american muslim culture

I didn't see this as clearly before blogging, but these days, I'm more exicited about the idea of participating in, and in small ways contributing to, an American Muslim culture. Part of the reason why I didn't see it as clearly before is that the term "American Islam" (in my mind) tends to suggest compromising and selling out for reasons of convenience; altering Islamic principles to accomodate to life of America. And if I were talking about changing Ramadan to December or changing jummah to Sunday morning that would be the case. But I'm not.

What I have in mind by "American Muslim culture" is just the natural product of Muslims, living in America, getting together, letting their creative juices flow and expressing themselves. Not just becoming doctors, lawyers and engineers (which are perfectly good occupations) but also becoming writers, performance poets, calligraphers, photographers, musicians or even comedians (also good occupations).
Not just maintaining and repeating the cultural forms from "back home" but coming together with Muslims here and creating and inventing new ones.

Before Planet Grenada, in the back of my mind, I knew there were isolated Muslims or small groups of Muslims, out there doing these things, but it wasn't till now, with the process of reading and writing about them, that it really sunk in how much has already been done. (This is especially true in jazz and hip-hop where many Muslims have gotten a high degree of mainstream recognition for their skills).

Right now, Muslim culture in the United States is still in its early early stages, but with more networking and organizational/institutional support it could grow into something amazingly beautiful. Muslim hip-hop forums, Muslim writers groups, Muslim poetry open mikes, artist collectives, etc. It is encouraging to see these connections being made and I can't wait to see what the future will hold.

spanish fatwa against bin laden

this is a few weeks old but still interesting:
On March 11 (the anniversary of the Madrid bombing), Mansur Escudero, the Secretary General of the Islamic Commission of Spain issued a fatwa against Osama Bin Laden. Here is coverage at Al-Jazeera and the Christian Science Monitor and here is the original fatwa in Spanish and the text of the fatwa in English

let us be moors

This piece, entitled Let Us Be Moors - Islam, Race And "Connected Histories" by Hisham Aidi connects incredibly well with the themes brought up all over Planet Grenada. Historical connections are discussed along with more contemporary ones: The Cuban patriot, Jose Marti declaring "Somos Moros!" (We are Moors!) in solidarity with African independence movements, Jose Padilla's indefinite incarceration, the rich cross-cultural fertilizations happening in hip-hop, Muslims detained at Guantanamo Bay, a Brazilian telenovela about Morocco, Shakira, the Murabitun in Mexico, and to Granada itself.

This amazing and wide-ranging paper ends on an inspiring tone:

With African-American and Latino converts speaking of the tragedy of 1492, and with Muslim minorities in the West becoming increasingly race-conscious and inspired by black America, the world is witnessing a new fusion between Islam and pan-Africanism. Today, however, this racialized Islamic internationalism contains elements of other cultures and diasporas as well. Islam is at the heart of an emerging global anti-hegemonic culture, which post-colonial critic Robert Young would say incarnates a "tricontinental counter-modernity" that combines diasporic and local cultural elements, and blends Arab, Islamic, black and Hispanic factors to generate "a revolutionary black, Asian and Hispanic globalization, with its own dynamic counter-modernity...constructed in order to fight global imperialism."

may day

Today is May Day...

I was considering trying to come up with something deep to say about Islam and labor and finding all sorts of subtle nuanced connections between the two, but no such luck. Like most religions, Islam teaches that people ought to be treated fairly (and in particular this includes workers). If you want to see a couple of nice quotes on that point, here is a pamphlet. If you want more, entire books which discuss Islamic economics (and its underlying moral principles) have been written and several are available online. From my perspective it is clear that Islam strongly and clearly (more so than certain other faiths) affirms the rights of workers.

Unfortunately, what Muslims DO is another question. Inshallah as an ummah we'll come back to our principles and the sorts of abuses which happen to foreign workers in Saudi Arabi, etc. will come to an end.

But then yet another level to this larger issue comes from the fact that many Muslims are also living in the developing world, and so Muslim laborers tend to be on the receiving end of "globalization" and all the negative consequences which come with that.

So on the one hand, in principle there is a strong Islamic impulse to put ethical constraints on the uses and abuses of wealth, along with other kinds of economic behavior (Islamic texts explicitly mention and disapprove of charging interest, hoarding wealth, jacking up prices in times of scarcity, mistreatment of workers etc.)

