B. A. D for America

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

The Holy Bible: Exodus Chapter 20 Verse 16

O you who believe, stand firm for Allah(God) as witnesses of Truth, and do not let the hatred of a people cause you to be unjust. Be just, that is closer to God-consciousness. And 

fear Allah, verily Allah is Well-Aware of all that you do. Allah has promised those who

believe and do righteous deeds for them there is forgiveness and a great reward.

The Holy Qur'an: Surah Al - Maidah, verses 8-9

In the 90's I used to deliver cleaning equipment and mats around the greater DFW area. One stop in Ft.Worth there was an older White man who worked in the back of an Albertson's grocery store, who I met on a weekly basis. Shortly after becoming a Muslim in 1992, I started wear a particular hat, a black kufi, trimmed with silver threading throughout. Once this man saw that kufi, he started asking me about Islam, but then he started mentioning about a Black controversial politician by the name of John Wiley Price. Those who know Mr. Price are familiar with a lot of his antics, but for the sake of brevity I won't delve into that subject.

But suffice to say that whenever Mr. Price made the local news, I had to field questions about  

statements and actions from this man, as if I knew this Mr. Price personally, and I supported EVERY action he took. For some strange reason he drew parallels of Mr. Price's confrontations with Islam and Black people in general. I grew tired of these encounters, and one week I really got to him. He came to me ranting about the police needing to arrest Mr. Price following certain altercations, to which I replied that it doesn't matter to me if they arrest him, but just be consistent. Do the same with unions and other people or groups who commit the same offenses. He didn't like that by any regard. It seems some Whites are quick to lump all people of a different race or belief into a monolithic entity, but don't hold that standard to themselves.

I recall that anecdote whenever situations pop up, even to this very day, because it seems nothing has changed in the American climate of hatred and bigotry. Every time a Black person, or a Muslim is accused of something in America, either certain organizations or the whole collective community is accused of sanctioning such action, and the whole collective community, beit Black or Muslim, has to bear the brunt of such scorn. 

We've seen this too many times in the past, and we see it now, where marginalized people are blamed for the decay in this country, and steps are taken to justify and consent to the removal, slaughter, or incarceration of collective groups of people in America, all because of somebody's bigotry. Very little truth, if any, is broadcast about such groups, and the masses of America become inundated with distorted news articles, soundbytes, and cut and paste video, all claiming to be accurate and non-partial information. And now with Youtube, the madness knows no end.

We've seen this too many times happening with the Black Lives Matter Movement, as well as ISIS/ISIL/IS, whatever the heck they want to refer themselves to. In many cases, it's the same media using the same tactics regarding both collectives. Blacks and Muslims for the most part find themselves having to field questions about such collective groups, to alleviate White people's fear and anxiety.  

Then we find such collective groups and/or certain organizations holding press conferences to publicly denounce and condemn actions that were neither sanctioned by the groups, or explain if such group has any affiliation or relationship to the accused at all. This is especially for Muslims, who we find are always having to fend off accusations o f terrorism and/or affiliation with such "radical Muslims", whatever the hell that is.

If I have not stated before I will state now I do not support the Black Lives Matter Movement, due to ideological differences regarding Black feminism, whereas a false premise has been created where Black men are accused of systematically suppressing Black women from all socio- economic and political endeavors in America, as if Black men were enjoying these privileges themselves to begin with. I also oppose this notion of intolerance behind the LGBT community as well, which BLM states, creating buzz words ( and hard to mention buzz words at that) such as heteropatriarchy and heteronormativity to use as some form of victimization from Black men in America. 

But with all of that being said, I also disagree with associating acts of violence with Black Lives Matter, such as the recent social media incident involving four Black youth and a "mentally challenged" White youth in Chicago, Illinois,  or with the shooting last year in Dallas, Texas,  whereas an alleged lone gunman opened fire, killing 5 police officers, at a rally following the deaths of two unarmed Black men by police, Philandro Castille and Alton Sterling. Those who remember can recall many newscasts labeled the rally a "Black Lives Matter" protest, when the reality is the rally was organized by the New Generation Action Network, along with others. 

