As American Muslims, should we stand with the Pilgrims or the Indians?

Since Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation in 1863 in the midst of the Civil War, Americans have celebrated a November Thursday as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise. Since 1970, a Native American group in New England has observed this same day as a National Day of Mourning. They are descendents of the indigenous Wampanoag Indians who encountered the Pilgrims that landed at Plymouth Rock. Each year at Plymouth Rock itself, the group - along with hundreds of allies - mourn the theft of their lands and food by the Pilgrims, and the enslavement and subjugation of their ancestors. At the same time, they also look forward to an America filled with justice and freed of brutality.

So, should American Muslims give thanks and praise the Creator, or should we mourn on this day? We should both give thanks and remember the past. We should stand in earnest compassion with the Pilgrims and in genuine solidarity with the Indians, helping each in their needs. As the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "A person should help his brother whether he is the oppressor or the oppressed. If he is the oppressor he should prevent him from doing so, for that is his help; and if he is the oppressed he should be helped against oppression."

As Muslims, we should always be thankful and truly grateful for all that we have. Although things could be better, things could also always be much, much worse. We should be mindful of the distance we need to go - as individuals, as a community and as a country. As America marks a Day of Thanksgiving, let American Muslims also commit ourselves to both an unfailing gratitude and to the struggles for racial & economic justice and peace.

Let's make this a day of thanksgiving and remembrance of our heritage as American Muslims. Let's recount the warts and all, so we can better understand our role in America in these remarkable times.

This Thanksgiving, let's remember the Muslims who arrived in America in the hulls of slave ships after crossing the Middle Passage. After all, Malcolm X did say, "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock; Plymouth Rock landed on us!" Historians estimate that a quarter of African slaves brought to America were Muslim. When Alex Haley traced his Roots, he traced them through Kunte Kinte to a Muslim village in West Africa. Historian Sylviane Diouf has eloquently described this experience in her book "African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas". Let's give thanks for those lifted out of slavery, and for the dignity in struggle of the late Rosa Parks and her generation.

Let's remember the vision of religious pluralism of our Founding Fathers. According to James Hutson, chief of the Library of Congress' Manuscript division, the Founding Fathers - especially Thomas Jefferson & George Washington - "explicitly included Islam in their vision of the future of the republic". Thomas Jefferson was more proud of his effort to pass Virginia's landmark Statute for Establishing Religious Freedom in 1786 than he was of his presidency. (Some say a future president would be similarly more proud of his stint as the manager of baseball team in Texas.) In his Autobiography, Jefferson praised the Virginia Statute's "mantle of protection," which included "the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo and the Infidel." Let's give thanks for the religious freedoms we enjoy.

Let's remember the hand of friendship extended by the Sultan of Morocco, who made Morocco the first country to recognize the independence of the United States. Isn't it amazing that it is a Muslim land that has that honor? The 1787 Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Morocco and the United States stands as the basis for the longest unbroken treaty relationship between the US and any foreign country in the history of the Republic. Let's give thanks for those sincere efforts at peacemaking and bridge building in our time.

Let's remember the great American landmark, the Washington Monument on the Capitol Mall in Washington, DC. It was completed in the 1880s in part with the gift of funds from the Ottoman sultan in Istanbul, who as Caliph was also the figurehead leader of all Muslims. The Sultan's subjects included the populations of today's Middle East hotspots: Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. If you go to the Washington Monument, you can see the Sultan's commemorative plaque inside the Monument, which features a specially commissioned calligraphed poem in the Arabic script for the American people. Let's give thanks for wisdom, foresight, and small kindnesses in our leaders, communities, and families.

Let's remember the first American colonial conquest & occupation in the Muslim world which occurred during the Philippines-American War in the early 20th century, a war in which about 1.4 million Filipinos died. General Pershing accomplished in 10 or so years what the Spanish couldn't in 400 years. Fresh from fighting the Sioux at Wounded Knee, Pershing helped conquer the Muslim Moro peoples of the southern Philippines. The Colt .45 Gun, which was the standard issue handgun of the US Armed Forces until 1985, was invented specifically for the conquest of the Muslim Moro peoples. In one fateful siege, the Battle of Bud Bagsak, American troops killed 2000-3000 Muslim men, women, and children. Let's give thanks for those Muslims and Christians in the Philippines and around the world who are today breaking barriers and working for a new dawn free of oppression, exploitation and hate.

