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Let Us Be Moors; AND GOD SAID, "LET US MAKE RIGHT WHAT MAN HAS CORRUPTED"
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Warhol
Apr 7, 2012, 12:40:17 PM4/7/12
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Let Us Be Moors: Islam, Race and "Connected Histories"
Hisham Aidi
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(Hisham Aidi, a research fellow at Columbia University's Middle East
Institute, works on the university's Muslim Communities in New York
Project, sponsored by the Ford Foundation.)
"Seamos moros!" wrote the Cuban poet and nationalist José Martíí in
1893, in support of the Berber uprising against Spanish rule in northern
Morocco. "Let us be Moors...the revolt in the Rif...is not an isolated
incident, but an outbreak of the change and realignment that have
entered the world. Let us be Moors...we [Cubans] who will probably die
by the hand of Spain." [1] Writing at a time when the scramble for
Africa and Asia was at full throttle, Martí was accenting connections
between those great power forays and Spanish depredations in Cuba, even
as the rebellion of 1895 germinated on his island.
Throughout the past century, particularly during the Cold War, Latin
American leaders from Cuba's Fidel Castro to Argentina's Juan Peron
would express support for Arab political causes, and call for Arab-Latin
solidarity in the face of imperial domination, often highlighting
cultural links to the Arab world through Moorish Spain. Castro, in
particular, made a philo-Arab pan-Africanism central to his regime's
ideology and policy initiatives. In his famous 1959 speech on race, the
jefe maximo underlined Cuba's African and Moorish origins. "We all have
lighter or darker skin. Lighter skin implies descent from Spaniards who
themselves were colonized by the Moors that came from Africa. Those who
are more or less dark-skinned came directly from Africa. Moreover,
nobody can consider himself as being of pure, much less superior, race." [2]
With the launching of the "war on terror," and particularly with the
invasion of Iraq, political leaders and activists in Latin America have
been warning of a new imperial age and again declaring solidarity with
the Arab world. Some refer rather quixotically to a Moorish past.
Linking the war on Iraq to Plan Colombia and to the Bush
administration's alleged support for a coup against him, the erratic
Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez has repeatedly urged his countrymen to
"return to their Arab roots," and attempted to mobilize the country's
mestizo and black majority against white supremacy. "They call me the
monkey or black," Chavez says of his domestic and international
opponents. "They can't stand that someone like me was elected." [3]
In less contentious terms, Brazil's left-leaning President Lula da Silva
will visit the Middle East in early December 2003 to seek "more
objective" relations with the Arab world, to call for an "independent,
democratic Palestinian state" and to launch a common market with the
Arab world as an alternative to the North American market (particularly
with many in Arab countries boycotting American products). [4] Brazil's
largest trade union federation strongly denounced post-September 11 US
intervention in Colombia, Venezuela and the Middle East, praising the
protest movements that have appeared against US and Israeli "militarism"
and calling on Brazilian workers to join in the struggle "against
Sharon's Nazi-Zionist aggression against the Palestinian people" and in
support of the intifada. [5]
The Other September 11 Effect
In the age of the "war on terror," such expressions from the Western
world of affinity with the Arab world are not confined to statements of
political solidarity. In Latin America, Europe and the US, for example,
there has been a sharp increase in conversion to Islam. At the first
world congress of Spanish-speaking Muslims held in Seville in April
2003, the scholar Mansur Escudero, citing "globalization," said that
there were 10 to 12 million Spanish speakers among the world's 1.2
billion Muslims. [6] In the US, researchers note that usually 25,000
people a year become Muslim, but by several accounts that number has
quadrupled since September 11. [7] In Europe, an Islamic center in
Holland reported a tenfold increase and the New Muslims Project in
England reported a "steady stream" of new converts. [8] Several analysts
have noted that in the United Kingdom, many converts are coming from
middle-class and professional backgrounds, not simply through the prison
system or ghetto mosques, as is commonly believed. [9] The Muslim
population in Spain is also growing, due to conversion, as well as
immigration and intermarriage. [10]
Different explanations have been advanced to account for this intriguing
phenomenon, known as "the other September 11 effect" -- the primary
effects being anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant backlash and infringements
upon civil liberties. Commenting on how the accused "dirty bomber" José
Padilla and the shoe bomber Richard Reid converted to Islam, French
scholar Olivier Roy observes, "Twenty years ago such individuals would
have joined radical leftist movements, which have now disappeared or
become 'bourgeois'.... Now only two Western movements of radical protest
claim to be 'internationalist': the anti-globalization movement and
radical Islamists. To convert to Islam today is a way for a European
rebel to find a cause; it has little to do with theology." [11] This
portrayal of Islam as an outlet for the West's political malcontents
ignores the powerful allure of certain aspects of Islamic theology, and
begs the question of why for at least a century, even when communism was
still in vogue, minorities in the West have seen Islam as a particularly
attractive alternative. Roy's formulation also neglects the critical
elements of racism and racialization. At least since Malcolm X,
internationalist Islam has been seen as a response to Western racism and
imperialism.
Though Westerners of different social and ethnic backgrounds are
gravitating toward Islam, it is mostly the ethnically marginalized of
the West -- historically, mostly black, but nowadays also Latino, native
American, Arab and South Asian minorities -- who, often attracted by the
purported universalism and colorblindness of Islamic history and
theology, are asserting membership in a transnational umma and thereby
challenging or "exiting" the white West. Even for white converts, like
John Walker Lindh, becoming Muslim involves a process of racialization
-- renouncing their whiteness -- because while the West stands for
racism and white supremacy on a global scale, Islam is seen to represent
tolerance and anti-imperialism. This process of racialization is also
occurring in diasporan Muslim communities in the West, which are growing
increasingly race-conscious and "black" as anti-Muslim racism increases.
To cope, Muslims in the diaspora are absorbing lessons from the
African-American freedom movement, including from strains of
African-American Islam.
Over the past two years, Islam has provided an anti-imperial idiom and
imaginary community of belonging for many subordinate groups in the
West, as Islamic culture and art stream into the West through minority
and diaspora communities, and often in fusion with African-American art
forms, slowly seep into the cultural mainstream. Subsequently, many of
the cultural and protest movements -- anti-globalization,
anti-imperialist, anti-racist -- in the West today have Islamic and/or
African-American undercurrents. At a time of military conflict and
extreme ideological polarization between the West and the Muslim world,
Islamic culture is permeating political and cultural currents, remaking
identities and creating cultural linkages between Westerners and the
Muslim world.
Latino Back Channels
Recent journalistic accounts have noted the growing rate of conversion
to Islam in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, and the often violent
clashes between Christian and Spanish Muslim missionaries proselytizing
among the indigenous Mayan community. The Muslim campaign in Chiapas is
led by a Spaniard from Granada, Aureliano Perez, member of an
international Sufi order called al-Murabitun, though he is contending
with a rival missionary, Omar Weston. Particularly interesting about the
several hundred Mayan Muslims is the view of some of the converts that,
though some of the missionaries are Spanish like the conquistadors,
their embrace of Islam is a historic remedy for the Spanish conquest and
the consequent oppression. "Five hundred years ago, they came to destroy
us," said Anastasio Gomez Gomez, 21, who now goes by Ibrahim. "Five
hundred years later, other Spaniards came to return a knowledge that was
taken away from us." [12]
The view of 1492 as a tragic date signaling the end of a glorious era,
and the related idea that conversion to Islam entails a reclaiming of
that past, is common among the Latino Muslim community in the US. That
community, estimated in 2000 at 30,000 to 40,000 members, has grown in
the past two years, with Latino Muslim centers and da'wa (proselytizing)
organizations in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Fresno and Houston. [13]
The banner hanging at the Alianza Islamica center in the South Bronx
celebrates the African and Islamic roots of Latin America: against a
red, white and blue backdrop stands a sword-wielding Moor, flanked by a
Taino Indian and a black African. The Spanish conquistador is
conspicuously absent. Imam (Omar Abduraheem) Ocasio of the Alianza
Islamica speaks passionately about the continuity between Moorish Spain
and Latin America: "Most of the people who came to Latin America and the
Spanish Caribbean were from southern Spain, Andalusia -- they were
Moriscos, Moors forcefully converted to Christianity. The leaders, army
generals, curas [priests] were white men from northern Spain...sangre
azul, as they were called. The southerners, who did the menial jobs,
...servants, artisans, foot soldiers, ...were of mixed Arab and African
descent. They were stripped of their religion, culture, brought to the
so-called New World where they were enslaved with African slaves.... But
the Moriscos never lost their culture...we are the cultural descendants
of the Moors." [14] The Puerto Rican imam writes, "Islamically inspired
values were conveyed ever so subtly in the Trojan horse of Spanish
heritage throughout the centuries and, after 500 years, Latinos were now
ready to return." [15]
In the past two years, Islam and the Arab-Muslim world seem to have
entered even more poignantly into the Latin American imagination,
gaining a presence in political discourse and strongly influencing
Hispanic popular culture. This Arab cultural invasion of Latin America,
which has reverberated in mainstream American culture, is often
attributed to the Brazilian telenovela El Clon and Lebanese-Colombian
pop icon Shakira.
El Clon, the highest-rated soap opera ever shown on Telemundo, a US
Spanish-language channel, reportedly reaches 2.8 million Hispanic
households in the US, as well as 85 million people in Brazil and tens of
millions across Latin America. The series, which began broadcasting
shortly after September 11, tells the story of Jade, a young Brazilian
Muslim who returns to her mother's homeland of Morocco after her
mother's death in Brazil. There she falls in love and settles down with
Lucas, a Christian Brazilian, and adapts to life in an extended family
setting in the old city of Fez. Filmed in Rio de Janeiro and Fez, the
telenovela offers a profusion of Orientalist imagery -- from veiled
belly dancers swaying seductively behind ornate latticework to dazzling
shots of Marrakesh and Fez spliced with footage of scantily clad women
on Rio's beaches -- and of course, incessant supplications of "Ay, por
favor, Allah!" from Jade's neighbors in the medina.The Moroccan
ambassador to Brazil, in a letter to a Sao Paolo newspaper, criticized
the series for its egregious "cultural errors," "gross falsification"
and "mediocre images" promoting stereotypes of Muslim women as
submissive and men as polygamists leading lives of "luxury and indolence."
Despite the kitsch, El Clon has triggered what Latin Trade called
"Mideast fever" across Latin America. Belly dancing and "Middle
Eastern-style jewelry" became "the rage in Rio and Sao Paolo,"
Brazilians began throwing "A Thousand and One Nights" parties, "Talk to
a Sheikh" chat rooms cropped up online and two new agencies opened up to
offer package tours to North Africa.(In his letter, the Moroccan
ambassador acknowledged that Brazilian tourism to Morocco had increased
by 300 percent thanks to El Clon.) A journalist visiting Quito, Ecuador,
found viewers of the series "wide-eyed and drop-jawed for all things
Arab." [16] Even in the US, where El Clon's broadcast was almost blocked
due to alleged potential controversy, it has exerted cultural influence
upon the Latino community and others. In New York, observers note the El
Clon-triggered fashion for Arab jewelry and hip scarves, the overflowing
belly dancing classes and a recently opened beauty parlor called El Clon
in Queens. [17]
Through the Latino back channel, the impact of Shakira in bringing Arab
culture to the MTV audience has also been considerable. The
Lebanese-Colombian singer was bombarded with questions by the media
about her views "as an Arab" on the September 11 attacks, and advised to
drop the belly dancing and the Arabic riffs from her music because it
could hurt her album sales, but she refused. "I would have to rip out my
heart or my insides in order to be able to please them," said the
songstress, and expressed horror at hate crimes against "everything
that's Arab, or seems Arab." [18] During the run-up to the Iraq war,
Shakira's performances took on an explicitly political tone, with her
dancers wearing masks of Tony Blair, George W. Bush and Fidel Castro.
Backdrop screens flashed images of Bush and Saddam Hussein as two
puppets playing a sinister game of chess, with the Grim Reaper as the
puppeteer. She also undertook a highly publicized tour of the Middle
East (though her concerts in Casablanca, Tunis and Beirut were
postponed), during which she visited her father's ancestral village in
the Bekaa Valley. Viewers across the region were delighted when Shakira
appeared on Egyptian television singing the tunes of Fairuz. In Europe,
the US, South America and even the Middle East, the belly-dancing star
has fostered a reported mania for hip scarves with coins and tassels. In
a random check of Cairo nightclubs, Egyptian government officials
confiscated 26 Shakira outfits, "weighing no more than 150 grams [5
ounces]," and deemed "scandalous," [19] but local filmmakers are
currently negotiating with government officials over rights to a film
project called Shakira fi al-Munira, about a young Egyptian girl
infatuated with the Colombian chanteuse.
While the craze for Arab culture has occurred in the wake of September
11 and the ensuing war on terrorism, it is not necessarily political.
Commenting on the popularity of shawarma and hookahs in Quito, one
journalist observes that "the new fascination with Arabia comes at a
time when there are new reasons for anti-American sentiment" -- the
recent policy of currency dollarization -- but adds reassuringly that,
"El Clon's following surely won't produce a new sect of Islamic
fundamentalist terrorists in Latin America." [20] It is also not clear
that conversion to Islam necessarily constitutes political or cultural
resistance. Referring to the vogue for Islam and Arabic among Spanish
youth, one Catalan journalist wryly observes: "It will take more than
teenagers converting to an Islam lite to stop [Spanish Prime Minister
José Maria] Aznar's Christian nationalism and Castilian imperialism. We
need a civil dialogue about our relations with the Orient." [21] Belly
dancing and learning elementary Arabic may not be acts of resistance,
but such activities create important, albeit imaginary cultural linkages
which can be activated for political purposes. As Miles Copeland, head
of the Mondo Melodia label, who will release a film on the American
belly dancing craze in January 2004, told PR Newswire: "Belly dancing is
about art, not politics -- but in experiencing the art, you also
experience the culture, and that becomes political in and of itself."
Interest in Arab culture and conversions are bringing Islam into the
imagination of Western youth, feeding powerful movements and cultures of
protest.
From Harlem to the Casbah
In No Name in the Street, James Baldwin reflects on the "uneasy"
reaction he would get when, while in France in 1948, he would "claim
kinship" with the Algerians living there. "The fact that I had never
seen the Algerian casbah was of no more relevance...than the fact that
the Algerians had never seen Harlem. The Algerian and I were both,
alike, victims of this history [of Europe in Africa], and I was still a
part of Africa, even though I had been carried out of it nearly 400
years before." [22] Most French-born Arabs have never been to Harlem but
"claim kinship" with African-Americans as they draw inspiration from the
black freedom struggle. Numerous French-Arab (Beur) intellectuals and
activists have noted their indebtedness to African-American liberation
thought, [23] and the secular pro-integration Beur movement of the early
1980s organized campaigns and marches modeled on the US civil rights
struggle. But in the early 1990s, as the impoverished, ethnically
segregated banlieues mushroomed around French cities, the discourse of
intégration began to give way to talk of self-imposed exclusion and
warnings that the children of immigrants "had gone in a separate
direction." The region of Lyons, where 100,000 gathered for the famous
march for intégration in 1983, is today cited by commentators as
evidence of the failure of assimilation. Lyons, by one account, has
become a "ghetto of Arabs," and fallen to Islamist influence, boasting
six neighborhood boys in the US military detention center at Guantanamo
Bay. [24]
The generation of black and Arab Muslim youth that came of age in
crime-ridden banlieues that periodically explode into car-burning riots,
and are monitored by a heavy-handed police force, is in no mood for
integration. By some estimates, 50 to 60 percent of the French prison
population is Muslim. [25] French commentators are increasingly
wondering if they have developed a "race problem" like that of the US,
with the attendant pathologies of ethnic ghettoes, family breakdown,
drugs, violence and, of particular concern these days, Islamism. As in
the American ghetto, disintegrating family units have been replaced by
new organizations -- gangs, posses and religious associations,
particularly Islamic groups, [26] which provide services and patrol the
cités, the housing projects where most immigrants live.