But on the other hand even in "fundamentalist" situations, these principles aren't always adhered to.

But in other situations, Muslims (or more precisely, average brown folks living in the developing world, regardless of religion) because of their position in the global economy, would still have a strong motivation to be concerned about economic abuse.

two pieces on islam and american culture

An Africana View of Progressive American Islam by A.S. Mahdi Ibn-Ziyad. This is a brief article giving another formulation/overview of "progressive islam".

East of the Sun (West of the Moon): The Harmonic History of Islam Among Asian and African Americans by Moustafa Bayoumi. This lecture has three sections, the first one (about the experiences of an Ahmadi missionary in the US) and the third (about the spread of Islam among jazz musicians) were the most interesting to me. A middle section about Malcolm X wasn't very deep or new.

all that jazz...

I'm a little hip-hopped out after the last couple of posts. But I actually think that the more things change the more they stay the same. This connection between Islam and Black music goes back alot further back than just the origins of rap. Similar things were going on among jazz musicians of the past too.

Many jazz musicians adopted Muslim names although not all of them were necessarily practicing the faith.

And in Dizzy Gillespie's autobiography "To Be, Or Not ... To Bop" there is an interesting passage discussing why so many African-American jazz musicians were converting to Islam.

And of course, in the intermediate period between be-bop and hip-hop come The Last Poets, which definitely fit in with the themes of Planet Grenada. I've been meaning to write something about them but I wanted to see what was available online first.

taliyah al-mahdi

In the course of trying to find more about Amir Sulaiman online the name of this group came up. The Asian symbols in their logo makes me think of Dead Prez and their use of the I Ching. Here is their website for more info. I wish I knew more about them. The site is well written. They seem to be coming from a Shia perspective, which seems interesting. They have a set of "12 Points of Action" which includes a study of the world's spiritual traditions, physical and mental training, opposition to terrorism and a strong statement against sexism: "we wash our hands of the oppression of women throughout history and oppose all forms of domination of man over woman." I wonder how well they manage to implement this really positive-sounding program.

If anyone knows more about them, feel free to add a comment. (Actually, that should go for all the blog entries)

amir sulaiman

Amir Sulaiman is a Muslim poet, writer, teacher and family man. You may have seen him on HBO's Def Poetry Jam doing a piece called "Danger" (which you should be able to hear on his website). He delivers his words powerfully, inspired by "a political consciousness that is profound without being preachy and stately without being stand-offish". Here is his website. The site is actually a pretty good reflection of his style. It's not as flowery nor as busy as other poet's sites I've seen. It is to the point and well-done.

an old list of rappers and their religion

I modified this list slightly. Da Youngstas and Divine Styler were originally in a seperate category for followers of W.D. Muhammad which I just lumped in with Sunni. And I got rid of "Black Panthers" as a category (Paris was the only one listed as a member)

I should point out that according to this list, Posdnus (Kelvin Mercer) was an Ansar and Common (Rashid Lynn) was associated with the Nation of Islam (They were mentioned recently on the blog).

Unfortunately, due to the nature of the industry, many of the groups have broken up, and many of the individuals no longer perform.


God Hop
Striving Righteous Brothers and Sisters in Hip-Hop
Updated Master Allah Why, Build, 15086
(May 8, 2000)

Nation of Gods and Earths :
(past and present) note - still studying means still doing research/hasn't make a commitment but uses the "language".

