My brother Dawud Walid wrote an article recently decrying an emerging “don’t judge” culture amongst Muslims in the United States. I misunderstood what he was referring to in the beginning and engaged him on twitter. I think that I see his point now, but I wanted to address a few things and explain my points in a manner that I could not on twitter.

Please note that I am not implying that Dawud is arguing for any of what I am opposing below (indeed he states very clearly that Muslims are NOT a monolith as well). I am simply extrapolating my thoughts from twitter:

Firstly, we are all the sum of our experiences in life. These experiences affect us in ways we don’t even realize. Back in the 1990s a group of Muslims and I started a small mosque in the Newark area (that continues to operate to this day) and we were immediately disparaged as “deviants” and “munafiqs” by another area mosque and their imam with the purpose of trying to destroy our efforts. An entire tape series was recorded and distributed across the English speaking world denouncing us as somehow “insufficiently Muslim”. To make a long story short, from this experience I have become very allergic to any effort to attempt to codify a single interpretation of Islam as the “real” Islam. This also informed my twitter responses to Dawud. The very same “don’t judge” type arguments were used against us by this very sectarian group.

I strongly believe that every Muslim should be free to practice Islam exactly as they see fit and I oppose any effort (subtly or otherwise) to impose a particular version or interpretation of Islam as “the” Islam. The point that Muslims are NOT a monolith needs to be emphasized REPEATED until it sticks! There is no papacy or clergy in Islam no matter what some may say. There has been and remains today an enormous range of dogmas, practices and versions of Islam that must be accommodated for us to get along peacefully. On the other hand, if a particular group/sect of Muslims want to follow a quasi-papacy, then they should feel free to do that if that is what they feel they must do. But they should not attempt to impose that upon all Muslims. This is exactly what leads to argumentation and even fighting and killing because there is very little “absolute consensus” amongst Muslims.  Never has been and never will be. But we can live in peace.

Yes, all Muslims agree, for example, that idolatry is impermissible, but there are groups that accuse other Muslims of idolatry. There are Muslims groups that claim that the act of voting is idolatry. And idolators are “kufaar” and thus their blood is “halal”. Or so goes the reasoning of groups such as “Jubhat alNurah” and the “Islamic State of Iraq and Sham”.

There are indeed some Muslim groups whose goal is to obliterate heterogeneity amongst the Muslims and establish their own version of Islam as “the” Islam with themselves as the purveyors of what is and what is not “Islamic”. This is misguided and leads to sectarian war. In my very own example, I had to wear a bullet proof vest for weeks for fear of my own life.

The question comes in as to WHO is going to determine idolatry and the idolator? Who is going to determine what is to be done with that person? My answer is that each person should be left to follow their own conscience. If a person believes that smoking marijuana is harmful and impermissible (as I do), then he/she should not partake in it. If a person believes that music is haram (as I do NOT) then they should refrain from listening to it. Even as much as I may personally disagree with a neo-con like Zhuddi Jasser, I would never question his Islam or his personal commitment to God (especially since I don’t know him).

If one asks me about marijuana, I will tell them what I think and why I think they should not partake in it. But I do not see it as my job to question their Islam or to question their relationship with their Lord. So I suppose that you could say that I am certainly not “judging” that person. But that person may be forgiven while I am not forgiven for something else. I don’t know that person’s struggles or experiences. It is not my place to look down my nose at that person. Each of us would do much better to look at ourselves and try to improve upon ourselves rather than looking to see what is wrong with the other person.

I do understand Dawud’s point of view and respect it, but in my personal experience (and I know he disagrees) “judging” leads down the road to hairsplitting and fighting. We can give what we believe to be good advice and preach against evil without implying that other Muslims are irreligious (or as Dawud put it, “Unmosqued”) or somehow “inadequately” Muslim or even in some cases not Muslim at all.

After speaking with Abu Muslimah today about their upcoming guest who I wrote about previously, I told him that I would clarify my statement, as I certainly do not want to harm or besmirch the institution. I have people there that I consider family and friends. I do not think that Abu Muslimah or the administration at the Islamic Center of America endorse terrorism in any way shape or form. I am not even saying that Jalal Abualrub endorses terrorism – as much as I disagree with his ideology and racial belief system (which has come to me through several sources in places where he has taught).

My main concern was and is that I do not want the youth to get tricked into respecting a man (Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhab) who made takfeer of other Muslim groups of his time that he disagreed and thereby justified their murder. Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhab’s ideology used today by terror groups such as the “Islamic State of Iraq and Levant” and “Jubhat al Nusrah” (each of whom by the way have made takfeer of each other and begun killing one another). When one is dancing around the issue of takfeer and its implications then they are entering a very slippery slope that can have unintentional consequences. We have naive young men and women in the West that are reading these teachings today and are running over to join Al-Qaeda in places like Syria. We have far too many issues in our local community in the greater Newark area to concern ourselves with rather than talking about Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhab and his teachings that will only confuse our people further.