Let's all remember our own shortcomings, and give thanks for the infinite mercy, forgiveness, and love of our Creator.

Let's give thanks. Let's pray and work for a future of peace, justice, and nonviolence.

>"Perhaps because their way of life was superior to that of the Indians."

I can't believe you said that!!

>"It is precisely why many Muslims in the West segregate. And try to form communities of Muslims and hope they can attract the odd wary Westerner into their own fold by showing a model community."

If you ghettoize yourself, you're simply never visible enough for larger society to see you as a "model community."

Asif, your comments are very revealing and a bit scary - one of the main reasons I'm telling immigrant Muslims to go home.

You say,

"Which is why we are here!!!! ÏTo conquer the AmericasÓ "

I don't know where to begin. You ridicule the American governement for invading Iraq for commodities - then make a statement like that? YIKES

Y'all going to rounded up and put in camps a lot sooner than I originally thought. Better pack today.

How do you think your average American is going to respond to this statement of yours. They will likely understand that you are only voicing what most immigrant Muislims are thinking - then who is to blame them for putting you in camps? You are a threat and you just made that clear.

WOW!

The thing I object to the most is the arrogance from immigrant Muslims - they think themselves the choosen people - they think themselves the good example - they really do believe they are better than others and funny thing - they are so far from it.

Immigrant Muslims are really screwing things up ad they need to butt out and go home. This is not your concern - it is not your country and statments like the ones you just made are going to make it all the more difficult on all of us.

Please - GO HOME or at the very least, be quiet.

>>Please - GO HOME or at the very least, be quiet.<<

Please grow up or shut up. You are so full of it. Where do you get off telling people to "go home"??? Unless you're a Native Indian, which you most certainly are not, you are an immigrant. The only "camp" you need to go to is a detox center. We know you're not a Muslim.
You're in no position to make these demands, nazi boy. Now shut up and get your ass back in the trailer, I'm sure theres an Andy Griffith rerun on.

I would like to point out to our Friendly Combatant, that if it were not for "immigrant Muslims", you probably will still be steeped in jahaliyaa, like the rest of your hommies. You hommies were not "spiritual enough" to learn about Islam the first 200 years you were here, it was only when these so called immigrant Muslims started arriving in the 30s (to initiate Elijah Muhammad's Islam) and then in the 60s (to initiate mainstream Islam) that the so-called "American-Muslms" started to appear on the scene.

And btw, I am a local boy, I dono where you come up with this "immigrant Muslim" label for me. My problem perhaps is I am Muslim first and American or British or Canadian or whatever second. Or should I say, that is your problem ;-)

And why you so scared of camps bud???? Did nt you know before you converted reverted or whatever to Islam, that you are in America and there, if you dont follow their way, you go to camp???

Muslims everywhere else end up in camps, thanks to Americans, I dono why you so scared of getting the same treatment. Maybe you think you American-Muslim, so you dont deserve to go to camp.

Muslim is Muslim bud. Muslims belong in camps. Sahabah dont live in palaces and suburbs. What happened to all your sufi drivel all of a sudden. I quote "To be a real Muslim you must strip yourself from all of these notions of self .." What happened "yo"?????

Are we three years old. This reminds me of the tactics used by our Zionist friends. Do not argue the facts - just screem anti-semite at the top of your lungs.

My audience is not the immigrant Muslim, the eventual audience will be the American people and other western people. I think this is going to turn into a book and you have only seen the tip of the iceburg here.

No one here is arguing the relevant points. Increasingly, you will find yourself less welcome here - this is a fact that you had better start thinking about and developing a strategy for other than name calling and hysterical and emotional deflections away from the truth that is looking at you square in the face.

Muslim Go Home will also include chapters on Yankee Go Home - that will talk about the cultural war that the west has fought in the Middle East for centuries. The war that you lost - because you fell for the lies and immigrated here. Brain drain is one of the primary objectives in the Middle East strategy.

So, you don't know it yet, but I'm really the best thing to you happen to you - but you are all to caught up in dunya to realize it yet. Easier to say I'm not a Muslim, sheesh. What moronic dribble.