A+
Aceyalone
Akiem Allah from Micranots
Andre the Giant (ShowBiz and A.G.)
Artifacts
AZ (past)
Big Daddy Kane
Black Thought (from the Roots)
Boot Camp Clique
Brand Nubian
BuckShot (Black Moon)
Capone and Noriega
C Knowledge (Doodlebug) from Digable Planets
C. L. Smooth
Channel Live
Chino XL
C.I.A.S
Company Flow
C-rayz Walz
Cru
Dark Poets
Divine Life Allah
DJ Clark Kent
Dred Poets Society
E. Bros.
Erule
Erykah Badu (past)
Fanatic
Fruitkwan
Future Sound
God Sunz
Grand Puba
Gravedigga's
GURU from Gangstarr (Still Studying)
Invisees
J-Live
John Forte
Killarmy
King Just
King Sun
Kwame'
Lakim Shabazz
Leaders of the New School
Lil Soldiers (No Limit Records)
Lord Finesse
M.A.R.S. (from the Roots)
Massive Influence (was "y'all so stupid")
MC Shan
Medina Green
Mic Geronimo
MF Doom
Mobb Deep
Mother Superia
Movement X
Mwalim Allah (soul music)
Mystidious
Misfits
Nas
Nine
Now Born Click
Nu*Born Records
Omniscience
Pete Rock
Phenomena
Poets of Darkness
Poor Righteous Teachers
Powerule
Prime Meridian
Queen Latifah (past member)
Rakim
Rampage
Red Head Kingpin
Rough House Survivors
Scarmanga Shallah aka Sir Menelik
Self Jupiter (Freestyle Fellowship)
Self Scientific
7ods
Shorty Long
Smif and Wessun
Solar Panel
Supernatural (still studying)
Superstar Quam Allah
Sun Risers
Sunz of Man
3rd Eye Cipher
Top Quality
Two Kings in a Cipher
Universal
Wise Born (Stetsasonic)
Wizdom Life
World's Reknown
Wu Tang Clan
YGz (Young Gunz)

Ausar Auset:

Afu Ra
Jeru da Damaja

Holy Tabernacle/Nubian Hebrew Islaamic Mission/Nuwaubians (Ansars), past and present

Askari X
Intelligent Hoodlum (Tragedy) (past member)
Jay-Z (past member)
JAZ
Jedi Mind Tricks
K.M.D.
Mister Man (Bush Babees)
O.C.
Posdonus (De La Soul)
Sciencez of Life
Tung Twista (past member)
"Zev Love X" i.e. MF Doom (past member)

FOI(Muslims of the Nation of Islam):

Askari
Common (still studying)
Daddy-O
Fesu
Ice Cube (still studying)
Kam
K-Solo
Maestro Fresh Wes
M.C. Ren
Nubian Mob
Planet Asia (past member)
Proffesor Griff and the Last Asiatic Disciples
Public Enemy
RBX
Smooth B.
Unique and Dashun
X-Niggas (representin` Indianapolis)

Orthodox/Sunni Muslims:

Da Youngstas/ Illy Funkstas
Divine Styler
Abdul Shahid
Ali Shaheed Muhammad
Dr. Soose (Madkap)
Malik B (from the Roots)
Mos Def
Q-Tip

source

more on muslims and hip-hop

A Mercury News Piece called Hip-Hop's Islamic Influence focused on Akil from Jurassic 5

A very brief Associated press piece called Rapper helps Muslims to create pop culture (focused on Capital D)

A more serious piece by Hisham Aidi called Jihadis in the Hood: Race, Urban Islam and the War on Terror
for Middle East Report. There are some interesting comments on the relation between Islam and Pan-Africanism from a historical perspective and also a discussion of Islam's relevance to urban life today.

And finally a more academic, but very interesting paper: ISLAMIC HIP-HOP vs. ISLAMOPHOBIA: AKI NAWAZ, NATACHA ATLAS, AKHENATON by Ted Swedenburg, an anthropologist who wrote a paper I linked to earlier on Five Percenters and hip-hop. This piece discusses how Islam appears in the work of 3 specific musicians *outside* the U.S.

de la soul

A very brief excerpt from a very brief interview with De La Soul

I know that Common is Muslim, and so is Mos Def. Are any of you? What do you think about the current state of US?

Pos: We're all, especially myself and Dave, have definitely studied, practiced- where especially I am just more into trying to be positive and living my life in the right way. Not just coming in and promote something that's a lot of open gaps. As far as Muslim, as far as what I've always known it to be, referring to peaceful ways and being one of peace. I would consider myself Muslim. Try to be peaceful and try to do things of that sort.

Wow, thinking back to my college days it would be hard to understate how much I was a De La Soul fan. But I'm surprised they would identify themselves as Muslims. There were vague allusions in a song here or there (The only one which comes to mind is Posdanus saying: "So my occupation's known/ But not why I occupy/ And that is to bring the peace/ not in the flower but the As-Salaam Alaikum in the third I am" which comes at the end of "I am I be" on the Bahloone Mindstate album).

