The newest issue to hit the American Muslim national issue menu is fighting “white supremacy”. Here we go again. Seems like I saw this movie before, more than once. I just hope we don’t start hunting down white supremacists like we ridiculously hunted down Islamophobes. That didn’t work out too well. Who’s bright idea was that anyway? If gambling was permissible, I’d lay odds that nobody the heck even knows who inaugurated the idea of eradicating islamophobia. That’s like eradicating kufr/heresy; not gonna happen.
Yup. For many years running we sought out islamophobes like we were bounty hunters, or Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. For several years, all of the Major national Islamic organizations in the country CAIR, ICNA, ISNA, MPAC, and others, publicly declared fighting Islamophobia as the number one priority of Muslims in America. Billions of dollars were raised and spent on fighting islamophobia and islamophobes in America without even bothering to accurately identify what the neologism “islamophobia” meant, We went after talk show hosts, politicians, journalists, University professors, academics, authors, and commentators with a vengeance. e even used our right to free speech to attack free speech. (Go figure). I wrote at least 7 articles on it going back to 2002.
Even though, we had much bigger fish to fry, some Black American Muslims reluctantly jumped on board the anti-islamophobia craze because no one wanted to hear about the woes of Back Muslim America, but certainly not all of them did. However, the majority of American Muslims leaders tooted the horn of fighting islamphobia as if the future of Islam in America depended on it. In many circles, you weren’t considered a “woke Muslim” if you weren’t gung-ho about fighting islamophobia. Some used it as a stepping stone to get noticed and to start organizations as there was a lot of funding available here and from Middle East for it, and some Black leaders and Black Muslim activists did it (for free) to remain relevant, or because it was the go to popular issue. Some are still on it hard till this day.
Nevertheless, we failed miserably in our so-called war against islamophobia an the islamophobes. American public sentient towards Muslims haven’t changed a bit since 9/11 according to CAIR’s own statistics. We have to move past civilizational ridiculousness. We should own our history, good or bad, and not be civilizational cowards. I say “we” because I consider myself part of the ummah, Black, White Arab, immigrant, American born or otherwise. Muslims are still my people. Good, bad, mistakes, ups, downs, defeats and successes, I am of the Muslims.
But the thing is, to this day, we can’t identify whos idea it was to make fighting islamophobia mission number one in Muslim America, or accurately identify who and what is an islamophobe. Just like we don’t know who’s idea it was to suddenly make fighting White supremacy the hot, go to issue of the day. No one in charge, no strategy, no sharia or fiqh foundation, just pure mob based, pied piper, pseudo-islamism. Mark my words.
There are over 1000 registered white supremacist organizations in the United States. And what’s really bothersome is that they stand by their agenda, they fund it, they’re loyal to it, they have some semblance of organization, membership and secrecy, many are prepared to defend their ideology, and they are not easily sidetracked. You just can’t walk in the door with a fatwa, or one hadith, or wayward opinion and change their whole program and get everybody at each other’s throats at the drop of a hat. We got everybody and their momma giving opinions and fataawa about our every step, our every word. They don’t even have to identify themselves and we’ll still give them platform and credence. It doesn’t take much to distract us, and most of the time, we have no idea whatsoever who, if anyone, in charge. That’s bothersome.- Imam Abu Laith Luqman Ahmad
We are so, so played. Know your history beloveds, at least your recent, 5-10 year ago history.
Imam Luqman Ahmad Mosque Without Borders 