The confluence of Islam and urban marginality in France was displayed in
a consummately post-colonial moment on October 6, 2001, when France and
Algeria met in their first soccer match since the Algerian war of
independence. The match was stopped prematurely when thousands of
French-born Arab youth, seeing Algeria losing, raided the field chanting
"Bin Laden! Bin Laden!" and hurled bottles at two female French
ministers. [27] The ill-fated match, coming on the heels of September
11, led to hysterical warnings of an intifada simmering in the heart of
France, an Islamic fifth column, the "unassimilability" of certain
immigrants and, again, an American-style "race problem." Like American
pundits, the French are concerned about whether Islamic and Muslim
organizations which have emerged in the banlieues will keep youths out
of trouble or radicalize them.An American writing for the Weekly
Standard notes, "It's the Farrakhan problem. Mosques do rescue youths
from delinquency, idleness and all sorts of other ills. But in so doing,
they become power brokers in areas where almost all disputes are
resolved by violence and the most tribal kind of woospeh [respect, in a
French accent, supposedly]. And it is that mastery of a violent
environment -- not the social service record -- that these groups call
on when they make demands on the larger society." [28]
The French media has shown a keen interest in the rising conversion to
Islam in the US and Europe -- and particularly in the overlap of Islam
and race, or more specifically, ethnic awareness, mobilization and
self-segregation. An exposé in an April 2003 edition of the magazine
L'Express opened with the following statement: "Blacks, whites, Latinos,
Asians...every year, 50,000 to 80,000 [Americans] convert to Islam.
Internal enemies, members of the 'axis of evil'?" The French
government's attempts to control Islamic mobilization in the banlieues
through elections for a national Islamic council (aimed, in the words of
the interior minister, at taking Islam out of "cellars and garages")
backfired when the conservative Union of Islamic Organizations, inspired
by Egypt's banned Muslim Brotherhood, won 14 out of 41 seats.
Zacarias Moussaoui, the "twentieth hijacker" awaiting trial in the US,
in many ways embodies the story of Islam and racial exclusion in France.
Although he did not grow up impoverished in the cités, by all accounts,
the French-Moroccan harbored a deep racial rage. In his youth, Moussaoui
was often ridiculed because of his dark skin and frizzy hair, and
repeatedly called négre (nigger), but it was after the 1991 Gulf war
that he became politicized. He began to consider himself "black,"
joining the "Kid Brothers" -- a university group modeled after the
Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood -- and came back from a stint in London
deeply hostile toward whites. "He became a racist, a black racist, and
he would use the pejorative African word toubab to describe white
people," said his brother. [29] Moussaoui raged against Western
permissiveness and imperialism in Algeria, Palestine and Chechnya. [30]
Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber," who became radicalized in the same
Brixton mosque as Moussaoui, embodies the similarly distressing urban
and racial situation in Britain. West Indian and South Asian youth live
in benighted "mill and mosque" towns, devastated by capital flight in
the late 1980s and 1990s, where the anti-immigrant British National
Party is making inroads and race riots erupt frequently. Many of these
youth have drifted towards radical Islamist groups. By all accounts, the
petty thief and graffiti artist known as ENROL embraced Islam while in
Feltham young offenders' institution, to seek solace from racism. His
father Robin tried to explain Reid's odyssey to Islam as a result of the
difficulty of being of mixed race. "Islam accepts you for who you are,"
the father told CNN talk show host Larry King. "Even I was a Muslim for
a little bit ...because I was fed up with racial discrimination." In an
interview with the Guardian, Robin continued: "About ten years ago, I
met up with Richard after not seeing him for a few years. He was a
little bit downhearted. I suggested to him, 'Why don't you become a
Muslim? They treated me all right.'"
The mixing of Islam and racial awareness in Europe is also leading to
political mobilization. The Arab European League (AEL), headed by the
fiery Lebanese-born Dyab Abou Jahjah, is explicitly modeled on the
American civil rights movement, borrowing slogans ("By Any Means
Necessary!") and protest techniques from the Black Panthers and the
Nation of Islam, and aiming to mobilize Arab and Muslim youth across
Europe to lobby European governments to make Arabic one of the official
languages of the European Union and to gain state funding for Islamic
schools. Based in Brussels, but with chapters opening in France and
Holland, the AEL has launched a cross-border Arab pride movement, and
organized marches against the US war in Iraq and in solidarity with the
Palestinian intifada. Known as the "Arab Malcolm X," Abou Jahjah, who
says he finds the ideas of integration "degrading," admits being
inspired by the slain African-American civil rights leader, who "was
also against assimilation...fought for civil rights and was also
inspired by Islam." [31] "We're a civil rights movement, not a club of
fundamentalist fanatics who want to blow things up," he told the New
York Times on March 1, 2003. "In Europe, the immigrant organizations are
Uncle Toms. We want to polarize people, to sharpen the discussion, to
unmask the myth that the system is democratic for us." The AEL has also
organized Black Panther-style "Arab patrols" to "police the police."
Groups of unarmed Arab youths dressed in black follow the police around,
carrying video cameras and flyers which read, "Bad cops: the AEL is
watching you." Fusing African-American, Islamic and Arab elements in its
style and rhetoric, the AEL has become a political force to be reckoned
with, even prompting the Belgian government to attempting to ban its
patrols on the basis of a 1930s law that proscribes private militias.
"Le Respect" and "Les Pitbulls"
Seul le beat aujourd-hui nous lie et nous unit.
(Today only the beat links and unites us.)
-- Saliha, "Danse le Beat"
Hip-hop has emerged as the idiom for the urban activism of minority
youth in Europe. For Muslim youth experiencing the crackdown on
immigrants, as well as state withdrawal and welfare cuts, hip-hop offers
a chance to express critiques, vent rage, declare solidarity with other
marginalized youth (particularly African-Americans) and display cultural
pride -- to show, as New York rapper DMX says, "who we be." [32]
If American rap has been criticized for its materialism, nihilism and
political nonchalance, French hip-hop offers trenchant critiques of
racism, globalization and imperialism. Numerous groups such as Yazid and
La Fonky Family deal explicitly with the challenges of being Arab and
Muslim in the West, and relations between Islam and the West. In their
hit single, "Je Suis Si Triste" ("I'm So Sad"), the Marseilles-based rap
crew 3eme Oeil (Third Eye), made up of the Comorian-born Boss One
(Mohammed), Jo Popo (Mohammed) and Saïd, offer biting social commentary
over an infectious, looping bass line. Decrying hate crimes against
veiled Muslim women in France, condemning police brutality and mass
incarceration (with a special shout out to Mumia Abu Jamal), the rappers
focus their lyrical fire on the West's "stranglehold" (la main-mise) on
the East.
In addition to verbal release, hip-hop is also used to combat racism and
to promote black-white-Arab relations, as in the Urban Peace Festivals
and spoken-word poetry events (les slameurs) organized by SOS Racisme.
Hip-hop, interestingly, is also being used to counter Islamist influence
in the banlieues. The Beurette leader Fadela Amara, who organized the
march "Ni putes ni soumises" ("Neither whores nor submissive") -- a
march that has now developed into a women's rights organization
affiliated with SOS Racisme -- often invites Muslim female rappers to
spread a feminist message. "Ni putes, ni soumises" aims to mobilize
youth against ghettoes and for equality, but also to counter the
Islamist organizations such as the powerful Union of Islamic
Organizations, which delivers services in the cités in exchange for
veiling. Amara says discrimination and unemployment make many young men
feel "excluded from the French project." These youths, she says, often
return to Islamic traditions, opposing gender mixing and women's
education, and sometimes assaulting women who do not dress according to
their idea of modesty. [33] French Muslim rappers and R&B singers
publicly and collectively condemned the September 11 attacks, saying the
terrorists were, in the words of Ideal J, a Franco-Haitian convert to
Islam, "dishonoring the faith." Al Malik of the New African Poets, a
Congolose convert to Islam, noted the importance of rap and Islam to
young ghetto dwellers: "Rap has opened a world to us, empowering us
young men, and Islam has allowed us to flourish by teaching us respect
for 'the other.' [But] the Taliban are instrumentalizing the religion." [34]
Attempts by some French Islamists to boycott American products -- and
market products like Mecca Cola -- are failing since banlieusards remain
loyal to American streetwear labels like Fubu and Phat Farm, often
claiming that such clothing is an anti-American, but pro-black
statement. More recently, local banlieue streetwear clothing lines have
appeared with names like Bullrot (a combination of pitbull and
rottweiler) and Adedi (an acronym for Association de differences), the
latter founded by a Moroccan, a Gabonese and a Senegalese to combat
racism, extremism and to celebrate difference. [35]
8/19/03 French commentators associate hip-hop with Islam, claiming that
rap, like Islam, often brings rage, pathology and dysfunction. The
anti-immigrant National Front of Jean Le Pen and its splinter, the
National Republican Movement, have historically denounced hip-hop. In
March 2001, both far-right parties opposed the use of public funds to
finance the first Hip-Hop Dance World Cup in Villepinte stating that
"hip-hop is a movement belonging to immigrants of African origin
installed in France and which constitutes a call to sedition against our
institutions." [36] More recently, however, the National Front has begun
to use hip-hop as a way to spread its political message, "win back"
French youth and counter Arab and American influence in French culture.
The white supremacist rap crew Basic Celto, affiliated with the National
Republican Movement, has as its objective to break "immigrants'
monopoly" over hip-hop "which diffuses the immigrants' complaints."
Basic Celto aims to promote a "national revolutionary" rap with a
"Christian identity," and to draw "français d'origine" away from
immigrant influence. [37]
But the allure of Islam, and Islam-inflected cultures like hip-hop and
rai, to French youth continues to grow, prompting much editorial
pondering. Le Monde ran a story on how Ramadan is increasingly observed
in French schools, even by non-Muslims, and there have also been
accounts of many non-Muslim girls wearing headscarves in solidarity with
Muslim schoolgirls sent home for wearing le foulard.Commenting on Le
Pen's remark that hip-hop is a dangerous musical genre which originated
in the casbahs of Algeria, rapper Boss One (Mohammed) of 3eme Oeil,
said: "For Le Pen, everything bad -- rap, crime, AIDS -- comes from
Algeria or Islam.... The more Bush and Chirac attack Islam and say it's
bad, the more young people will think it's good, and the more the
oppressed will go to Islam and radical preachers. Especially here in
America. Because life is hard in France, but we have a social safety
net." [38]
Commentators have also blamed hip-hop for bringing social ills
associated with the American ghetto to France. "[French-Arab youth]
intentionally imitate belligerent Afro-American lifestyles, down to
'in-your-face' lyrics for booming rap music," moaned one observer. [39]
Some have pointed to the "African-Americanization" of the speech
patterns of French youth, noting that their verbal jousting is similar
to that of "American rappers from black ghettoes." [40] Indeed, the
culture of France's suburban ghettoes is heavily influenced by the
trends of the American inner city -- the urban argot, street codes of
conduct and "honor system" are strikingly similar. [41] In January 2000,
a law was passed creating a police unit to monitor the behavior of
pitbulls and rottweilers in housing projects where, as in the US, such
dogs had become very popular during the 1990s among urban youth. [42]
The slurs used against blacks (négres) and Arabs (in France, bougnoles,
in Spain, Moros [43] and in Belgium, makukas, which means white ape)
have become commonly used terms of endearment among Muslim youth, as
with the term nigger in the US. But clearly, Muslim European youth have
not learned misogyny and rage from hip-hop or from African-Americans.
The fact that hip-hop is being used by secular urban movements to
counter Islamism and racism is an illustration of the growing racial
consciousness of Muslim youth in Europe, the deep resonance of the
African-American experience and how imagination can help construct a
cultural world to resist state oppression and religious fanaticism.
Keepin' It Halal
Hip-hop's changed, ain't a black thing anymore G
Young kids in Baghdad showing 2 on 3
HollaWest Coast? Nah, West Bank for life
Upside down, holla for my Moros alright
Spit rhymes in Arabic on the same level like Jada
You wouldn't know if you should head bang or belly dance playa
I'm that type of sand nigga type of Johnny Cochran yaw dig
Ya stereotype me, I knock you out like Prince Naseem.
-- 8/19/03 Outlandish, "El Moro"
The hip-hop movement has a powerful oppositional streak that makes it
both attractive and troubling to political actors. Hip-hop's ability to
jangle the hegemonic discourse was recently seen with Jay-Z's "Leave
Iraq Alone" verse and Outkast's anti-war hit "Bombs Over Baghdad,"
denouncing the first Gulf War, which was yanked off the air by MTV and
Clear Channel when bombs began raining on Baghdad in March 2003. [44]
Hip-hop artists have strongly opposed the war, without fear of the
social opprobrium visited upon the Dixie Chicks and other white pop
stars. As hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons put it, "Rappers don't have to
worry about anything. No one likes what they have to say anyway, so
they're not afraid to speak up." But when hip-hop is infused with
Islamic themes and political allusions, the Establishment press has
found it particularly unsettling. Hence the outrage over rapper Paris'
recently released -- and rapidly selling -- Sonic Jihad, the cover of
which features an airplane flying toward the White House, and the
alleged purging of Arabic terms and references to Hussein from Tupac
Shakur's recently released Better Dayz (though the slain rapper was
referring not to the missing Iraqi dictator, but to Hussein Fatal, a
member of his Outlawz posse, which also includes Khadafi, Kastro and
Komani). [45]
In the fall of 2002, accused sniper John Muhammad, formerly of the
Nation of Islam, sent notes to the police that referenced lyrics from
rappers who are Five Percenters -- a heterodox black Muslim sect. The
subsequent media frenzy triggered a soul-searching conversation within
the Islamic hip-hop community that was rendered particularly urgent when
Muslim hip-hoppers found themselves linked to the war on terror by Niger
Innis, chairman of the conservative Congress of Racial Equality. Shortly
after the arrest of John Muhammad, Innis met with Department of Justice
officials to express concern over "domestic black Muslims as a national
security issue" and launched a campaign to counter Islamic recruitment
efforts in the nation's prisons and colleges. [46] Muslim rappers asked
themselves:should we be expected to "represent" Islam positively, and
avoid the misogynist and materialistic excesses of mainstream hip-hop
artists? Or should the aim be to "get paid" and gain wide success even
if it means "playing with the haram (illicit)"? Of the US-based Muslim
hip-hop crews, Native Deen and Sons of Hagar have been praised for their
positive political and religious messages. Native Deen, made up of three
African-American rappers who won't perform in venues that allow mixed
dancing or serve alcohol, have been profiled in The New Yorker and even
received praise from the State Department, but have yet to garner
airtime on mainstream radio stations. The Des Moines-based Sons of
Hagar, made up of Allahz Sword (Ahmad) and Ramadan Conchus (Abdul), both
Arab-Americans, and Keen Intellect (Kareem) and Musa, Irish-American and
Korean-American converts to Islam, respectively, have also been praised
for socially conscious lyrics. Their poignant single "Insurrection"
("It's the Arab hunting season, and I ain't leavin'/I'm pushin' the
conscience button on you people/Where is the reason?"), and their track
"Sisterssss" in support of polygamy, [47] are popular in the underground
Muslim-Arab hip-hop scene. But Sons of Hagar have also not achieved
mainstream exposure.
