Racism and racial bigotry is not just an American problem. It is a problem felt around the world; including the Muslim world. Black people are treated unjustly because of the color of their skin all over this globe, including the holy lands of Islam, which all belongs to Allah sub’haanahu wa ta’ala. In Islam, an Arab has no superiority over an non-Arab, nor a White person have any superiority over a Black person, nor does a non-Arab have any superiority over an Arab or a Black person have any superiority over a non-Black or White person except by Taqwa (piety).
The shuyookh have weighed in on volumes regarding aqeeda over the years. Islamic books stores in the United States have been flooded and overrun with books on aqeeda. Some scholars have even declared some of us as heretics. We have fought with one another and masaajid have spilt over what was written in aqeeda books and fataawa sent to the United States. We let most of that slide, even though the aqeeda wars have resulted in the loss of an entire generation of Muslims in these United States of America.
Enough is enough. Black American Muslims are the same people who are matching in the streets demanding an end to racial injustice. They are our sons and daughters, our mothers and fathers, our cousins and uncles who are being killed, beaten, denied unjustly here in the land which we helped build as slaves. If we reject racism in in America, then we also reject it in the deen of Islam in America, and the deen of Islam in America, is the deen of Islam everywhere on the Earth because it is one deen. .
We demand to know the position of the vocal mashaayikh (scholars) on racism because it is a determinant of their own aqeeda. I’m not trying to start trouble here. But Shuyookh who so boldly prohibited birthdays, Thanksgiving, baby showers, football, living in America, working with the kuffar, and family picnics without partitions between the men and the women, need to articulate their expressed position on racism in Muslim America and the blanketing of Muslim owed liquor stores in America.
People have a basic right to know whether or not the scholars that we take knowledge of religion from are racists, or are bigoted in any way against Blacks. I raised this issue many years ago, and I’m raising it again now. Racism is a human rights issue, it is a justice issue and it is indeed, an aqeeda (creed) issue without a doubt. Are scholars of Islam biased against Blacks and Black American Muslims, yes or no? We demand to know. Wal Allahu Musta’aan. – Imam Abu Laith Luqman Ahmad
Imam Abu Laith Luqman Ahmad is a associate Imam and resident scholar at the Toledo Masjid al-Islam, housed in the first building built originally as a Mosque in the state of Ohio. He can be reached at: imamabulaith@yahoo.com
Imam Luqman Ahmad Mosque Without Borders 