Don’t we get it?
We are at the top of the social hierarchy of all the social groups in the world today. And we have Islam. We are the Abu Bakr’s and the Umar’s and the Uthman’s. The Prophet SAW prayed for one of the Umar’s to become Muslim because both Umar’s had high standing in Mecca. They had the ability to impact the spread of Islam because of who they were.
We spend so much time trying to be accepted in Muslim spaces when those spaces were often created to get them a leg up in the power structure that we dominate (no matter how much we may hate this system it’s reality). Muslims who immigrated sold out their fellow oppressed Muslims in the civil rights era and made deals with the government all in order to achieve whiteness and to be left alone. They want us to believe that we need their approval, that we are second class citizens at the mosques and that we don’t belong. And we believe them! And in doing so we give up the opportunity to use our positions and use our voices to advocate for Islam in our communities. We give up the opportunity to give voices to the voiceless and stop oppression because we believe we had given up our social standing when we said our Shahada.
There is nobody in the world positioned like we are to make an impact like we can. Instead we alienate ourselves from our families and from our communities and we blame Islam and treat it like an impediment. That’s not how Umar did it. That’s not how any of the Sahaba did Islam. You use what you got for the mission of Islam. Allah guides people to this deen from all communities black, white, rich, poor, etc. and our ability to impact the world is based on where we came from and through embracing who we are.
We can’t expect anyone from outside of our communities to do the work in our communities for us. I’m tired of white Muslims feeling like they are the victims (myself included). We have an important role. And we get so turned around (I am speaking for myself) that we lose sight of it and we waste our opportunities arguing or trying to be someone we aren’t. Be proud to be you and recognize how Islam has empowered you in your life to be your best self. Help others to have opportunities to be their best selves. We need to stop complaining.
To stop arguing and we need to aspire to be an exceptional community with the power to change the world.
Michelle, USA
Commentary of brother Robert from Canada:
Michelle I agree with almost everything, except for the idea that we are atop the social heirarchy. I used to have that opinion but after reading the works of Thomas Sowell, who brilliantly analyzed the Economics of Race in his book, showed that it was liberal policies that kept Black communities down since the 1960s. Excluding the civil rights act, the other left wing policies destroyed their community and made them into victims. Malcolm X called it the liberal plantation. And privilege exists to the home group at much higher levels than white people in the West. We do need to build our own sub community as well by marrying each other.
I think every convert has a responsibility to their own community. I’m impressed with the work of Latino(a) converts who have spread Islam in Latin America and the US Hispanic community. We can do the same. It would just be more fruitful if we started orgs like our Latino Muslims.
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