The Muslim rap crew that is gaining worldwide notoriety for its lyrical
dexterity, stylistic appeal and explicitly positive portrayal of Islam
is the Denmark-based trio Outlandish. Made up of a Moroccan, a Pakistani
and a Honduran, Outlandish has topped the charts with hits including
"Guantanamo" (the chorus: "And I got all my Moros here, Guantanamo") and
"Aicha," a remake of Cheb Khaled's 1995 hit. The latter track, which saw
heavy rotation on MTV Europe and climbed to fourth on the charts in
Germany, has been hailed as the most positive depiction of Muslim women
in a music video, with shots of pre-prayer ablution and veiled and
unveiled Arab, South Asian and African women. Rather than playing with
the haram, Outlandish is about "keepin' it halal (licit)."
American hip-hop commentators note that political, cerebral rap may be
popular in Europe, but if it cannot be "bling-blinged," or sexed up, it
will not sell in the US. A recent dispute between Simmons and a segment
of the African-American Sunni community is illustrative. Though not a
Muslim, Simmons has frequently declared his respect for Islam, and the
Nation of Islam (NOI) in particular. "I grew up on Farrakhan," he said
in one interview. "Where I grew up, there were dope fiends and black
Muslims. If Muslims came by, you stood up straight." [48] He also tried
to broker talks between the NOI and American Jewish organizations,
denounced the invasion of Iraq, helped organize Musicians United to Win
Without War and is currently planning a Middle East youth peace summit.
But when a recent issue of his OneWorld magazine ran a cover with female
rapper Li'l Kim wearing a "burka-like garment over her face" and
"lingerie from the neck down" -- and in the same issue saying, "Fuck
Afghanistan" -- Najee Ali, director of the civil rights group Project
Islamic Hope, demanded an apology to America's Muslims.As someone active
in brokering truces in the hip-hop world, Ali cited his Islamic duty "to
the people of hip-hop and humanity," and called on Simmons to apologize
for the magazine cover and for the "pornographic female rapper" Foxy
Brown, who in her song "Hot Spot," produced by the Simmons-founded Def
Jam, says "MCs wanna eat me but it's Ramadan."
The Li'l Kim incident instigated a discussion over other not-so-halal
trends in Islamic hip-hop. The cover of XXL magazine showing rapper Nas
holding a glass of cognac and wearing prayer beads around his neck
outraged many Muslims. "Why he imitatin' the kufar (unbelievers, in
Arabic) with the Hail Mary beads?!" fumed one blogger. Many Sunni
Muslims have also criticized the style of some female Muslim hip-hoppers
of wearing a headscarf (hijab), and then a midriff top and the
low-riding jeans popularized by Jennifer Lopez. These sartorially
adventurous young Muslim women, known variously as "noochies" (Nubian
hoochies), "halal honies" and "bodacious bints"(girls, in Arabic) --
have provoked heated cyber-debates about freedom of expression, female
modesty and the future of Islam in America. "Our deen (religion, in
Arabic) is not meant to be rocked!" says hip-hop journalist Adisa
Banjoko, author of the forthcoming The Light From the East on Islamic
influence in hip-hop. "I see these so-called Muslim sistas wearing a
hijab and then a bustier, or a hijab with their belly button sticking
out. You don't put on a hijab and try to rock it! Or these brothers
wearing Allah tattoos, or big medallions with Allah's name -- Allah is
not to be bling-blinged!" [49]
Just as controversial are the Arabic calligraphy tattoos that women,
even outside the hip-hop community, have taken to wearing. The words
halal, haram and sharmuta (whore in Arabic, but a term of endearment in
certain circles these days) are tattooed on shoulders, thighs or lower
backs, and worn with bathing suit tops or hip-hugging jeans. Some of
these haram trends in Islamic hip-hop are deliberate responses to
orthodox or fundamentalist Islamic dress, like the "high-water pants" or
"total hijabs" seen in some inner city areas.Among young Muslim males,
equally provocative are black T-shirts worn by some Shiite youth, which
read in crimson, "Every Day Is Ashura, Every Day Is Karbala" --
references to Shiite rituals commemorating the death of Imam Hussein in
the seventh century and the Iraqi plain where he died in battle. Also
troubling to some is the growing popularity of martial arts among urban
Muslim youth, who say self-defense skills are necessary against
gangsters and violent police. If many black Muslims in the 1960s were
practicing syncretic forms of martial arts like "Kushite boxing," many
of today's young male hip-hoppers are learning "Islamic wrestling." "The
Prophet was a grappler," one enthusiast told Middle East Report. "The
hadith (saying of the Prophet) teaches us to never hit the face of our
opponent and that [Islamic] grappling allows you to win over an opponent
without punching them and risking brain damage."
Russell Simmons has said that "the coolest stuff about American culture,
be it language, dress or attitude, comes from the underclass -- always
has and always will." [50] If so, then as Islam seeps into the American
underclass and as Muslims populate the underclass in Europe, Islamic
cultural elements will percolate upward into mainstream culture and
society. For many American youth, Islamic hip-hop is their first
encounter with Islam, and often leads them to struggle with issues of
race, identity and Western imperialism. In Europe, many North African
youth are rediscovering Islam and becoming race-conscious through Five
Percenter and NOI rap lyrics. For many white hip-hoppers in the US, the
sought-after "ghetto pass" -- acceptance in the hip-hop community --
comes only with conversion to Islam, which is seen as a rejection of
being white. The white rapper Everlast, formerly Eric Schrody of House
of Pain, claims that conversion to Islam and mosque attendance allow him
to visit ghetto neighborhoods he could never enter as a non-Muslim
white. [51] Curiously, Everlast's espousal of Islam caused static with
the white rapper Eminem who accused him of becoming Muslim to deny that
he is a "homosexual white rappin' Irish." One young white Latino youth
explained the link between Islam and his street credibility as follows:
"In the Bronx, looking like me, you don't get much respect. When I took
the shihada (professed Islam), the brothers gave me respect, the white
folk got nervous, even the police paid attention." [52]
Efforts are being made to direct the energy of Islamic hip-hop. In late
July 2003, the First Annual Islamic Family Reunion and Muslims in
Hip-Hop Conference and Concert was held in Orlando, Florida, with
prominent imams from across the country leading three days of workshops
on Muslim youth and stressing the importance of deen, family, schooling
and organizing. Activities included Islamic spelling bees, Islamic
knowledge competitions and performances by "positive lyricists" like
Native Deen. The conference also established Hallal Entertainment, Inc.
and helped launch the Islamic Crisis Emergency Response System, a
Philadelphia-based organization which provides services to needy Muslim
and non-Muslim families. [53] Fusing Islamic themes with the preeminent
global youth culture, Islamic hip-hop has emerged as a powerful
internationalist subculture for disaffected youth around the world.
"Roaring from the East"
"The specter of a storm is haunting the Western world," wrote the black
power poet Askia Muhammad Touré in 1965. "The Great Storm, the coming
Black Revolution, is rolling like a tornado; roaring from the East;
shaking the moorings of the earth as it passes through countries ruled
by oppressive regimes.... Yes, all over this sullen planet, the
multi-colored 'hordes' of undernourished millions are on the move like
never before in human history." [54] Touréé was pondering the appeal of
"the East" to African-American youth in the aftermath of the 1955
Bandung conference. There President Sukarno of Indonesia had told the
representatives of 29 African and Asian nations that they were united
"by a common detestation of colonialism in whatever form it appears. We
are united by a common detestation of racialism."Those were the days
when Malcolm X met with Fidel Castro at the famed Teresa Hotel in
Harlem, and when Malcolm, from his perspective of "Islamic
internationalism," came to understand the civil rights movement as an
instance of the struggle against imperialism, seeing the Vietnam war and
the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya as uprisings of the "darker races" and,
like the African-American struggle, part of the "tidal wave" against
Western imperialism.
Some commentators, pointing to the current anti-war and
anti-globalization movement, have suggested that a new era of
Afro-Asian-Latin solidarity may be in the offing. In the US, the past
two years has seen a political ferment and coalition-building between
progressive groups -- in particular between Arab and Muslim American
groups and African-American groups -- not seen since the 1960s when the
Black Panthers and the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee
declared solidarity with the PLO, which in turn declared solidarity with
Native Americans. September 11 and the subsequent backlash has led many
African-American leaders to stand with Muslim and Arab-Americans, not
least because African-American Muslims are also targeted in the
post-September 11 profiling and detention campaigns. Activists like Al
Sharpton are mobilizing against the USA PATRIOT Act "because it is used
to profile people of color" and "impacting Muslims everywhere, including
Brooklyn and Harlem." [55]
Given the centrality of Islam and the Arab world to the war on terror,
and the presence of kaffiyyas and (regrettably) Bin Laden T-shirts at
protests from Porto Alegre to Barcelona, it appears that the new Bandung
may have a distinct Arab or Islamic cast. In the past two years, a
number of Latin American leaders have called for "concrete action" to
establish a Palestinian state. Castro has signed agreements of bilateral
cooperation with Algeria and the United Arab Emirates, and continues to
rail against "global apartheid" in general and "Israeli apartheid" in
particular. Castro has also been accused of building ties with Iran and
selling biotechnology in exchange for cheap oil. When he visited Iran
in 2001, Castro spoke of his rapport with President Mohammad Khatami and
reported that he "had the longest sleep of his life in Tehran." Most
recently, he has been accused by the US of jamming the satellite
broadcasts of US-based Iranian opposition groups. [56] Recent articles
in right-leaningAmerican newsmagazines claim to have discovered evidence
that Venezuela is providing identity papers to suspicious numbers of
people from Arab and South Asian "countries of interest" (as well as
Colombians and Cubans). One article also features the claim of the
former Venezuelan ambassador to Libya, Julio Cesar Pineda, to possess
correspondence from Hugo Chavez stating his desire to "solidify" ties
between Latin America and the Middle East -- including use of the oil
weapon. [57] Chavez challenged the reporters in question to produce "one
single shred of evidence" for their claims. [58]
These stories of Cuban and Venezuelan ties to Middle Eastern radicals
may be little more than partisan puffery, and Chavez's repeated calls
for solidarity with the Arab world may be nothing more than petroleum
diplomacy or an embattled leader's desperate plea for allies. Yet the
Venezuelan leader's appeal to "Arab roots" is indicative of a trend in
the West. Among Western subordinate groups and opposition movements that
feel victimized or neglected by globalization, the Arabs are seen as
bearing the brunt of the worldwide imperial assault in the era of the
war on terror. As Western nationalists portray Islam as a threat to
freedom and security, and launch wars to bring democracy to the Muslim
world, "the multi-colored hordes" of the West are reaching for teachings
and precedents (like Moorish Spain) in Islam that they hope will make
the West more compassionate and free.
Islam is leaking into the West through conversion, migration and
media-driven cultural flows, and to many, the Islamic world is
presenting a repertoire of alternative identities. As marginalized
Westerners are finding inspiration in Islam, Muslims in the diaspora are
inspired by the African-American experience. The cross-fertilization
taking place between Islamic, black and Latin cultures is creating
fascinating trends and art forms. Many would argue that the fashion for
Arabic tattoos, Allah chains, Orientalist soap operas, belly dancing and
hip scarves is just that -- fashion. But as the Arab pride movement in
Europe and Islamic hip-hop demonstrate, the vibrant cultural
intermingling can have significant political implications. Cultural
flows can spark forceful challenges to state policies, state-imposed
identities and the claims of Western nationalism.
For many of the minority convert communities and the diaspora Muslim
communities, Islamic Spain has emerged as an anchor for their identity.
Moorish Spain was a place where Islam was in and of the West, and
inhabited a Golden Age before the rise of the genocidal, imperial West,
a historical moment that disenchanted Westerners can share with Muslims.
Neither Muslim nostalgia for nor Western Orientalist romanticism about
Andalusia is new, but it is new for different subordinate groups in the
West to be yearning for "return" to Moorish Spain's multiracialism. In
this worldview, the year 1492 is a historical turning point. On Columbus
Day in October, Chavez urged Latin Americans to boycott celebrations of
the "discovery," saying that Columbus was "worse than Hitler." That the
longing for pre-1492 history is shared by many minorities throughout the
West is an indication of their lasting exclusion, and how the stridency
of Western nationalism since September 11 has revived memories of
centuries-old trauma. As one African-American activist put it recently,
"The profiling and brutalizing of African-Americans didn't begin after
September 11. It began in 1492." [59] In a similar spirit, after
Moussaoui was arrested in the US and granted the right to represent
himself in court, one of his first demands was "the return of Spain to
the Moors."
With African-American and Latino converts speaking of the tragedy of
1492, and with Muslim minorities in the West becoming increasingly
race-conscious and inspired by black America, the world is witnessing a
new fusion between Islam and pan-Africanism. Today, however, this
racialized Islamic internationalism contains elements of other cultures
and diasporas as well. Islam is at the heart of an emerging global
anti-hegemonic culture, which post-colonial critic Robert Young would
say incarnates a "tricontinental counter-modernity" that combines
diasporic and local cultural elements, and blends Arab, Islamic, black
and Hispanic factors to generate "a revolutionary black, Asian and
Hispanic globalization, with its own dynamic
counter-modernity...constructed in order to fight global imperialism." [60]
[1] José Martí, "Espana en Melilla," in Cuba: Letras, vol. 2 (Havana:
Edicion Trópico, 1938), p. 201.
[2] Quoted in René Dépestre, "Carta de Cuba sobre el imperialismo de la
mala fé," Por la revolución, por la poesia (Havana: Instituto del Libro,
1969), p. 93
[3] El País, April 17, 2002.
[4] Latin American Weekly Report, October 4, 2003.
[5] CUT National Plenary, Conjuntura Internacional e Nacional,
Resolution 10, "Cresce a polaizaçáo politica a social em todo o mundo."
Accessible online at http://cutnac-web.cut.org.br/10plencut/conjtex5.htm.
[6] Deutsche Presse-Agentur, April 3, 2003.
[7] New York Times, October 22, 2001; The Economist, October 26, 2001.
Imams and converts also made this claim in interviews carried out by
Columbia University's Muslim Communities in New York Project on June 4
and June 16, 2003.
[8] Times (London), January 7, 2002.
[9] Evening Standard, March 15, 2002.
