I’ve lost my heart That invincible 17 year old that resides in all of us Ready to take on the world, swiftly shifting challenges Equipped to take on all opponents without the slightest apprehension To seek and conquer all dreams like a Shabazz warrior to leave my mark Stamping it for generations to follow in my footsteps as I follow those before
I’ve lost that which defined my ambitions That unwillingness to except only success from future endeavors Like a low ranking knight perceptive to his place in this world Once I was a king eager to lead a victorious army Now a Prince unable to ascend to the throne Clouded thoughts will one day give way to the path where my heart awaits Above all, I must stay true
Having lived in a multitude of cities across this vast country, I’ve learned there is one problem in the Muslim community that no one speaks of. The differences between the African-American and “Immigrant” Muslim communities have held Muslims in America back for almost 50 years now. It’s it time to get over these differences and move forward? A few moments brought this issue to light for me.
Between 2003-2005 I lived in an African-American Muslim community in North Minneapolis, MN. Although the community was 95% African-America, the leaders of the mosque seemed extremely open to joint participation between the two groups. I never noticed the separation between the groups until 2004 when I joined a group of older men and drove to Chicago for The Mosque Cares Annual Conference sponsored by Imam W.D. Muhammad.Topics included the richness of Muslim Identity in North America with the influx of slaves from Muslim areas of Africa. For me, it showed me that the history and Islamic Identity of Muslims was not lost as most people think. I stood and observed numerous photo displays of old slave churches that had Arabic carved into the back of pews and headstones in cemeteries written in Arabic. African-American Muslims are proud of their continuous presence in a country that has refused to take noticed of them. But on the other side of town ISNA, which is comprised of the immigrant Muslim communities, held their own conference at the same time without recognition. We were encouraged to branch out to our Muslim brothers and sister and attend their conference, although no one felt inclined because no one from their conference wanted to hear what we had to say about life in America and our right to build a larger inclusive Muslim community. One more stated in passing that "I refused to be treated as a red headed stepchild by other Muslims. Haven't white people done that to us enough?"
Now it seems that in the post September 11th world, the Islamic identity of America has been held hostage instead of shared mainly by the immigrant Muslim population. Just after the World Trade Center attacks Oprah hosted a show made up of Muslim women. Not one of those women was African-American. It was as if we had been overlooked for our sisters who are first generation American Muslims. Not to discount their plight, but I found it highly uneasy that not one African-American women was asked to be on the show, even though African-Americans make up the dominate Muslim population in America. Do we not have a voice when it comes to being singled out for viscous attack and misunderstanding from the American populous? Outside of Native Americans, African-American, Muslim or not have been fighting the stigma of being pariah’s in America for 400 years. African-American Muslims don't want others to bow down to use, but at the same time we don't want others to think that we have to bow down to them or admit to some kind of superiority complex that other groups may have.
In 2002, I took a trip to an African-America mosque in Kansas City, Missouri. It hadn’t been a year since the attacks in New York and DC and as I walked through the men's door I easily felt a tension in the air. A week before my arrival, while everyone was in the middle of jummah prayer, a white man walked in the front door of the mosque with a gun. The men in the room quickly subdued him and called the police. After that the community was never the same. People in America took out their aggression on any Muslims they could find, not just Arabs or anyone who looked Middle Eastern. We all bore the brunt of Americans rage, but it seemed when African-Americans tried to comfort our Muslim neighbors we were largely ignored and marginalized as “not being real Muslims.” Until we find a way to unite, we will only fight like siblings in the front yard for all the neighbors to see.