But other than just having a vibe different from the typical "gansta rap" being made at the time, they weren't really vocal about their specific beliefs.

the tao passes the turing test

Some time ago, I came across an interesting reframing of the whole question of God's existence:

There are many people out there who consider themselves to be atheists and they would claim to disbelieve in the existence of"God". But do you ever come across people who call themselves A-Tao-ists? I doubt it. It doesn't really make sense to ask whether the Tao exists or doesn't exists. There is some reason for why there is Something instead of Nothing. There is some reason for why there is Order instead of Chaos. It exists. Whether you call it Tao, Allah, the Absolute, the Ultimate Reality, Jah, or Fred. It's there. The real question is: what is it like?

And given the fact that most earthlings believe in some form of personal deity, it seems fairly clear that this reality, this entity, passes the Turing test. (The concept of the Turing test comes out of computer science, where researchers struggled to define what does it mean to say that a machine is "intelligent". And to put it very, very, simply, the suggestion is that something is *defined* to be intelligent if when you talk to it, you feel that an intelligent being is "talking back".)

So based on the evidence of human religious experience, it is pretty clear that most people do have this sense. We don't have to delve into God's "neurology" and insist that he has a physical human brain with lobes and hemispheres, or that his "anger" is like our "anger" or that his "mercy" is like our "mercy". Far from it. The Quran, at least, is clear that the Creator is unlike the creation. Allah is so amazingly Amazing that he beggars human language. Our words can't touch him.

But nevertheless, that doesn't preclude us understanding our own dependence on a Higher Power and expressing that awareness in the form of love, devotion and awe. Personal language is meaningful, not because God needs our words or feelings, but because we need express them, for our own sakes.

The farmer needs to understand his survial depends on the soil and the rain. The sailor needs to know his life is in the hands of the sea and the wind. And we need to cultivate a similar kind of gratitude and respect for God. Not in order to curry favor by stroking the divine ego, but because we need to keep our own in check. In earlier times, this knowledge might have been maintained by sacrifices to nature spirits or other creatures, and modern-man might view such practices as superstition, but from another point of view they are grounded in an uncompromsing absolute realism.

the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy

I think the last few entires were a bit on the serious side. Not that it's totally out of place. I'm often in a serious mood but I'm not sure to what extent I should inflict it on everyone else. Especially since I've been gradually telling more people about this blog.


Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is coming out in movie theatre's today. Hopefully I'll be able to find a group of friends to go see it soon. Mos Def is in the movie playing Ford Prefect.

(I'm making sure to mention him because he's my thin and tenuous "justification" for mentioning the movie here at Planet Grenada. I'm actually planning on writng a seperate blog entry sharing some thoughts and info on Mos Def too. I love Mos Def. I've often thought to myself that the ummah could really use an "intellectual (i.e. academic, scholarly) Mos Def". But the more I read about him, the more I realize that reflects my own pre-conceived notions. He's not exactly a slouch. His creative career has been rapidly expanding in a couple of different directions, making (remarkably thoughtful) hip-hop music, Def Poetry, acting and activism. He's already making serious contributions to culture, even if its not in the ivory tower

Anyway, Hitchhiker's Guide has already been made into a television series (like over 20 years ago!) and a radio show. Even a computer adventure game (Oh my God, I feel so old. I used to play a bunch of those Infocom text adventures on my Commodore 64 way back in the day. Sometime in the future, a kid in middle school is going to be taking a history test where they have to identify which artifact is older...and on one side of the page they will be shown a commodore 64 and on the other they will be shown a picture of some kid in breeches playing with a hoop and a stick in the street... and this will be the hardest question on the test.)




So for all you archeologists out there, here is a site where you can actually play alot of the classic Infocom games. Some of the games might require maps or other props which were sold with the original packaging but you should at least be able to get a flavor of how the games worked back in the day. Besides, I'm almost certain that if you do a search online you should be able to find the relevant information online in some form which will let you complete the games.

But as far as the new movie goes, I should probably wait till actually seeing it before commenting much on its islamic or afro-futuristic implications. (athough the original novels did get into a fair amount of theology in a very quirky and lighthearted way. InshaAllah we'll see how, or whether, the subject is handled by the film.)

perennialism and traditionalism

Perennialism is the name of an school of thought which has become popular among some Muslims, especially in the West, this past century. Some of the prominent figures in this school are Rene Guenon, Titus Burckhardt, Martin Lings, Charles le Gai Eaton, Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Frithjof Schuon. (There are other people involved in the larger movement which includes Hindus, Christians, and even some straight-up Fascists, but the above names are the most prominent among those who claimed to be Muslim.)

