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mahershala ali

The Blatant Hypocrisy in Celebrating Mahershala Ali’s Oscar Win

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by Rabia Toor

I see your Facebook cover photo of Malcolm X, that same one where he is commandingly staring into the camera, his finger on his temple demanding that you think, learn and teach. I read your tweets quoting Muhammad Ali’s “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” whenever your favorite underdog sports team scores. And today, I read your victorious Facebook statuses as Mahershala Ali walked up to the podium to accept an Oscar in the Best Actor in a Supporting Role category for his role in the movie “Moonlight,” welcoming him as your brother in Islam. I watched as you celebrated Ali as the ‘First Muslim actor to win an Oscar.’

But I also see you shunning the Muslim Somali girl in your MSA during prayer time. I also feel the pain of black Muslims whom your mosques exclude from the community and from becoming a part of the collective Ummah. I heard the disdain in your voice when you called them ‘abeed’ or slaves as they broke their fasts. I heard the deafening silence of your lack of interest when two young, black men, Mohamedtaha Omar and Muhannad Tairab—along with Christian friend Adam Mekki, were murdered in Fort Wayne, Indiana in Feb. 2016.

In 2015, I saw the blatant hypocrisy when you decided to speak out for Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha, and Razan Abu-Salha, Muslims who were murdered at Chapel Hill, the same day you heard about it. I saw the inequality when you wouldn’t even consider marrying Omar, the sincere and genuine epitome of Islam because then you’ll have ‘black babies,’ and instead will marry the first blue eyed, fair skinned Jordanian to pass by you. I saw the irony when you felt black Muslims were ‘the wrong kind of Muslim’ when; in fact, you barely know your religion at all. Because if you did, you’d know “O mankind, indeed we have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted.” Surah Al-Hujurat  49:13.

I see the blatant racism and intersectional invisibility Black Muslims face when you welcomed Mahershala Ali today, open arms and accepted him like a token badge of honor for Islam, but continue to discriminate, hate, and exclude black Muslims in your own community.

A Muslim is a Muslim. No better, no worse. Period. It’s time we start understanding that.

Please support your black Muslim brothers and sisters by standing up to the hate in the mosques, shutting down the discriminatory rhetoric from your fellow Muslims, working with them to integrate into the community, welcome them into the Ummah, and donating to black Muslim organizations like Black Muslim Psychology.

grammys

Black Muslim Hip Hop Artists Take on “Agent Orange” at the Grammys

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by Fatima Ahmed

In today’s politically charged climate, the Grammys found themselves becoming a platform for numerous stars to voice their political stances. From Paris Jackson and Laverne Cox shouting out important social movements like #NoDAPL and #IStandWithGavin to Adele admitting that Beyonce deserved the award for delivering the black anthem of the year, the Grammys quickly became controversial. However, one performance which did not get as much attention was A Tribe Called Quest, Anderson.Paak, and Busta Rhymes’ which powerfully called out the current federal administration.

Many people commended A Tribe Called Quest’s performance for tackling the injustices being carried out in the United States right now. With moving lyrics that focus on the attacks being perpetrated against different minority populations, the performance was fraught with the air of resistance. The imagery was just as impactful, featuring a wall that the performers tear down, a diverse group of people standing in solidarity with the performers, and protest signs that read “No Ban No Wall.” The performance ended with Q-Tip yelling the word “resist” over and over and over again.

“All you Black folks, you must go

All you Mexicans, you must go

And all you poor folks, you must go

Muslims and gays, boy, we hate your ways

So all you bad folks, you must go”

– We the People Lyrics

However, the nuances of the performance delivered on the Grammy stage by A Tribe Called Quest can easily be missed if you don’t realize that many of the black men standing on the stage are also Muslims themselves. Q-Tip, for one, converted to Islam in the mid-1990s and changed his name to Kamaal Ibn John Fareed. Of his religion, Q has said, “I read the Quran and it appealed to me. At the time, I was agnostic and it really breathed spirituality back into me. For me, it’s really a cushion.”

Ali Shaheed Muhammad, another member of A Tribe Called Quest, is also a practicing Muslim. He has used Islam as his inspiration and in the creation of his music. In fact, in the 90’s, he was responsible for creating a music production collective called “The Ummah” – named so because of its reference to a spiritual brotherhood.

Finally, Busta Rhymes is another proud Muslim who was performing with A Tribe Called Quest at the Grammys. When asked how he keeps himself grounded spiritually he referenced his faith in Allah and his spiritual connection with Islam. He has said “at the end of the day that’s [Islam is] pretty much what grounds me.”