[10] Christian Science Monitor, October 2, 2002. See also Yusuf
Fernandez, "Spain Returning to Islam," Islamic Horizons (July-August 2002).
[11] Olivier Roy, "Euro-Islam: The Jihad Within?" The National Interest
(Spring 2003).
[12] Cox News Service, August 11, 2002; see also Knight-Ridder News
Service, June 28, 2003.
[13] El Diario-La Prensa, October 6, 2001. See also Islamic Horizons
(July-August 2002).
[14] Interview with Rahim Ocasio, April 16, 1999.
[15] Rahim Ocasio, "Latinos, The Invisible: Islam's Forgotten
Multitude," The Message (August 1997).
[16] Kimi Eisele, "The Multicultural Power of Soap Operas," Pacific News
Service, November 25, 2002.
[17] Interview with Rosa Margarita ofEl Diario-La Prensa, August 8,
2003. El Clon-inspired fashion can be viewed online at
http://www.laoriginal.com/especiales.htm.
[18] Independent, July 19, 2002.
[19] AgenceFrance Presse, May 28, 2003.
[20] Eisele, op cit.
[21] Interview with Fernando Casado Caneque, September 8, 2003. Casado
was referring to the conservative Aznar's effort to insert a reference
to Europe's Christian roots in the EU's constitution, a measure that has
provoked the Spanish left and the regions of Andalusia and Cataluna who
resent how the Aznar government has made Catholicism so central to the
state's identity. See El País, July 28, 2003.
[22] James Baldwin, No Name in the Street (New York: Dial Press 1972),
p. 41.
[23] See, for instance, the interview with Ferida Belghoul in Alec
Hargreaves, Voices from the North African Community in France:
Immigration and Identity in Beur Fiction (Providence, RI: Berg
Publishers, 1991), p. 126.
[24] Le Monde, February 12, 2003.
[25] Jerusalem Report, May 6, 2002.
[26] See Loïc Wacquant, "Red Belt, Black Belt: Racial Division, Class
Inequality and the State in the French Urban Periphery and the American
Ghetto," in Enzo Mingione, ed. Urban Poverty and the Underclass (London:
Blackwell Publishers, 1996).
[27] New York Times, October 16, 2001.
[28] Weekly Standard, July 15, 2002.
[29] Times (London), September 29, 2001.
[30] Abd al-Samad Moussaoui, Zacarias, My Brother: The Making of a
Terrorist (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2003), p. 129.
[31] Independent, April 3, 2003.
[32] See Paul Silverstein, "Why Are We Waiting to Start the Fire? French
Gangsta Rap and the Critique of State Capitalism," in Alain-Philippe
Durand, ed. Black, Blanc, Beur: Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture in the
Francophone World (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2002).
[33] Le Figaro, June 17, 2003; Le Monde, March 11, 2003.
[34] Le Monde, September 27, 2001.
[35] L'Expansion, June 11, 2003.
[36] Independent Race and Refugee News Network, April 1, 2001.
[37] The group's manifesto is online at
http://infosuds.free.fr/082001/enquete_bc.htm. I am grateful to Paul
Silverstein for this point.
[38] Interview with 3eme Oeil and DJ Rebel, Bronx, New York, July 24, 2003.
[39] Jerusalem Report, May 6, 2002.
[40] L'Express, March 27, 2003.
[41] David Lepoutre, Coeur de banlieue: Codes, rites et languages (Paris
: O. Jacob, 1997).
[42] Le Figaro, June 3, 2000.
[43] The Spanish slur Moro has long been a term of endearment in Morocco
and in the Moroccan diaspora -- the Arabic adaptation is moro khal
al-ras (black-headed Moor).
[44] I am grateful to Zaheer Ali for this point.
[45] Tupac Shakur's former companion Napoleon, a Muslim convert, speaks
about this allegation in an interview with the Tupac fan site
HitEmUp.com, published on April 16, 2003. Accessible online at
http://www.hitemup.com/interviews/napoleon-part1.html#Bush.
[46] Washington Times, November 13, 2002.
[47] When told that polygamy is illegal in the US, Allahz Sword
responded, "A lot of rappers out there talk about pimpin' -- is that
good?...I'm just talking about part of my religion." Seattle
Post-Intelligencer, February 17, 2003.
[48] Hisham Aidi, "'Building A New America': A Conversation with Russell
Simmons," Africana.com, February 5, 2002.
[49] Personal communication, August 4, 2003.
[50] Quoted in John McWhorter, "How Hip-Hop Holds Blacks Back," City
Journal (Summer 2003).
[51] Interview with Adisa Banjoko, "Everlast: Taking Islam One Day at a
Time," July 12, 1999. The interview is accessible online at
http://thetruereligion.org/everlast.htm.
[52] Interview with Columbia's Muslim Communities of New York Project,
June 16, 2003.
[53] Sister Kalima A-Quddus, "Verily This Is a Single Ummah,"
MuslimsInHipHop Newsletter, August 7, 2003.
[54] Quoted in Robin Kelley, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical
Imagination (Boston: Beacon Press, 2002), p. 60.
[55] Village Voice, December 24, 2002.
[56] Financial Times, July 21, 2003.
[57] See Martin Arostegui, "From Venezuela, a Counterplot," Insight on
the News, March 4, 2003 and "Terror Close to Home," US News and World
Report, October 6, 2003.
[58] Agence France Presse, October 2, 2003.
[59] Interview with Columbia's Muslim Communities of New York Project,
July 21, 2003.
[60] Robert Young, Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction (London:
Blackwell Publishers, 2001), p. 2.
Source: Middle East Report
http://www.turkishweekly.net/article/56/let-us-be-moors-islam-race-and-connected-histories-.html
**
And I and my people, the only rightful representable of the MOORISH
culture must see how vermin, with who we always have resisted in fierce
wars, use now our Glorious history for their own propaganda for a false
Caliphate... and at the same time they continue to persecute us while
Mongols try very hard to steal our Culture and History to rebuild for
them self the caliphate of Cordoba who they have destroyed... LET US BE
MOORS... MEANS SIMPLY YOU SURRENDER TO ME... and if you want to kill my
tribe and steal my Moorish Heritage, then you certainly walk the Sallee
Rovers Plank
The Sheriff of Sarsar... Hassan El Mesbahi / Warrior of the LIGHT
AND GOD SAID, "LET US MAKE RIGHT WHAT MAN HAS CORRUPTED" And Restore the
true Kingdom of Light.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUNQNE2wb7M
Hisham Aidi
printable version
send your friend
(Hisham Aidi, a research fellow at Columbia University's Middle East
Institute, works on the university's Muslim Communities in New York
Project, sponsored by the Ford Foundation.)
"Seamos moros!" wrote the Cuban poet and nationalist José Martíí in
1893, in support of the Berber uprising against Spanish rule in northern
Morocco. "Let us be Moors...the revolt in the Rif...is not an isolated
incident, but an outbreak of the change and realignment that have
entered the world. Let us be Moors...we [Cubans] who will probably die
by the hand of Spain." [1] Writing at a time when the scramble for
Africa and Asia was at full throttle, Martí was accenting connections
between those great power forays and Spanish depredations in Cuba, even
as the rebellion of 1895 germinated on his island.
Throughout the past century, particularly during the Cold War, Latin
American leaders from Cuba's Fidel Castro to Argentina's Juan Peron
would express support for Arab political causes, and call for Arab-Latin
solidarity in the face of imperial domination, often highlighting
cultural links to the Arab world through Moorish Spain. Castro, in
particular, made a philo-Arab pan-Africanism central to his regime's
ideology and policy initiatives. In his famous 1959 speech on race, the
jefe maximo underlined Cuba's African and Moorish origins. "We all have
lighter or darker skin. Lighter skin implies descent from Spaniards who
themselves were colonized by the Moors that came from Africa. Those who
are more or less dark-skinned came directly from Africa. Moreover,
nobody can consider himself as being of pure, much less superior, race." [2]
With the launching of the "war on terror," and particularly with the
invasion of Iraq, political leaders and activists in Latin America have
been warning of a new imperial age and again declaring solidarity with
the Arab world. Some refer rather quixotically to a Moorish past.
Linking the war on Iraq to Plan Colombia and to the Bush
administration's alleged support for a coup against him, the erratic
Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez has repeatedly urged his countrymen to
"return to their Arab roots," and attempted to mobilize the country's
mestizo and black majority against white supremacy. "They call me the
monkey or black," Chavez says of his domestic and international
opponents. "They can't stand that someone like me was elected." [3]
In less contentious terms, Brazil's left-leaning President Lula da Silva
will visit the Middle East in early December 2003 to seek "more
objective" relations with the Arab world, to call for an "independent,
democratic Palestinian state" and to launch a common market with the
Arab world as an alternative to the North American market (particularly
with many in Arab countries boycotting American products). [4] Brazil's
largest trade union federation strongly denounced post-September 11 US
intervention in Colombia, Venezuela and the Middle East, praising the
protest movements that have appeared against US and Israeli "militarism"
and calling on Brazilian workers to join in the struggle "against
Sharon's Nazi-Zionist aggression against the Palestinian people" and in
support of the intifada. [5]
The Other September 11 Effect
In the age of the "war on terror," such expressions from the Western
world of affinity with the Arab world are not confined to statements of
political solidarity. In Latin America, Europe and the US, for example,
there has been a sharp increase in conversion to Islam. At the first
world congress of Spanish-speaking Muslims held in Seville in April
2003, the scholar Mansur Escudero, citing "globalization," said that
there were 10 to 12 million Spanish speakers among the world's 1.2
billion Muslims. [6] In the US, researchers note that usually 25,000
people a year become Muslim, but by several accounts that number has
quadrupled since September 11. [7] In Europe, an Islamic center in
Holland reported a tenfold increase and the New Muslims Project in
England reported a "steady stream" of new converts. [8] Several analysts
have noted that in the United Kingdom, many converts are coming from
middle-class and professional backgrounds, not simply through the prison
system or ghetto mosques, as is commonly believed. [9] The Muslim
population in Spain is also growing, due to conversion, as well as
immigration and intermarriage. [10]
Different explanations have been advanced to account for this intriguing
phenomenon, known as "the other September 11 effect" -- the primary
effects being anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant backlash and infringements
upon civil liberties. Commenting on how the accused "dirty bomber" José
Padilla and the shoe bomber Richard Reid converted to Islam, French
scholar Olivier Roy observes, "Twenty years ago such individuals would
have joined radical leftist movements, which have now disappeared or
become 'bourgeois'.... Now only two Western movements of radical protest
claim to be 'internationalist': the anti-globalization movement and
radical Islamists. To convert to Islam today is a way for a European
rebel to find a cause; it has little to do with theology." [11] This
portrayal of Islam as an outlet for the West's political malcontents
ignores the powerful allure of certain aspects of Islamic theology, and
begs the question of why for at least a century, even when communism was
still in vogue, minorities in the West have seen Islam as a particularly
attractive alternative. Roy's formulation also neglects the critical
elements of racism and racialization. At least since Malcolm X,
internationalist Islam has been seen as a response to Western racism and
imperialism.
Though Westerners of different social and ethnic backgrounds are
gravitating toward Islam, it is mostly the ethnically marginalized of
the West -- historically, mostly black, but nowadays also Latino, native
American, Arab and South Asian minorities -- who, often attracted by the
purported universalism and colorblindness of Islamic history and
theology, are asserting membership in a transnational umma and thereby
challenging or "exiting" the white West. Even for white converts, like
John Walker Lindh, becoming Muslim involves a process of racialization
-- renouncing their whiteness -- because while the West stands for
racism and white supremacy on a global scale, Islam is seen to represent
tolerance and anti-imperialism. This process of racialization is also
occurring in diasporan Muslim communities in the West, which are growing
increasingly race-conscious and "black" as anti-Muslim racism increases.
To cope, Muslims in the diaspora are absorbing lessons from the
African-American freedom movement, including from strains of
African-American Islam.
Over the past two years, Islam has provided an anti-imperial idiom and
imaginary community of belonging for many subordinate groups in the
West, as Islamic culture and art stream into the West through minority
and diaspora communities, and often in fusion with African-American art
forms, slowly seep into the cultural mainstream. Subsequently, many of
the cultural and protest movements -- anti-globalization,
anti-imperialist, anti-racist -- in the West today have Islamic and/or
African-American undercurrents. At a time of military conflict and
extreme ideological polarization between the West and the Muslim world,
Islamic culture is permeating political and cultural currents, remaking
identities and creating cultural linkages between Westerners and the
Muslim world.
Latino Back Channels
Recent journalistic accounts have noted the growing rate of conversion
to Islam in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, and the often violent
clashes between Christian and Spanish Muslim missionaries proselytizing
among the indigenous Mayan community. The Muslim campaign in Chiapas is
led by a Spaniard from Granada, Aureliano Perez, member of an
international Sufi order called al-Murabitun, though he is contending
with a rival missionary, Omar Weston. Particularly interesting about the
several hundred Mayan Muslims is the view of some of the converts that,
though some of the missionaries are Spanish like the conquistadors,
their embrace of Islam is a historic remedy for the Spanish conquest and
the consequent oppression. "Five hundred years ago, they came to destroy
us," said Anastasio Gomez Gomez, 21, who now goes by Ibrahim. "Five
hundred years later, other Spaniards came to return a knowledge that was
taken away from us." [12]
The view of 1492 as a tragic date signaling the end of a glorious era,
and the related idea that conversion to Islam entails a reclaiming of
that past, is common among the Latino Muslim community in the US. That
community, estimated in 2000 at 30,000 to 40,000 members, has grown in
the past two years, with Latino Muslim centers and da'wa (proselytizing)
organizations in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Fresno and Houston. [13]
The banner hanging at the Alianza Islamica center in the South Bronx
celebrates the African and Islamic roots of Latin America: against a
red, white and blue backdrop stands a sword-wielding Moor, flanked by a
Taino Indian and a black African. The Spanish conquistador is
conspicuously absent. Imam (Omar Abduraheem) Ocasio of the Alianza
Islamica speaks passionately about the continuity between Moorish Spain
and Latin America: "Most of the people who came to Latin America and the
Spanish Caribbean were from southern Spain, Andalusia -- they were
Moriscos, Moors forcefully converted to Christianity. The leaders, army
generals, curas [priests] were white men from northern Spain...sangre
azul, as they were called. The southerners, who did the menial jobs,
...servants, artisans, foot soldiers, ...were of mixed Arab and African
descent. They were stripped of their religion, culture, brought to the
so-called New World where they were enslaved with African slaves.... But
the Moriscos never lost their culture...we are the cultural descendants
of the Moors." [14] The Puerto Rican imam writes, "Islamically inspired
values were conveyed ever so subtly in the Trojan horse of Spanish
heritage throughout the centuries and, after 500 years, Latinos were now
ready to return." [15]
In the past two years, Islam and the Arab-Muslim world seem to have
entered even more poignantly into the Latin American imagination,
gaining a presence in political discourse and strongly influencing
Hispanic popular culture. This Arab cultural invasion of Latin America,
which has reverberated in mainstream American culture, is often
attributed to the Brazilian telenovela El Clon and Lebanese-Colombian
pop icon Shakira.
