Posted on 03/04/2007 1:08:28 AM PST by TheThinker
Post 9/11, Islam flourishes among blacks Sun Feb 25, 2007 10:22 AM ET
By Matthew Bigg
ATLANTA (Reuters) - Islam is growing fast among African Americans, who are undeterred by increased scrutiny of Muslims in the United States since the September 11 attacks, according to imams and experts.
Converts within the black community say they are attracted to the disciplines of prayer, the emphasis within Islam on submission to God and the religion's affinity with people who are oppressed.
Some blacks are also suspicious of U.S. government warnings about the emergence of new enemies since the 2001 attacks because of memories of how the establishment demonized civil rights leaders Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.
As a result, they are willing to view Islam as a legitimate alternative to Christianity, the majority religion among U.S. blacks.
"It is one of the fastest-growing religions in America," said Lawrence Mamiya, professor of religion at Vassar College, speaking of Islam among black Americans.
He said there were up to 2 million black U.S. Muslims but acknowledged there are no precise figures.
"It's not viewed (by authorities) as a threat because the numbers are small and once we get past the war on terror and all the negative images then it will continue to spread."
Black Americans typically attend mosques separate from Muslims from immigrant backgrounds despite sharing common beliefs, according to Aminah McCloud, religious studies professor at DePaul University in Chicago.
But imams in Atlanta, a U.S. center for black Muslims, said they were subjected to less scrutiny than Muslims from the Middle East and Indian sub-continent.
RAP BROWN'S MOSQUE
Many blacks converted during the civil rights era, when Malcolm X helped popularize the Nation of Islam, attracting boxer Muhammad Ali among others. Islam still attracts prominent blacks such as rapper Scarface, a recent convert.
But the Nation of Islam has declined as a force at the expense of an association of mosques led by Warith Deen Muhammad, the son of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad, who died in 1975.
At a street-corner mosque in one of Atlanta's oldest and poorest neighborhoods, a recent Friday sermon illustrated the power of the history of Islam in the United States for blacks.
Men and women sat separately on the mosque floor, heads covered, as cleric Nadim Ali recounted stories from history of Muslim slaves brought from Africa who struggled to uphold their faith in the face of slaveholders' opposition.
If Muslims could remain true to Islam under slavery, the audience should follow their example, Ali said at the Community Masjid of Atlanta in the city's West End district.
"You are talking about a people who were cut off from their roots .... Islam reconnects you with Africa and with other parts of the world so your peoplehood transcends race," Ali said later in an interview.
The mosque has a direct link to a slice of black history. It was founded by H. Rap Brown, a one-time member of the 1960s Black Panthers group. Brown became a Muslim in prison in the 1970s and changed his name to Jamil al-Amin.
He was convicted for killing a sheriff's deputy in Georgia in March 2000 and is serving a sentence of life without parole, but in his absence the mosque has continued what Ali said was the low-profile work of building a local Muslim community.
CONVERSION
The mosque teaches there was no distinction between Sunni and Shi'ite within Islam, according to people who attend regularly. Sermons urged Muslims to find work, stay free from crime and drugs and maintain stable family lives.
Ali said he assumed the mosque was bugged and infiltrated by informers, in part because its leaders remained skeptical about U.S. policies since September 11.
"They (the government) unplug black people and plug in Arabs or Muslims. They unplug Arabs and plug in communists. America needs war to maintain its economic status," he said.
The larger Masjid of al-Islam mosque in another mainly black neighborhood of Atlanta is part of Warith Deen Muhammad's group. Its imam, Plemon el-Amin, said he was involved with local interfaith work as well as with a local Islamic school.
One recent Friday, Mark King, a new convert, and hundreds of others at the mosque listened to a preacher urge Muslims to seek God through the Koran. Followers of other faiths should seek God through their own holy books, the preacher said.
