Assalamualaikum,
My dear brother in Islam, you have identified the disease but not the cure.
But one much like you has made the same diagnosis and prescription.
You may find this insightful prescription at the following link.
http://www.ummzakiyyah.com/beyond_black_victim_status

I just would like to add my thoughts!
In the case of Beslan, and all such similar sad events we must never forget to examine each time the root causes !
Oppressions and injustices and the consequential vicious cycles! Only Allah knows and may he forgives each and everyone of us!

Nice story!

As-salaam-u-alaykum Brother Ali

I think we must begin to realise that Islam should not be a reflection of the Muslims, but that the Muslims should be a reflection of Islam.

Therefore any dubious acts which our Ummah has committed in the past, present and soon to be done in the future, should be acknowledged and critiqued. I have said it before that we no longer appraise ourselves – there were many Caliphs who used to appraise their people and themselves e.g. Caliph Umar bin Khattab (RA). I can appreciate we don’t live in a Caliphate system in this day and age, but that doesn’t mean that gives us the excuse to turn on our fellow Muslims and cheat them & treat them like inferiors; nor does it give us the excuse to treat every non-muslim as a scum of the earth. We shouldn’t regress but progress and we have the Islam to help us with that. The beauty about Islam is that it can be applied to times of hardships as well as times of ease for the Muslims.

Just to note appraising doesn’t mean we go around punishing everyone and anyone, because then we create fear, and fear within a society turns to unease and corruption, which in turn, turns to chaos and revolutions – this has been seen from time and time again all over the world. The people who have been affected by this are the civilians – they are the ones who get ‘the rough end of the stick’.

Like you said that Islam came to polish human beings, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) came to this world to improve their characters. As Muslims, we will always expect dirty, cheap, lousy tricks from the Islamophobes – they will always try to nitpick anything about Islam or Muslim History whilst disregarding their own major deficiencies..that is indeed a given – but we as Muslims should be better than that – we need to be smart and not be hasty in achieving short-term gains, but long-term losses.

Indeed the Quran is our template of what to expect from us, but many of us will interpret it for our own gains. And if there are members of the Ummah who are doing that, then they are only wronging themselves, which is why we shouldn’t feel we have to go on the defensive or have a faith crisis because of someone else’s wrongdoings. If Boko Haram for example did wrong by kidnapping those girls, then they are wrong…we should say that, but we must also say it has nothing to do with Islam, and it truly hasn’t! As I said earlier a Muslim doesn’t dictate Islam, but Islam dictates the Muslim. So if they feel they are doing it for Islam, then they clearly need to recheck their Islamic values AND if they did, then they will know kidnapping girls and forcing them to convert is not Islamic! The Beslan Massacre wasn’t Islamic – bunch of Chechen Muslims who went rogue and decided to take kids as hostages, and in the process killing many of them. If Islamophobes say this was due to Islam and the Quran, then they can get lost, because this has nothing to do with Islam – no need to get defensive about it. Keep your head held up high and be firm in knowing when it is right and wrong. In the Quran if it mentions that we must be truthful witnesses even if it be against our own family, then clearly we must realise that also applies to the Ummah too. This also relates to this article that Brother Anthony has experienced.

I think that to your point br. Adam, we have a tendency as Muslims to be sensitive when it comes to the history of Ottomans, Ummayads, etc because to say anything that insinuates impiety or evil would say Islam is evil. What we have to understand is that Islam came to polish human beings, as a famous scholar (I believe Ibn Taimiyah) eloquently put it. But human beings are human beings. We need to use the Quran as a lens to examine history. I think if we did that, we wouldn’t feel on the defensive when people criticize our faith, or feel like our religion is a house of cards.

