We have written here several times about the Arab cultural hegemony that tends to go along with Islam. Here in the same line are some thought-provoking observations about black Muslims from the Booker Rising blog, with thanks to Olivia:
You may remember Richard Reid (pictured), the British-born shoe bomber who tried to blow up an American airliner using bombs hidden in his shoes. Well, the half-Jamaican prisoner has issued a warning to the West – via a Scottish legal magazine – from his cell in America. He states that terrorist attacks on the West would not stop until the “Americans stop their oppression of the Muslims”. He specifically cites U.S. foreign policy in areas such as Iraq, Israel, and Afghanistan, as well as hitting out at Western governments which he argues glorify and promote immorality in the name of freedom.
What I am intrigued by is what is missing from his letter. Black Christians have formed a specifically black version of Christianity, which challenged the religion. Black Muslims have done the same (e.g., in Mali, Senegal, and even the Nation Of Islam), which I have previously and controversially argued serve as a moderating influence upon the religion. Let me borrow from Friedrich Engels here for a moment: my critique is black Muslim extremists who have incorporated the tenets of Arab supremacist thought. Their worldview is focused on Arab Muslim issues, and they exclusively see Arab Muslim culture, history, and issues as their cause. In effect, they are “Arabized”.
They go off about the Israel-Palestinian issue, but express zero concern for the far more massive genocide of blacks in Sudan. Not even for the black Muslims being slaughtered in that country’s western Darfur region. I guess this ain’t oppression of Muslims, because blacks don’t matter to them. They are obsessed with the treatment of Arab Muslims in faraway lands, but zero concern about Wahhabism in black communities, which undermines black cultures. Let’s not forget that many Arab (and Asian) Muslims consider their black peers to be religious heretics (and racially inferior), which explains their constant imperialism and ‘Arabization’ campaigns on the African continent. It reinforces itself in places like Mali, a mostly black, moderate Muslim democracy which faces a growing threat from Wahabist Islam imported from Saudi Arabia.
Links in the original. Read it all.