“The Honest Struggle” tells the story of an ex-offender’s mission to help Muslim converts as they leave jail.
So, what is it about Islam that appeals to these inmates?
In this episode, Sadiq Davis joins the show along with a Muslim prison chaplain and “The Honest Struggle” director Justin Mashouf to discuss the challenges former and current inmates encounter as they navigate their faith.
On this episode of The Stream, we speak with: Imam Zaid Shakir; Islamic scholar, co-founder and senior faculty member, Zaytuna College and Sadiq Davis; @honest_struggle, formerly incarcerated activist
Darrell Davis was just 18 when he was sent to prison, serving a total of 25 years behind bars. Davis converted to Islam while in jail, taking on the name “Sadiq”, or Truthful, as part of an attempt to leave his previous lifestyle behind.
Davis was released after 25 years, but living his truth and rebuilding a life outside prison walls presented its own difficulties. In an intimate documentary, “The Honest Struggle”, Davis shares his story of returning to the Chicago streets that once led him to prison. And his story - one of faith and overcoming hardship - is not unique. Hundreds of thousands of inmates in the United States have found a sense of community and solace in Islam, with Muslims now making up about 10 to 15 percent of all American prisoners.
For full video documentary go to Al Jazeera, The Stream
Justin Mashouf @Mashouf
Director/producer, Honest Struggle: From gang-life to God
honeststruggle.co
American Muslims have raised over $100,000 this month to help migrant parents detained by the U.S. government post bail and reunite with their kids.
The “Muslims for Migrants” campaign has already helped secure the release of six parents ― five fathers and one mother ― according to CelebrateMercy, the faith-based organization managing the campaign.
“By reuniting these families, we wish to respond to hardship with hope, as our faith instructs us, and send a message of compassion through action,” the organization wrote on the campaign’s fundraising page, which launched Aug. 5.
The six parents, whose names are not being released for their safety, are from countries in Central America, the Caribbean and West Africa, according to CelebrateMercy. The parents had been living in the U.S. for several years before being held in detention centers for periods ranging from two months to four years.
One migrant father, whose own parents allegedly died from gang violence in his Central American homeland, was reunited with his pregnant wife and five-year-old child on Aug. 9, the nonprofit said.
A father of two from a West African country was granted bond in May 2019, CelebrateMercy said, but he remained in detention because his family couldn’t afford bond. His wife became the sole provider for the family and was facing eviction from their home, but with funds raised through the campaign, the father was freed on Thursday, according to the nonprofit.
The Muslims for Migrants campaign seeks to bail out detained migrant parents.
https://www.launchgood.com/campaign/muslims_for_migrants#!/
Tarek El-Messidi, CelebrateMercy’s founding director, said he hopes the fundraised bonds serve as an apology to these migrant families “on behalf of all Americans.”
“We’re sorry they had to endure this, sorry that we as a country have not treated them with mercy,” El-Messidi said. “We failed them. Many of these migrants are coming here, wanting stability and safety and escaping very harsh circumstances.”
“We hope they won’t have to suffer anymore going forward,” he added.
President Donald Trump’s administration has faced heated criticism recently over U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s treatment of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. In July, the Department of Homeland Security’s independent watchdog reported severe overcrowding and unsanitary conditions at migrant holding facilities.
Over 50,000 migrants were being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in May ― a record-breaking number for the agency.
Bonds for detained migrants have reportedly increased under Trump. Bond amounts can range from $7,500 to $30,000, according to Pilar Weiss, executive director of the National Bail Fund Network, a network of local community bail funds.
Not being able to post bond can be financially and emotionally devastating for detained parents, Weiss told HuffPost. In families where the detained parent is the primary breadwinner, detention causes significant financial strain. The parents also risk losing custody of their children.
Being in detention also results in people not having legal representation, Weiss said. Unlike in criminal cases, the government is not required to secure a lawyer for detained migrants who can’t afford one.
Posting bond means that detained parents can be with their families, care for their children and work with their lawyers on immigration cases, she said.
“It is well documented that dealing with one’s immigration application from a place of freedom, with family and legal support, results in much better outcomes,” Weiss said.
CelebrateMercy is distributing its fundraising proceeds to the National Bail Fund Network, which is helping coordinate the bailout process. Weiss estimates the funds that have been raised to date will free at least another five parents.
Two prominent American imams, Imam Zaid Shakir and Imam Omar Suleiman, have signed on to promote the campaign. In a joint letter, the religious leaders used numerous scriptural references to outline exactly why their faith supports protecting individuals’ “God-given rights to migration and asylum.”
“When we view the sickening conditions those migrating to our southern borders are exposed to, we should be touched and moved to action knowing that our religion grants those fleeing persecution, oppression, or ecological devastation, the right to migrate and to be duly considered for asylum,” the imams wrote. “We should further vigorously defend the dignity our Lord has afforded to all human beings, and our obligation to assist those who are suffering from recognized forms of oppression.”
Imam Zaid Shakir appears in a video about the “Muslims for Migrants” campaign below.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=898806790480418
The Prophet Muhammad, Islam’s founder, was himself a migrant, fleeing from Mecca to Medina to escape religious persecution. The Islamic calendar is calculated from the year of this important journey in the prophet’s life ― demonstrating the pivotal role migration has played in the religion’s history.
Many American Muslims have been alarmed by the blatantly anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric of the Trump administration, El-Messidi said, and were already looking for tangible ways to help migrants at the border. The launch of the fundraising campaign, which coincided with a period in the Islamic calendar when Muslims give more to charity, gave people a way to put their faith into action.
El-Messidi said his dream is for the campaign to raise enough money to reunite 100 migrant families.
“Everyone deserves a chance to sit with lawyers and be able to work on their case from a place of freedom, and that’s really what we’re trying to do here,” he said. “To give them a fair shot at their trial ― and hopefully, they’ll get that.”
Reprint from Huff Post on 8/19/19
]]>
Just as tragic as the violence are the narrow, mutually exclusive frames that seem to trap our pundits, polemicists, and politicians when attempting to meaningfully analyze what is happening. Liberals declare the problem is rooted in racism, aided and abetted in part by the President’s rhetoric and actions, along with a lack of any meaningful gun control. Conservatives say it is an issue whose root cause is found in mental health, video games, and the erosion of the family. Each side dismisses the arguments of the other. If we are fair, we must admit that all of the above-mentioned factors, and perhaps others, contribute to the problem.
Anyone who dismisses the rhetoric and actions of President Trump as a factor contributing to the climate of racial and anti-immigrant animosity growing in this country cannot be taken seriously. Certainly not all of the now 251 mass shootings that have occurred in the country this year were racially motivated. For those that were, it is clear from the screeds left by the perpetrators of these atrocities, their online activity, the groups and individuals they identify with, as well as the warped ideology they espouse that there is an overlap between their words and ideas and many of those expressed by the President. That overlap is owed to a conscious policy pursued by President Trump.
