One of the favorite themes of apologists for Islam is that the faith is open to people of all races and ethnicities, and that they are, within the umma, treated equally. The figure of Bilal, an Ethiopian born in 580 A.D., who became a slave in Mecca and then, after his conversion to Islam, was set free, is central to this narrative. For Bilal was not only one of the Companions of the Prophet, but was the very first muezzin, calling Muslims to prayer with his deep, melodious voice.
The story, as told by Fawaz Turki in the Gulf News, is HERE:
“Adhan, the call summoning the faithful to prayer, delivered by a muezzin, has rang [sic] out from atop the minarets of mosques around the world for the last 15 centuries, ever since the Islamic commonwealth of nations began in the seventh century to spread its wings to the West and East — where, indeed, the twain did actually meet, and meet in a communal sense of reference and devout compliance to [sic] a shared faith.
Comment:
It is inaccurate to describe the peoples and lands conquered by the forces of Islam as a “commonwealth of nations,” an anachronism that does not adequately describe the Islamic state in which conquered nations are not joined as equals in a “commonwealth” but subsumed in a caliphate.
“At no time on the Muslim calendar does the adhan cohere [sic[ Muslims together more than during Ramadan, when even unobservant or lax Muslims find themselves, through fasting and prayer, truly close to the divine in their lives. It is with the muezzin’s call to prayer, heralding the advent of dawn, that they begin their fast, and with it, at sunset, that they end it.
“And here you cannot reflect on the genesis of adhan without evoking the name of Bilal Bin Rabah, or simply Bilal, as he is often referred to when his legacy as the first muezzin in Islam is evoked, a figure with an honoured place in modern Islamic Studies and, more recently, in the imagination of African-American Muslims.”
“The story of Bilal does not only fascinate us, it also points by implication to how Islam as a faith is steadfast in its refusal to attach significance to a human being’s skin color.
“Bilal, a former slave born in Makkah to Ethiopian (then known as Abyssinian) parents in 580AD, was freed soon after he embraced the Message, and from there on it was as if salvation imbued his bruised spirit, and the hero in him stepped towards grace out of the shadow of damnation. He went on to become one of the Companions of the Prophet (PBUH), engaging with him in every major military expedition launched by the then emergent faith, including the Battle of Badr in 630, where Muslims defeated an army three times the size of their own.
‘It was at that battle that Bilal reportedly faced his former slave master and put him to the sword. In the immediate aftermath of the liberation of Makkah, Bilal, who had long before been chosen by the Prophet (PBUH) to become the first muezzin, ascended to the top of the Ka’aba, in Islam’s holiest city, and called the Muslim faithful to prayer. Makkah would henceforth become the focal point of Islam’s new, zestful tense [sic] of reality.
“And Bilal, we are told, had an extraordinarily melodious, deep-bass voice.
“Muezzins are venerate [sic] in Islam, but the first in it to become one, in this case an African Arab, is held in special regard because he is viewed as a symbol of how Islam does not define human beings by their national, ethnic, racial or class background, but by their taqwa, or piety. Don’t dig deep into the Holy Texts for proof of that. Just read The Farewell Sermon. delivered by the Prophet (PBUH) at Mount Ararat in March 632. Various versions of it have been published (all thematically, though not textually the same), but I choose that of Imam Al Bukhari (d. 870): “Oh people/ your God is one and you share the same father/ There is no preference for Arabs over non-Arabs/nor for non-Arabs over Arabs/ Neither is there preference for white people over black people/ nor for black people over white people.”
Comment:
Let’s limit ourselves here to discussing this first claim by Turki the “there is no preference for Arabs over non-Arabs” in Islam. This claim is flatly contradicted by the behavior of Muslims themselves, including both the Arabs, with their sense of superiority, and the non-Arabs, who keenly felt their lesser worth, with some falsely claiming an Arab lineage. It’s not hard to see why the late scholar of Islam, Anwar Shaikh, described Islam as the “vehicle for Arab supremacism.” Consider all the reasons why that should be so. The message of Allah was delivered to a 7th century Arab, and in his language, Arabic. The Qur’an should ideally be read, and recited, only in Arabic. Muslims all over the world, prostrate in prayer, face turn several times a day toward Mecca, in western Arabia. Muslims are supposed to go on hajj, at least once in their lives, again to Mecca, in Arabia. Many non-Arab Muslims long ago took Arab names, as many converts do today, so great is the prestige of the Arabs within Islam. Some non-Arabs, especially in Pakistan, assume false Arab lineages; there are many who call themselves “Sayyids,” signifying descent from the tribe of the Prophet.