The basic idea is that there is a single body of truth known as the perennial wisdom which human beings have known from a very early point in history and which gets restated over and over again in the world's major religious traditions. So, for example, Muhammad (saaws), Jesus (as), Krishna, Zoroaster etc. were all basically teaching the same eternal principles, except in a language appropriate to the needs of their audience.

(In some sense this is similar to the Bahai faith which also affirms a belief in the Buddha, Muhammad, Jesus, Zoroaster, Krishna, and others. Although one difference is that the Bahai faith has a notion of "progressive revelation" which develops a time-based hierarchy among the religions. And since the Bahai faith is the most recent, it sits at the top of the hierarchy before those which came before)

You might think this suggests some kind of cafeteria-style spiritual free-for-all but the above names were also part of a movement known as Traditionalism which asserted that this perennial wisdom is best expressed in the traditional, authentically-transmitted, orthodox versions of the various religions. So even if at a very deep level, the various religions agree, it still isn't appropriate to mix and match. Each path should be taken seriously, and followed on its own terms.

So the Perennialists are interesting because, on the one hand, they seem to see a great deal of value in other religions and other civilizations. But on the other hand, they also strive, in their own way, to stay faithful to a particular religious tradition and stay "orthodox".

Some members of the movement, especially in its "Traditionalist" form really emphasize the past and see the modern-age as decadent with things only getting worse. (I have the impression that this is what really motivates the scarier Fascist-Traditionalists)

Mark Sedgewick has a website which goes into a certain amount of depth on Traditionalism and its different manifestations (Actually that first page is an interesting article on the introduction of sufism to the west, but if you go to the homepage you'll find more ino). Sedgwick also has a paper called "Marginal Muslims in Cyberspace"

You can also go to Religio Perennis which is another website which deals with these ideas, but more from an insider's perspective.

And as a counter-balance to give another side of the issue, Dr. Muhammad Legenhausen wrote a piece called "Why I am not a Traditionalist" for a pretty thorough discussion of Traditionalism faults from the point of view of a Muslim who rejects it (rather thoughtfully I should add)

Also at the Living Islam site you can find a page which doesn't deal with these terms head-on but discusses issues in the same ballpark from a critical Islamic perspective.

metaphysics of interfaith dialogue

just an interesting article about how the Quran can provide a basic framework in which to view and understand other religions.

bahais and divorce

The following piece is from Juan Cole, who was formerly a member of the Bahai faith but left because of differences of opinion with the Bahai administration.

An internal Baha'i household survey done in 1987 found that the divorce rate in the U.S. Baha'i community was higher than that in American society as a whole. The report was never released to the public.

My own suspicion is that the high divorce rate has several causes. First of all, Baha'is are encouraged to utopian ways of thinking. Two young people with little in common save that they are recent converts to the faith will be encouraged to marry. I have seen this sort of thing over and over again with my own eyes. This utopianism is widespread in the faith and is the same reason for which so many other Baha'i enterprises end up doing damage to people. That both are "Baha'is" is not a basis for a marriage. One may be a liberal and the other a fundamentalist; current norms against such labeling make it difficult for people to identify one another on that basis, but you'd better believe the difference would show up in a marriage!

Young married Baha'is are also encouraged to pioneer, whether abroad to places like Haiti and Nicaragua, or homefront. Being uprooted from their social networks and families and isolated in a strange environment is not good for them as young marrieds.

In smaller communities the Baha'i committee work is a killer, and may isolate the two spouses, who spend less time together just coccooning and watching t.v.

And it is my estimate that from a third to a half of U.S. Baha'is are what the sociologists would call marginal people--persons with poor social skills who are emotionally needy and who join the faith because they are love-bombed and find a high proportion of other marginals in it. A high rate of marginality is fostered by the cultists who have infiltrated the administration, since only such individuals would put up with being ordered around summarily or would eat up conspiracy theories about bands of dissidents seeking to undermine the administration. Marginals would have higher than normal divorce rates, obviously.

