Why I’m not down with Kwanzaa

As we are now in the traditional holiday season in America and in the sacred month of Muharram on the Islamic calendar, some African-Americans are preparing to recognize the days of Kwanzaa. I, however, will not be one of those who observe Kwanzaa this year, nor have I ever seen it to be a legitimate holiday.

My primary reason for not recognizing Kwanzaa is because it has elements of shirk (associating partners with the Divine) in it. Shirk is the greatest sin and worse form of oppression according to the Qur’an (Surah Luqman, ayah 13). During Kwanzaa, there is a ceremony of pouring libation from a cup and calling the names of the ancestors. This is copying a pagan ritual in which people would call upon Mother Earth, lesser gods and ancestors to intercede on their behalf. Such ceremonies are clearly outside of the bounds of what is proper in Islam and are imitating the era of Jahiliyyah in Africa. How ironic that an observance, which is suppose to help African-Americans recapture their roots and self dignity after negative effects of slavery and Jim Crow has hidden elements of the greatest form of oppression.

My secondary reason is that Kwanzaa being a newly invented observance is a hodgepodge of rituals that are not truly authentic to the area of my and most African-Americans’ ancestors, which is West Africa. What in the world does lighting a menorah and using a bunch of terms that are Swahili have to do with reconnecting with our roots? Our ancestors weren’t lighting menorahs 400 years ago, nor were they using Swahili terminology. Menorahs are used by Jews for Hanukkah (which isn’t even a high holy season for them by the way), and Swahili is an East African language. This pseudo-holiday would have been a little more authentic if it would have used purely Arabic terms since it is well established that many slaves brought to the Americas were Muslims that could read, write and speak Arabic. It would have made even  more sense to use terms Hausa, Mandinka or Wolof terms!

This smaller, secondary issue actually is lesser to my last point, which is my issue with the founder of this bogus holiday named Maulana Karenga. It is documented that Karenga was an FBI dupe during the COINTELPRO era, who was used as an equalizer against the Black Panther Party. That African-Americans are actually observing a celebration instituted by an FBI tool that helped destablize the Black community is beyond me.

The bottom line for me is that I’m not down with Kwanzaa, and it has nothing to do with my identity as an American Muslim, who is a New African.  I can better spend my time observing sacred Islamic days such as ‘Aashoora or recognizing days that are authentic cultural markers such as Juneteeth or Malcolm X Day.

The Worrison Split Between FBI And U.S. Muslim Groups

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/The-Worrisome-Split-Between-FBI-and-US-Muslim-Groups-1967

By Max Fisher on December 18, 2009 4:14pm

For years, American Muslim groups have partnered arm-in-arm with the FBI, working to help root out extremists and protect American national security. But the New York Times reports that this could be changing. Muslim groups complain that the FBI has grown increasingly aggressive and antagonistic, utilizing tactics–such as infiltrating mosques–that alienate Muslims, making future support less likely. Is the once strong relationship between American Muslim groups and law enforcement officials in trouble?

• Turning Allies Into Antagonists Spencer Ackerman warns that FBI officials “depend on close community relations in order to distinguish between real threats and overblown fears. Much like how the best counterinsurgency practices in Iraq and Afghanistan depend on enabling a community to basically police itself, American Muslim leaders will either be partners in the effort — or, if treated as a bunch of targets of suspicion themselves, through intensified surveillance and arm-twisting to inform, they could withhold cooperation to everyone’s detriment.” Ackerman condemns the “destructive behavior,” writing, “Treat entire communities like an undifferentiated threat and they’ll react accordingly.”

• Don’t Abuse Muslims For Intel The American Prospect’s Adam Serwer laments, “As I’ve said before, a positive relationship between American Muslim communities and law enforcement is a crucial national security issue. But if Muslims are viewed by law enforcement merely as potential terrorists, informants, or — as the article put it — part of a terrorism ‘early warning system’ rather than American citizens who are entitled to the same rights and protections as everyone else, then establishing and maintaining that relationship will ultimately prove difficult.”

• Why Muslim Groups And FBI Must Partner The Guardian’s Wajahat Ali notes the case of Virginia-based Muslim-Americans who, when they discovered their sons had fled to join militants in Pakistan, consulted with a prominent Muslim group that promptly informed U.S. law enforcement. “[T]he Virginia Muslim community’s private and public response to the arrest of five of their young people marks a decisive change of proactive engagement with law enforcement resulting from mutual trust and open communication.” He writes:

Muslim American communities, law enforcement, and those who espouse prejudicial rhetoric nurtured by fear should reframe their reactionary narratives, which often paint one another as villains and enemies. This recent example illustrates that law enforcement agencies and Muslim American communities can no longer live in culturally isolated cocoons. Both parties are civic agents and citizens of the same country who must have respectful interaction to yield the greatest chance at curbing extremism and dissolving mutual mistrust.