Aha It's dat real Yo, why is Jadakiss as hard as it gets Why is the industry designed to keep the artist in debt And why them dudes ain't ridin' if they part of yo set And why they never get it poppin' but they party to death Yea, and why they gon give you life for a murder Turn around only give you eight months for a burner, it's goin down Why they sellin' ni**az CD's for under a dime If it's all love daddy why you come wit your nine Why my ni**az ain't get that cake Why is a brother up North better than Jordan That ain't get that break Why you ain't stackin' instead of tryin' to be fly Why is rattin' at an all time high Why are you even alive Why they kill Tupac n' Chris Why at the bar you ain't take straight shots instead of poppin Crist' Why them bullets have to hit that door Why did Kobe have to hit that raw Why he kiss that whore Why
All that I been givin' Is this thing that I've been living They got me in the system Why they gotta do me like that Try'd to make it my way But got sent up on the highway Why, oh why Why they gotta do me like that
Why would ni**az push pounds and powder Why did Bush knock down the towers Why you around them cowards Why Aaliyah have to take that flight Why my ni**a D ain't pull out his Ferrari Why he take that bike Why they gotta open your package and read your mail Why they stop lettin' ni**az get degreez in jail Why you gotta do eighty-five percent of your time And why do ni**az lie in eighty-five percent of they rhymes Why a ni**a always want what he can't have Why I can't come through in the pecan Jag Why did crack have to hit so hard Even though it's almost over Why ni**az can't get no jobs Why they come up wit the witness protection Why they let the terminator win the election Come on, pay attention Why sell in the stores what you can sell in the streets Why I say the hottest shit but we sellin' the least
Uh, yea, yo Why Halle have to let a white man pop her to get a Oscar Why Denzel have to be crooked before he took it Why they didn't make the CL6 wit a clutch And if you don't smoke why the hell you reachin' for my dutch Why rap, cause I need air time Why be on the curb wit a "why lie I need a beer" sign Why all the young ni**az is dyin' Cause they moms at work, they pops is gone, they livin' wit iron Why they ain't give us a cure for aids Why my diesel have fiends in the spot on the floor for days Why you screamin' like it's slug, it's only the hawk Why my buzz in L.A. ain't like it is in New York Why you forcin' you to be hard Why ain't you a thug by choice Why the whole world love my voice Why try to tell 'em that it's the flow son And you know why they made the new twenties Cause I got all my old ones That's why
As a young man I grew up always believing in the concept of tauhed even if I didn’t know the name for it in Arabic. There is no god but God and nothing is equal or comparable to him. Openly I broke with my parent’s Christian faith and tradition and chose to follow God’s way through the avenue of Islam. Not having a lot of materials to read about it, my intellect was stimulated through constant contact with hip hop culture. Through verse after verse I wasn’t taught about Islam, but rather reminded of words associated with it. So at times I felt that I was being slowly introduced to something that was changing my life.
The changing ideology of rap music and hip hop culture as a whole appeared to me over time. As a 15 year old boy I listened to people talk about making it through hard times with street smarts and rebuilding broken communities through educating the youth. As Inspectah Deck put it, “I kick the truth, for the young black youth.” Now as a 30 year old man I hear men talk about sexual exploits and the worship of money. At times it saddens me to see that hip hop in general became the very thing it preached against in my childhood. It became a sell out corporate tool only to make money for the few rich white CEO’s and not to rebuild those broke communities that so many rappers came from that has now become a badge of honor rather then a source for change.
One artist in particular shaped my thinking in ways I didn’t understand until I was older. I cherished her conscious understanding of the religious diversity of the Black community. She cleverly wove words of intelligence to plant the seeds of consciousness that the community so anxiously craved. It seemed that she tried to speak to all to awaken not just a single person, but the world. In Lauryn Hill’s song Doo Wop she starts the song off “Yo, my men and my women, don't forget about the deen, Sirat al-Mustaqim.” As she continues on, her words later divulge more:
To begin, how you think you really gon' pretend Like you wasn't down then you called him again Plus when you give it up so easy you ain't even foolin’ him If you did it then, then you’d probably fuck again Talking out your neck sayin' you're a Christian A Muslim sleeping with the jinn
In another song entitled Final Hour she recites perhaps one of my favorite verses she’s composed: I'm about to be in it For a minute Then run for senate Make a slum lord be the tenant Give his money to kids to spend it And then amend it Every law that ever prevented Our survival since our arrival Documented in the bible Like Moses and Aaron Things gon change, it's apparent And all the transparent gonna Be seen through Let God redeem you Keep your deen true You can get the green too Watch out what you cling to
This verse doesn’t need any translation for me, although for others it might. But I believe that she tops the song off perfectly in parts of her last verse:
Now I'm a get the mozzarella like a Rockerfeller Still be in the church of Lalibela Singing hymns a cappella Whether posed in Maribella in Couture Or collectin' residuals from off the Score I'm makin' sure I'm with the 144 I've been here before this ain't a battle this is war Word to Boonie I make salaat like a Sunni Get diplomatic immunity in every ghetto community Had opportunity went from Hoodshock to Hood-chic But it ain't what you cop It's about what you keep
Song like these reinforced my ideas that all religions are just paths to the same destination. For me, my path is Islam but listening to people like Lauryn gave me much pride since too often it seemed that in the African-American community Muslims are at odds with their Christian neighbors. But at that time rap music brought younger people together and isn’t that what it’s all really about? Lauryn Hill isn’t Muslim, but then again why does she need to be. Hip Hop is a tool that made public the voices of the neglected and disenfranchised.
