47th & Baltimore Ave, Philadelphia - Obama celebration

Recently, as perhaps some of you have seen, I have been shifting the focus on this blog - refining its focus to concentrate more specifically on the religious phenomenon of Islam in America. A great deal of my writings pertain to the process of the indiginization of Islam in America. This post may depart from that slightly, though if I think you read closely enough, you will see its correlation.

No - this is not a post on how the 44th President of the United States is a secret Muslim. Barack Hussein Obama is not a Muslim. While his family may have roots in the historical Muslim world, he himself is not a Muslim. And that’s ok. As former general Colin Powell pointed out to us in his interview at Meet The Press, it should not matter that he is or isn’t Muslim.

And while it has been clearly established that President Obama is not a Muslim, this election, truly historic for America and her citizens, has presented the possibility as real. What I mean here is that for two hundred-plus of years, the United States of America has been dominated by one type of political figure: the white Christian Male. And as I stated above, the Christian part has not changed, but the white part most certainly has.

One of my greatest hopes from this election wasn’t that President Obama was going to solve the economic, environmental and other crisises that were are having. No one man can do all that. But that his election would bring about a much need psychological change to this country and perhaps even the world. To be sure, the type of change I speak of is subtle. But for the four hundred-plus years that Blackamericans have been in this country, we have never seen, let alone in recent generations, truly envisioned the possibility of a black man being the president of this country. President Obama has broken that barrier. He has illustrated that however unlikely, and however difficult, you can achieve great results. After all, these are some of the very ideals that America likes to champion around the world. And while it will take some time for the cynic in me to take his guard down, I will not attempt to hide the sense of vindication I felt when Mr. Obama won this evening.

So my little message is short and simple - to my Muslim brothers here in America, we have just watched a predominantly white audience vote in a black male with a Muslim name to the highest office of the land - mind you, just seven years since 9/11 as well [not to mention that Islamophobia is still raging strong and was even used as a tactic against his campaign]. The time has come for Muslims to truly recognize the blessings that Allah has offered us here. We have been placed within reach of obtaining great goals; for us and our children’s generation. But as always, the clock is ticking. I pray we can capitalize on this great boon we’ve been handed.

And a special note to my Blackamerican brothers and sisters in Islam. Tonight we saw the hopes and dreams of many Americans, white, black, Latino, Jewish and otherwise, all cast for one man. We must recognize that we are in the position to have the greatest effect in indigenizing Islam here in America. As we saw, unprovoked, on nation TV, general Powell came out in defense of Muslims in America. We truly must reflect and make the most of the opportunities. For we have witnessed tonight that change can and will come. The only question that remains is will we reap its benfit or curse our inability to act.

And God knows best.

It is my pleasure to present a most erudite article regarding not only the passing of Imam WD Mohammed [may Allah grant him Paradise] but a clarion call to the entire America Muslim community as to the milestone we’ve reached and where we ought to be heading. Enjoy.

Imam W. D. Mohammed and The Third Resurrection
by Sherman Abd al-Hakim Jackson

The passing of Imam W.D. Mohammed, may God have mercy upon him and grant him Paradise, has brought the Blackamerican Muslim community face to face with a reality that it has been more comfortable with ignoring than coming to terms with. Imam Mohammed’s death has signaled the end of the era of charismatic leadership in which the rank and file can look to a single leader to settle all major questions and chart the Community’s course for the future. Rather than being decided by a single voice, that future will have to be negotiated by the collective understandings and perspectives of the Community’s learned. This implies, of course, general agreement on who is learned and what the rules of engagement are. If the criterion is set too high, it will marginalize valuable voices and confirm an already widespread distrust of religious knowledge and those who claim to represent it. If it is set too low, it will open the Community to the ravages and abuses of those who think that the role of religion is to sanction their and or the dominant culture’s every undisciplined whim and passion.

In the years leading up to his death, Imam Mohammed strove mightily and with great farsightedness to empower his Community to carve out a dignified existence for themselves, to transition to what I have referred to as the “Third Resurrection,” whereby, individually and collectively, the Community is able to negotiate American reality in light of the Qur’an and Sunna. For the most part, however, the Imam had to go it alone, with few contributions from Blackamerican Muslim scholars outside his own movement.

Here we come to an embarrassingly sad fact about the state of Blackamerican Islam. For decades, Blackamerican Muslims have been venturing abroad to learn Arabic and the Islamic religious sciences. Yet, this has translated into little benefit and even less interfacing with the Community of Imam W.D. Mohammed — despite that community’s historically unique role in indigenizing Islam among Blackamericans. When we think across the spectrum of the most noted Blackamerican Muslim scholars - from myself to Zaid Shakir, from Aminah Wadud to Aminah McCloud - what we see is a veritable brain-drain out of the Blackamerican community into discourses and activities whose primary beneficiaries are not Blackamerican Muslims and or whose primary focus is not Blackamerican Muslim problems or concerns. Of course, there are exceptions, both in terms of individuals who contradict this description and in terms of some of the activities of the scholars named. But the fact that these are exceptions points to the reality that I am trying to describe: Blackamerican Muslim scholars have a closer relationship with the immigrant community than they have with the community of Imam W.D. Mohammed.

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