The President understands that there are large numbers of radical White nationalists who, like many on the extreme left, have become disenchanted with mainstream politics as well as the two mainstream parties. He knows that they can be encouraged to become supporters of the Republican Party if the Republican Party supports them. Encouraged by the likes of Steve Bannon and Steve Miller, Trump sends messages to this growing constituency to ensure that issues concerning them will be represented by his administration. Hence, rhetoric and policy prescriptions formerly confined to the dark dungeons of the internet have become mainstreamed under the current administration.
It is not the least ironic that the very day of the El Paso shooting, President Trump retweeted a message from the fear-mongering, hate-inspiring, British anti-Muslim bigot, Katie Hopkins. Among other things, Hopkins, has called for a “final solution” for Muslims in the aftermath of the suicide bombing of a Manchester pop concert in 2017. This past May, when an audience member at one of his rallies shouted, “shoot them” in response to Trump’s question as to how to stop migrants from entering the country, the President joked approvingly. His effort to end birth right citizenship and his staunch support of voter suppression, both designed to undermine the growing political strength of expanding minority populations, can only be described as racially motivated.
Such actions, coupled with the President’s words decrying immigrant populations as rapists, murderers, and invaders, calling for a ban on Muslims entering the country, his praise and support for white nationalists, both nationally and globally, his describing countries the US has historically helped to under-develop, such as Haiti, as s—t hole countries and a long list of other open and “dog-whistle” racist statements send a clear message to racists that bigoted hatred is not only fine, it has an ally in the White House.
Many failed to grasp Trump’s racism because they do not fully realize its nature. The brilliant African American novelist, Toni Morrison, who passed away earlier this week, captured the essence of racism when she said, “Racism is not a goal it is a path, a path to power and money, a manipulation and a tool…” Throughout his career and now as President this is exactly what Trump’s racism is and has been.
While it would certainly be a stretch to claim that Trump’s words are directly responsible for the actions of white supremacist terrorists, it is increasingly incredulous to claim that the President’s rhetoric is not a factor in massacres such as the recent one in El Paso. Words convey meanings and those meanings matter. Consider this recent excerpt from a letter penned by the leaders of the National Cathedral:
Make no mistake about it, words matter. And, Mr. Trump’s words are dangerous.
These words are more than a “dog-whistle.” When such violent dehumanizing words
come from the President of the United States, they are a clarion call, and give cover,
to white supremacists who consider people of color a sub-human “infestation” in America.
They serve as a call to action from those people to keep America great by ridding it of
such infestation. Violent words lead to violent actions.
It is similarly incredulous to claim that significantly tighter gun control policies, such as strict background checks, bans on assault rifles and large-capacity magazines, would do nothing to stem the growing frequency of deadly mass shootings in America. In response to a shooting that left 35 people dead in Tasmania in 1996, Australia overhauled its gun laws, significantly tightening them. Since then, there has only been one mass shooting in that country, in June of this year. That incident resulted in four fatalities.
Critics of more stringent gun laws will argue that states here in America with tight gun laws do not necessarily experience fewer gun-related fatalities than those with lax laws. I would counter that a uniform national plan would yield significantly different results. What does it mean for California to have tough gun laws when a potential killer can go to Nevada and purchase a weapon banned in California–as happened last month with the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooter.
A seldom-discussed issue is the fact that there was an assault rifle ban in the United States for ten years, from 1994-2004. During that period, overall gun-related homicides were not significantly reduced; however, a recent study (DiMaggio, et al. 2019) concludes that mass shooting fatalities, 86% of which involve assault rifles, were down 70%. That percentage would likely have been much higher had it been accompanied by an effort to get rifles purchased before the ban off the street. It is time for more conservatives to listen to the voices of those on the left who advocate such policies.
So too would those on the left do well to listen to conservatives who are arguing that video games are a major factor in desensitizing young people to killing. Anyone who thinks otherwise should read Lt. David Grossman’s insightful book, On Killing. During World War II, only fifteen to twenty percent of American soldiers engaged in combat would fire their weapons at the enemy. Grossman shows how insights from behavioral psychology, derived primarily from the work of B. F. Skinner and I.P. Pavlov, were employed by the military to raise the firing rate to over 90% in Vietnam. Video game manufacturers employ those same techniques to create in our children the potential to likewise become desensitized killers.
Grossman writes these chilling words, words which should cause us to drop our polarizing political posturing and come together for the sake of our children:
Through operative conditioning B.F. Skinner held that he could turn any child
into anything he wanted to. In Vietnam the U.S. armed forces demonstrated that
Skinner was at least partially correct by successfully using operant conditioning
to turn adolescents into the most effective fighting force the world has ever seen.
And America seems intent on using Skinner’s methodology to turn us into an
extraordinarily violent society (Grossman, On Killing, p. 316).
We should note that the same psychological techniques employed by the military to turn passive civilians into mindless killers are employed by the makers of video games. While it is certainly true that not all video gamers become mass murderers many if not most of our recent mass shooters have been video game addicts. More research has to been done to establish if there is a direct causal link between video games and mass killings, however, there is enough evidence to suggest that this is an issue not to be glibly dismissed when we examine the causes of the epidemic of mass killings sweeping this nation.
As for mental illness, studies show that the majority of mass shooters, for a wide variety of reasons, suffer from some form of mental illness, the most common being depression, suicidality, and various thought disorders. This is a sensitive issue; however, it is one that must be actively countenanced for this is the area where we find the most easily detectible “red flags” which alert us to the descent of a person into the dark states that give birth to the kinds of atrocities we have been witnessing all too often. Saying this is not to deny the fact that a person suffering from a mental illness is far more likely to be a victim of violence than a perpetrator.
Concerning the breakdown of the family, this factor is oftentimes neglected in the intensifying debate around mass shootings. The most worrying consequence of that breakdown is the eradication of the societal forces that civilize males. Those forces are eroding in the face of a withering assault on the traditional family. One of the justifications for that assault is that the traditional family is currently being blamed for fostering the qualities associated with “toxic masculinity.” Therefore, it has to be destroyed. In fact, masculine toxicity, as defined by those advocating its eradication, can be viewed as a direct result of the unrelenting assault on the traditional family.
That assault is being pushed by those whose stated goal is the destruction of society as we know it. Consider these words by the pioneering feminist activist, Betty Friedan:
The changes necessary to bring about equality were, and still are,
very revolutionary indeed. They involve a sex-role revolution for
men and women which will restructure all our institutions: child
rearing, education, marriage, the family, medicine, work, politics,
the economy, religion, psychological theory, human sexuality,
morality and the very evolution of the race. (quoted from, New York
Times Magazine, March 4, 1973)
In the almost forty years since Friedan issued this declaration of war on the traditional family and society, the forces she helped to lead have wreaked havoc in all of the areas she identified. Perhaps the most worrying reality concerning the war she declared is that those who have assumed leadership after her generation ceded command are exponentially more radical and reckless in their vision for society and gender relations.