Arab supremacism is also confirmed in statements by many Arabs, including the most reliable compilers of hadith (Al-Bukhari and Muslim), the most celebrated historians, and the most respected Qur’anic commentators.
First, there is the claim of Arab superiority to all non-Arabs:
“Arabs are the most noble people in lineage, the most prominent, and the best in deeds. We were the first to respond to the call of the Prophet. We are Allah’s helpers and the viziers of His Messenger. We fight people until they believe in Allah. He who believes in Allah and His Messenger has protected his life and possessions from us. As for one who disbelieves, we will fight him forever in Allah’s Cause. Killing him is a small matter to us.( Al-Tabari, Vol. 9, p. 69)
“A man married a maid-slave who bore him a child. Would that child be free or would he be an owned slave?” “Her child whom she bore from him would be the property of her master according to all the Imams (heads of the four Islamic schools of law) because the child follows the (status) of his mother in freedom or slavery. If the child is not of the race of Arabs, then he is definitely an owned slave according to the scholars, but the scholars disputed (his status) among themselves if he was from the Arabs – whether he must be enslaved or not because when A’isha (Muhammad’s wife) had a maid-slave who was an Arab, Muhammad said to A’isha, `Set this maid free because she is from the children of Ishmael.'”
(Ibn Timiyya, Vol. 31, pp. 376-377)“The fact that Allah Most High has chosen the Arabs over other nations is affirmed in rigorously authenticated hadiths of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and give him peace; related by Bukhari and Muslim in their “Sahih” in the beginning of the chapter of merits, # 5897, on the authority of Wathilah ibn al-Asqa` who said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, ‘Verily Allah has chosen Kinanah from the son of Isma`il, and He has chosen Quraysh from among Kinanah and He has chosen Has-him from among Quraysh and He has chosen me from the Bani Hashim.’” [These are all Arab tribes.]
“So this hadith [though not according to Fawaz Turki] is a primary text about the preference of Arabs over others and the preference of some Arabs over other Arabs.
“It is obligatory on a Muslim to believe that Arabs are preferred over other nations because there is a proof for it… But if one does reject this, one has sinned for not believing in it because it is an affirmed matter according to a clear rigorously authenticated hadith. Also, this issue is not something that is commonly known among most Muslims, so for this, one should not hasten to blame one who disagrees with it. It is necessary, rather, to tell him about the issue.
There are many similar hadith that describe the superiority of the Arabs over all non-Arabs. Fawaz Turki needs to brush up on his knowledge of these hadith before claiming that there is no distinction made between Arabs and non-Arabs in Islam; as Berbers and Kurds have been treated by Arabs, who have suppressed the linguistic and cultural expressions of the former in North Africa, and massacred outright nearly 200,000 of the latter in Iraq.
While there is ample evidence for the belief among Muslims that Arabs are superior to non-Arabs, there is also a great deal of evidence that in Islam, whites are considered to be superior to blacks, who are described shamelessly in deeply racist terms. That discussion will come in the next installment.
DiploNerd says
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZxH4QYLRQY
David Wood exposes what the early Islamic sources really say about race: Muhammad: The White Prophet with Black Slaves
Niemoller says
If the Bilal story was about a happy slave who was educated and emancipated by his warmhearted master in the American antebellum south, it would be derided as pure racist claptrap and rationale for benevolent slavery. In fact, there are many stories like that, yet slavery remained, as it does to this day in Islam, conversion or not.
The conversion lie is a ruse to the naive West; black slaves were typically castrated in Islamic slavery. What did the Arab master say, “Great, you converted to Islam, you’re now free, I lost my investment and sorry about your balls.” Give me a break. Islam is racist because Muhammad was racist. Don’t believe that fake last sermon going around either, it was written last century.
gravenimage says
Good post.
William A Carr says
Muslims are the ultimate racists whatever they claim as they believe they are the superiors of the human race who are not Muslim
J D.S says
In past centuries as is today…Muslims were and are a super large part of slave history both owning slaves and selling them.