El Clon, the highest-rated soap opera ever shown on Telemundo, a US
Spanish-language channel, reportedly reaches 2.8 million Hispanic
households in the US, as well as 85 million people in Brazil and tens of
millions across Latin America. The series, which began broadcasting
shortly after September 11, tells the story of Jade, a young Brazilian
Muslim who returns to her mother's homeland of Morocco after her
mother's death in Brazil. There she falls in love and settles down with
Lucas, a Christian Brazilian, and adapts to life in an extended family
setting in the old city of Fez. Filmed in Rio de Janeiro and Fez, the
telenovela offers a profusion of Orientalist imagery -- from veiled
belly dancers swaying seductively behind ornate latticework to dazzling
shots of Marrakesh and Fez spliced with footage of scantily clad women
on Rio's beaches -- and of course, incessant supplications of "Ay, por
favor, Allah!" from Jade's neighbors in the medina.The Moroccan
ambassador to Brazil, in a letter to a Sao Paolo newspaper, criticized
the series for its egregious "cultural errors," "gross falsification"
and "mediocre images" promoting stereotypes of Muslim women as
submissive and men as polygamists leading lives of "luxury and indolence."
Despite the kitsch, El Clon has triggered what Latin Trade called
"Mideast fever" across Latin America. Belly dancing and "Middle
Eastern-style jewelry" became "the rage in Rio and Sao Paolo,"
Brazilians began throwing "A Thousand and One Nights" parties, "Talk to
a Sheikh" chat rooms cropped up online and two new agencies opened up to
offer package tours to North Africa.(In his letter, the Moroccan
ambassador acknowledged that Brazilian tourism to Morocco had increased
by 300 percent thanks to El Clon.) A journalist visiting Quito, Ecuador,
found viewers of the series "wide-eyed and drop-jawed for all things
Arab." [16] Even in the US, where El Clon's broadcast was almost blocked
due to alleged potential controversy, it has exerted cultural influence
upon the Latino community and others. In New York, observers note the El
Clon-triggered fashion for Arab jewelry and hip scarves, the overflowing
belly dancing classes and a recently opened beauty parlor called El Clon
in Queens. [17]
Through the Latino back channel, the impact of Shakira in bringing Arab
culture to the MTV audience has also been considerable. The
Lebanese-Colombian singer was bombarded with questions by the media
about her views "as an Arab" on the September 11 attacks, and advised to
drop the belly dancing and the Arabic riffs from her music because it
could hurt her album sales, but she refused. "I would have to rip out my
heart or my insides in order to be able to please them," said the
songstress, and expressed horror at hate crimes against "everything
that's Arab, or seems Arab." [18] During the run-up to the Iraq war,
Shakira's performances took on an explicitly political tone, with her
dancers wearing masks of Tony Blair, George W. Bush and Fidel Castro.
Backdrop screens flashed images of Bush and Saddam Hussein as two
puppets playing a sinister game of chess, with the Grim Reaper as the
puppeteer. She also undertook a highly publicized tour of the Middle
East (though her concerts in Casablanca, Tunis and Beirut were
postponed), during which she visited her father's ancestral village in
the Bekaa Valley. Viewers across the region were delighted when Shakira
appeared on Egyptian television singing the tunes of Fairuz. In Europe,
the US, South America and even the Middle East, the belly-dancing star
has fostered a reported mania for hip scarves with coins and tassels. In
a random check of Cairo nightclubs, Egyptian government officials
confiscated 26 Shakira outfits, "weighing no more than 150 grams [5
ounces]," and deemed "scandalous," [19] but local filmmakers are
currently negotiating with government officials over rights to a film
project called Shakira fi al-Munira, about a young Egyptian girl
infatuated with the Colombian chanteuse.
While the craze for Arab culture has occurred in the wake of September
11 and the ensuing war on terrorism, it is not necessarily political.
Commenting on the popularity of shawarma and hookahs in Quito, one
journalist observes that "the new fascination with Arabia comes at a
time when there are new reasons for anti-American sentiment" -- the
recent policy of currency dollarization -- but adds reassuringly that,
"El Clon's following surely won't produce a new sect of Islamic
fundamentalist terrorists in Latin America." [20] It is also not clear
that conversion to Islam necessarily constitutes political or cultural
resistance. Referring to the vogue for Islam and Arabic among Spanish
youth, one Catalan journalist wryly observes: "It will take more than
teenagers converting to an Islam lite to stop [Spanish Prime Minister
José Maria] Aznar's Christian nationalism and Castilian imperialism. We
need a civil dialogue about our relations with the Orient." [21] Belly
dancing and learning elementary Arabic may not be acts of resistance,
but such activities create important, albeit imaginary cultural linkages
which can be activated for political purposes. As Miles Copeland, head
of the Mondo Melodia label, who will release a film on the American
belly dancing craze in January 2004, told PR Newswire: "Belly dancing is
about art, not politics -- but in experiencing the art, you also
experience the culture, and that becomes political in and of itself."
Interest in Arab culture and conversions are bringing Islam into the
imagination of Western youth, feeding powerful movements and cultures of
protest.
From Harlem to the Casbah
In No Name in the Street, James Baldwin reflects on the "uneasy"
reaction he would get when, while in France in 1948, he would "claim
kinship" with the Algerians living there. "The fact that I had never
seen the Algerian casbah was of no more relevance...than the fact that
the Algerians had never seen Harlem. The Algerian and I were both,
alike, victims of this history [of Europe in Africa], and I was still a
part of Africa, even though I had been carried out of it nearly 400
years before." [22] Most French-born Arabs have never been to Harlem but
"claim kinship" with African-Americans as they draw inspiration from the
black freedom struggle. Numerous French-Arab (Beur) intellectuals and
activists have noted their indebtedness to African-American liberation
thought, [23] and the secular pro-integration Beur movement of the early
1980s organized campaigns and marches modeled on the US civil rights
struggle. But in the early 1990s, as the impoverished, ethnically
segregated banlieues mushroomed around French cities, the discourse of
intégration began to give way to talk of self-imposed exclusion and
warnings that the children of immigrants "had gone in a separate
direction." The region of Lyons, where 100,000 gathered for the famous
march for intégration in 1983, is today cited by commentators as
evidence of the failure of assimilation. Lyons, by one account, has
become a "ghetto of Arabs," and fallen to Islamist influence, boasting
six neighborhood boys in the US military detention center at Guantanamo
Bay. [24]
The generation of black and Arab Muslim youth that came of age in
crime-ridden banlieues that periodically explode into car-burning riots,
and are monitored by a heavy-handed police force, is in no mood for
integration. By some estimates, 50 to 60 percent of the French prison
population is Muslim. [25] French commentators are increasingly
wondering if they have developed a "race problem" like that of the US,
with the attendant pathologies of ethnic ghettoes, family breakdown,
drugs, violence and, of particular concern these days, Islamism. As in
the American ghetto, disintegrating family units have been replaced by
new organizations -- gangs, posses and religious associations,
particularly Islamic groups, [26] which provide services and patrol the
cités, the housing projects where most immigrants live.
The confluence of Islam and urban marginality in France was displayed in
a consummately post-colonial moment on October 6, 2001, when France and
Algeria met in their first soccer match since the Algerian war of
independence. The match was stopped prematurely when thousands of
French-born Arab youth, seeing Algeria losing, raided the field chanting
"Bin Laden! Bin Laden!" and hurled bottles at two female French
ministers. [27] The ill-fated match, coming on the heels of September
11, led to hysterical warnings of an intifada simmering in the heart of
France, an Islamic fifth column, the "unassimilability" of certain
immigrants and, again, an American-style "race problem." Like American
pundits, the French are concerned about whether Islamic and Muslim
organizations which have emerged in the banlieues will keep youths out
of trouble or radicalize them.An American writing for the Weekly
Standard notes, "It's the Farrakhan problem. Mosques do rescue youths
from delinquency, idleness and all sorts of other ills. But in so doing,
they become power brokers in areas where almost all disputes are
resolved by violence and the most tribal kind of woospeh [respect, in a
French accent, supposedly]. And it is that mastery of a violent
environment -- not the social service record -- that these groups call
on when they make demands on the larger society." [28]
The French media has shown a keen interest in the rising conversion to
Islam in the US and Europe -- and particularly in the overlap of Islam
and race, or more specifically, ethnic awareness, mobilization and
self-segregation. An exposé in an April 2003 edition of the magazine
L'Express opened with the following statement: "Blacks, whites, Latinos,
Asians...every year, 50,000 to 80,000 [Americans] convert to Islam.
Internal enemies, members of the 'axis of evil'?" The French
government's attempts to control Islamic mobilization in the banlieues
through elections for a national Islamic council (aimed, in the words of
the interior minister, at taking Islam out of "cellars and garages")
backfired when the conservative Union of Islamic Organizations, inspired
by Egypt's banned Muslim Brotherhood, won 14 out of 41 seats.
Zacarias Moussaoui, the "twentieth hijacker" awaiting trial in the US,
in many ways embodies the story of Islam and racial exclusion in France.
Although he did not grow up impoverished in the cités, by all accounts,
the French-Moroccan harbored a deep racial rage. In his youth, Moussaoui
was often ridiculed because of his dark skin and frizzy hair, and
repeatedly called négre (nigger), but it was after the 1991 Gulf war
that he became politicized. He began to consider himself "black,"
joining the "Kid Brothers" -- a university group modeled after the
Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood -- and came back from a stint in London
deeply hostile toward whites. "He became a racist, a black racist, and
he would use the pejorative African word toubab to describe white
people," said his brother. [29] Moussaoui raged against Western
permissiveness and imperialism in Algeria, Palestine and Chechnya. [30]
Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber," who became radicalized in the same
Brixton mosque as Moussaoui, embodies the similarly distressing urban
and racial situation in Britain. West Indian and South Asian youth live
in benighted "mill and mosque" towns, devastated by capital flight in
the late 1980s and 1990s, where the anti-immigrant British National
Party is making inroads and race riots erupt frequently. Many of these
youth have drifted towards radical Islamist groups. By all accounts, the
petty thief and graffiti artist known as ENROL embraced Islam while in
Feltham young offenders' institution, to seek solace from racism. His
father Robin tried to explain Reid's odyssey to Islam as a result of the
difficulty of being of mixed race. "Islam accepts you for who you are,"
the father told CNN talk show host Larry King. "Even I was a Muslim for
a little bit ...because I was fed up with racial discrimination." In an
interview with the Guardian, Robin continued: "About ten years ago, I
met up with Richard after not seeing him for a few years. He was a
little bit downhearted. I suggested to him, 'Why don't you become a
Muslim? They treated me all right.'"
The mixing of Islam and racial awareness in Europe is also leading to
political mobilization. The Arab European League (AEL), headed by the
fiery Lebanese-born Dyab Abou Jahjah, is explicitly modeled on the
American civil rights movement, borrowing slogans ("By Any Means
Necessary!") and protest techniques from the Black Panthers and the
Nation of Islam, and aiming to mobilize Arab and Muslim youth across
Europe to lobby European governments to make Arabic one of the official
languages of the European Union and to gain state funding for Islamic
schools. Based in Brussels, but with chapters opening in France and
Holland, the AEL has launched a cross-border Arab pride movement, and
organized marches against the US war in Iraq and in solidarity with the
Palestinian intifada. Known as the "Arab Malcolm X," Abou Jahjah, who
says he finds the ideas of integration "degrading," admits being
inspired by the slain African-American civil rights leader, who "was
also against assimilation...fought for civil rights and was also
inspired by Islam." [31] "We're a civil rights movement, not a club of
fundamentalist fanatics who want to blow things up," he told the New
York Times on March 1, 2003. "In Europe, the immigrant organizations are
Uncle Toms. We want to polarize people, to sharpen the discussion, to
unmask the myth that the system is democratic for us." The AEL has also
organized Black Panther-style "Arab patrols" to "police the police."
Groups of unarmed Arab youths dressed in black follow the police around,
carrying video cameras and flyers which read, "Bad cops: the AEL is
watching you." Fusing African-American, Islamic and Arab elements in its
style and rhetoric, the AEL has become a political force to be reckoned
with, even prompting the Belgian government to attempting to ban its
patrols on the basis of a 1930s law that proscribes private militias.
"Le Respect" and "Les Pitbulls"
Seul le beat aujourd-hui nous lie et nous unit.
(Today only the beat links and unites us.)
-- Saliha, "Danse le Beat"
Hip-hop has emerged as the idiom for the urban activism of minority
youth in Europe. For Muslim youth experiencing the crackdown on
immigrants, as well as state withdrawal and welfare cuts, hip-hop offers
a chance to express critiques, vent rage, declare solidarity with other
marginalized youth (particularly African-Americans) and display cultural
pride -- to show, as New York rapper DMX says, "who we be." [32]
If American rap has been criticized for its materialism, nihilism and
political nonchalance, French hip-hop offers trenchant critiques of
racism, globalization and imperialism. Numerous groups such as Yazid and
La Fonky Family deal explicitly with the challenges of being Arab and
Muslim in the West, and relations between Islam and the West. In their
hit single, "Je Suis Si Triste" ("I'm So Sad"), the Marseilles-based rap
crew 3eme Oeil (Third Eye), made up of the Comorian-born Boss One
(Mohammed), Jo Popo (Mohammed) and Saïd, offer biting social commentary
over an infectious, looping bass line. Decrying hate crimes against
veiled Muslim women in France, condemning police brutality and mass
incarceration (with a special shout out to Mumia Abu Jamal), the rappers
focus their lyrical fire on the West's "stranglehold" (la main-mise) on
the East.
In addition to verbal release, hip-hop is also used to combat racism and
to promote black-white-Arab relations, as in the Urban Peace Festivals
and spoken-word poetry events (les slameurs) organized by SOS Racisme.
Hip-hop, interestingly, is also being used to counter Islamist influence
in the banlieues. The Beurette leader Fadela Amara, who organized the
march "Ni putes ni soumises" ("Neither whores nor submissive") -- a
march that has now developed into a women's rights organization
affiliated with SOS Racisme -- often invites Muslim female rappers to
spread a feminist message. "Ni putes, ni soumises" aims to mobilize
youth against ghettoes and for equality, but also to counter the
Islamist organizations such as the powerful Union of Islamic
Organizations, which delivers services in the cités in exchange for
veiling. Amara says discrimination and unemployment make many young men
feel "excluded from the French project." These youths, she says, often
return to Islamic traditions, opposing gender mixing and women's
education, and sometimes assaulting women who do not dress according to
their idea of modesty. [33] French Muslim rappers and R&B singers
publicly and collectively condemned the September 11 attacks, saying the
terrorists were, in the words of Ideal J, a Franco-Haitian convert to
Islam, "dishonoring the faith." Al Malik of the New African Poets, a
Congolose convert to Islam, noted the importance of rap and Islam to
young ghetto dwellers: "Rap has opened a world to us, empowering us
young men, and Islam has allowed us to flourish by teaching us respect
for 'the other.' [But] the Taliban are instrumentalizing the religion." [34]
Attempts by some French Islamists to boycott American products -- and
market products like Mecca Cola -- are failing since banlieusards remain
loyal to American streetwear labels like Fubu and Phat Farm, often
claiming that such clothing is an anti-American, but pro-black
statement. More recently, local banlieue streetwear clothing lines have
appeared with names like Bullrot (a combination of pitbull and
rottweiler) and Adedi (an acronym for Association de differences), the
latter founded by a Moroccan, a Gabonese and a Senegalese to combat
racism, extremism and to celebrate difference. [35]
8/19/03 French commentators associate hip-hop with Islam, claiming that
rap, like Islam, often brings rage, pathology and dysfunction. The
anti-immigrant National Front of Jean Le Pen and its splinter, the
National Republican Movement, have historically denounced hip-hop. In
March 2001, both far-right parties opposed the use of public funds to
finance the first Hip-Hop Dance World Cup in Villepinte stating that
"hip-hop is a movement belonging to immigrants of African origin
installed in France and which constitutes a call to sedition against our
institutions." [36] More recently, however, the National Front has begun
to use hip-hop as a way to spread its political message, "win back"
French youth and counter Arab and American influence in French culture.
