The Unbreakable Leo

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 11^th 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.