In addition I am a Muslim, and I am familiar with Salafi movement, and have fundamental disagreements with them as well, however I also disagree with associating terrorism with such a group as well, and the labelling of Wahhabi, which is actually one the Names of Allah, Al-Wahhab, meaning The Bestower, and not this conjured up concept by bigots who hate the Islamic Way of Life by manufacturing lies about a group of people, claiming they are hell bent of forcing the whole world to believe in what they believe, employing young women, and in one case employing a young "feebleminded" teenage girl to perform a suicide bombing in Nigeria as reported, or random acts of killing people without true evidence, such as the Orlando, Florida incident last year as well.

My disliking and/or disagreement of an individual or group does not give me license to distort, lie, defame, vilify such person/s or movements. Truth will always come out in the end, and only then will factual evidence, and not tabloid journalism and witch hunts bring about any removal of wrongdoing and injustices. Marginalized people should not be made to feel anxiety whenever an incident flashes across the screen, leaving them to offer prayers that the alleged resembles or represents one of them, for fear of unjust reprisals.

America's fall or degradation cannot be attributed to any of these incidents, for the statistics about murder, crime, the impoverished, and other forms of social decay either show major contradictions, or outright lies made about Blacks and Muslims in America. But rather America's bigotry, or intolerance of other races and beliefs, accompanied with racism and a lack of truly understanding diversity, and not their twisted definition of diversity, and worst of all DENIAL of intolerance, bigotry and racism will be America's downfall.

The Softening of the Sting...More Harm Than Good CONCLUSION

To Conclude: The purpose of digressing from the main topic of this blog serves to show that regardless of any attempts to use Muhammad Ali's life and death as a glowing example of a more "peaceful" ,"progressive" and "moderate" version of Islam and a beacon of American values, the PR campaign does more harm than good for Muslims in America.

The reality is that Muslims, like other marginalized and fringe groups in America, must come to understand they are in the middle of a battle of ideas within American society, mainly between conservatives and liberals, to which neither side Islam has a total alliance and affinity with. Both philosophies express White supremacist thoughts and ideas with regards to other races, cultures, creeds and religions, although the approach and tactics may differ. Since the rapid growth of Muslims and the Islamic Way of Life in the 1990s, especially among the indigenous population, America has had to come to grips with the reality that Islam in America is growing and is not going away anytime soon, so attempts to stifle, diffuse, and neutralize its potential growth, influence and power have become a priority, despite the huge amount of statistical evidence to prove that the fall of the American society is a product of its own undoing.

Accomodating Muslims will always find themselves ping-ponging on both sides in a futile effort to assimilate into a society that has not fixed its internal issues, beit structural racism, government corruption, crime, drug abuse, failing educational system, or the decline of societal values and priorities which has some people valuing the life of dogs over humans. Homicides, suicides, deaths by alcohol and other drugs, along with death by diseases continue to plague the country, reaching newer heights almost annually, yet all of that is trumped by claims of a so-called global terrorist group seeking to "Islamicize" a country in which Muslims only represent 2.5 to 3 percent of the population.

SIDE NOTE: Islam sees the life of this world as a test, as stated in numerous versus in the Quran, such as the 67th Surah Al Mulk, verse 2: 

It is He(Allah) Who created death and life in order to test those who are best in deeds...

Islam does not encourage any forcing of the religion on one who does not believe on one's own volition. There is no need nor use for forced conversions, as some claim, for they do nothing for the soul in the Hereafter.