The greatest casualty in this war, by design, has been the properly socialized male. By removing the male from his traditional role of a protector and maintainer of women, a role codified in the Qur’an (4:34), we open the door to the uncivilized, barbaric, “toxic” male, adding another factor to the many conditions which make mass shootings possible.
In the prescient words of George Gilder:
Such single males–and married ones whose socialization fails–constitute
our major social problem. They are the murderers, the rapists, the burglars,
the suicides, the assailants, the psychopaths…… (George Gilder, Sexual
Suicide, p. 105)
Hence, we find that virtually all of our recent mass shooters have been males who were unable to affirm their sexuality in normal ways through normal relationships. Like all of the other factors mentioned above, as a society, we will have to address this factor also, no matter how unpopular or controversial.
In conclusion, let me repeat, all of the above factors contribute to the uniquely American problem of mass shootings. To effectively begin to work towards eliminating them, we will need to remove ourselves from the left/right false dichotomy that limits our creativity, civility, and intellectual honesty. That should be easy for members of the “Middle Community.” Our primary objective in how we approach the vexing issues of today should be finding credible solutions and not confirming dead end political orthodoxies. Those solutions do not belong exclusively to the political party advocating them. Let us put aside the stultifying partisan nonsense tearing us apart, claim what is rightfully ours, and put it to work for the betterment of our society.
“The word of truth, wisdom, is the lost property of the believer. Wherever he finds them he has more right to them.” —Prophet Muhammad
Reprint from Muslim Matters on Aug. 9, 2019
He also said, “There is no leader who closes the door to someone in need, one suffering in poverty, except that Allah closes the gates of the heavens for him when he is suffering in poverty.” (Tirmidhi, 1332)
The message is clear, the way we treat the most vulnerable of Allah’s creation has consequences to us both individually and collectively, and both in this life and the next.
As the humanitarian crisis at the southern border deepens, there is a deafening silence from most corners of the American Muslim community. One might ask, “Why should that silence be concerning?” Shouldn’t the nation of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah upon him) who was himself an orphan and a migrant sent as a mercy to the worlds be the first to be moved with the images of children in cages? Migration and asylum are God-given rights that individuals and nations would do well to respect. These rights are affirmed in the Qur’an and the Sunnah of our Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah upon him).
Concerning migration, the Qur’an states unequivocally:
As for those whose souls the angels take while they are oppressing themselves, the angels will say to them, “What was your former state?” They will respond, “We were oppressed in the land.” The angels will counter, “Was not Allah’s earth spacious enough for you to migrate therein.” (4:97)
The oppression referred to in this verse specifically focuses on persecution because of faith, but the general meaning of the wording can accommodate any form of oppression which involves the denial of a person’s Divinely conferred rights.
Migration lies at the very heart of the prophetic tradition in the Abrahamic religions. Abraham himself was a migrant. His son Ismail was a migrant. The Children of Israel along with Moses were migrants, as was Jesus. Not only was our Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah upon him) a migrant, he twice sent many of his Companions (May Allah be pleased with them) to Ethiopia to seek the protection of the Negus. The fact that the Muslim calendar is dated from the migration of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah upon him) from Makkah to Madinah indicates the lofty place migration has in the life of the Muslim community and in the consciousness of its members.
Additionally, history records the massive migrations of those Muslims who fled from oppressive, tyrannical, violent rulers or invaders. One of the most famous examples we can relate in this regard is the massive westward migration of those escaping the advancing Mongol hordes. Among those refugees was the great poet, Rumi, who along with thousands of others fled his home in Balkh, located in present-day Afghanistan, eventually settling in Konya, in the heart of Anatolia. Others migrated for economic reasons. The historian, Richard Bulliet, theorizes that the economic collapse of Khurasan, a once-thriving Sunni intellectual hub in eastern Iran, led to the migration of large swaths of its population to Syrian and Egypt. In his view, the many scholars among those refugees led to an intellectual revival in the lands they settled in.
As for asylum, it can be granted by both the state and an individual Muslim to individuals or groups. The foundations of this principle in prophetic practice was established during events which occurred during the conquest of Makkah. The Prophet ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam (peace and blessings of Allāh be upon him), as the de facto head of state, issued an oath of protection to the people of Mecca when he declared, “Whosever enters the house of Abu Sufyan is safe. Whosoever casts down his weapons is safe. Whosoever closes his door [and remains inside] is safe.” (Sahih Muslim, 1780) Ibn Ishaq’s version adds, “Whosoever enters the [Sacred] Mosque is safe.” (Narrated in Sirah Ibn Hisham, 4:35)
Those enjoying these protections from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah upon him) had not committed a crime and although they had not traveled to another land seeking refuge, the description of their land had changed from one under the authority of the Quraysh to one under the authority of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah upon him). In this “new” land they were being guaranteed safety and subsequently freedom even though they had not yet embraced Islam.
A related event is Imam Ali’s sister, Umm Hani, granting asylum to al-Harith bin Hisham and Zuhayr bin Ummayya that same day. When faced with the prospect of their execution by her brother, Imam Ali, she locked them in her house and went to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah upon him) to inform him that she had granted them asylum. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah upon him) responded, “We grant asylum to those Umm Hani has granted asylum to and we protect those Umm Hani has extended protection to.” (Sirah ibn Hisham, 4:42) In other words, the entire Muslim community, globally, is bound to respect the oath of protection or asylum granted by even an individual Muslim.
This idea of the entire Muslim community respecting a grant of asylum extended by even a single Muslim is strengthened by the Hadith:
The protection of the Muslims is one and the least of them can grant it. Whosoever violates the asylum extended by a Muslim upon him falls the curse of Allah, His angels and all of humanity. Never will an obligatory or voluntary act be accepted from him. (Bukhari, 3172)
Allah subḥānahu wa ta’āla (glorified and exalted be He) praised the Ansar of Madinah for how they loved those that migrated to them and preferred them even over themselves. (Quran: 59:9) They bore no resentment to those that migrated to them and sought reward only from Allah for sustaining them. They knew that supporting those in need was only a means of goodness in their lives rather than a burden. These powerful Islamic teachings have been codified by our scholars into a sophisticated system of amnesty, asylum, and respect for the status of refugees.
Hence, when we view the sickening conditions those migrating to our southern borders are exposed to, we should be touched and moved to action knowing that our religion grants those fleeing persecution, oppression, or ecological devastation, the right to migrate and to be duly considered for asylum. Our actions, however, must be based on principle and knowledge. We should further vigorously defend the dignity our Lord has afforded to all human beings, and our obligation to assist those who are suffering from recognized forms of oppression.
