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Islam in
America: Makka, Medina
by Ameen Izzadeen
(Deputy Editor The Sunday Times and Daily Mirror-Sri Lanka)
In 2003 Ameen Izzadeen spent nearly a month in the United States
as a guest of the US State Department. This is part one of a series of
observations penned after his visit.
As an outside observer Mr. Izzadeens insights are both enlightening and squarely
on the mark. Mr. Izzadeen addresses the concerns of Post 9-11 Muslims in
America and the campaign to vilify the American Muslims. We present
the series in its entirety.
Islam in
America: (P-2),
Makkah, Medina: Ties with early inhabitants
Friday, October 10th 2003
Muslim explorers came to America two
centuries before Columbus. Some of them settled down there, coexisting with
native tribes. They did not kill the natives, unlike the European settlers who
came after Columbus.
Afro-American Muslim
historians claim that there is evidence to prove
that many of the early Muslim
settlers merged with the Native Americans, who were by and large monotheists. An
ongoing fascinating line of research is on how Native American tribes came to be
known by Muslim names such as Makkah (a Washington tribe). Besides, there are
Medinas in Idaho, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, North Dakota and New York State.
Arabic literature and historical travelogues show that Muslim contacts with the
other side of the Atlantic were made more than 500 years before Columbus.
Most of these early Muslims or Moors,
Muslim historians say, perished along with the natives as the European settlers
launched their bloody land grab. Not only did these early European settlers kill
the natives, they also branded them savages, showing scant respect for their
right to live in the land they had been living in from time immemorial.
Amir Nashid Ali Muhammad, author of
'Muslims in America: Seven Centuries of History' says that among the early Moors
- the second wave of Muslim migration to America - were those who were fleeing
persecution in Spain after the collapse of Muslim rule. They were forced to
convert to Catholicism but the persecution did not end. So they crossed the
Atlantic.
The author, whom I met in Chicago
during the annual convention of the
American Society of Muslims, says
that English explorers from Jamestown had seen a colony of bearded people,
Moors, who wore European clothing, lived in cabins, and engaged in mining and
smelted silver. They lived on the mountains of what is now North Carolina and he
had observed them dropping to their knees to pray several times a day.
This young researcher says Muslims
came to America in four different waves - first as explorers, then fleeing the
Spanish Inquisition, during the Barbary Coast wars (which were incidentally the
first conflict the newly independent United States of America waged against
armies of North African Muslim states) coinciding with the enslavement of
Africans and finally by immigration starting in the mid-to-late 1870s.
Mr. Muhammad - also several other
researchers - says that the descendants of some of these early Muslims to
America are members of many of the present day native American tribes such as
Alibamu of Alabama, the Apaches, Anasazi, Arawak, Arikana, the Black Indians of
the Schuylkill river area in New York, the Cherokees, Makkahs, Mahigans,
Mohegans and the Zuni.
Renowned American historian and
linguist Leo Weiner of Harvard University, in his book 'Africa and The Discovery
of America (1920)’ says that West African Muslims were trading and
inter-marrying with Iroquois and Algonquin Indians in North America long before
Columbus.
Today, although the US constitution
guarantees equal rights to all its citizens, Native Americans and descendants
of early Muslims along with their brethren who migrated later still face racial
attacks from both institutional and non-institutional quarters.
The word 'Redskin' is still defined
in many of the English dictionaries as "offensive and derogatory." The 'r' word
does not mean 'respect' in any dictionary, says Ann N. Dapice, a member of the
Tulsa Indian Coalition against Racism and Vice President of T. K. Wolf Inc., a
Native American rights group, which we visited during our tour of the United
States.
In an article in Tulsa World
appearing on June 1 this year, Ms. Dapice says that from the 1600s to the late
1800s, cash bounties were posted by both the British and the US governments for
the delivery of 'redskins', scalps and body parts. "Indians were often killed
for sport, which included the taking of testicles and vaginas for souvenirs."
When we met Clark Inkanish, a
philosophical chief of Native Americans, he related us a number of incidents
where they felt Native American culture had been scoffed at. In one incident, he
said a doormat at a school depicted a picture of a Native American in his full
regalia while in another a teepee, a hallowed Native American symbol, had been
used as a game mascot. Another ongoing controversy centers on the Washington
Redskin football team. To their (Native Americans) dismay, a federal court this
week overturned a 1999 ruling
by the US Patent and Trademark
Office, which found the word 'Redskin'
offensive to Native Americans.
Dawn E. Pratt, a Native American
Attorney and human rights activist, told us that despite the historical
injustice done to the Native Americans with deaths coming through aid packages
that included small pox-infected blankets, Native American youths joined the US
military in large numbers and won many a war for the United States. And this
trend continued to date, she said.
The very existence of groups such as
the Tulsa Indian Coalition against Racism shows that the 2.5 million Native
Americans' struggle for social justice is far from over.
In their struggle, they are not
alone. With them are Muslims and of course the descendants of European settlers
or the 'other Americans’ who do not tolerate injustice in whatever form. We
attended a meeting of the Tulsa Metropolitan Ministry's Say No To Hate
Coalition. Among those who attended the meeting were members of law enforcement
authorities, inter-faith dialogue groups, human rights campaigners, Native
American activists and religious leaders.
Representing the Muslims of Tulsa,
Oklahoma at this meeting were Sheryl Siddiqui and Khadijah Jandhli of the
Islamic Society of Tulsa, two outspoken voices against racism in whatever form.
Ms. Siddiqui was at the forefront of a campaign against a recent racial attack
on a Jewish cemetery.
Signifying the Muslim reawakening in
America, the approach of American Muslims such as Ms. Siddiqui to win their
demands and assert their rights is through integration - not isolation. Muslim
human rights activists are active members of organizations such as the National
Conference of Community and Justice (NCCJ), a group that promotes understanding
and respect among all races, religions, and cultures through advocacy of
conflict resolution and education.
In spite of increasing racial attacks
in the aftermath of 9/11, the Muslims are optimistic that their reawakening
struggle will bear fruit within the framework of the US Constitution which they
believe is based on principles compatible with Islam and ideals Islam stands
for.
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