To Continue: Conservative propaganda continues to range from the overtly bigoted sites such as Answering Islam to all forms media which basically tells its readers that ALL Muslims cannot be trusted, and are potential terrorists, that Islam is to blame for the destruction of the Twin Towers, to discount dissenting opinions among American citizens regarding 9/11 as conspiracy theorists, how Prophet Muhammad(PBUH) encouraged everything from suicide bombings to domestic violence without giving actual evidence, or using gross distortion of texts, such as the article 164 Jihad Verses in the Quran, where any verse containing words such as kill, fight, die, blood, retaliate and so on are listed as a verse allegedly proving Islam's preoccupation with fighting and killing. No such evidence exists in such texts, however despite the Religious Rights' claim to The Ten Commandments in The Holy Bible, in which one of those commandments levy stern warnings against bearing false witness against thy neighbor, conservatives continue an assault filled with distortions and blatant lies to their Muslim neighbors.

Liberal propaganda against Islam is of a different substance, yet it wishes to produce the same results. Claiming that "Truth is relative", "All religions hold truths" and "All religions encourage people to do good", liberal propaganda seeks to destroy the notion of an Absolute Deity and an Absolute Truth, as long is the notion is pertaining to their conservative counterparts. Allegations of possessing phobias such as the recent Orlando, Florida shooting, which has new twists and turns to the story appear daily, claims of misogyny and inequality among the sexes permeate throughout. Adding to this is the support and propagation of Sufism, a self-proclaimed, mystical version of Islam that claims to look beyond mere Sacred Text, and finding the personal connection with the Divine. This sect is supported by such people as Oprah Winfrey, who along with the rest of the liberal contingency, like it's conservative counterpart, wishes to rid Islam of its essence, which is encased in Shariah, or Islamic Law.

Neither of these approaches have sufficiently given any definition of what Radical Islam means, but instead flood the media with pictures, videos, soundbytes, and distorted writings about what it claims to believe, but as of yet has not given a definition of Radical Islam itself. If one doesn't believe the bloggers' claims, then Google it for yourself. You will not find a clear cut definition, but instead a description which at best is merely subjective, and in the eyes of the beholder.

But in closing all of this would be for naught if the Muslims did not believe in the propaganda pushed on both sides, and not use the subversive terminology which floods these airwaves, intended to cause division, dissension, and dissolution of the True Islamic Way of Life. Some Muslims have taken it among themselves to align themselves with groups and organizations that are contrary to the Islamic ideas in an attempt to placate and diffuse an already ignorant and/or bigoted society, ready to attack and scream extremists and radical at the first instance of an alleged ISIS attack, even if no evidence is found to support such an event.

It is of the utmost importance that Muslims establish credible venues and outlets that give a clear definition of Islam, using evidence from the two main sources in Islam, the Quran and the Sunnah of Its Last Prophet Muhammad(PBUH) to dispel all rumors and accusations, and to set forth a premise so non-Muslims can see for themselves, instead of holding circus acts, such as Muhammad Ali's funeral, which should have been a few days after his death, and holding memorial services with eulogies by politicians and so called interfaith groups claiming tolerance and diversity. Islam is in no need of such PR campaigns to prove that it is not intolerant of other beliefs and ways.

Muslims who use words such as fanatical, radical, extreme and the like to distinguish and distance themselves from what the media says will not stop others from attacking Islam, nor will fatwas (Islamic rulings regarding a particular issue) from accommodating scholars. If someone does not like you, there is nothing you can do to change that. Only the wresting of this terrorist and radical narrative from the liars and media magicians, along with giving a complete and true analysis of Islam can one give a true perspective as to whether or not a group is treading the True Path or has deviated, or has become a misguided and disbelieving group, and in some cases a hypocritical group (Munaafiq, a term for one who feigns Islam but wishes to destroy it), and the person will have a true account in place.

In other words as the Nigerian proverb goes, "Don't let the lion tell the giraffes' story." 

Click here to go to Part One:

http://realquwwa.blogspot.com/2016/06/more-harm-than-good-making-muhammad-ali.html

To Read Part Two, Click on the link;

http://realquwwa.blogspot.com/2016/06/more-harm-than-good-making-muhammad-ali_15.html

To Read Part Three, Click on the link:

http://realquwwa.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-big-switcheroomore-harm-than-good.html