The white supremacist rap crew Basic Celto, affiliated with the National
Republican Movement, has as its objective to break "immigrants'
monopoly" over hip-hop "which diffuses the immigrants' complaints."
Basic Celto aims to promote a "national revolutionary" rap with a
"Christian identity," and to draw "français d'origine" away from
immigrant influence. [37]
But the allure of Islam, and Islam-inflected cultures like hip-hop and
rai, to French youth continues to grow, prompting much editorial
pondering. Le Monde ran a story on how Ramadan is increasingly observed
in French schools, even by non-Muslims, and there have also been
accounts of many non-Muslim girls wearing headscarves in solidarity with
Muslim schoolgirls sent home for wearing le foulard.Commenting on Le
Pen's remark that hip-hop is a dangerous musical genre which originated
in the casbahs of Algeria, rapper Boss One (Mohammed) of 3eme Oeil,
said: "For Le Pen, everything bad -- rap, crime, AIDS -- comes from
Algeria or Islam.... The more Bush and Chirac attack Islam and say it's
bad, the more young people will think it's good, and the more the
oppressed will go to Islam and radical preachers. Especially here in
America. Because life is hard in France, but we have a social safety
net." [38]
Commentators have also blamed hip-hop for bringing social ills
associated with the American ghetto to France. "[French-Arab youth]
intentionally imitate belligerent Afro-American lifestyles, down to
'in-your-face' lyrics for booming rap music," moaned one observer. [39]
Some have pointed to the "African-Americanization" of the speech
patterns of French youth, noting that their verbal jousting is similar
to that of "American rappers from black ghettoes." [40] Indeed, the
culture of France's suburban ghettoes is heavily influenced by the
trends of the American inner city -- the urban argot, street codes of
conduct and "honor system" are strikingly similar. [41] In January 2000,
a law was passed creating a police unit to monitor the behavior of
pitbulls and rottweilers in housing projects where, as in the US, such
dogs had become very popular during the 1990s among urban youth. [42]
The slurs used against blacks (négres) and Arabs (in France, bougnoles,
in Spain, Moros [43] and in Belgium, makukas, which means white ape)
have become commonly used terms of endearment among Muslim youth, as
with the term nigger in the US. But clearly, Muslim European youth have
not learned misogyny and rage from hip-hop or from African-Americans.
The fact that hip-hop is being used by secular urban movements to
counter Islamism and racism is an illustration of the growing racial
consciousness of Muslim youth in Europe, the deep resonance of the
African-American experience and how imagination can help construct a
cultural world to resist state oppression and religious fanaticism.
Keepin' It Halal
Hip-hop's changed, ain't a black thing anymore G
Young kids in Baghdad showing 2 on 3
HollaWest Coast? Nah, West Bank for life
Upside down, holla for my Moros alright
Spit rhymes in Arabic on the same level like Jada
You wouldn't know if you should head bang or belly dance playa
I'm that type of sand nigga type of Johnny Cochran yaw dig
Ya stereotype me, I knock you out like Prince Naseem.
-- 8/19/03 Outlandish, "El Moro"
The hip-hop movement has a powerful oppositional streak that makes it
both attractive and troubling to political actors. Hip-hop's ability to
jangle the hegemonic discourse was recently seen with Jay-Z's "Leave
Iraq Alone" verse and Outkast's anti-war hit "Bombs Over Baghdad,"
denouncing the first Gulf War, which was yanked off the air by MTV and
Clear Channel when bombs began raining on Baghdad in March 2003. [44]
Hip-hop artists have strongly opposed the war, without fear of the
social opprobrium visited upon the Dixie Chicks and other white pop
stars. As hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons put it, "Rappers don't have to
worry about anything. No one likes what they have to say anyway, so
they're not afraid to speak up." But when hip-hop is infused with
Islamic themes and political allusions, the Establishment press has
found it particularly unsettling. Hence the outrage over rapper Paris'
recently released -- and rapidly selling -- Sonic Jihad, the cover of
which features an airplane flying toward the White House, and the
alleged purging of Arabic terms and references to Hussein from Tupac
Shakur's recently released Better Dayz (though the slain rapper was
referring not to the missing Iraqi dictator, but to Hussein Fatal, a
member of his Outlawz posse, which also includes Khadafi, Kastro and
Komani). [45]
In the fall of 2002, accused sniper John Muhammad, formerly of the
Nation of Islam, sent notes to the police that referenced lyrics from
rappers who are Five Percenters -- a heterodox black Muslim sect. The
subsequent media frenzy triggered a soul-searching conversation within
the Islamic hip-hop community that was rendered particularly urgent when
Muslim hip-hoppers found themselves linked to the war on terror by Niger
Innis, chairman of the conservative Congress of Racial Equality. Shortly
after the arrest of John Muhammad, Innis met with Department of Justice
officials to express concern over "domestic black Muslims as a national
security issue" and launched a campaign to counter Islamic recruitment
efforts in the nation's prisons and colleges. [46] Muslim rappers asked
themselves:should we be expected to "represent" Islam positively, and
avoid the misogynist and materialistic excesses of mainstream hip-hop
artists? Or should the aim be to "get paid" and gain wide success even
if it means "playing with the haram (illicit)"? Of the US-based Muslim
hip-hop crews, Native Deen and Sons of Hagar have been praised for their
positive political and religious messages. Native Deen, made up of three
African-American rappers who won't perform in venues that allow mixed
dancing or serve alcohol, have been profiled in The New Yorker and even
received praise from the State Department, but have yet to garner
airtime on mainstream radio stations. The Des Moines-based Sons of
Hagar, made up of Allahz Sword (Ahmad) and Ramadan Conchus (Abdul), both
Arab-Americans, and Keen Intellect (Kareem) and Musa, Irish-American and
Korean-American converts to Islam, respectively, have also been praised
for socially conscious lyrics. Their poignant single "Insurrection"
("It's the Arab hunting season, and I ain't leavin'/I'm pushin' the
conscience button on you people/Where is the reason?"), and their track
"Sisterssss" in support of polygamy, [47] are popular in the underground
Muslim-Arab hip-hop scene. But Sons of Hagar have also not achieved
mainstream exposure.
The Muslim rap crew that is gaining worldwide notoriety for its lyrical
dexterity, stylistic appeal and explicitly positive portrayal of Islam
is the Denmark-based trio Outlandish. Made up of a Moroccan, a Pakistani
and a Honduran, Outlandish has topped the charts with hits including
"Guantanamo" (the chorus: "And I got all my Moros here, Guantanamo") and
"Aicha," a remake of Cheb Khaled's 1995 hit. The latter track, which saw
heavy rotation on MTV Europe and climbed to fourth on the charts in
Germany, has been hailed as the most positive depiction of Muslim women
in a music video, with shots of pre-prayer ablution and veiled and
unveiled Arab, South Asian and African women. Rather than playing with
the haram, Outlandish is about "keepin' it halal (licit)."
American hip-hop commentators note that political, cerebral rap may be
popular in Europe, but if it cannot be "bling-blinged," or sexed up, it
will not sell in the US. A recent dispute between Simmons and a segment
of the African-American Sunni community is illustrative. Though not a
Muslim, Simmons has frequently declared his respect for Islam, and the
Nation of Islam (NOI) in particular. "I grew up on Farrakhan," he said
in one interview. "Where I grew up, there were dope fiends and black
Muslims. If Muslims came by, you stood up straight." [48] He also tried
to broker talks between the NOI and American Jewish organizations,
denounced the invasion of Iraq, helped organize Musicians United to Win
Without War and is currently planning a Middle East youth peace summit.
But when a recent issue of his OneWorld magazine ran a cover with female
rapper Li'l Kim wearing a "burka-like garment over her face" and
"lingerie from the neck down" -- and in the same issue saying, "Fuck
Afghanistan" -- Najee Ali, director of the civil rights group Project
Islamic Hope, demanded an apology to America's Muslims.As someone active
in brokering truces in the hip-hop world, Ali cited his Islamic duty "to
the people of hip-hop and humanity," and called on Simmons to apologize
for the magazine cover and for the "pornographic female rapper" Foxy
Brown, who in her song "Hot Spot," produced by the Simmons-founded Def
Jam, says "MCs wanna eat me but it's Ramadan."
The Li'l Kim incident instigated a discussion over other not-so-halal
trends in Islamic hip-hop. The cover of XXL magazine showing rapper Nas
holding a glass of cognac and wearing prayer beads around his neck
outraged many Muslims. "Why he imitatin' the kufar (unbelievers, in
Arabic) with the Hail Mary beads?!" fumed one blogger. Many Sunni
Muslims have also criticized the style of some female Muslim hip-hoppers
of wearing a headscarf (hijab), and then a midriff top and the
low-riding jeans popularized by Jennifer Lopez. These sartorially
adventurous young Muslim women, known variously as "noochies" (Nubian
hoochies), "halal honies" and "bodacious bints"(girls, in Arabic) --
have provoked heated cyber-debates about freedom of expression, female
modesty and the future of Islam in America. "Our deen (religion, in
Arabic) is not meant to be rocked!" says hip-hop journalist Adisa
Banjoko, author of the forthcoming The Light From the East on Islamic
influence in hip-hop. "I see these so-called Muslim sistas wearing a
hijab and then a bustier, or a hijab with their belly button sticking
out. You don't put on a hijab and try to rock it! Or these brothers
wearing Allah tattoos, or big medallions with Allah's name -- Allah is
not to be bling-blinged!" [49]
Just as controversial are the Arabic calligraphy tattoos that women,
even outside the hip-hop community, have taken to wearing. The words
halal, haram and sharmuta (whore in Arabic, but a term of endearment in
certain circles these days) are tattooed on shoulders, thighs or lower
backs, and worn with bathing suit tops or hip-hugging jeans. Some of
these haram trends in Islamic hip-hop are deliberate responses to
orthodox or fundamentalist Islamic dress, like the "high-water pants" or
"total hijabs" seen in some inner city areas.Among young Muslim males,
equally provocative are black T-shirts worn by some Shiite youth, which
read in crimson, "Every Day Is Ashura, Every Day Is Karbala" --
references to Shiite rituals commemorating the death of Imam Hussein in
the seventh century and the Iraqi plain where he died in battle. Also
troubling to some is the growing popularity of martial arts among urban
Muslim youth, who say self-defense skills are necessary against
gangsters and violent police. If many black Muslims in the 1960s were
practicing syncretic forms of martial arts like "Kushite boxing," many
of today's young male hip-hoppers are learning "Islamic wrestling." "The
Prophet was a grappler," one enthusiast told Middle East Report. "The
hadith (saying of the Prophet) teaches us to never hit the face of our
opponent and that [Islamic] grappling allows you to win over an opponent
without punching them and risking brain damage."
Russell Simmons has said that "the coolest stuff about American culture,
be it language, dress or attitude, comes from the underclass -- always
has and always will." [50] If so, then as Islam seeps into the American
underclass and as Muslims populate the underclass in Europe, Islamic
cultural elements will percolate upward into mainstream culture and
society. For many American youth, Islamic hip-hop is their first
encounter with Islam, and often leads them to struggle with issues of
race, identity and Western imperialism. In Europe, many North African
youth are rediscovering Islam and becoming race-conscious through Five
Percenter and NOI rap lyrics. For many white hip-hoppers in the US, the
sought-after "ghetto pass" -- acceptance in the hip-hop community --
comes only with conversion to Islam, which is seen as a rejection of
being white. The white rapper Everlast, formerly Eric Schrody of House
of Pain, claims that conversion to Islam and mosque attendance allow him
to visit ghetto neighborhoods he could never enter as a non-Muslim
white. [51] Curiously, Everlast's espousal of Islam caused static with
the white rapper Eminem who accused him of becoming Muslim to deny that
he is a "homosexual white rappin' Irish." One young white Latino youth
explained the link between Islam and his street credibility as follows:
"In the Bronx, looking like me, you don't get much respect. When I took
the shihada (professed Islam), the brothers gave me respect, the white
folk got nervous, even the police paid attention." [52]
Efforts are being made to direct the energy of Islamic hip-hop. In late
July 2003, the First Annual Islamic Family Reunion and Muslims in
Hip-Hop Conference and Concert was held in Orlando, Florida, with
prominent imams from across the country leading three days of workshops
on Muslim youth and stressing the importance of deen, family, schooling
and organizing. Activities included Islamic spelling bees, Islamic
knowledge competitions and performances by "positive lyricists" like
Native Deen. The conference also established Hallal Entertainment, Inc.
and helped launch the Islamic Crisis Emergency Response System, a
Philadelphia-based organization which provides services to needy Muslim
and non-Muslim families. [53] Fusing Islamic themes with the preeminent
global youth culture, Islamic hip-hop has emerged as a powerful
internationalist subculture for disaffected youth around the world.
"Roaring from the East"
"The specter of a storm is haunting the Western world," wrote the black
power poet Askia Muhammad Touré in 1965. "The Great Storm, the coming
Black Revolution, is rolling like a tornado; roaring from the East;
shaking the moorings of the earth as it passes through countries ruled
by oppressive regimes.... Yes, all over this sullen planet, the
multi-colored 'hordes' of undernourished millions are on the move like
never before in human history." [54] Touréé was pondering the appeal of
"the East" to African-American youth in the aftermath of the 1955
Bandung conference. There President Sukarno of Indonesia had told the
representatives of 29 African and Asian nations that they were united
"by a common detestation of colonialism in whatever form it appears. We
are united by a common detestation of racialism."Those were the days
when Malcolm X met with Fidel Castro at the famed Teresa Hotel in
Harlem, and when Malcolm, from his perspective of "Islamic
internationalism," came to understand the civil rights movement as an
instance of the struggle against imperialism, seeing the Vietnam war and
the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya as uprisings of the "darker races" and,
like the African-American struggle, part of the "tidal wave" against
Western imperialism.
