Page 4 Page 5 The Islamic Bulletin Issue 16 The man who attracts the greatest following among American Muslims...black, white, or Asian...is a moderate who has left behind divisive doctrines the Nation of Islam upholds. Warith Deen Mohammed, an imam (leader of prayer) and the son and successor of the black separatist Elijah Muhammad, has up to half a million solid supporters, and perhaps 1.5 million followers more loosely affiliated. He has championed unity among Muslims of different races and made significant headway, though desegregation is still a work in progress. Two decades ago, he led most of his father’s radical Black Muslim flock into the mainstream of moderate Islam, and into the mainstream of everyday American life. “I’ve become almost a fanatical supporter of the United States government,” he told U.S. News. “To me, the vision of the Founding Fathers is the vision that we have in Islam.” Only a few months after the death of his father in 1975, ImamWarith shocked the faithful by renouncing many of the key tenets preached by Elijah Muhammad. Racially exclusionary rhetoric was jettisoned, as was the proposition that whites were “blue-eyed devils” created by an evil scientist named Yacub as a laboratory experiment. Imam Warith tossed out core Nation of Islam doctrines that are viewed as heresy by the rest of the Muslim world: for example, the belief that movement founder Wallace Fard was a manifestation of God and that Elijah Muhammad was his prophet. “He was like Dr. Frankenstein,” ImamWarith (born Wallace) says of his namesake. “He picked up some dead pieces here and some dead pieces there, put them all together, and breathed life into the creature.” In 1985 Imam Warith disbanded the Nation of Islam altogether, urging his supporters to attend any mosque they wished without regard to the race of the other congregants. Several splinter factions had already broken away: One was led by Farrakhan, who reestablished the old Nation and resurrected almost all of Elijah Muhammad’s doctrines. Wali Mutazammil, who had served as the Nation of Islam’s minister for public relations in Kansas City, Mo., remembers setting aside his initial reluctance and rejoining American society. A boxer who’d been the Marine Corps champion featherweight of 1970, Mutazammil had been drawn to the old Nation of Islam partly by the example of boxing legend (and Nation spokesman) Muhammad Ali. In 1976 Mutazammil and the rest of his Missouri congregation followed Imam Warith’s invitation to enter the mainstream Muslim fold. Having already studied some of the texts of orthodox Islam, he says, he was glad to be part of a worldwide community. Now Mutazammil runs a management consulting firm with business stretching from East Asia to West Africa. Three-time world heavyweight champ Muhammad Ali also renounced the old Nation theology in the late 1970s. Westerners tend to regard Muslim attitudes toward women as inherently discriminatory, but reality often differs from the stereotype here as well. “In the name of Islam, cultural habits have developed that suppress women,” notes Laila Al-Marayati, “and this needs to be dealt with head-on.” Born, raised, and still living in Los Angeles, Al-Marayati is a physician and past president of the MuslimWomen’s League. Throughout the world, she notes, women are denied equal rights of marriage, divorce, and property. But such discrimination, she and many other Muslims argue, is a not a reflection of the true spirit of the faith: “The challenge is to let Islam become a tool for elevating women rather than for oppressing them.” Perhaps the most persistent negative stereotype of Islam is that it is a faith of violent extremists, represented by a masked militant rather than the doctor or computer software designer living next door. It is a stereotype that stings: Muslims in America say they are more likely to be the victims of crime than the perpetrators. In a sense, American Muslims (many of them refugees from the regimes with which they are associated in the public mind) are held hostage to the behavior of Saddam Hussein and Hezbollah: Anti-Muslim violence in the United States rises sharply when tensions peak in the Middle East. Sgt. George Curtis feels a special pride in having defended the holy sites of Mecca and Medina from the forces of Iraq. He is the commander of an M1A1 Abrams tank at Fort Carson, CO, a veteran of the gulf war, and also one of the 10,000 Muslims serving in the U.S. military. He sees no contradiction in his roles, noting that the Army has provided special “halal” meals for him and has relieved him of daily physical training requirements during the fast of Ramadan. “Whether it’s Iraq or anywhere else in the world,” he says, “my first duty is to defend my country.” At a mall in Chantilly, Va., last January, all sides of American Islam were on display. It was Eid-ul Fitr, the festival that ends the fasting month of Ramadan, and the crowd in attendance was as multifaceted as any other mass of 15,000 people one could find. The prayer leader delivered his sermon in English--the only language virtually everyone present could understand. Somali immigrants in white robes and loosely coiled turbans rubbed shoulders with Philadelphia B-boyz in Kangol hats, Lugz jackets, and hip-sagging Tommy Hilfiger jeans. Veiled mothers bought their kids pink cotton candy and tried not to worry about the competence of the