Isn’t it funny that white converts connected with the Warith Deen Muhammad community (also known as The American Society of Al-Islam), or even with past in the Nation of Islam, speak about the problems of white Muslims in the U.S. today?
Although I lived on the other side of the Earth, for me as a white European interested in Islam, the history of black Muslims in the U.S. was an inspiring example. Why? Because it was a history not of the people’s refusal of their identity through Islam, as happens with many white converts, but the history of strengthening their identity in Islam.
This is the way of the black Muslims, especially those who managed to evolve from the “Nation of Islam” heresy to the orthodoxy of the Warith Deen Muhammad community. And this way could teach white people who are interested in Islam a lot. For example, “racial dignity”, about which Warith Deen Muhammad spoke as a distinctive feature of him and his community.
But what can they learn from white converts from the “Nation of Islam” organization if, according to her teaching, that white people are the products of Satan? And with all due respect, what can white people learn from white converts from the Warith Deen Muhammad community based on black identity?
It seems that if black people go to such organizations in seeking of their identity in Islam, white converts go to them to deny and hate their own. And this is quite natural. If a Muslim without European roots, for example, an African, wants to join organisation of European Muslims, celebrating their autochthonous Europeanism, this will raise questions. If he wants to help white Muslims as his brothers in Islam, this is understandable. If he is irradiated by the influence of European culture and wants his children to become a part of it through mixing with Europeans and dissolving in their environment, this is also understandable, although it is unlikely in our time.
But if a black Muslim comes to us to extol our whiteness, and to test complexes for his black identity, we will tell him: hey, this is the wrong way! Islam does not teach hatred of your fellow man, and Islam does not need you to praise one group’s identity and protect its interests at the expense of another! This is the wrong way, and it pushes your people away from Islam! And this is the complete opposite of the way of black Muslims with a sense of their racial dignity!
Again, Islam denies racial superiority; there is no doubt about it. But Islam also has nothing to do with racial self-abasement and self-hatred. Therefore, those white Muslims who want to follow the path of orthodox black Muslims should create communities for whites similar to the Warith Deen Muhammad community for black Muslims, rather than try to assimilate completely with them.
Editorial
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