J D.S says
OOPS!!!forgot to add…islam itself is SLAVERY!.
Jayell says
If Bilal had been educated, emancipated and converted by a typical.master in the Southern States of yhe USA, there now be people queueing up to denounce him as an ‘Uncle Tom’. We even have our reverred Mayor of London using that term about non-Westerners who follow our ways.
Niemoller says
Yes, very true. And that Khan was a jihadist lawyer who specialized in protecting Islamoterrorists. He chose that role repeatedly, he was not assigned it. He is no more a legitimate mayor of London than the Vichy France nazi regime was the ruler of France.
Anjuli Pandavar says
Niemoller,
+1
mortimer says
Hugh Fitzgerald has done a good job revealing the PROFOUNDLY RACIST basis of Islam, favoring not only the ARABS as racially superior, but the CLAN of the KORAYSH as being the only fit clan to rule over the ISLAMIC EMPIRE.
Fawaz Turki is not just a self-conscious liar, but a paid disinformationist.
Tabari II:11 “Shem, the son of Noah was the father of the Arabs, the Persians, and the Greeks; Ham was the father of the Black Africans; and Japheth was the father of the Turks and of Gog and Magog who were cousins of the Turks. Noah prayed that the prophets and apostles would be descended from Shem and kings would be from Japheth. He prayed that the African’s color would change so that their descendants would be slaves to the Arabs and Turks.”
Tabari II:21 “Ham [Africans] begat all those who are black and curly-haired, while Japheth [Turks] begat all those who are full-faced with small eyes, and Shem [Arabs] begat everyone who is handsome of face with beautiful hair. Noah prayed that the hair of Ham’s descendants would not grow beyond their ears, and that whenever his descendants met Shem’s, the latter would enslave them.”
mortimer says
Islam is systemically racist. Muslims of non-Arab heritage are aware of the condescending attitudes of Arabs towards them.
Arab racism is a dirty secret among Muslims.
andrew mckendrick says
Deep bass voice when he was probably castrated ?? Who is he kidding?
Laura says
Castration after puberty does not affect the voice.
Niemoller says
That’s a fake version of Mohammad’s last sermon translated with “black” and “white”. It was written in 20th century. I challenge Turki to produce it in a writing by Al Bukhari.
gravenimage says
Good point.
gravenimage says
Fawaz Turki in the Gulf News on Arabs and non-Arabs in Islam (Part 1)
……………………..
Utter whitewash. Islam has always been Arab supremacist, and millions of Black Africans were enslaved by Arab Muslims–a trade that not only predated, dwarfed, and inspired the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but that much outlasted it–in fact, it survives to this day. Does Fawaz Turki have anything to say about this? Of course not…
Turki also regularly whitewashes the Jihad against Israel.
Mike says
In Mohammed ‘s time , every slave could be set free ……if he SUBMIT to Islam ( another slavery , another master: Mohammed and his imaginary god) .
kuriakose says
islam-watch.org (a website run by ex muslims) has an excellent article on the fraudulent translation of moe’s last sermon:
https://www.islam-watch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=134:fraudulent-translation-of-muhammad-last-sermon-egalitarian&catid=89:other-authors&Itemid=58
Or wikiislam: https://wikiislam.net/wiki/The_Farewell_Sermon
Quote from his farewell sermon: ……. O people, you have a right over your wives and they have a right over you. You have [the right] that they should not cause anyone of whom you dislike to tread on your beds; and that they should not commit any open indecency. If they do, then Allah permits you to shut them in separate rooms and to beat them, but not severely. If they abstain from [evil], they have the right to their food and clothing in accordance with the custom. Treat women well, for they are [like] domestic animals with you and do not possess anything for themselves……….
Conveniently left out by the muhameddan.
Reziac says
I have wondered just how …enlightened… the translations would be, were all the translators Arab Muslims bent on taqiyya. Good thing we have translations by Western scholars, to keep them …well, partially honest.