Unfortunately, most of you will not listen - that is already understood. We are here to help those with a capacity to be helped - not the blind idiots who are pawns in a plan they have no understanding about.

Read the Book when it comes out. Maybe it will wake you up. Probably not. But the immigrant Muslim is not the primary audience just the primary topic. Others will eagerly listen.

"Brain drain is one of the primary objectives in the Middle East strategy."

FC makes a good point here.

I am trying to provoke deep responses here - that is why I am being a bit confrontational - please excuse that. You have been my focus group to see what attitudes I am going to run into with the immigrant Muslim community - provoing you helps uncover those real attitudes better.

True or False.

The majority of immigrant Muslims are all just waiting for the day when they rule America - either by peaceful means or by force? I think if you are honest, the majority of you will have to answer yes. That is dead wrong and very scary.

Why, because you really have no idea what Islam is all about. You just think you know because, well, you are chosen, it iis your birthright. Every single Muslim by birth must become a convert. Converting means throughing off all notions of self - riding your ego. Even amongst the converts - few have acheived this level - partly because of following your bad example - partly because there are so few teachers out there.

I hope you all reflect on these issues and consider what it means to be better than others. Better is not a bigger car, a better title, a nicer home, more education, larger bank account, popularity or anything else in the real of this temporal world.

Better is realizing that you are nothing and not being concerned about the image you project to your friends and family - but only to the image you reflect to your Lord.

I appologize if I have offended any of you, but being offended now is going to be much better than what is in store for you later when the American people put you behind very tall fences.

Mark my words, that day is coming for al but for the coconuts who turn evidence against their brothers and sisters.

Peace

Typical Sufi Drivel. I am the sheikh, I am close to God, I know, you dont know. Want to reach God, you've gotta come thru me. Probably just starting out with his/her own cult (tareeqa), looking for recruits. Wrong web-site buddy.

>> is going to be much better than what is in store for you later when the American people put you behind very tall fences.<<

which is EXACTLY what the Makkans tried with the Prophet (pbuh). And look what it fetched them.

as a matter of fact, putting all Muslims in camps behind tall fences is exactly what Muslims in America need. Teach them how to work together and help each other. Right now they are behaving too much like Americans, each cloistered in his/her own castle in the suburbs.

I mean look what it did for the Jews, "going to camp." Ha ha haha hah hah ha. Nothing like prison my friend to disengage one from the duniya. So quit trying to scare us from what is good for us in the long run.

Seriously people, ignore Friendly Combat. The guy, gal, or thing has truly nothing to say and is eager to demonstrate that.

I think Asif has touched on all the important points. Good work. The blithering idiot known as the "friendly combat" is smoking something fierce if he thinks he'll be spared the camps which predicts for the rest of us.
While I agree that such calamities of birth should be ignored, this person is blatantly violating nettiquette with his behavior. I'm beginning to have doubts if this person is even a Muslim. I urge the webmaster to either ban him or atleast warn him.

Anti-Semite, anti-semite - you are an anti-semite. Yada, yada, yada . . . .

Argue the facts, or admit you have no defense.

You worship a golden cow and that cow is America. I see very little difference between the nature of the Jews that rejected Moses and most immigrant Muslims. In fact the Jews are better because they do not misrepresent themselves. You know exactly who you are dealing with - not so with most immigrant Muslims. Wolves in sheeps clothing posing as Muslims.

Wait and watch how well received this book will become, insha'a Allah.

On a positive note, I do appreciate the admin of this site letting these comments be posted. Perhaps you can do a book review when it is released.

As for your readership, pretty scary stuff. Maybe I'll end up quoting a couple of them in the book - thanks for the material and proving my position.

Asif, sorry to say, but you are out to lunch.

On the other hand, even though I don't like FC's rhetoric, what he is saying is right on. Ignore it at your own peril.

First off, I think this is a great discussion. I think most people incl. DrM, OmarG, Asif GM, and migo are really coming up with good points and its not turning to a boxing match.