These men are a few of the many Muslim men that litter the landscape of rap music, including DJ Khaled, French Montana, Ghostface Killa, Ice Cube, K’naan, Lupe Fiasco, Nas, and T-Pain. In fact, in the 80’s and 90’s, hip hop boasted a lot of Muslim artists with many being associated with Muslim organizations such as the Nation of Islam and the Five Percent Nation. From all accounts, black Muslim men have had significant impact on the hip hop and rap industries, creating for inspirational music.

So, while the performance of A Tribe Called Quest was praised for delivering their message of unity and resistance, it seems ignorant to not identify these men as the Muslims they are calling for their rights. When Busta Rhymes calls “President Agent Orange” out on the Muslim ban, he isn’t doing it as an outsider but a man being attacked by his country for his faith.

We cannot erase the identity of black Muslims in hip hop and rap, just as we cannot associate being Muslim with only being brown-skinned. It is important to remember that Muslims are part of a global religion and are a diverse community. Once we acknowledge the Muslim identities of men like Q-Tip, Muhammad, and Busta, the urgency of the message becomes clearer. Their performance takes on another meaning – one which is seeking for acceptance as much as it is asking for tolerance.

To be black, Muslim and unencumbered

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Nadirah Angail

Nadirah Angail

By Nadirah Angail

I’ve been Muslim all my life. Black too. And you know what? It’s been an enjoyable experience. I have put love into the world and felt that love returned by people who do and don’t look and believe like me. Though I developed an early awareness of the injustices against black people and Muslims, I didn’t carry that weight on my person. I remember being very aware of institutionalized racism yet still free, totally unencumbered. To be sure, I didn’t live in a bubble of kumbaya and “I don’t see color.”  I had (have) the fire of X, Tubman, Garvey and Turner running through my veins, but I also felt comfortable and unafraid to be myself, in any setting.  Not sure how that happened, but I needed it.

Now that I have children of my own, I’m hoping to raise them with that same dynamic duo of awareness and freedom. But it’s harder now. Social media thrusts countless HD, surround sound images of blacks and Muslims being mistreated, abused and killed on a daily basis. This isn’t something new (though I do think the presence of a black man in the White House has pushed some white people outside of their sanity), but it hits harder and rings louder. And still I want my kids to be free.

My fear is that they will trade in their soft and plushy childhoods for a hardened and jagged fear that will grow them up too soon and chop down their blooming sense of self-worth. I don’t want my children to be scared that the police will kill them, or that their peers with pick on them, or that their teachers will dislike them … or that their school projects will be mistaken for bombs. I don’t want them to stress over the judgments and glares they may get from random passersby. I don’t want them to carry with them the dark clouds of someone else’s hatred and ignorance, someone else’s assumptions and misinformation. There’s no freedom in that. Children need freedom.

So I sat quiet when my first grader came home talking about the story of Thanksgiving. I’ll drop that truth on her a little later. And I was really vague when answering her questions at the vigil for Our Three Winners. I’ll give her more details later. And I get really selective when she asks about protests and why people are so angry. All answers in due time, but for now they need protection. Especially my daughter, the 6-year-old. She has an old soul and feels things deeply. My son is totally consumed with his toy cars and securing his next meal, but my daughter’s eyes and ears are open. This is a child that gets teary eyed during touching commercials. She has such an open heart and a precocious mind. As much as I like to have real, heart-felt discussions with her (and I do have them), some things I just can’t say. I can’t tell her that her bright eyes and warming smile may not overpower the (perceived) threat of her skin and religion. Not yet. Regardless of what she can or can’t handle, I’m not ready to take that peace from her. I prefer not to rob my children. I need them to be free.

But the time is coming when she’ll be rooted enough for me to pop that bubble. I feel it. I see it in her eyes and hear it in her conversation. Son, too, will reach that point. Then I’ll be able to show them an unveiled world, full of good and bad, without fear for their freedom.

Editor’s Note: Nadirah Angail is a family therapist turned blogger from Kansas City, Mo. In 2006, she began working as a therapist with a wide variety of families and couples who suffered from issues ranging from depression and drug addiction to infidelity and marital discord. In 2009, she had her first child and decided to (temporarily) leave the professional world to focus on motherhood and writing. She has self-published two books and enjoys writing about relationships, family, parenting, and her particular perspective as a Black American Muslim woman. Learn more at nadirahangail.com and strugglinghijabi.tumblr.com or @Nadirah_Angail. The views expressed here are her own.