carnies wearily operating the miniature merry-go-round and the ferris wheel. The longest lines were for a gyroscope ride: Teenagers with scraggly beards and decorous skullcaps were strapped in place, and they grinned wildly as their world spun around and around. For these kids and their friends and classmates, it was just another all-American day at the mall. Islam and America? What would have seemed an impossible concept a decade ago is now becoming a reality. It is possible to live in the ‘Western’ world and uphold, maintain and promote Islamic living and ideals. It takes conscious and dedicated effort on the part of all American Muslims, but it is happening...right here and right now. San Francisco Muslims Visit Nicaragua Muslim immigration occurred in large numbers in Nicaragua in the late 1800’s. The majority of immigrants were originally from Palestine with Nicaragua in Central America the main country of resettlement. This constituted one of the biggest waves of immigration to Central America. It was followed by a second large group of settlers in the 1960’s, and again more recently in the 1990’s. The earliest wave of immigrants quickly lost their Islamic roots upon settling in their new country and consequently, one finds many Arabic and Muslim surnames but almost no Islamic traditions or practice. These groups quickly blended into the local population and adopted the local Christian heritage due to intermarrying and pressure of the government. Many of the family names encountered in Nicaragua are still common in Palestine today. There is almost no knowledge or practice of Islam in these communities... but the shadow of Islam endured. The second immigration group in the 1960’s were better educated, but not any more oriented towards Islam than the first. This group of immigrants was effected by two major events in Nicaragua: a major earthquake in 1972, and the Communist revolution in 1979. At that time, many of the former Palestinians immigrated to North America or returned to Palestine. Those that stayed suffered greatly and their families were further assimilated into the Christian faith. The latest and smallest group of émigrés was in the early 1990’s. Many of these were immigrants returning to Nicaragua who had since become more aware of their Islamic heritage from exposure in North America or Palestine. These immigrants also possessed a stronger Islamic identity than previous groups, enabling a reawakening of Islam by the community. To make matters more difficult, the Nicaraguan government bans all missionary groups from Pakistan, India and other Arab or Islamic countries. After receiving requests for help, a group of brothers from the San Francisco area made travel arrangements to Nicaragua to reintroduce Islam to these forgotten brothers and sisters. As the group contained Spanish speaking brothers with strong commitments to spreading the word of Allah, there was much excitement and anticipation upon setting out. THE AMAZING STORY IN CHINANDEGA While in Managua, the capitol city of Nicaragua, the group was told about a Palestinian elder, named Mukhtar, who had been in a coma for three weeks and near death. Be-fore going into the coma, this man had asked to be among Muslims as he died. He was located in the town of Chinandega, which is approximately 150 Km from Managua. Upon arrival of a brother from the small village, several of the brothers from the group accompanied him to the dying man’s home. As they traveled to the sick and dying man, the local brother explained some background of the family. It seems that the man assimilated into the culture of his chosen country and married a local woman who was very strong in her Catholicism. They had two sons and a daughter who were all raised Catholic and the wife was insisting upon the man’s burial as a Christian. As the brothers arrived in the small city, they were undecided as to whether they should go directly to the home of the elder, or first stop at the house of the driver, have lunch and pray Dhuhur (afternoon prayer) before proceeding to the man’s house and giving their full attention to his needs. It was decided to go directly to the stricken mans’ home before focusing on their own comforts. Upon entering his home, they were surrounded by a plethora of Christian statues and large crucifixes everywhere. They felt as if they had been transported into a church. Ignoring these, they approached the dying elder brother on whose face could be seen the trauma and torture of his sufferings. With his sons and daughter present they immediately started reciting “Surah Yaseen” and made a collective Dua for the old gentleman. They could see in the eyes of the sons and daughter the anguish and love for their father. At that moment one is filled with a sense of helplessness. “Then why do ye not (intervene when the soul of the dying man) reaches the throat...and ye the while (sit) looking on... But we are nearer to Him than ye, and ye see not.” (Qur’an 56:83-85) The group comforted these grown children with mention of the greatness of Allah and the principles of Islam, some points about the Prophet Issa (AS), and tried to give them a little of what they had missed of an Islamic upbringing. As they were listening, the oldest brother removed the cross from his neck and at once accepted Islam and said Islam in Nicaragua
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