More concerns of spying on Muslims

In the wake of yesterday’s disturbing news that the Department of Homeland Security was illegally spying on the Nation of Islam in 2007, today’s New York Times has a relevant story titled, “Muslims Say F.B.I. Tactics Sow Anger And Fear.”

President Obama must know that many thinkers within the Muslim World question the sincerity of his statements regarding the rights of Muslims in lieu of the many reports about immoral and sometimes illegal surveillance of American Muslims during his watch.  To many, this is not a mere holdover but a continuation of Bush era policies.

These failed policies could prompt a potential upsurge in American Muslims, especially young men, feeling alienated from their own country.  Connect this with the protracted wars that we are involved in Iraq, Somalia (de facto through assisting Ethiopia’s recent illegal invasion), and Afghanistan, such can serve the unintended purpose of some irresponsibly falling prey into extreme ideas like the 5 young D.C. area men, who were detained last week in Pakistan.

If President Obama, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and Attorney General Eric Holder have not reassessed the questions related to possible constitutional violations and the unintended consequences of these “fishing expeditions” in the America Muslim community, they best do so now.  The status quo isn’t making us any safer as a nation; it may be placing us at greater risk.

‘No More Hunger’ event on 1st of Muharram

‘No More Hunger’ Muharram Event

On Saturday, December 19th, the Muslim Congress will be holding a “No More Hunger” event.

Food items, clothing, coats, gloves, hats and scarves will be distributed in Downtown Detroit.  Monetary and/or new or clean used clothing will be accepted.

WHAT: “No More Hunger” Muharram Event

WHAT: Saturday, December 19, 200
11:00 am- Food packing
12:30 pm- Prayer
1:00 pm – Carpooling to Detroit for distribution

WHEN: Islamic Library of Dearborn
7801 Chase Rd.
Dearborn, MI 48126

* Saturday marks the start of Muharram, the first month on the Islamic calendar and one of the sacred months in Islam.

Neo-COINTELPRO alive & well

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/16/AR2009121604096.html

Documents show DHS improperly spied on National of Islam in 2007

By Spencer S. Hsu and Carrie Johnson

Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, December 17, 2009

The Department of Homeland Security improperly gathered intelligence on the Nation of Islam for eight months in 2007 when the leader of the black Muslim group, Louis Farrakhan, was in poor health and appeared to be yielding power, according to government documents released Wednesday.

The intelligence gathering violated domestic spying rules because analysts took longer than 180 days to determine whether the U.S-based group or its American members posed a terrorist threat. Analysts also disseminated their report too broadly, according to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group.

The disclosure was included in hundreds of heavily redacted pages released by the Justice Department as part of long-standing FOIA lawsuits about the government’s policies on terrorist surveillance, detention and treatment since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It marks the latest case of inappropriate domestic spying under rules that were expanded after the terror attacks to give intelligence agencies more latitude.

In a written statement, Homeland Security (DHS) spokesman Matthew Chandler said the agency has since implemented “a strong and rigorous system of safeguards and oversight to ensure similar products are neither created nor distributed.”

The agency, he said, “is fully committed to securing the nation from terrorist attacks and other threats, and we take very seriously our responsibility to protect the civil rights and liberties of the American people.” The 2007 study, titled “Nation of Islam: Uncertain Leadership Succession Poses Risks,” was recalled by agency lawyers within hours. The lawyers said it was not reviewed by the department’s intelligence chief before release.

Charles E. Allen, who was DHS undersecretary for intelligence and analysis at the time, said that although violations were unintentional and inadvertent — only publicly available information was collected — the report should never have been issued.

“The [Nation of Islam] organization — despite its highly volatile and extreme rhetoric — has neither advocated violence nor engaged in violence,” Allen wrote in a March 2008 memo. “Moreover, we have no indications that it will change its goals and priorities, even if there is a near-term change in the organization’s leadership.”

DHS clarified its intelligence collection rules in April 2008, and last December, then-Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey issued new terrorism and other domestic investigation guidelines.

Telephone messages for Ishmael Muhammad, a spokesman for the Nation of Islam in Chicago, were not immediately returned.

Allen, now a consultant with the Chertoff Group, said it was important for U.S. authorities not to limit unnecessarily their ability to monitor people who are moving from extreme ideas toward ideologically motivated violence, noting that al-Qaeda in 2006 shifted its strategy to train North Americans to engage in attacks.

“It’s a fine line,” Allen said. “We should not make the rules absolutely rigid, and they should be reviewed from time to time.”

Nathan Cardozo, a legal fellow for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, called the documents “extremely disturbing.”

Newly released documents also indicate the Justice Department considered bringing treason charges against John Walker Lindh, the Californian who became known as “the American Taliban” after he was captured in Afghanistan in 2001. That was contained in a December 2001 memo by John Yoo, a deputy assistant attorney general, and was released as part of FOIA litigation by the American Civil Liberties Union. In the memo, Yoo wrote that “treason cases have been rare in the Nation’s history,” but that Lindh’s conduct “may fit the elements.”

Staff writer Peter Finn and researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.