Mon 26 Feb 2007
Over the weekend, I happened to see the Reuters “report”: Post 9/11, Islam flourishes among blacks. I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to say about it, but I am very happy to see that Independent Conservative is already all over the case. The article, without actually having any hard statistics to back it, also kept referring vaguely to some sympathy between black Americans and Muslims because of reactions to radical terrorist acts. And that there is some connection because of government conspiracy. From the article:
They (the government) unplug black people and plug in Arabs or Muslims. They unplug Arabs and plug in communists. America needs war to maintain its economic status,” [cleric Nadim Ali] said.
Interestingly, the article also says that it not really about integrating with the existing religious community:
Black Americans typically attend mosques separate from Muslims from immigrant backgrounds despite sharing common beliefs, according to Aminah McCloud, religious studies professor at DePaul University in Chicago.
That makes me wonder whether or not this is about the attractiveness of the religion in any way, or simply a banner under which to recruit followers of the particular “clerics”. Of course, there’s no way to really leap to any conclusion, I’m sure that you could study the racial profiles of many Christian churches and make similar statements, much of which goes to reflect the racial makeup of the communities in which they are established.
But the report ended with the money quote:
For young African Americans, there is some attraction to learning about traditions that have been associated with resistance to European imperialism,” said [new convert Mark] King, who has adopted the name Bilal Mansa since his conversion.
Connecting religion with race is a very curious, and disturbing thinking. As Independent Conservative puts it bluntly:
Well unlike how things are done in Christianity, Muslims have no problem playing on race and it appears Blacks who enjoy having their ears and egos tickled and playing on Black versus White or African versus European are eating up the foul meat from the cult of Muhammad.
But please, go read the whole thing.
