“Cool to be Smart”
We have scheduled a discussion of the movie the Great Debaters here in DC on Saturday January 5th, 2008
An interview below with the cast of the Great Debaters
I love the message that it is “cool to be smart”. I hope that the anti-intellectual elements within the Blackamerican community (Muslim and non-Muslim) is coming to an end
Review of Film: The Great Debaters
I just got back with my soon-to-be 11 year-old son from the new Denzel Washington, Oprah Winfrey movie, The Great Debaters. What a thoroughly enjoyable experience we both had. Blackamerican children (including Muslim children) need inspiration to become more than a basketball player, a rapper/singer or a comedian. I believe that anytime the culture affords us a chance to expose them to the life of the mind, we should exploit it fully. This movie was both entertaining and inspiring.
I’ve recently mentioned that reviving the debate club tradition is a wonderful way to test new ideas and stimulate discussion, just one facet of what I called here the ”Islamic Salon“.
Blackamerican Muslims need to understand that they CAN appreciate Harlem Renaissance poetry and still be Muslim. They can appreciate W.E.B. Du Bois and still be Muslim. They can appreciate their own history and the experiences of their people and still be Muslim. In essence they can still appreciate their own Black aesthetic - or standard of beauty – and be good Muslims.
As we begin to consolidate the Blackamerican Muslim intelligentsia, we’ll see more and more culturally affirming artistic output come on the market. This will take time but it is already beginning to happen. I say this as something of a disclaimer for the film, for as in anything that comes out of Hollywood, there will be times (just a few) where you’ll have to “lower your gaze”. But having said that, there is no nudity or long, graphic sex scenes.
It must also to be remembered that this movie was made for purely entertainment purposes, and takes great liberties with some historical facts. In other words, don’t judge it too hard on account of that. For example when you see in the beginning of the movie, which takes place in 1935, that the Harlem Renaissance is still underway, a movement that occurred in 1920’s, just look the other way.
Or when you watch the final, dramatic scene at Harvard University, when in fact it really took place at the University of Southern California, go a little easy on it.
Or when you learn that there was no female teammate name Samantha Booke, or even a female teammate at all, just remember its only a movie.
Other than that, GO AND SEE IT.
http://www.thegreatdebaters.org/debate
Blackamerica’s Buying Power
The 2007 edition of “The Buying Power of Black America” has just been released by Target Market News and shows $744 billion in income
Click here if you are interested in purchasing it
Working on Book
Just FYI, I am working on a more comprehensive work on ‘Why Blackamerican Muslims Don’t Stand for Justice’ that will insha Allah be a book. I am currently doing more research and finding a lot of amazing information
Why Do We Always Split?
“United we rise and divided we fall” as the old saying goes. Yet despite repeated admonitions in the Qur’an to stand together and work for the common good of Islam, African American masjids have historically displayed a distressing pattern of fracturing and spiting apart. We all know of course that it is only through maintaining strong, cohesive communities that vital institutions come into being, but all of that is completely undermined by this disturbingly persistent trend. In this post I’ve attempted to identify some of the critical factors which account for this divisive tendency.
Eid Can Also Be Lonely For Many of Us
Some of the loneliest times for us converts can be Eid time...
Hajj (From Malcolm X)
I thought that this was appropriate
“America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered white – but the white attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam. I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of their color.”
“You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.”
“During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept on the same rug – while praying to the same God – with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the deeds of the white Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana.”
“We were truly all the same (brothers) – because their belief in one God had removed the white from their minds, the white from their behavior, and the white from their attitude.”
“I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man – and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their ‘differences’ in color.”
“With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the so-called ‘Christian’ white American heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem. Perhaps it could be in time to save America from imminent disaster – the same destruction brought upon Germany by racism that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves.”
“Each hour here in the Holy Land enables me to have greater spiritual insights into what is happening in America between black and white. The American Negro never can be blamed for his racial animosities – he is only reacting to four hundred years of the conscious racism of the American whites. But as racism leads America up the suicide path, I do believe, from the experiences that I have had with them, that the whites of the younger generation, in the colleges and universities, will see the handwriting on the walls and many of them will turn to the spiritual path of truth – the only way left to America to ward off the disaster that racism inevitably must lead to.”
“Never have I been so highly honored. Never have I been made to feel more humble and unworthy. Who would believe the blessings that have been heaped upon an American Negro? A few nights ago, a man who would be called in America a white man, a United Nations diplomat, an ambassador, a companion of kings, gave me his hotel suite, his bed. Never would I have even thought of dreaming that I would ever be a recipient of such honors – honors that in America would be bestowed upon a King – not a Negro.”
Gentrification of Columbia Heights
As I was riding through the streets of DC the other night, I could not help but be struck by the number of whites I see walking the streets at night in places like Columbia Heights that were once nearly all black.
A couple of videos on Columbia Heights which is a neighborhood in DC
Bean Pie Documentary
One of our local DC Muslimas, Sr. Hassanah Tauhidi, has entered her latest film project into Link TV’s contest, “One Nation, Many Voices: Muslims in America, Stories Not Stereotypes.”
Title of her documentary is, “Bean Pie My Brother? A Slice of American Muslim History.” You’ll find it on the second page of the “documentary” category. If you’re not already a member of Link TV, you’ll have to register/create a new account in order to vote.
Let’s show her our support and solidarity. So, please take a moment to click on the link below and vote for her project. The contest ends December 31st.