Some commentators, pointing to the current anti-war and
anti-globalization movement, have suggested that a new era of
Afro-Asian-Latin solidarity may be in the offing. In the US, the past
two years has seen a political ferment and coalition-building between
progressive groups -- in particular between Arab and Muslim American
groups and African-American groups -- not seen since the 1960s when the
Black Panthers and the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee
declared solidarity with the PLO, which in turn declared solidarity with
Native Americans. September 11 and the subsequent backlash has led many
African-American leaders to stand with Muslim and Arab-Americans, not
least because African-American Muslims are also targeted in the
post-September 11 profiling and detention campaigns. Activists like Al
Sharpton are mobilizing against the USA PATRIOT Act "because it is used
to profile people of color" and "impacting Muslims everywhere, including
Brooklyn and Harlem." [55]
Given the centrality of Islam and the Arab world to the war on terror,
and the presence of kaffiyyas and (regrettably) Bin Laden T-shirts at
protests from Porto Alegre to Barcelona, it appears that the new Bandung
may have a distinct Arab or Islamic cast. In the past two years, a
number of Latin American leaders have called for "concrete action" to
establish a Palestinian state. Castro has signed agreements of bilateral
cooperation with Algeria and the United Arab Emirates, and continues to
rail against "global apartheid" in general and "Israeli apartheid" in
particular. Castro has also been accused of building ties with Iran and
selling biotechnology in exchange for cheap oil. When he visited Iran
in 2001, Castro spoke of his rapport with President Mohammad Khatami and
reported that he "had the longest sleep of his life in Tehran." Most
recently, he has been accused by the US of jamming the satellite
broadcasts of US-based Iranian opposition groups. [56] Recent articles
in right-leaningAmerican newsmagazines claim to have discovered evidence
that Venezuela is providing identity papers to suspicious numbers of
people from Arab and South Asian "countries of interest" (as well as
Colombians and Cubans). One article also features the claim of the
former Venezuelan ambassador to Libya, Julio Cesar Pineda, to possess
correspondence from Hugo Chavez stating his desire to "solidify" ties
between Latin America and the Middle East -- including use of the oil
weapon. [57] Chavez challenged the reporters in question to produce "one
single shred of evidence" for their claims. [58]
These stories of Cuban and Venezuelan ties to Middle Eastern radicals
may be little more than partisan puffery, and Chavez's repeated calls
for solidarity with the Arab world may be nothing more than petroleum
diplomacy or an embattled leader's desperate plea for allies. Yet the
Venezuelan leader's appeal to "Arab roots" is indicative of a trend in
the West. Among Western subordinate groups and opposition movements that
feel victimized or neglected by globalization, the Arabs are seen as
bearing the brunt of the worldwide imperial assault in the era of the
war on terror. As Western nationalists portray Islam as a threat to
freedom and security, and launch wars to bring democracy to the Muslim
world, "the multi-colored hordes" of the West are reaching for teachings
and precedents (like Moorish Spain) in Islam that they hope will make
the West more compassionate and free.
Islam is leaking into the West through conversion, migration and
media-driven cultural flows, and to many, the Islamic world is
presenting a repertoire of alternative identities. As marginalized
Westerners are finding inspiration in Islam, Muslims in the diaspora are
inspired by the African-American experience. The cross-fertilization
taking place between Islamic, black and Latin cultures is creating
fascinating trends and art forms. Many would argue that the fashion for
Arabic tattoos, Allah chains, Orientalist soap operas, belly dancing and
hip scarves is just that -- fashion. But as the Arab pride movement in
Europe and Islamic hip-hop demonstrate, the vibrant cultural
intermingling can have significant political implications. Cultural
flows can spark forceful challenges to state policies, state-imposed
identities and the claims of Western nationalism.
For many of the minority convert communities and the diaspora Muslim
communities, Islamic Spain has emerged as an anchor for their identity.
Moorish Spain was a place where Islam was in and of the West, and
inhabited a Golden Age before the rise of the genocidal, imperial West,
a historical moment that disenchanted Westerners can share with Muslims.
Neither Muslim nostalgia for nor Western Orientalist romanticism about
Andalusia is new, but it is new for different subordinate groups in the
West to be yearning for "return" to Moorish Spain's multiracialism. In
this worldview, the year 1492 is a historical turning point. On Columbus
Day in October, Chavez urged Latin Americans to boycott celebrations of
the "discovery," saying that Columbus was "worse than Hitler." That the
longing for pre-1492 history is shared by many minorities throughout the
West is an indication of their lasting exclusion, and how the stridency
of Western nationalism since September 11 has revived memories of
centuries-old trauma. As one African-American activist put it recently,
"The profiling and brutalizing of African-Americans didn't begin after
September 11. It began in 1492." [59] In a similar spirit, after
Moussaoui was arrested in the US and granted the right to represent
himself in court, one of his first demands was "the return of Spain to
the Moors."
With African-American and Latino converts speaking of the tragedy of
1492, and with Muslim minorities in the West becoming increasingly
race-conscious and inspired by black America, the world is witnessing a
new fusion between Islam and pan-Africanism. Today, however, this
racialized Islamic internationalism contains elements of other cultures
and diasporas as well. Islam is at the heart of an emerging global
anti-hegemonic culture, which post-colonial critic Robert Young would
say incarnates a "tricontinental counter-modernity" that combines
diasporic and local cultural elements, and blends Arab, Islamic, black
and Hispanic factors to generate "a revolutionary black, Asian and
Hispanic globalization, with its own dynamic
counter-modernity...constructed in order to fight global imperialism." [60]
[1] José Martí, "Espana en Melilla," in Cuba: Letras, vol. 2 (Havana:
Edicion Trópico, 1938), p. 201.
[2] Quoted in René Dépestre, "Carta de Cuba sobre el imperialismo de la
mala fé," Por la revolución, por la poesia (Havana: Instituto del Libro,
1969), p. 93
[3] El País, April 17, 2002.
[4] Latin American Weekly Report, October 4, 2003.
[5] CUT National Plenary, Conjuntura Internacional e Nacional,
Resolution 10, "Cresce a polaizaçáo politica a social em todo o mundo."
Accessible online at http://cutnac-web.cut.org.br/10plencut/conjtex5.htm.
[6] Deutsche Presse-Agentur, April 3, 2003.
[7] New York Times, October 22, 2001; The Economist, October 26, 2001.
Imams and converts also made this claim in interviews carried out by
Columbia University's Muslim Communities in New York Project on June 4
and June 16, 2003.
[8] Times (London), January 7, 2002.
[9] Evening Standard, March 15, 2002.
[10] Christian Science Monitor, October 2, 2002. See also Yusuf
Fernandez, "Spain Returning to Islam," Islamic Horizons (July-August 2002).
[11] Olivier Roy, "Euro-Islam: The Jihad Within?" The National Interest
(Spring 2003).
[12] Cox News Service, August 11, 2002; see also Knight-Ridder News
Service, June 28, 2003.
[13] El Diario-La Prensa, October 6, 2001. See also Islamic Horizons
(July-August 2002).
[14] Interview with Rahim Ocasio, April 16, 1999.
[15] Rahim Ocasio, "Latinos, The Invisible: Islam's Forgotten
Multitude," The Message (August 1997).
[16] Kimi Eisele, "The Multicultural Power of Soap Operas," Pacific News
Service, November 25, 2002.
[17] Interview with Rosa Margarita ofEl Diario-La Prensa, August 8,
2003. El Clon-inspired fashion can be viewed online at
http://www.laoriginal.com/especiales.htm.
[18] Independent, July 19, 2002.
[19] AgenceFrance Presse, May 28, 2003.
[20] Eisele, op cit.
[21] Interview with Fernando Casado Caneque, September 8, 2003. Casado
was referring to the conservative Aznar's effort to insert a reference
to Europe's Christian roots in the EU's constitution, a measure that has
provoked the Spanish left and the regions of Andalusia and Cataluna who
resent how the Aznar government has made Catholicism so central to the
state's identity. See El País, July 28, 2003.
[22] James Baldwin, No Name in the Street (New York: Dial Press 1972),
p. 41.
[23] See, for instance, the interview with Ferida Belghoul in Alec
Hargreaves, Voices from the North African Community in France:
Immigration and Identity in Beur Fiction (Providence, RI: Berg
Publishers, 1991), p. 126.
[24] Le Monde, February 12, 2003.
[25] Jerusalem Report, May 6, 2002.
[26] See Loïc Wacquant, "Red Belt, Black Belt: Racial Division, Class
Inequality and the State in the French Urban Periphery and the American
Ghetto," in Enzo Mingione, ed. Urban Poverty and the Underclass (London:
Blackwell Publishers, 1996).
[27] New York Times, October 16, 2001.
[28] Weekly Standard, July 15, 2002.
[29] Times (London), September 29, 2001.
[30] Abd al-Samad Moussaoui, Zacarias, My Brother: The Making of a
Terrorist (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2003), p. 129.
[31] Independent, April 3, 2003.
[32] See Paul Silverstein, "Why Are We Waiting to Start the Fire? French
Gangsta Rap and the Critique of State Capitalism," in Alain-Philippe
Durand, ed. Black, Blanc, Beur: Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture in the
Francophone World (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2002).
[33] Le Figaro, June 17, 2003; Le Monde, March 11, 2003.
[34] Le Monde, September 27, 2001.
[35] L'Expansion, June 11, 2003.
[36] Independent Race and Refugee News Network, April 1, 2001.
[37] The group's manifesto is online at
http://infosuds.free.fr/082001/enquete_bc.htm. I am grateful to Paul
Silverstein for this point.
[38] Interview with 3eme Oeil and DJ Rebel, Bronx, New York, July 24, 2003.
[39] Jerusalem Report, May 6, 2002.
[40] L'Express, March 27, 2003.
[41] David Lepoutre, Coeur de banlieue: Codes, rites et languages (Paris
: O. Jacob, 1997).
[42] Le Figaro, June 3, 2000.
[43] The Spanish slur Moro has long been a term of endearment in Morocco
and in the Moroccan diaspora -- the Arabic adaptation is moro khal
al-ras (black-headed Moor).
[44] I am grateful to Zaheer Ali for this point.
[45] Tupac Shakur's former companion Napoleon, a Muslim convert, speaks
about this allegation in an interview with the Tupac fan site
HitEmUp.com, published on April 16, 2003. Accessible online at
http://www.hitemup.com/interviews/napoleon-part1.html#Bush.
[46] Washington Times, November 13, 2002.
[47] When told that polygamy is illegal in the US, Allahz Sword
responded, "A lot of rappers out there talk about pimpin' -- is that
good?...I'm just talking about part of my religion." Seattle
Post-Intelligencer, February 17, 2003.
[48] Hisham Aidi, "'Building A New America': A Conversation with Russell
Simmons," Africana.com, February 5, 2002.
[49] Personal communication, August 4, 2003.
[50] Quoted in John McWhorter, "How Hip-Hop Holds Blacks Back," City
Journal (Summer 2003).
[51] Interview with Adisa Banjoko, "Everlast: Taking Islam One Day at a
Time," July 12, 1999. The interview is accessible online at
http://thetruereligion.org/everlast.htm.
[52] Interview with Columbia's Muslim Communities of New York Project,
June 16, 2003.
[53] Sister Kalima A-Quddus, "Verily This Is a Single Ummah,"
MuslimsInHipHop Newsletter, August 7, 2003.
[54] Quoted in Robin Kelley, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical
Imagination (Boston: Beacon Press, 2002), p. 60.
[55] Village Voice, December 24, 2002.
[56] Financial Times, July 21, 2003.
[57] See Martin Arostegui, "From Venezuela, a Counterplot," Insight on
the News, March 4, 2003 and "Terror Close to Home," US News and World
Report, October 6, 2003.
[58] Agence France Presse, October 2, 2003.
[59] Interview with Columbia's Muslim Communities of New York Project,
July 21, 2003.
[60] Robert Young, Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction (London:
Blackwell Publishers, 2001), p. 2.
Source: Middle East Report
http://www.turkishweekly.net/article/56/let-us-be-moors-islam-race-and-connected-histories-.html
**
And I and my people, the only rightful representable of the MOORISH
culture must see how vermin, with who we always have resisted in fierce
wars, use now our Glorious history for their own propaganda for a false
Caliphate... and at the same time they continue to persecute us while
Mongols try very hard to steal our Culture and History to rebuild for
them self the caliphate of Cordoba who they have destroyed... LET US BE
MOORS... MEANS SIMPLY YOU SURRENDER TO ME... and if you want to kill my
tribe and steal my Moorish Heritage, then you certainly walk the Sallee
Rovers Plank
The Sheriff of Sarsar... Hassan El Mesbahi / Warrior of the LIGHT
AND GOD SAID, "LET US MAKE RIGHT WHAT MAN HAS CORRUPTED" And Restore the
true Kingdom of Light.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUNQNE2wb7M
NEMO
Apr 7, 2012, 12:53:46 PM4/7/12
to
AND GOD SAID, ''Go away & kill yourself & put yourself out of your
misery, putz!''!
misery, putz!''!
raven1
Apr 7, 2012, 1:03:01 PM4/7/12
to
On Sat, 07 Apr 2012 18:40:17 +0200, Warhol <mol...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>Let Us Be Moors: Islam, Race and "Connected Histories"
>Hisham Aidi
You can be a Moor if you like; they lost their empire and are
>Let Us Be Moors: Islam, Race and "Connected Histories"
>Hisham Aidi
consigned to the backwater of history.
Warhol
Apr 7, 2012, 4:25:06 PM4/7/12
to
Op 7-4-2012 19:03, raven1 schreef:
We lost an empire and it was it worth to lose everything... And when my
ancestor Boadil al Ghalib(victor) left Granada or Raisuli delivered the
Kingdom of Fes to the Alaouits... at their last sight of our base of
knowledge...
“the Moor’s last sigh,” where Spain’s last Moorish Caliph Ahmed wept as
he contemplated the ruin of a once-great civilization, overwhelmed by
the Catholics conquista, is written in history books... but he didn't
wept... when he was alone far from the invaders he had the laugh of his
life... believe me... as all my ancestors who delivered a part of our
caliphate to invaders...
Theodore Roosevelt: Gentlemen, nothing in this world is certain -
absolutely nothing. The fate of the nation will be decided by the
American people in November, and the fate of Morocco will be decided
tomorrow by me. And now, if you don't mind, I'd just like to be alone
with my bear!
http://youtu.be/9O7y2a3f2aQ?t=1m2s
[last lines]
Sherif of Wazan: Great Raisuli, we have lost everything. All is drifting
on the wind as you said. We have lost everything.
Raisuli: Sherif, is there not one thing in your life that is worth
losing everything for?
[they both begin to laugh] The Moors, of the Kingdom of Fes, Last Laugh...
Memorable quotes of the Last of Caliph of the Kingdom of Fes... El
Rasuli the Magnificent...
all my ancestors had a good laugh with each trap delivered to
unbelievers who invaded our holy lands... as always we have a good laugh
when Mission is accomplished and our enemies think they have vanquished
us... but is that so? Its not we have given the bishop in the game...
that we don't control the outcome...
this are only a few examples of what we have given the world...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9151565736298805805
What is important is the last battle... its there where the promised
future starts... A fallen Empire can always stand up from it ashes...
aslong the Soul is not destroyed. But HE(Hassan & Katrien) will destroy
you, will leave you no *SOUL* or body to stand up...
The Moor's last laugh... We win Heaven and Earth... The Moor’s Return.
A wind of Change... Warhol, Che'Riff of the Sarsar...
The Light at the Edge of the World.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dDU-J0hM9M
Scars is Morgan, the NY Banker... The evil American Pirate of Salee that
remained... and murder Six million of my people, the last 100 years...
so he could get away with the enslavement of mankind...