Baha’i started as a Muslim heresy of sorts, and I have likewise wondered why, when their Prophet’s writings are extant in the original, only about a third have been translated into English. While back I came across a site where a Muslim had translated some early contemporary documents (or so he claimed; I have no way to confirm) and let’s just say they were rather bloody-minded.
kuriakose says
The early writings by muslim scholars are probably the best representation of islam-they were truimphant and did not feel the need to apologise for the evil inherent in islam . After all didn’t allah make the muslims truimphant at that time? It is only those who, coming from other cultures and religions with superior ethics and morals, or those in contact with better civilisations, who try to reinterpret islam to fit their conscience.
But many still believe and follow the original islam.
Sentinel says
This should give pause to all the non-Arab Muslims – they even the Arabs should leave the heresy of Islam. There is no salvation only death in Islam.
FYI says
“Whoever says the prophet is BLACK is killed.The prophet was NOT BLACK”
Ash Shifa
So an automatic execution awaited anyone who dared say muhammed was..BLACK.
That was the WORST INSULT aanyone could say about islam’s cross-dressing,self-confessed false prophet{al tabari 6;111}
muhammed and his henchmen were White Arab racist supremacists!
Didn’t Perfect Mo sell African slaves {Sahih muslim 3901}..”And he sold him{a slave} for TWO OF THE BLACKS”
I guess the islamic apologists like Turki prefer to ignore that..
Michael Copeland says
A “commonwealth of nations”?
Not so.
“Prophet said ‘the muslim nation is one nation to the exclusion of all others'”
Placard
(in pro-Sharia march, Oxford St.:see thinkafricapress)
Niemoller says
Here’s the probable inspiration for Turki’s bogus last sermon quote:
Galatians 3:28 New International Version (NIV)
28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
There is probably similar verses in the Torah. BTW, Al Bukhari wrote more than 200 years after Mohammad died. It’s completely absurd to call his writings Islamic; it’s at best it’s inspired folklore, but Bukhari is now “too big to fail” so Muslims are in a permanent state of violating the Koran and de facto creating new prophetic writings after Muhammad died.
Michael Copeland says
What did Ibn Khaldun say about Arabs?
“(the Arabs) are a savage nation ……Savagery has become their character and nature. They enjoy it, because it means freedom from authority…..
Furthermore, it is their nature to plunder whatever other people possess.
Furthermore, (the Arabs) are not concerned with laws. …. They care only for the property that they might take away from people through looting and imposts.
It is noteworthy how civilization always collapsed in places the Arabs took over and conquered…”
https://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/32183-Ibn-Khaldun-(1332-1406)-on-the-Arabs-in-his-The-Muqaddimah
Watchingtheweasels says
It was foretold that lshmael would be:
“a wild ass among men; his hand shall be against every man, and every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell over against all his brethren” (Genesis 16:12).
Charles Marlow says
I heard an Iraqi-born Christian say the number of real Arabs is quite small, that the people we call Arabs are not truly such. I don’t see this said elsewhere. Yet this article makes it an interesting topic.
Ed says
The story of Bilal’s emancipation, as recorded in Ibn Ishaq’s Life of Muhammad, gives details that Muslim apologists leave out. Abu Bakr informed Bilal’s owner that he would trade Bilal for “a black slave, tougher and stronger than he, who is a heathen.” That indicates that Abu Bakr was a slave owner and slave trader, blacks were of less value than non-blacks, and non-believers were of less value than Musims.
bill53 says
I really HATE islam, it needs to be utterly destroyed. islam is not an “Abrahamic religion” only Judaism and Christianity qualify for that title. islam is a gutter religion, all muslims need to convert or go away. By go away I mean the moon or Mars.
Anjuli Pandavar says
This raises some interesting questions:
1. Are Chechens, Tatars, Bosniaks and Albanians superior to Arabs, or the other way round?
2. Are Christian Lebanese (white Arabs) superior to Sudanese Muslims (black Arabs), or the other way round?
3. A Muslim discovers that his two recently-acquired sex slaves are not what he’d imagined: the white one was actually a Muslim and the black one was an Arab. What does he do?
Niemoller says
Islam creates bizarre, dysfunctional worlds. That’s clear from the daily news and history.
gravenimage says
Muslims are always considered superior to Infidels, no matter what.
Anjuli Pandavar says
When I left Islam, my brother pointed out to me that a Muslim is a better person than a non-Muslim. I reminded him that our cousin was a criminal. He had no come-back to that.
gravenimage says
Thank you for that story, Anjuli.