a running mate played no small roll. Perhaps a naiveness about how America treats non-white immigrants was also an issue. Allegedly one factor was that in one of the debates, Bush made a few comments suggesting that he was going to address the secret evidence laws, while Gore was relatively silent on the issues. And so somehow by some bizzare "thought" process some came to the conclusion that the Republican party would best defend their civil rights... go figure. Of course many African-American Muslims generally voted Democratic and in the wake of the umbrella endorsement of Bush, Black Muslims founded a few progressive Muslim political organizations to express dissent.

But this is all a rehash. But in the future I think it still remains an open question how the Muslims will fit into the American political spectrum. One possibility is that traditional concerns for family values along with a concern for social justice will put Muslims in a balanced position where they would be courted as a group because they would form a swing block. In some sense that would be the ideal. Regardless, it will be interesting to see how Muslims will assert themselves in the US political spectrum.

Anyway.. enough for now.. more later.

It's a black thing?

According to the Nation (of Islam), Islam is the natural religion for the original Asiatic Blackman, the maker, the owner, the cream of the planet earth, father of civilization, God of the universe. And for them, Christianity is the white slaveowner's religion.

I'm not sure that I would say all that, but it is *slightly* more true than not true.

But I really don't mean to embrace the exclusive aspects. It would be better to frame this as a rejection of the Afrocentrist (in particular Asante's) argument that Islam is an "Arab" religion and that Blacks who accept Islam have somehow gotten off-center. Blackness and Islam interweave much too tightly, too intimately, too frequently, too deeply for Asante to make his claim.

I once saw the National spokesman for the Hebrew Israelites being interviewed on tv (cable public access) by Munir Muhammad. He basically said that the Middle East should be thought of as Northeastern Africa. In alot of ways, I think that is the correct argument to make. Islam and "Afrocentricity" can be reconciled because the Muslim world overlaps with the African.

At the same time, Islam manages to be universal. As Schuon puts it, Islam is about the meeting between God as such, and man as such. And to show this it should be sufficient to point to the various groups of ethnic Muslims outside of the Middle East, in Subsaharan Africa, in China, India, Pakistan, Indonesia and the rest of Southeast Asia, in the United States, and of course in the former Soviet Unions. Just think about the situation of the Chechens, who are ethnic Muslims from the Caucus region... where the Muslims are so white that they named white people after them... lol... By no means is Islam merely bound to 7th century Arabia.

not tonight...

I didn't make it to dhikr tonight. But today was otherwise decent.

I wonder to what extent clubs and dancing and drunkeness really are a quest for the divine. Rumi's hymns for a love to deep for idolatry, are quickly converted to anthems to ass and titty.

For a change of gears: Making some reasonable progress on the academic front. But consistency is important now. Slow and steady wins the race.

My name is Kunta

To continue with the theme, blackness appears from the very beginning of Islamic history. Not just with a token appearance from Bilal (ra) but in more significant ways. I mean just look on a map and consider how close the Arabian Peninsula is to Africa. Bilal wasn't the only "Black" companion. There were many people from Ethiopia. The Arabian Peninsula and Ethiopia were part of the same cultural world. From the incident of the elephent which occured the year the prophet (saaws) was born and which was mentioned in the Quran. To the time the companions were refugees in Ethiopia before the community of Medina was established. According to some accounts, Umar was part Abyssinian. In fact according to one Black "Iraqi" classical writer, Al-Jahiz, Abd al-Muttalib, the guardian of the sacred Kaaba, "fathered ten Lords, Black as the night and magnificent." One of these men was Abdallah, the father of the Prophet Muhammad (saaws).