Once again, no one at the Islamic Center of America, nor Jalal Abualrub himself, is encouraging youngsters to involve themselves in the “Wrong Kind of Muslim” violence in Syria or any place else. But why teach from the man that inspires these groups? And with regards to the Arab superiority issue, I’ve been assured that these questions will be raised and dealt with in a way that will clarify any misunderstanding, should one exist.

I just received a shocking flyer for a program that is to be held soon at the Islamic Center of America over in East Orange, NJ. Why was it shocking you ask? Because the invited speaker, Jalal Abualrub, is an avowed Arab Supremacist that promotes the ideology that Allah preferred the Arabs over all other races and are in fact “superior”. He derives his tired and backward opinion from many medieval scholars who held the same opinions (many of whom also believed the earth was flat by the way)

But that is not all. Jalal also defends the notorious murderer Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhab who along with his bandits were known to slaughter Muslims that they disagreed with. They are the ideological predecessor to Al-Qaeda. To put it in plain English, Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhab was the Osama bin Laden of his time.

Abdul-Wahhab and Muhammad ibn Saud, established the first Saudi Kingdom. The current maniacs that we see in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and so many other places take their inspiration from Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhab’s teachings and his justification to kill other types of Muslims. These are the same people that are bombing masjids, playgrounds, schools, buses and restaurants.

Is this the kind of Islam that we want being taught in what is commonly referred to here as the “greater Newark” area? Why is an Islamic Center that was founded by and is predominantly attended by Black Americans inviting a man that believes himself to be racially superior to them? Why are they inviting a man to speak about the teachings of a figure that inspires all of the “wrong kind of Muslim” violence that we see in so many Arab lands on the planet today?

We wonder why black Muslims can’t make progress when so many of them believe that the Arabs are superior to them and that only an Arab can come and teach them. Unfortunately, many Muslims, including black Muslims, will tell you that the Arabs are indeed superior. This teaching has spread thanks to people like Jalal Abualrub. Why teach a people that already have esteem problems that they are LESS??

I want every Muslim in the local East Orange area to know exactly what kind of man the Islamic Center of America is inviting to teach his version of Islam in their center.

A very fascinating documentary:

There have been several articles in recent years stating that the more “diverse” a community or neighborhood becomes, the less communal cooperation one will find. It is very difficult to get people with “diverse” ideas on what is good for a community and that often speak different languages and having many different perspectives to come together and work together. In fact, diverse groups in one neighborhood often dislike each other very much and stoke envy and hatred and there is a complete loss of trust and social cohesion.

I have always been skeptical of the dogma that has been foisted upon us with near religious vigor that “diversity is strength” – especially since those who state it the loudest often live in the most homogenous (read: WHITE) neighborhoods. They love to TALK about diversity, but they most certainly do not live it. They TALK about “diverse” schools, but send their children to expensive white private schools. They TALK about “vibrant” neighborhoods, but live in lilly white ones.

Having grown up in one of the most (if not THE most) robust movements that black America has ever known, I know that homogeneity can be a potent force in organizing. There is an undeniable singularity of purpose and we were able to accomplish feats that the modern day black Sunni can’t even dream about. We sold millions of dollars of fish per month, distributed hundreds of thousands of newspapers from a printing press that we owned, and had real estate holdings across the United States.

Not only in the case of our movement, but when we look to homogenous nations such as Japan, look at the way that they cooperate after a national disaster as opposed to “diverse” nations. So there is no doubt – contrary to current conventional wisdom – that there is power in homogeneity.

It is when “diverse” and foreign elements and ideologies came into play that the goals and purpose got lost, arguments began and the “movement” all but fell apart. We black American Muslims then became nothing but useful pawns in other people’s agendas. We became involved in struggles that had nothing to do with us. In this post 9/11 world, now black American Muslims find themselves firmly relegated to the sidelines in the national conversation of Islam in this country. All of this because we ignored the concerns in our own community in order to become “Negroes on display” for others.

Why? Because the other non-black Muslim groups have the megaphone and the money, and the black groups are impossibly divided over how fast we can run away from who we are. Oftentimes, you will find that black Muslims “out-immigrant” the immigrants.

I am convinced that each ethnic group must do what they see as best for their particular people and not ignore their own concerns in the name of “diversity”. Yes, we can and should work together when our concerns intersect, but we should not put down all of our concerns in order to do that.

Derrick Rose is out for the season for the second season in a row. Was really looking forward to seeing him play. Now he has to look forward to yet another grueling rehab process.