We must also understand that the rights to migration and asylum have been codified in the most widely accepted Muslim statement on human rights: The Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam, Article 12; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Article 14; the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man (ADRDM), Article 27; and the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR), Article 22. The United States is a signatory party to the UDHR, and by way of membership in the Organization of American States (OAS), reluctantly accepts the authority of the ADRDM and the ACHR, although she has never ratified the latter two.
Our view on this issue should also be informed by the knowledge of our own country’s history as a nation of immigrants in the Native’s land. It should further be shaped by understanding the way nativist and white supremacist tendencies have fueled xenophobic and exclusivist policies and how in many instances our sometimes misguided policies have created many of our most vexing human rights challenges. It must also be informed by our obligation as American citizens.
For example, we need to understand that the overwhelming majority of families, children and individual adults arriving at our southern border from the “Northern Triangle” of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are fleeing intolerable levels of violence. That violence is not just that of ruthless street gangs, such as MS-13, it also emanates from government-sponsored death squads, many of which were organized and trained by the CIA or the US military at the former School of the Americas based at Fort Benning, Georgia. The infamous Battalion 316 of Honduras was an American-trained death squad responsible for hundreds of extrajudicial killings in that country during the 1980s and into the 1990s as well as the kidnapping and torture of thousands of Honduran citizens during the same period. These death squads are beginning to reappear in the wake of a wave of right-wing regimes assuming power throughout Latin America.
The combination of American political and economic pressure through the mechanisms of neocolonialism used to control and systematically under-develop former and present “banana republics,” the International Monetary Fund (IMF), plutocratic regimes increasingly beholden to Washington DC, integrating the violence of both death squads and drug cartels into their crushing of both popular dissent as well as any attempts at economic diversification and stratification help to create the conditions producing the waves of migrants moving towards our southern border. Long before they sought to cross our borders, our borders crossed them.
Long before they sought to cross our borders, our borders crossed them.
Despite the history, the way that the Trump administration has chosen to deal with the current crisis, largely for cheap race-baited political gain, has challenged the God-given rights to migration and asylum, exacerbated the humanitarian crisis at the border, and diminished the standing of the United States internationally. It is critical to understand, however, that just as the policies producing the floods of migrants from parts of Latin America are not uniquely a product of the Trump administration, Trump is not the first racist to occupy the White House. We could mention Richard Nixon, who famously embraced Kevin Philip’s “southern strategy,” to wrest the south from the control of the Democrats; we could mention the KKK-loving, segregationist, Woodrow Wilson; we could mention the slave-driving, genocidal ethnic cleanser Andrew Jackson, as well as others.
What makes Trump unique, as Greg Grandin emphasizes in his latest book, The End of the Myth, is that Trump is a racist who has appeared at a time America is no longer, via conquest or economic domination, expanding her frontiers. With the ensuing erasure of the myth of American exceptionalism, the “American people” can no longer point to our global economic or political domination as the difference between “them” and “us.”
Unable to deflect our nagging national problems, one of the most vexing being the race issue, by looking outward, large numbers of white Americans are turning inward with xenophobic frenzy. That inward turn creates a focus on outsiders who threaten “our” rapidly disappearing “purity.” Hence, the border, symbolized by the wall, becomes not just an indicator of national sovereignty, it becomes a symbol of white identity. A symbol Trump invokes with seldom matched mastery. Vested with the passion emanating from the defense of an embattled race, innocent brown children taken from their mothers and imprisoned in overcrowded, feces-stained gulags become easily dismissed collateral damage.
Generally speaking, the same playbook that has been employed against the Muslim and other immigrant communities, specifically refugees from the Middle East, has been employed against the immigrant community as a whole. In far too many instances, America’s destructive foreign policy leaves helpless populations running to our shores, increasingly to be dehumanized and disregarded again in order to pander to the worst of our domestic propensities.
Launchgood.com/migrants https://www.launchgood.com/campaign/muslims_for_migrants#!/
So we call upon the Muslim community to not only assist in efforts to support our migrant brothers and sisters but lead the way. Get involved in advocacy work, support immigrant justice organizations, join the sanctuary efforts and lend yourself and your wealth in whatever way you can to be at their aid. By the Grace of Allah, we have launched a campaign to reunite as many families as we can. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah upon him) said, “Whoever separates a mother from her child, Allah will separate him from his loved ones on the Day of Resurrection.” (Tirmidhi, 1566) We hope that in reuniting families, Allah will reunite us with our beloved ones on the Day of Resurrection, and specifically with the beloved Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah upon him) in the highest gardens of Paradise.
Imam Zaid Shakir, Imam, Lighthouse Mosque
Imam Omar Suleiman, Founder & President, Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research
Reprint: Muslim Matters, Aug. 5, 2019.
]]>Who speaks for American Muslims? The short answer is, no one. No individual or group can claim to speak for this country’s nearly 3.5 million Muslims, a diverse and dynamic population that’s expected to double by 2050. Instead we see spheres of influence that sometimes intersect and overlap.
CNN spent a year interviewing more than 100 American Muslims, asking who they think are the most influential Muslims in their fields. We sought nominees for whom religion is part of their public identity, but other than that, we let American Muslims do most of the talking.
A few nominees declined to participate for personal reasons, but the vast majority were willing. The result is this crowd-sourced list of 25 influential American Muslims. They are comedians and congressmen, activists and Olympians, fashionistas and political fighters, converts and from-the-cradle believers. They are the children of immigrants and African-Americans whose roots in this country reach back centuries.
Together, they compose one of the world’s most eclectic and innovative Muslim communities – and they all have remarkable stories to tell. Comedians and congressmen, activists and Olympians, fashionistas and political fighters. He is among 25 influential American Muslims. See who’s on the list.
CNN featured Zaytuna College’s Imam Zaid Shakir in this groundbreaking video project. In a compelling 90-second video, as a Zaytuna scholar told a story filled with meaning. Imam Zaid shares how the anguished cries of a 10-year-old girl began his journey that led him to become a Muslim. Click to watch stories from him and others on CNN.
]]>
As many as 500 mourners packed into Bayside of South Sacramento Church, where speakers such as national civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton bemoaned the deaths of black men at the hands of police and scolded President Donald Trump for not speaking out. Hundreds of additional mourners lingered outside in the sun, unable to get inside the church. TV trucks stood parked out front.
Clark’s brother Stevante Clark hurried to the front of the church after the opening prayers and threw himself on the casket as performers danced. Sharpton and others hugged him and spoke to him, attempting to calm him. Stevante, who caused an outburst at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, grabbed the microphone from the NAACP’s Alice Huffman and shouted, “Louder! Louder!” as some in the church chanted his brother’s name.
“The Clark family will never die,” he added.