“Leave it up to me while I be living proof/ To kick the truth to the young black youth/ But shorty's running wild smokin sess drinkin beer/ And ain't trying to hear what I'm kickin in his ear." -Inspectah Deck
Today, Libya’s President Moammar Gadhafi gave a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Personally I’m always interested in what he has to say. Moammar Gadhafi might be the only leader who not only says what’s on his mind, but also speaks up for those who are afraid to speak for themselves in fear of loosing their economic aid from countries like the United States.
Both CNN and BBC dedicated a large block of their programming to inform the world just what they thought of him. “A terrorist and a madman” said Jim Caferty from CNN. “An odd speech” stated a BBC correspondent. But as many of us know, corporate media outlets never offer a diverse number of opinions. So for all of us who consider ourselves as free thinking citizens of the world, I take up one side of the discussion to offer a rebuttal to all of those who remain blissfully unaware of how world history continues to shape the modern world.
His speech was rather long for my taste, he none the less mentioned some things that people don’t pay attention to in our world of white dominated media. One point that he made which was an excellent point was about the structure of the United Nations. Even Hugo Chavez has made some similar remarks in the past. Gadhafi begin reading from the UN charter preamble stating “Armed force can ONLY be used when it’s a common interest of all nations. Since this was signed, 65 wars have broken out.” As the camera cut to other members of the assembly, mainly European nations, they looked upon with amusement.He continued by stating, “According to the charter, all nations are equal, large and small. But do the smaller nations have the power of the veto?” Honestly he makes an excellent point. The other 180 nations that have signed onto the charter are almost held hostage but the 10 members of the Security Council. These 10 nations are mainly comprised of the most powerful countries on earth either economically or militarily. Fortunately since the creation of the charter, the world has changed to say the least. If things in the world have changed though, should the place that reflects the diversity of the world change as well to accommodate that change. If not, then we are truly living in the past with a unholy superiority complex. “Why is it that all the articles that come after the preamble of the charter contradicts the preamble? This is what we are against,” he said at one point during his speech.
Watching CNN, for some reason I found myself almost in awe by the way they commented on the speech. A few things that he made remarks about seemed to go over the heads of many of the reporters. At one point Gadhafi talked about how he was tired and let-lagged. How most of the countries that were represented are asleep right now and that maybe the UN should move to India or China. Donna Brazile from CNN called him crazy from these statements. Well Ms. Brazile let me break it down for you. Everyone is the world is tired of bowing down to the American Empire. Like it or not we are an Empire that patrols the world, taking what we want and leaving the scraps for the natives. Gadhafi is tired because he had a 15 hour flight from Libya. He wishes to have a more fair and just UN, not some kind of European aligned dictatorship which it has become. Interestingly enough, when Gadhafi and Chavez make comments about how the UN and power of the veto are unfair and undemocratic, the majority of the UN Assembly applauds. This is the most they can do without loosing their funding from the US that keeps their destroyed economies alive. Economies that we helped destroy thanks to globalization.
I must say that one of the biggest applauds given during his speech was when he actually said one bad thing about Obama. Gadhafi made a comment about that fact that Obama gave his speech and walked directly out of the building, like he was Elvis himself. All of the other leaders stick around and listen to everyone else’s speeches. Sorry Barak, but this is also part of the job. That kind of attitude is exactly what the world can’t stand about America.
Many people in the world don’t like Libya and what it stands for. Although in America we seem to not like a lot of things that we know nothing or have very limited information about. From now on it should be a prerequisite that all people applying for jobs with international news outlets should have an intermediate understanding of the world and more then just the watered down history of America they learned in our already malnourished education system. Hugo Chavez and Moammar Gadhafi my not be friends of the American government, but they speak a lot of truth when given a public forum to share their ideals.
The name should say it all, but it doesn't. Unbreakable Leo is only a part of me, but a large part none the less. For some it might be easy to tell, but I an a Leo and proud of it. Born in the month of August to two free thinking intellectuals.
Being a Leo is unlike most signs. Not being a person who fully subscribes to the idea of horoscopes, I better understand each year what people mean when they say I have a fire sign. All my youth I felt that I made it to where I am today by the grace of God and a strong will and determination. I take much pride in being a Leo, mainly because until recently I considered myself unique due to the fact that I'd come in contact with few other Leos'.
But I'm sure where you'd never guess where I got the name "Unbreakable." On April 28th at 2:30am I crossed the burning sands into the land of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. As is tradition we all give each other nicknames that speaks to each brothers personality. A few of my close friends gave me the name "Unbreakable." They said it was because I refused to break under the pressures I face. But I think it's better to say that I bend and don't break.
So there you have it, the reason for my name. Nothing profound. No knowledge to be dropped. With any name this rose would still smell just as sweet.
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