King, who wears his hair in dreadlocks, converted after visiting Africa for the first time and in Gambia read the Koran and realized its teaching chimed with his own beliefs, not least in fighting injustice.
"For young African Americans, there is some attraction to learning about traditions that have been associated with resistance to European imperialism," said King, who has adopted the name Bilal Mansa since his conversion.
Anyone with any intelligence at all would not turn to Islam religion, it is the uneducated and stupid people like Mike Tyson mostly.
It's a prison thing.
They're uneducated and stupid alright(or maybe), but the problem is that they have influence, that can spur the movement.
These are the geniuses who swing many state elections to the democrats, they're just ahead of the curve in converting. The guilty white liberals can't be far behind, at least Helen Thomas will have to cover her face, so we've got that going for us, which is good.
"Islam still attracts prominent blacks such as rapper Scarface, a recent convert."
This sentence is 'telling' in so many ways.
Some people will do anything to pi** off whitey. Some people really need to grow up, and take ownership of their own problems, and their own destiny. Becoming a muzzie is no way to go through life.
Agreed, around here they do not 'get along',
the Muslims are Somalia, the 'blacks' are from Chicago. Even overheard a woman lecturing
to one about how Jesus was the only one who
came back after he died,
hope she goes on to Evanglize the rest.
He said there were up to 2 million black U.S. Muslims but acknowledged there are no precise figures.
If he has no solid figures to back up his assertions, then how can we be certain islam is the fastest growing religion in the USA?
Why, sure, just the other day, I was saying to myself, if that rapper Scarface thinks that islam is a good deal, maybe I should re-evaluate.
I mean, he's prominent and all that.
Right?
Right?
(Sound of crickets chirping.)
And public edjamakation.
Not that the government would be the manufacture of any social problems. Nope.
No it is not. There are tons of black Muslims in Memphis, Tenn. Very dangerous people!
I am totally convinced that Islam is fast growing. All that a person has to do is, look at the amount of mosques being built, and all of the little hats that Muslims wear on the heads of Blacks.
Thanks for your sacrifice for our country!
no problem...thanks!
While reading this article, "The Bell Curve" came to my mind, also. Especially the infamous chapter 13.
I agree.
"This is ironic since Muslims were instrumental in the capture of Africans for the European slave trade"
It's exactly the same as their following Jesse Jackson and Al sharpton around.
what Islam appears to be doing is sneaking in under the racial radar.......can't be called out because the perp then hollers "racism"!!!!!
"It's not viewed (by authorities) as a threat because the numbers are small and once we get past the war on terror and all the negative images then it will continue to spread."
Good luck with "getting past the war on terror" Lawrence.
Beware the enemy within.
"We don't have to worry about open boarders letting in terrorist, when the enemy lies within.
You should be scared, very scared, as America is being transformed from an extention of European values and culture to one being reclaimed by the hoardes of 3rd world immigrants.
An American Haiti or Mexico is not inevitable, I think. We can only avoid such a fate if we once again take control over our government, the media and the borders.
This notion of multiculturalism that the MSM continues to spew out is a lie, for it demands the destruction of our Western culture. What is at stake here is more than our culture and heritage. What is at stake is the very survival of our life form on this planet, the very right of our people to continue the distinctions that make us who we are. I hope and pray it does not come to it in the end, but ultimately may have to assimilate into the culture of the enemy within and their genotypes, not them into ours.
The writing is all over the American wall.
Be prepared.
Ah, but they aren't TAUGHT THAT.
Besides it's an "anti white" religion fueled with HATE.
Christianity is called "white man's burden".
I can see why they are attracted to it. Wrong as it may be ... we've got problems ... .
We ARE self destructing from with in -
MAKE NO DOUBT ABOUT THAT!
AQ and like terrorists can just sit back and laugh.
We ARE self destructing from with in -
BY CHOICE!!!
MAKE NO DOUBT ABOUT THAT!
AQ and like terrorists can just sit back and laugh.
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