He vowed to get a community resource center and library built in his brother’s name. Clark, who has apologized to Mayor Darrell Steinberg for confronting him at the council meeting, told the mourners: “We’re gonna forgive the mayor. Amen? Everybody say ‘we love the mayor.’ He’s going to help us get … the resource center done, and if he doesn’t we’re going to hold him accountable.
“Everyone’s crying, everyone’s upset with me, everybody’s mad at me for caring about black people and my brother,” he said, before being ushered away. “I’m going to leave the country and go away because everybody’s mad at me.”
A minute later, Sharpton, who flew in from the East Coast to deliver the eulogy, brought Clark back onto the stage, his arm around the young man.
“You don’t tell people in pain how to handle their pain!” Sharpton said. “You don’t tell people when you kill their loved one how to grieve. We came because this boy should be alive today … It’s time … to stop the madness. We will never let you forget the name of Stephon Clark until we get justice. This is about justice.”
Sharpton stood before Clark’s casket, which had been delivered to the church in a white hearse and was set near a heart-shaped floral display with a sash saying, “Rest in Power.”
Sharpton defended the protests, some of which have prevented fans from entering Kings games. “I want the folk in California to know there is nothing wrong with the way these young people are standing up. They are trying to express their pain. We got their back!”
Stephon Clark was shot and killed by Sacramento police in the backyard of his grandmother’s house just before 9:30 p.m. on March 18. Officers had been called to the 7500 block of 29th Street in Meadowview with reports of someone breaking car windows. Deputies in a sheriff’s helicopter spotted Clark, and officers on foot followed him into the backyard, where they shot at him 20 times, saying they believed he had a gun. They later determined he was holding a cellphone.
Police released videos of the shooting two days later, sparking protests and national outrage, calls for the officers to be convicted and numerous calls for police reform.
Clark was the father of two sons, Aiden, 3, and Cairo, 1, with his fiancée Salena Manni. A memorial service handout described Clark as a former David Reese Elementary School and Sacramento High School student, known to family as “Big Poppa,” who was “taken from us far too early.”
While some friends and family spoke about Clark, much of the service focused on the political and social implications of Clark’s death.
Berkeley Imam Zaid Shakir, who also spoke at Muhammad Ali’s 2016 funeral, challenged the Trump administration’s statement earlier this week that the Clark shooting was “a local issue.”
He listed more than 20 people who have been killed nationally in gunfire the last few years, many at the hands of police.
“That is a systemic problem!” he said. “Not a local problem. Not a Sacramento problem. It is a uniquely American problem.”
He said the American heart is diseased and needs to be cured, “So we recognize every one of us is our brother or our sister, black, brown, white … if you have some polka dot people, they are our brothers and sisters.”
Sharpton also called the Clark killing a national issue, even if Trump has been “on mute,” just as several police officers did on their body-cam recorders in the minutes after Clark was shot. “This is a national issue that this president wants to ignore.”
“We will never let you forget the name of Stephon Clark until we get justice.,” he said. “Stephon Clark has woke up the nation.”
Clark’s death has become a signature moment in Sacramento, throwing the city into more than a week of turmoil.
Protesters have marched in the streets several times since his death, blocking cars, breaking a bus window and briefly marching onto Interstate 5, shutting it down. Protesters succeeded in blocking Sacramento Kings fans from entering games at the downtown Golden 1 Center in the past week.
To date, the protests have been largely nonviolent, although passionate and loud.
Kings officials, who have expressed sympathy for the Clark family and respect for nonviolent protests, on Thursday announced the Kings are teaming up with a new group that includes Black Lives Matter to provide college funds for Clark’s two children and to push an initiative to improve lives of black youths, including supporting education and economic development.
Ex-King and Sacramento native Matt Barnes, who had helped pay for the funeral, said he is pleased with the Kings’ response to the shooting and the ensuing protests. “The Kings need to take the lead on this. I think they’ve done a great job.”
Black Lives Matter launched another demonstration later Thursday outside the office of Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, the third in three days. Tanya Faison, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter in Sacramento, said she doesn’t believe Schubert can independently investigate the shooting. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra this week said he would step in and conduct an investigation.
Several speakers after the service called for community calm, among them Florida civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who is investigating the shooting for the Clark family.
“We know that after this funeral the people are going to have passionate emotions. We ask that everybody remain nonviolent,” he said, alluding to the upcoming 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
He said the family’s independent investigation into the shooting continues. “As we go forward with our investigation and our autopsy reports, we will make sure it is transparent,” he said. He said the investigation is designed to give the Clark family “peace of mind, to give their children peace of mind, to give America peace of mind.”
Andre Young, Clark’s cousin, attended Thursday’s funeral and urged those marching on behalf of Clark to “humble your heart” and remain peaceful. He called on police officers to change how they interact with the African American community.
“All the police all around America got to stop having this perception of black people,” he said. Stevante Clark spoke with reporters and well-wishers as well outside the service, saying he wants to attend a peace rally Saturday afternoon at Cesar Chavez Park organized by Barnes. He spoke against any potential further protest efforts to shut the Kings arena down.
“I don’t want to shut down the Kings’ arena; I used to work for the Kings,” he said. Kings officials didn’t respond to requests for comment.
As he rode away, he stuck his head out the car window and chanted his brother’s name several times.
Stephon Clark Memorial and Funeral [video]
]]>
The sound Muhammad Ali hears as he dies is the sound that babies hear right after they’re born. It is just after 8:30 p.m. MT on June 3, 2016, a Friday. He is in Room 263, in the intensive care unit of the HonorHealth Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center, near his home in Paradise Valley, Arizona. He has been disconnected from the ventilator that has been keeping him strenuously alive, and the imam at his bedside has begun the call to prayer, as if ushering a newborn into the world.
The imam, whose name is Zaid Shakir, does not know why he has sung the familiar keening song; it is traditional to sing to those who are close to their first breath but not to those close to their last. But he has flown into Arizona from California, and he reached Ali’s room not long before what he calls “the paraphernalia of life support” was removed. Lonnie Ali is there. Ali’s nine children are there, along with many of his grandchildren, and after reciting supplications and reading from the Quran with them, Shakir suddenly finds himself in the grip of spontaneous necessity. He has been watching the pulse in Ali’s neck, watching it surge with life after he started breathing on his own and then watching it slowly ebb, and now he leans over and with his mouth close to Ali’s right ear, he sings, “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger.”
Shakir is tall and thin, nearly spindly, with a crooked smile and a beautiful voice, a voice that even when he’s speaking carries a hint of a jazz, a way of hanging behind the beat before finding all the right notes. He does not whisper to Ali. He does not sing softly. He sings out loud, so that everyone can hear, so that the words will fill Ali’s consciousness. Then he places in Ali’s right hand a string of prayer beads offered by one of his grandsons and closes Ali’s fingers around it. He begins talking to Ali, entreating him, exhorting him, telling him, “Muhammad Ali, this is what it means, God is one; say it, repeat it, you’ve inspired so many, paradise is waiting—“
When Shakir begins the call, Ali is alive. When he finishes, a doctor comes in and presses his stethoscope against Ali’s chest; Shakir gently closes Ali’s eyes. He lived for approximately 35 minutes after the disconnection of the ventilator, but now, at 9:10, Muhammad Ali, 74 years old, the three-time heavyweight champion of the world from Louisville, Kentucky, is pronounced dead, of septic shock.