Conversely, Islam plays an important role in Black spaces. From the convergences mentioned above we can look at the Black Muslim civilizations of Africa, the development of Swahili, to the diaspora where aspects of Muslim experience survived the middle passage experience (even if in some cases, it was difficult for certain practices to last more than a few generations.) But then we see a resurgance in more recent African-American experience as Blacks rediscover and reclaim Islam, through the Nation of Islam, the Five Percenters, Dar-ul-Islam, etc. We see Black Muslim political organizing with organizations like Project H.O.P.E (Helping Oppressed People Everyday) in LA or in cultural groups and movements (e.g. in the recent past there were the many African-American Muslim jazz musicians or the Last Poets, and more currently in groups or individuals like Mos Def, the Roots, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest or even Dave Chapelle)

The original Afrocentrist, Molefi Kete Asante, seems to think that Black Muslims are off-center (i.e. not centered on Africa as he thinks we should be) but he fails to see that there are real long-standing organic connections between the Muslim world and the Black world. It is interesting to note that in fact, a fair number of the individuals claimed by the "Afrocentric" movement themselves also identify with Islam; Malcolm X, Naim Akbar, Cheikh Anta Diop, and others.

Well, that should be it for now. More later

It's not easy being...

I just went for lunch at a Mexican restaurant today and the tortillas and rice were dyed green! I believe this is one of the signs of the apocalypse.

Wearing Green

Well, I just woke up and am about to go off to meet with my professor soon. Every year about this time I think about that line from the song, Split Personality. I think it is by an alternative black rock group called Basehead. And the line goes "My pride is racist/people say/ yet no one minds/St. Patrick's Day"

On a somewhat unrelated note, now in North America there seems to be an issue playing itself out in a number of ways. What does Progressive Islam mean? What does it mean to be a Progressive Muslim? The specific issue these days is whether it is permissible for a woman to lead a Friday prayer with mixed-genders and/or give the khutbah. Also, this is only "somewhat" unrelated to the above because, if I understood the story correctly, the woman in question this time was Amina Wadud, the African-American Muslim woman who wrote the book "The Quran and Women" about how to re-approach the Quran in ways that are more liberating to women.

When (Or if) America finally develops a specifically American Muslim culture, a very large component of that mix will be African-American. And it seems important and necessary to articulate what the relation is between being Muslim and being Black. There are wide, varied, deep, concrete intersections between the Muslim world and the Black world. But more work could be done to map out that territory.

Second Things Second

It is very early in the morning and I have been up late. I am getting tired and will probably close my eyes soon. In the evening I hope I will be in a position to go to the Shadhili dhikr in the area. I've only been a few times now but it is interesting. It is important for me to have some kind of serious spiritual practice that nurtures me and helps me to come back to where I should be. To remind me, after all that's what "dhikr" means.

Some interesting things about the Shadhilis. Their language is actually similar to the Bahais in some ways. It makes me wonder how deep the connection runs. Actually, I also wonder how close this particular group is to Rene Guenon's crowd. (which was also Shadhili)

Also, the first time I went for dhikr, that was the first Muslim gathering I'd ever gone to where everyone else was a white American. It makes me wonder how different the demographics of Islam in the United States would be if it weren't for groups like the Nation of Islam, Dar-ul-Islam, the Hanafis (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's group), etc.


Well, that's it for now. Good night.

First things first

This is the first post for Planet Grenada and my first attempt at "blogging". To be honest, I didn't spend a long time trying to find "just" the right name for this blog but I think this will do nicely. Grenada was last stronghold of the Muslims in Spain when the Christians took back the country in the Reconquista. Grenada is also the the name of the Caribbean country whose temporary Marxist regime was toppled by the Reagan Administration in the 1980's. (I can identify with both uses in interesting ways) Calling it *Planet* Grenada seems fitting to me since I've been thinking about and intrigued by the Afro-futurism movement recently and its ideas seem to resonate with some of my recent thoughts and activities. So for the moment, the name seems to evoke all the right things.

It also seems a bit fitting to get this thing going in the early hours of St. Patrick's Day. At least, according to one version of the the St. Patrick's day legend, the usual story of St. Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland was actually a kind of bait-and-switch and the snakes are in reality a stand in for the Moors.

Anyway, this is enough introduction for now.

More to come later.