Launching of Anti-Racism Movement Among American Muslims

I’m pleased to see during Black History Month the first of a series of Twitter discussions relating to Blacks in the Muslim community.  The Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative (MARC) today at 1pm EST is leading a discussion on #BeingBlackAndMuslim.  The purpose is to give Black folks a sounding board on how we feel on being Black and Muslim as well as to give non-Black Muslims an opportunity to be supportive and lift up historical and contemporary contributions of Blacks in Islam, which they admire and encourage people to recognize.

A few months ago, I decided to take to social media to highlight the rampant anti-Black racism in our community that I’ve seen in the past two decades.  My intention was never to be a leader of a movement but to motivate our community to organize and discuss this issue more candidly in order that we may move closer towards the Prophet model of what Ummah is suppose to be.  In other words, I was simply planting seeds.

I’ve not been the only seed planter regarding this issue; there have been many.  As Hind Makki of Chicago recently said in a talk in Michigan and had written about in the past, racism, misogyny and sectarianism are three of the most pressing issues which face American Muslims that we’ve swept underneath the rug.  Shaykh Omar Suleiman and Shaykh Suhaib Webb have also addressed this issue in khutbah and at conferences.  Shaykh Omar is also involved in an upcoming seminar on 2/16 titled “Black and Noble: A Study of Important Black Figures in Islamic History” which will be streamed live online.

I’m glad that based upon over 3 months of highlighting this issue including being involved in some tense discussions online, on the radio and in the community that MARC is in the launching stage of building a movement.  It is reaching out to imams and community activists regarding encouraging khutbahs to community conversations.

I encourage all of our community to get involved in this important movement by following @muslimarc on Twitter and staying connected to its website at www.muslimarc.org.

• Black History Month
• islam