Lonnie asks Imam Shakir to stay with her husband while the family files out of Room 263 and enters a new and diminished world—the world without Muhammad Ali in it. He does for a while, but the room begins to give way to professionals. There are nurses and hospital staff. There are two funeral directors who were literally hidden in another room when Ali was dying and now emerge from the shadows. And there are three men who wear hastily packed suits and faces of seen-it-all vigilance but who have never seen what they’re seeing now. Their names are Todd Kessinger, Brian Roggenkamp and Jon Lesher. They’re off-duty homicide detectives from the Louisville Metro Police Department, and they flew to Phoenix the day before on a private jet to provide security for the Ali family. They’re no strangers to death, horrible and unnatural. They’ve been around bodies in every possible condition. But the body in the bed is the body of Muhammad Ali. He is covered, at first; then, after the nurses have removed the tubes and disconnected the monitors that sustained him, uncovered. It is their job to secure the room against intrusion, and Ali against exploitation—they’ve heard rumors that a tabloid television show is offering a $200,000 bounty for the first photos of The Greatest on his deathbed. But now they wonder how easily a photograph of the gaunt and balding man on the bed could be recognized. They feel tremendously solicitous toward him yet also somehow ennobled, as if they have come into the presence of a force larger and stronger than themselves. It is not fame, exactly; it is history, and Lesher keeps thinking that no matter what happens to him in the course of his life, no one will ever be able to take this moment away from him. So many people had encounters with Ali when he was alive: chance meetings that became, by the force of Ali’s personality, indelibly personal, the stuff of stories told and retold. Lesher never did; neither did Kessinger or Roggenkamp. They encounter Ali dead, yet even with his life fled, his power persists, as if it’s part of the atmosphere around his body. They are in the room with Muhammad Ali for 45 minutes. They have responsibility for Muhammad Ali for 45 minutes, until Roggenkamp departs to drive Lonnie Ali home. But there is a problem as they go to leave; Ali was not admitted as Muhammad Ali. He was admitted under an alias, confusing one of the funeral home directors. Finally, Kessinger says, “Look, it’s Muhammad Ali. Let’s just go.”
For full version of this story, it appears in ESPN The Magazine’s June 12, 2017 World Fame Issue
]]>The path that led to the issuance of EO 9066 is hauntingly similar to the path that has culminated in the Executive Order issued by President Donald J Trump heralding a Muslim ban. Demonizing and then increasingly weightier political measures culminating with the almost unthinkable.
One of the major differences between the political climate prevalent in the country during the time of Japanese mass incarceration and now is that there was no mass movement of people to defend their Japanese neighbors. That is not the case for Muslims. Millions are determined to stand with our community. We must, however, be willing to stand with them.
Although not many outside of the Japanese community stood by their fellow countrymen, they did have their own heroes who resisted and fought the pernicious incarceration order. One of those heroes was Fred Karematsu who fought that unjust order all way to the US Supreme Court. He would have prevailed there had not the government suppressed evidence from the FBI, Navy and other high-level sources that the Japanese community in the US posed no security threat.
As we prepare for the possibly heightened repression facing our community let us declare in one voice, with one spirit that we will all be Fred Karematsu! At the time of this commemoration, we thank our Japanese allies on their ongoing and unwavering support.
]]>Despite what Newt Gingrich and extremists alike tell you “Western civilization is in a war,” former Republican presidential candidate (and now former Trump-VP hopeful) Newt Gingrich said during a live FOX News interview with Sean Hannity, hours after a man drove a truck into a crowd in Nice, France, and killed 84, while injuring 202. “We should frankly test every person here who is of a Muslim background, and if they believe in Sharia, they should be deported. Sharia is incompatible with Western civilization.”
Please tell us how you really feel, Newt.
This is not the first time that Newt Gingrich has proven that he knows nothing about Islam and our United States Constitution. During his short-lived 2012 presidential campaign, he once called Sharia a “mortal threat to the survival of freedom in the United States” and also boldly declared his opposition “to any efforts to impose Sharia in the United States,” as if falafel-eating bearded mullahs were already gathering ominously on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.
“We should have a federal law that says under no circumstances in any jurisdiction in the United States will Sharia [law] be used in any court to apply to any judgment made about American law,” he proclaimed during his unsuccessful 2012 presidential bid as well.
Even more strangely, when in 2010 Gingrich also attacked liberal Supreme Court justices by bizarrely claiming that “we should make clear to Justice [Stephen] Breyer and Justice [Elena] Kagan, who both seem confused on this topic, that no judge will remain in office who tries to use Sharia law to interpret the American Constitution.”
Mr. Gingrich has clearly never read the “supremacy clause” of the U.S. Constitution (Article VI, Clause 2), which states quite clearly that the “Constitution and the laws of the United States… shall be the supreme law of the land” and that no other law (either foreign or domestic) can trump it. Nope, not even Sharia.
Just like past generations of right-wing xenophobic fear-mongers who tried to paint Jewish law (known as Halacha in Hebrew) in a sinister light; these modern-day peddlers of hate like Newt Gingrich are attempting to do the same with Muslims today. They are simply exploiting most Americans’ ignorance about Islam as well as the public’s limited understanding of the country’s constitutional laws and guiding democratic principles.
“In fact, for most of its history, Islamic law offered the most liberal and humane legal principles available anywhere in the world,” Harvard Law Professor Noah Feldman once proclaimed in a New York Times Magazine article on the anti-sharia hysteria sweeping across the Republican party today. “The suggestion that Sharia threatens American security is disturbingly reminiscent of the accusation, in nineteenth-century Europe, that Jewish religious law was seditious.” Yale University Professor Eliyahu Stern further highlighted in his own opinion piece for The New York Times bluntly titled “Don’t Fear Islamic Law in America.”
First of all, any mainstream Islamic religious scholar will tell you that there is no single monolithic definition of Sharia as it exists today anywhere in the world. Very generally speaking, the concept of Sharia has come to be defined as “the ideal law of God according to Islamic tradition,” according to Professor Intisar Rabb, director of the Islamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School. But as Professor Rabb has also made clear: “Sharia has tremendous diversity… It is not a monolithic doctrine of violence, as has been characterized in the recently introduced [anti-Sharia] bills that would criminalize [basic Islamic] practices” like charity-giving and other benign legal matters like divorce and estate planning. Professor Rabb has also noted that Sharia “historically was a broad system that encompassed ritual laws, so in some ways it recalls Jewish law that has rules for how to pray, how to make ablution before prayers” as well as dietary rules involving kosher (or halal) food.