Finally, the Baha'i faith encourages a great deal of ego inflation in the individual. Each Baha'i thinks he or she is saving the world and is a linchpin in the plan of God. This inspires in them great (and often quite misplaced) confidence in their own judgment--I've seen them pronounce authoritatively on astronomy, biology, Qajar history, and many other subjects on which they are woefully ignorant. Such ego inflation and over-confidence in personal judgment would not be good for a marriage. cheers Juan

[P.S. I should have also included that the exclusiveness of the Baha'i community, non-attendance of non-Baha'is at Feast, pressure to convert spouses, etc., was also probably a contributing factor to Baha'i divorces where only one spouse was Baha'i.

source

lessons of the five percent

An old but relatively in-depth paper about the role that Five Percenter teachings play in hip-hop

hakim bey, ontological anarchy and cultural expression

I'm not sure I want to endorse Hakim Bey (aka Peter Lamborn Wilson). Actually in certain respects, I'm actually certain that I don't. But he is certainly a character who occasionally has some very interesting things to say, (assuming that I understand him)

There is a huge collection of his writings available free online. This is typically the material written under the name Hakim Bey.

But besides those works available online, his book, Sacred Drift: Essays on the Margins of Islam contains the most thorough description I've ever seen of the teachings of the Moorish Science movement of Noble Drew Ali. (Along with various essays on other topics). And his book The Drunken Universe is a decent collection and discussion of the outlines of Persian Sufi poetry. These and his other more serious, academic works are typically written under Peter Lamborn Wilson.

Actually the last few blog entries have gotten me thinking about the Five Percenters and other individuals and movements on the "margins of Islam". On the one hand, many of these groups definitely go too far and cross certain lines which put themselves pretty much outside of Islamic limits. At the same time, some of them manage to find dynamic and vibrant ways to express some aspects of Islamic culture. And I wonder if it isn't possible to learn from them while avoiding their excesses. Or more generally, how is it possible for different Muslim communities around the world to maintain their cultural autonomy, and continue to joyfully and authentically be themselves, while at the same time staying true to orthodox Islam.

I didn't see it as clearly before, but in fact, figuring out how to do that is actually one of the goals of Planet Grenada in the first place.

ali shaheed muhammad

Also formerly of A Tribe Called Quest (like Q-Tip), is Ali Shaheed Muhammad. Oddly enough, in spite of his obvious Muslim background, he only came to practice Islam in a serious way around the same time that Q-Tip did (shortly before making ATCQ's 4th album, Beats, Rhymes and Life.

Since the ATCQ breakup, Muhammad has been mostly working on individual cuts for other artists and a brief stint as a founding member of the supergroup Lucy Pearl (which only lasted for an album). His most recent project is his own first solo album entitled Shaheedullah and Stereotypes.

Here is the main Ali Shaheed Muhammad page

An interview with Ali Shaheed Muhammad about his faith and the industry for a Canadian periodical. Another interview with Ali Shaheed Muhammad done by Kenny Rodriguez. And finally an interview with riotsound.com.

more on muslims and hip-hop

This can potentially be a huge topic. For a long time now, to varying degrees of depth and sincerity, hip-hop has included some kind of Islamic content. Oddly enough, it seems like the most well represented "Muslim" group in hip-hop have been the Five Percenters or the Nation of Gods and Earths (e.g. Poor Righteous Teachers, Rakim, Brand Nubian, Busta Rhymes, Wu Tang, Digable Planets etc.) I imagine that part of the reason is that the Five Percenters put a certain amount of emphasis on developing a certain "rap" and verbal fluency which lends itself very easily to hip-hop's lyricism. Another reason is likely that as a movement the Five Percenters are highly concentrated among the urban black youth who are part of the hip-hop generation. On the other hand, among orthodox Muslims there are certain factors which probably discourage participation in the production of hip-hop music, for example attitudes which restrict the permissibilty of music per se, and then reservations about being in environments where mainstream hip-hop tends to be performed (mixed crowds, places which serve alcohol). In spite of these factors, there are still a few who identify as Sunni Muslims in mainstream hip-hop. (e.g. Mos Def, One.Be.Lo, Q-Tip, members of Jurassic 5, the Roots)

I was especally surprised to find out that there is actually an online forum specifically dedicated to Islam and hip-hop at muslimhiphop.com. Some Muslim rap groups like Native Deen are becoming more and more visible. And the ummah in America is even developing Muslim record labels (here is an interview with one of their artists, Capital D from All Natural [2] and commentators on hip-hop culture like Adisa Banjoko