Unfortunately Brother Anthony, there are some brothers and sisters who naively believe that the History of Muslims was always on the positive side and rosy….but history dictates otherwise. Indeed it is hard to hear certain people who called themselves Muslims and followed Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and the Quran, committed atrocities that would be deemed questionable even by today’s standards. Although, there were major advances in the sciences and arts, as well as the emergence and recognition of world-reputed Mujahids who defended Islam against foreign and domestic forces; there were also incidents which we need to ask ourselves. The problem is that we have tried to hide our historical flaws and attempted to romanticise that history we know today. Brothers and sisters who have faith crises based on what happened after the death of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) should not assume this is all related to Islam…I mean the Final Revelation was given to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and what happened afterwards was up to us – if we wanted to commit atrocities then so be it, BUT we will be questioned about it if we didn’t stop. Just because we are Muslims doesn’t give us the right to act like jerks or savages towards other nations. We all love the stories of the Great Kurdish Warrior Salahuddin Al-Ayyubi and the Ottoman Warrior Sultan Fateh Mehmed II, but we also shouldn’t forget the stories of those who were involved in the tragic events either, one in particular The Armenian Genocide/Massacre in the late 19th century committed by the Ottoman Turks; we turn a blind eye to these sorts of events – we have to take the truth as it comes be it bitter or sweet. Another good example is the Madness leading up to Caliph Uthman’s (RA) assassination! …if the son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was killed in a cold-blooded style by Muslims, then what else could happen??? These brothers and sisters need to open their eyes and realise that there were Muslims who did good for Islam, and there were some Muslims who did bad for Islam. A modern example of tragic events is ISIS and when Boko Haram kidnapped those 200 girls and forced them to become Muslim…such negative events will go down in history books, and there is no way the General Muslims be able to hide away from these tragic facts.

Regarding what you said about being unsure how “…the Arabs treating South Asians, Filipinos and Ethiopians like crap has something to do with the treatment of African-Americans..” what I meant to say was that there is racial tensions even amongst Muslims of different ethnicities too. Take for example. the Ummayad Dynasty, certain Caliphs treated Non-Arab Muslims as Dhimmis! ..they had to pay the Jizyah despite being Muslims!….it was one of the main reasons why the Ummayad Dynasty fell. Even then there were racial tensions; then there was the Final days of the Ottoman Caliphate – during this time, the Turks were the ones who were acting like big-headed nationalists – they treated the Arabs like crap, which is why the Arabs revolted. So you see everyone did treat each other like crap, and it sad to say but true. This is why the Muslim Ummah is humiliated by the Non-Muslims – because we judge each other wrongfully. We have not learnt what happened to the Children of Israel – how Allah SWT made their enemies who were not even believers, humiliate them and destroy the Temple Mount. Therefore if the Muslim African-Americans are being treated wrongfully by fellow Muslims, then we are only destroying ourselves as an Ummah.

Also I am sorry to hear about your negative experiences even with 2nd and 3rd generation born and bred non-white Western Muslims – they need a kick up the backside if you ask me! lol. They have inherited the cultural aspects of their parents, and they strangely perceive that to be acceptable according to Islamic Standards, which is obviously wrong. But Brother Anthony don’t feel bad but pity these people – inshaAllah they will open their eyes, and if not then they will be asked on the Day for their prejudice towards their fellow Muslim. At end of the day, it all depends on the individual – Just to let you know I personally know of a South Asian Sister who is married to an African and they have a child – both their parents were happy for them…so not all is lost Brother 🙂

WSLM Adam,

Thank you for your lengthy reply.

You know, I’m familiar with some of what you wrote in terms of the dreaded and stupid Curse of Ham being in the Talmud (I didn’t know it was in the Babylonian Talmud) and the affect it had on the Arabs in the Abbasid Caliphate. I was not aware of the role of Aristotelian logic, and I would surmise Platonic logic might also factor in with its obsession with Forms. Nevertheless, I know Ibn Khaldun refuted the Curse wholesale in his Al-Muqaddimah. My problem, though, is that this aspect of history is generally NOT taught to Muslims whatsoever. I’ve encountered Muslims who have faith crises when they chance upon some of what you have written in the history books. They literally lose their faith or they almost lose it because Islam and Muslim history is idealized, ESPECIALLY when it comes to racial/tribal issues, as if slavery under the Arabs was something laudable, even relative to the European chattel slavery. There is a conspicuous lack of historical consciousness with modern people in general, Muslims especially.

Indeed, most of the slaves of the Arabs were of Turkish or Slavic origin (hence the term “slave” itself); yet, it is no coincidence, at least to me, that the term “slave” become for many Arabs became synonymous with Black Africans. I’ve yet to hear of an Arab refer to a Turk or an Eastern European as ‘abd and I expect I never will.

Lastly, I’m aware of the appalling treatment South Asians, Filipinos, and Ethiopians receive at the hands of their Arab brethren in humanity. I’m not sure not what this has to do with Arabs, South Asians, Turks, Persians, Africans and Allah knows who else treating Blacks in America treated like crap. If the point is to say, “everyone treats everyone like crap,” then this gets us nowhere. Usually, saying such things only serves to detract us from the actual issue at hand. And as for second and third generation Muslims: I hate to be negative but some of them are just as affected with the same sorts of poisons as the ones who came before them; they are just acculturated to Western norms, much of which has anti-Black elements as it is.