“Some of the biggest misconceptions about Islamic law are that it proposes a scheme of global domination,” Imam Zaid Shakir, a cofounder of Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California—the first Muslim liberal arts college in America—explained during an interview for my latest book. He also pointed out that many Westerners mistakenly believe that Islamic law is not amenable to change in the face of changing circumstances, that it is a system that oppresses women and that by definition it is an enemy of western civilization. In fact, he stated that Islamic law actually categorically forbids many of the practices that the average person fearfully associates with some Muslims today, like killing innocent people (non-Muslims and Muslims alike) and stoning women.
“For example, Sharia forbids members of a Muslim minority [in Western societies] from engaging in clandestine acts of violence and paramilitary organizing… or from acting as political or military agents for a Muslim-majority country,” he told me. “Islamic law also forbids the disruption of public safety.” (Terrorism would fall into that category.) All this would certainly come as a surprise to the many people who know little about Islam—whether they are extremists who claim to be devout Muslims or those who seek to politically exploit anti-Muslim fear like Mr. Gingrich and his sinister ilk.
So since Newt Gingrich clearly does not even understand basic American constitutional principles like freedom of religion, the supremacy clause or the First Amendment—nor the tenets of the world’s second-largest religion—instead of considering future presidential runs, he should probably just retroactively fail his ninth-grade civics class instead.
Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer, global media commentator and author of Scapegoats: How Islamophobia Helps Our Enemies & Threatens Our Freedoms.
Reprint from Time.com
]]>The two-day event celebrated Eid al-Fitr, a holiday that concludes Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting. Thousands of Muslims from the Midwest attended the event to pray, mingle and eat halal food. Imam Zaid Shakir, who led Muhammad Ali’s funeral prayers, led the Eid prayers.
Asma Ahad, director of market development for the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America, one of the co-sponsors along with the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, said 20 years ago, a community Eid was held at McCormick Place, but since then, people moved to the suburbs and attended Eid celebrations at their local mosques.
“Our vision was to bring the community together and also demonstrate our holiday to the broader community,” Ahad said.
While women gathered in the back half of the room and men gathered at the front, a singsong call to prayer in Arabic resonated in Festival Hall A. The concrete floor was padded with cardboard lined with black tape, and many people sat on the floor.
Shortly after 10 a.m., Shakir took the stage and led thousands of people in prayer. They raised their hands to their ears, followed by a bow at the waist before getting down on their knees and pressing their foreheads to the ground. The room was quiet save for Shakir’s voice.
Shakir spoke about what it means to be Muslim and how people like Ali, a former heavyweight boxing champion, are who people should think of instead of extremists.
As Shakir called for peace, mercy and charity, a little boy walked around with a red bag of Lindt chocolates and handed them to random people before smiling and walking away.
“Brothers and sisters, don’t hang your head and don’t hide your Islam, call people to the goodness of Islam,” Shakir said. “Call people to wholesome family values. Call people to sharing and charity. Call people to respectful neighborly peace. Call people to enjoin other people who are working for peace in this world, who are working for brotherhood and sisterhood in this world, who are trying to build bridges of understanding. This is what our religion calls us to.”
Shakir emphasized that those who had committed acts of terrorism and violence were not following the Quran’s teachings and were not strong in the true Islamic faith, improperly listening to teachings on the internet rather than imams who have received traditional training.
Farah Adil, 46, of Chicago, said while Shakir’s discussion of racism and extremism was important, it scared her children, and she said she wished his speech focused more on the positive aspects of the religion.
“I think it could have been less political,” Adil said. “There is such a lot of beauty in Islam. There is a such a lot of peace in Islam. ... Just to hear all of that with the blowing up and the racism, I don’t know if I would have liked my children to hear all of that. I think as an adult, it’s OK for me to process, but it was very intense, like (my son) doesn’t want to be here now.”
Mohammed Barnawi, who lives in Hyde Park but is originally from Saudi Arabia, said the event was a good opportunity to gather with friends and family who traveled to celebrate Eid together and also to see other denominations.
“In my country, we have the same, here’s it’s multicultural,” Barnawi said.
Halal food vendors that meet the strictest standards of animal slaughter and preparation, like Bombay Wraps and the Halal Guys, were at the expo. Parents and children lined up for cotton candy, henna and bounce houses.
Adil, who was eating lunch with her family, said the experience was important for her children as it helps them understand their religion and shows that Muslims are “normal.”
“We love that when you come to a large community like this, you see the colors of Islam, people from every part of the world,” Adil said. “And for my children it was very important because there is so much negative portrayal in the media that something like this lets people know that the majority of the Muslims are peace loving. It’s very moving to be part of something like this.”
Twitter @GraceWong630 | Copyright © 2016, Chicago Tribune
Reprint from Chicago Tribune
]]>
For complete TRT World interview go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoBXTuRYrq8
Responses to terms can be telling. Just a mention of the Black Lives Matter movement can elicit some of the most visceral reactions from people of all races. No matter how little they know the history or purpose of the activist effort, certain folks feel emotion well up in their stomach upon just hearing the short phrase “black lives matter.”
For some, it’s liberation. For others, disgust.
As the Deputy Director of Faith and Formation for the PICO National Network, the Rev. Alvin Herring understands the power in these words. And so before he began to moderate a Friday panel on Black Lives Matter at the Festival of Faiths, he requested audience members to speak that phrase to their neighbor, not once but twice.
“And why is that important?” Herring asked. “Because if we can in this moment publicly state in the city of Louisville and the Commonwealth of Kentucky that black lives matter, then all those black bodies whose bones rest in that river just down this block can rejoice.”
An American history of black injustice, violence, enslavement and suppression continue to fuel the fire of present anger. Fellow speakers Imam Zaid Shakir, the Rev. Michael McBride and author Jim Wallis spoke of this narrative and how it shapes the movement in this day and age.
Wallis, a Christian theologian, traces the lineage of the BLM movement back to the early formation of America where the government principle was that indigenous and black lives didn’t. Today’s social activism remains a response, he said, to what he calls American’s original sin of racism.
“250 years of slavery, 100 years of legal segregation and discrimination and terrorist violence against black lives and bodies, 50 years of a civil rights movement, seven years of a president, and we’re not cleansed,” Wallis said.
READ MORE: Additional coverage of the Festival of Faiths http://www.courier-journal.com/topic/festival-of-faiths/
White America’s salvation may be coming, he said, with the changing demographics of the U.S. population. In the next two decades, America will undergo a fundamental shift, one in which the white race will no longer be the majority.
Powers that be understand the coming tide, he said, and have enacted strategies such as racial gerrymandering, mass incarceration and voter disenfranchisement. He believes that while these in the ruling class can’t stem the racial shift, they “can block, obstruct, delay and prevent that demographic from changing America.”