FC, let me try to understand. Ok, so I am an immigrant - what exactly do I do? Are you saying that immigrants should go back and lead simple lives back home, go away from unis, technology etc. But do you think the same are good for the US? I mean I know Greens, and eco-activists and they truthfully maintain a position for everyone. I mean if it is just about 'immigrant Muslims' - where do you draw the line? So far, this just seems like old fashioned racism. Black and brown people ought to hang from trees, and the settled US maintains its lifestyle. When you say that your audience are not Muslims, thats the impression I get. If thats the case, then you don't need to worry. Most of us will anyways be reeling in poverty, disease, and economic exploitation that some sheikhs and "spiritual". (Frankly, its just a bunch of self-righteous, old men who usually happen to be personally rich and powerful.)

As for converts - believe me you are most welcome. A quarter of us are Afro-American converts, and they bring an authentic fresh perspective to the table. And take my word for it, the new, young Muslims are going to listen to more and more black Muslim leaders. I know how I and my college-going friends think. I've never talked to at length to a white muslim convert, because frankly I haven't seen more than a couple. I've read brother Jeffrey Lang and I agree with much of what he has to say. But I am not sure what exactly you are saying.

Thus the need for a well thought out book - it is a big subject.

I'm going after the convert mentality in this book as well - because, for the most part, they have adopted the foolish ways of the immigrant Muslim. That, perhaps, is my greatest concern.

If you reduce this on a level of a small family, it is much easier to understand. People have entered your house, without being invited and because you are a good thoughtful host you have up until this point accepted them. Then they sit where they like, attempt to influence your children in ways that are actually distructive to their well being, do things that are blatently wrong and justify it by saying it is Islam. They attempt to lead the prayer, when it is your home and your right to lead. They do not go away claiming they have a right to be in your home. Then they start disrupting your neighborhood, representing your family, by association, with their own ideas and thoughts - making all your neigbors believe you are of the same mentality.

Anyone, who is a sincere Muslim, would not be causing so much mischief and trouble. Anyone who came to America to do dawa, would come for short periods of time and work to train leaders amongst their own people who understand the people and the culture.

I have recently talked to a well known American leader who has been very aggresive in his critizism of other immigrant Muslims, but he himself is no different. He wishes to lead a people because he thinks himself better - he is not interested in helping indigenous Muslim lead themselves, in fact he has done more to damage indigenous Muslims than to help them - as he accuses other immigrant organizations. But look around him, everyone is an immigrant Muslim.

He was ordered to leave America, and God as my witness, one of the first things out of his mouth was, " what am I going to do to make money?"

It's pathetic.

Dawa is a flase excuse for coming to America to build your ego and enjoy dunya.

Many people in the Middle East have asked me if they should go to America to do dawa. My only response is, why not do dawa here amongst the people you know best? Do not people here need dawa more than in the west. Then I go on to tell them that they are just seeking to up their Imam status - that's the only reason they are going. They all walk out very unhappy. Some listen, not many.

I am not telling people to do something that I mayself have not already done. Have have migrated to holy lands and have lived here for some time. I like it here, I have no real desire to leave - in fact, having made the intention to immigrate to holy lands - it would be a major sin to leave. Only if you have authorization, may you go - or get kicked out.

I will always be a guest in this country - no matter what. My son understands things here very well, but he too is also a guest. This is not our country even though Islamically we have a right to be here. We act as guests in someone elses home and the people here appreciate it. I do not enter into the concerns of the people here - they know better, they must solve these problems. It would be complete arrogance for me to think otherwise.

I have been interviewed on several programs and they all want me to speak about politics here - I refuse and I tell them I am a guest and very happy to be a guest.

It's called respect for the local people, culture, customs and they should tolerate nothing less from myself and my family. If I make trouble, send me back to America. It's that simple.

Like I said, its a big topic, one hope to do justice.

"indigenous Muslims" ??? What are those??? There were no indigienous Muslims in America, until Muslim Immigrants came to America. Originally Henry Ford brought some from Arab lands for his factories. Later post WWII, the freed British colonies (known as the third world) started sending people to America.

So my dear FC, its the old chicken before the egg situation here. If so-called "Immigrant Muslims" had'nt showed up in America, then there probably would nt be "Indigenous Muslims" here to bad mouth the people who brought them Islam.

Try to look at the positive side and thank your Lord that there are masajid all over America built on the blood and sweat of "Immigrant Muslims" (and globs of Saudi oil money here and there ;-))