“If we care about black lives matter, or justice, or our theology, we as a people of faith need to come up with a strategy to point by point counter their strategy,” Wallis said.
Also offering solutions to what he believes as systematic repression of the black population, McBride discussed a three-pronged approach the Live Free Campaign in which he is involved utilizes. Proclamations, policies and programs, the lead pastor of The Way Christian Center in California said, will build the foundation for change.
Combatting implicit bias as well as unlearning falsities that lead others to believe black lives are inferior can aid in this quest.
Statistics accompanied his presentation. Only 28 hours pass between the death of a black person in this country at the hands of law enforcement, security or vigilantes in this country, McBride said.
As for intra-communal gun violence, or what others may refer to as “black-on-black” crime, 0.5 percent of individuals in any given city are responsible for 60 percent of that type of criminality, he added.
“You have a very small number of individuals who are solving their conflicts with violence,” McBride said. “Why is it that a small, small number of actors can over determine in our minds the criminality of a whole group? It is because black lives do not matter.”
Imam Shakir, one of the West’s leading Islamic scholars, has buried young victims of violence. Justice is one of the great human virtues, he said, but it’s not always immediate. Look at the struggle of slavery in the founding moment of the United States to the Constitution relegating black men to 3/5ths the value of a white voter, from the courage of Rosa Parks to the sacrifices of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Yet, with all those throughout history standing vigilant, justice still has not come to America today, he said.
“While we’re fighting for justice, we have to understand that we don’t need anyone external from ourselves to tell us that our lives matter. Our lives matter because we’ve been given a basic fundamental human dignity, human worth and value from God,” Shakir said.
“If you’re right with God, you’re right. And if some racist doesn’t think you’re right, that’s their problem, not your problem.”
The system can take away equal education and decent housing from the black community, he said, as well as target them disproportionately by police, but no one can take away humanity.
“Dignity cannot be taken. It can only be forfeited,” Shakir said.
During his earlier comments, Herring seemingly agreed, using Louisville as an example.
“There was a time in the city where black lives didn’t matter, one could suggest that time continues until today,” Herring said. “But let me tell you, that is not our destiny.”
Reprint: Courier-Journal.com
“Today, the third of March, two-thousand and sixteen, marks the rise of a new dawn on Holy Hill, an ecumenical consortium of faith based institutions, uniting students of the Graduate Theological Union, UC Berkeley and Zaytuna College to stand together for universal peace.
We, the signatories, believe that communal compassion is created by conscious cooperative efforts that seek to counter the chaotic actions of some, not through violence, but by coming to a common word: Multiplicity in Unity and Unity in Multiplicity.
As citizens of this country, inhabitants of the earth vicegerents of the universe, we are committed to creating a culture of communal compassion within our spheres of influence, confident that our sincere endeavors will permeate generations to come, God willing.”
Hopefully, these courageous young people will become ambassadors of peace in the future and joining with others will help to end the senseless wars slowly destroying our world.
]]>One of North America’s most influential Islamic scholars, Imam Zaid Shakir, will address thousands of Muslims at the Metro Convention Centre this weekend for the annual Reviving the Islamic Spirit conference.
Thousands of Muslims will gather at the Metro Convention Centre this weekend for the annual Reviving the Islamic Spirit conference.
The convention has been taking place in Toronto for the past 14 years and is one of the largest for Muslims on the continent.
One of North America’s most influential Islamic scholars, Imam Zaid Shakir, will be among those addressing the conference.
The CBC’s Dwight Drummond had a chance to speak to him shortly after he arrived in Toronto about radicalization, Donald Trump’s call to ban Muslims from entering the United States and the meaning of the holiday season.
On radicalization:
“Definitely the mosque or masjid has a role to play, the imams — the community leaders in the Muslim community — have roles to play but the wider society also has a role to play. And unless and until we can accept that and assume that responsibility as societies that we all belong to, I think it might continue to happen.”
http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2681044138/
Dwight Drummond sits down with Imam Zaid Shakir [Part 1]2:25
On Donald Trump:
“I think these demagogic statements that Donald Trump is making ... he’s just trying to increase his ratings and in this case his numbers in the poll. And in that sense he’s only appealing to a sentiment that’s already there.”
http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2681044257/
Dwight Drummond sits down with Imam Zaid Shakir [Part 2]2:18
On the holiday season:
“This year, 2015, this Christmas season is also the season where as Muslims we’re celebrating ... the birth of Jesus and the birth of Muhammad… I think the message of Christmas, the message of peace - that’s the message of Islam.”
http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2681044126/
Dwight Drummond sits down with Imam Zaid Shakir [Part 3]2:18
Also attending the conference will be New York University chaplain Imam Khalid Latif, executive director of the Arab American Association of New York Linda Sarsour, and the president of Zaytuna College in Berkley, California, Hamza Yusuf, among other prominent speakers.
It will also feature a number of musical guests and artists including the Canadian-born songwriter Dawud Wharnsby and Malaysian music group Raihan.
Reprint from: CBC News
Three Muslim organizations have banded together to raise money for eight black churches that have been destroyed by fire after nine people were shot and killed in a Charleston, S.C. church on June 17.
“To many it is clear that these are attacks on Black culture, Black religion and Black lives,” the organizers of the fundraiser say on the campaign web page.
“We must always keep in mind that the Muslim community and the black community are not different communities. We are profoundly integrated in many ways, in our overlapping identities and in our relationship to this great and complicated country,” the campaign page, organized by MuslimARC, the Arab-American Association of New York, and Ummah Wide, a digital media startup focused on Muslim issues, says.
The campaign is being crowdfunded (that is, any given amount donated by lots of different people toward a larger goal) on a website called LaunchGood.
“We believe that Muslims have incredible values to share with the rest of the world and LaunchGood is a manifestation of the impact that Muslims can have when they rally together for good,” co-founder Amany Killawi said in an email.
Since the campaign to raise money for the churches launched on July 2, the effort has raised $24,065, as of this writing, toward a $25,000 goal from 546 supporters. The campaign has 10 days to go. The organizers say on the campaign page that funds will be routed to the churches most in need through direct contact with pastors and church leaders.
“It’s Ramadan and we are experiencing firsthand the beauty and sanctity of our mosques during this holy month,” Imam Zaid Shakir, a Muslim American scholar, says on the campaign page. “ALL houses of worship are sanctuaries.”
Mr. Shakir says that there has not been anywhere near the amount of resources amassed to help rebuild the churches.
“We created LaunchGood as platform to support Muslims launching good across the globe, which is not limited to the Muslim community only,” Ms. Killawi said. She pointed out that the campaign to help rebuild black churches launched during the month of Ramadan which is “a time of increased generosity for Muslims worldwide.”
Four of the eight churches have been ruled arson and are being investigated. Three others are being investigated for possible arson.