Raisuli: This is the Rif. I am DeMolay Ahmed Muhamed Raisuli the
Magnificent, sherif of the Riffian Berbers. I am the true defender of
the faithful and the blood of the prophet runs in me and I am but a
servant of his will. You have nothing to say?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caFiSBl-zUs
ancestor Boadil al Ghalib(victor) left Granada or Raisuli delivered the
Kingdom of Fes to the Alaouits... at their last sight of our base of
knowledge...
“the Moor’s last sigh,” where Spain’s last Moorish Caliph Ahmed wept as
he contemplated the ruin of a once-great civilization, overwhelmed by
the Catholics conquista, is written in history books... but he didn't
wept... when he was alone far from the invaders he had the laugh of his
life... believe me... as all my ancestors who delivered a part of our
caliphate to invaders...
Theodore Roosevelt: Gentlemen, nothing in this world is certain -
absolutely nothing. The fate of the nation will be decided by the
American people in November, and the fate of Morocco will be decided
tomorrow by me. And now, if you don't mind, I'd just like to be alone
with my bear!
http://youtu.be/9O7y2a3f2aQ?t=1m2s
[last lines]
Sherif of Wazan: Great Raisuli, we have lost everything. All is drifting
on the wind as you said. We have lost everything.
Raisuli: Sherif, is there not one thing in your life that is worth
losing everything for?
[they both begin to laugh] The Moors, of the Kingdom of Fes, Last Laugh...
Memorable quotes of the Last of Caliph of the Kingdom of Fes... El
Rasuli the Magnificent...
all my ancestors had a good laugh with each trap delivered to
unbelievers who invaded our holy lands... as always we have a good laugh
when Mission is accomplished and our enemies think they have vanquished
us... but is that so? Its not we have given the bishop in the game...
that we don't control the outcome...
this are only a few examples of what we have given the world...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9151565736298805805
What is important is the last battle... its there where the promised
future starts... A fallen Empire can always stand up from it ashes...
aslong the Soul is not destroyed. But HE(Hassan & Katrien) will destroy
you, will leave you no *SOUL* or body to stand up...
The Moor's last laugh... We win Heaven and Earth... The Moor’s Return.
A wind of Change... Warhol, Che'Riff of the Sarsar...
The Light at the Edge of the World.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dDU-J0hM9M
Scars is Morgan, the NY Banker... The evil American Pirate of Salee that
remained... and murder Six million of my people, the last 100 years...
so he could get away with the enslavement of mankind...
Raisuli: This is the Rif. I am DeMolay Ahmed Muhamed Raisuli the
Magnificent, sherif of the Riffian Berbers. I am the true defender of
the faithful and the blood of the prophet runs in me and I am but a
servant of his will. You have nothing to say?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caFiSBl-zUs
Warhol
Apr 7, 2012, 7:55:35 PM4/7/12
to
Op 7-4-2012 18:40, Warhol schreef:
Just bumping the shit back up....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA6OKoW30Pk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA6OKoW30Pk
Freedom Man
Apr 7, 2012, 9:28:30 PM4/7/12
to
See what RELIGION does to peoples' minds?
Adults no longer believe in the Tooth Fairy - but they still torture and
kill each other over ancient myths and superstitions.
"We all remember how many religious wars were fought for a religion of love
and gentleness; how many bodies were burned alive with the genuinely kind
intention of saving souls from the eternal fire of hell." --- Karl Popper
"When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many
people suffer from a delusion, it is called Religion."
--- Robert M. Pirsig
Either God wants to abolish evil and cannot, or he can but does not want to.
If he wants to but cannot he is impotent. If he can but does not want to, he
is wicked. If he neither can nor wants to, then he is both powerless and
wicked.
--- Epicurus, Greek philosopher, circa 300 B.C.
"Act of God" disasters like the Japanese earthquake expose the myth. Either
God can do nothing to stop catastrophes like this, or he doesn't care to, or
he doesn't exist. He is thus either impotent, evil, or imaginary.
--- CNN Belief Blog, 3-20-11
"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and
evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that
takes religion."
--- Steven Weinberg, quoted in The New York Times, April 20, 1999
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false,
and by rulers as useful."
--- Seneca the Younger (4? BC - 65 AD)
"Religion once ruled the world. It was called the Dark Ages." --- Ruth
Green.
"Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings." ---
Victor Stenger.
"I don't believe in God because I don't believe in Mother Goose." ---
Clarence Darrow
"As my ancestors are free from slavery, I am free from the slavery of
religion." --- Butterfly McQueen
"Faith is believing what you know ain't so." --- Mark Twain
"The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in
all fiction." --- Richard Dawkins
"Cult today, religion tomorrow."
The Freedom From Religion Foundation: http://ffrf.org/
The Secular Coalition for America: www.secular.org
Secular Student Alliance: www.secularstudents.org
www.infidels.org
www.humaniststudies.org
www.atheistalliance.org
www.americanhumanist.org
Adults no longer believe in the Tooth Fairy - but they still torture and
kill each other over ancient myths and superstitions.
"We all remember how many religious wars were fought for a religion of love
and gentleness; how many bodies were burned alive with the genuinely kind
intention of saving souls from the eternal fire of hell." --- Karl Popper
"When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many
people suffer from a delusion, it is called Religion."
--- Robert M. Pirsig
Either God wants to abolish evil and cannot, or he can but does not want to.
If he wants to but cannot he is impotent. If he can but does not want to, he
is wicked. If he neither can nor wants to, then he is both powerless and
wicked.
--- Epicurus, Greek philosopher, circa 300 B.C.
"Act of God" disasters like the Japanese earthquake expose the myth. Either
God can do nothing to stop catastrophes like this, or he doesn't care to, or
he doesn't exist. He is thus either impotent, evil, or imaginary.
--- CNN Belief Blog, 3-20-11
"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and
evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that
takes religion."
--- Steven Weinberg, quoted in The New York Times, April 20, 1999
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false,
and by rulers as useful."
--- Seneca the Younger (4? BC - 65 AD)
"Religion once ruled the world. It was called the Dark Ages." --- Ruth
Green.
"Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings." ---
Victor Stenger.
"I don't believe in God because I don't believe in Mother Goose." ---
Clarence Darrow
"As my ancestors are free from slavery, I am free from the slavery of
religion." --- Butterfly McQueen
"Faith is believing what you know ain't so." --- Mark Twain
"The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in
all fiction." --- Richard Dawkins
"Cult today, religion tomorrow."
The Freedom From Religion Foundation: http://ffrf.org/
The Secular Coalition for America: www.secular.org
Secular Student Alliance: www.secularstudents.org
www.infidels.org
www.humaniststudies.org
www.atheistalliance.org
www.americanhumanist.org
Warhol
Apr 7, 2012, 11:39:11 PM4/7/12
to
Warhol
Apr 8, 2012, 1:00:24 AM4/8/12
to
Op 8-4-2012 5:04, edrh...@hotmail.com schreef:
>
> Here is Islam, in all its glory, God help us!
you people must be blind or have serious brain damage... I don't
represent neither Islam of Jesus... I don't know those people who do
such things... my people fear the word of GOD... and know his laws very
well...
And what has that link of yours to do with... please explain... I want
here you say what Connects us Berbers with afghans or anyone named by a
racist who has forgotten his own origins... The inglorious bastard...
That he makes war with Mongols, i don't care... but he touch to my
people, he will meet a hell fire... I hope this clear enough for that
little bastard head of yours...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-DNN2l6RMw
> On Saturday, April 7, 2012 12:40:17 PM UTC-4, Warhol wrote:
>> Let Us Be Moors: Islam, Race and "Connected Histories"
>> Hisham Aidi
>>
> http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/07/31/brutality-and-subjugation-the-women-of-islam-at-home-and-abroad/
>> Let Us Be Moors: Islam, Race and "Connected Histories"
>> Hisham Aidi
>>
>
> Here is Islam, in all its glory, God help us!
you people must be blind or have serious brain damage... I don't
represent neither Islam of Jesus... I don't know those people who do
such things... my people fear the word of GOD... and know his laws very
well...
And what has that link of yours to do with... please explain... I want
here you say what Connects us Berbers with afghans or anyone named by a
racist who has forgotten his own origins... The inglorious bastard...
That he makes war with Mongols, i don't care... but he touch to my
people, he will meet a hell fire... I hope this clear enough for that
little bastard head of yours...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-DNN2l6RMw
Brad Guth
Apr 8, 2012, 9:44:59 PM4/8/12
to
On Apr 7, 10:00 pm, Warhol <mol...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Op 8-4-2012 5:04, edrho...@hotmail.com schreef:
perpetual doom and gloom.
You need to get a fresh grip, and restart from scratch. Not all of us
are the bad guys.
http://groups.google.com/groups/search
http://translate.google.com/#
Brad Guth, Brad_Guth, Brad.Guth, BradGuth, BG / “Guth Usenet”
> Op 8-4-2012 5:04, edrho...@hotmail.com schreef:
>
> > On Saturday, April 7, 2012 12:40:17 PM UTC-4, Warhol wrote:
> >> Let Us Be Moors: Islam, Race and "Connected Histories"
> >> Hisham Aidi
>
> >http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/07/31/brutality-and-subjugation-the-...
> > On Saturday, April 7, 2012 12:40:17 PM UTC-4, Warhol wrote:
> >> Let Us Be Moors: Islam, Race and "Connected Histories"
> >> Hisham Aidi
>
>
> > Here is Islam, in all its glory, God help us!
>
> you people must be blind or have serious brain damage... I don't
> represent neither Islam of Jesus... I don't know those people who do
> such things... my people fear the word of GOD... and know his laws very
> well...
>
> And what has that link of yours to do with... please explain... I want
> here you say what Connects us Berbers with afghans or anyone named by a
> racist who has forgotten his own origins... The inglorious bastard...
> That he makes war with Mongols, i don't care... but he touch to my
> people, he will meet a hell fire... I hope this clear enough for that
> little bastard head of yours...
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-DNN2l6RMw
We have way better medications for treating that condition of Moor
> > Here is Islam, in all its glory, God help us!
>
> you people must be blind or have serious brain damage... I don't
> represent neither Islam of Jesus... I don't know those people who do
> such things... my people fear the word of GOD... and know his laws very
> well...
>
> And what has that link of yours to do with... please explain... I want
> here you say what Connects us Berbers with afghans or anyone named by a
> racist who has forgotten his own origins... The inglorious bastard...
> That he makes war with Mongols, i don't care... but he touch to my
> people, he will meet a hell fire... I hope this clear enough for that
> little bastard head of yours...
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-DNN2l6RMw
perpetual doom and gloom.
You need to get a fresh grip, and restart from scratch. Not all of us
are the bad guys.
http://groups.google.com/groups/search
http://translate.google.com/#
Brad Guth, Brad_Guth, Brad.Guth, BradGuth, BG / “Guth Usenet”
Warhol
Apr 9, 2012, 8:51:00 AM4/9/12
to
Op 9-4-2012 3:44, Brad Guth schreef:
>> you here say what Connects us Berbers with afghans or anyone named by a
Eat shit Edward Guth... you stinking jew... I am gone send all mongols
to hell and so liberated the world from foolish sephardi dogs of your
brand promoting Venus lies or other lies day and night... to distract
people from the true destination...Ksar El Kebir the Gate of Paradise
I am here to help you... I have you on list of friends. :rant:
In a civilized Society people need not and have no ZOG to push them
around or take care of them, we handle our own life well.
The more uncivilized a nation or people are the more Government they
need until the government kills every one who does not obey them....
Humans have not YET discovered Civilization, neither do they know what
it is.. They confuse it with technology and deodorants, and cameras on
every corner and every class room.. They think Civilization is BIG
BROTHER WATCHING YOU from Washington and from the Sky (with drones).
The world at the Present is full of Savage of your kind. And the more
technologically Advanced the more Savage they are to their own people
and to others..
NOW ONLY A COMPLETE SURRENDER TO MY Mesbahiyan ZAOUIA OR Amorabits
RIBATS CAN GET ANYONE TO PARADISE....
> On Apr 7, 10:00 pm, Warhol<mol...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> Op 8-4-2012 5:04, edrho...@hotmail.com schreef:
>>
>>> On Saturday, April 7, 2012 12:40:17 PM UTC-4, Warhol wrote:
>>>> Let Us Be Moors: Islam, Race and "Connected Histories"
>>>> Hisham Aidi
>>
>>> http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/07/31/brutality-and-subjugation-the-...
>>
>>> Here is Islam, in all its glory, God help us!
>>
>> you people must be blind or have serious brain damage... I don't
>> represent neither Islam of Jesus... I don't know those people who do
>> such things... my people fear the word of GOD... and know his laws very
>> well...
>>
>> And what has that link of yours to do with us... please explain... I want
>> Op 8-4-2012 5:04, edrho...@hotmail.com schreef:
>>
>>> On Saturday, April 7, 2012 12:40:17 PM UTC-4, Warhol wrote:
>>>> Let Us Be Moors: Islam, Race and "Connected Histories"
>>>> Hisham Aidi
>>
>>> http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/07/31/brutality-and-subjugation-the-...
>>
>>> Here is Islam, in all its glory, God help us!
>>
>> you people must be blind or have serious brain damage... I don't
>> represent neither Islam of Jesus... I don't know those people who do
>> such things... my people fear the word of GOD... and know his laws very
>> well...
>>
>> you here say what Connects us Berbers with afghans or anyone named by a
>> racist who has forgotten his own origins... The inglorious bastard...
>> That he makes war with Mongols, i don't care... but he touch to my
>> people, he will meet a hell fire... I hope this clear enough for that
>> little bastard head of yours...
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-DNN2l6RMw
>
> We have way better medications for treating that condition of Moor
> perpetual doom and gloom.
>
> You need to get a fresh grip, and restart from scratch. Not all of us
> are the bad guys.
>
> http://groups.google.com/groups/search
> http://translate.google.com/#
> Brad Guth, Brad_Guth, Brad.Guth, BradGuth, BG / “Guth Usenet”
Really? hmmm.. :D..:Bad:... And ALL the Jews are laughing.........
>> That he makes war with Mongols, i don't care... but he touch to my
>> people, he will meet a hell fire... I hope this clear enough for that
>> little bastard head of yours...
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-DNN2l6RMw
>
> We have way better medications for treating that condition of Moor
> perpetual doom and gloom.
>
> You need to get a fresh grip, and restart from scratch. Not all of us
> are the bad guys.
>
> http://groups.google.com/groups/search
> http://translate.google.com/#
> Brad Guth, Brad_Guth, Brad.Guth, BradGuth, BG / “Guth Usenet”
Eat shit Edward Guth... you stinking jew... I am gone send all mongols
to hell and so liberated the world from foolish sephardi dogs of your
brand promoting Venus lies or other lies day and night... to distract
people from the true destination...Ksar El Kebir the Gate of Paradise
I am here to help you... I have you on list of friends. :rant:
In a civilized Society people need not and have no ZOG to push them
around or take care of them, we handle our own life well.
The more uncivilized a nation or people are the more Government they
need until the government kills every one who does not obey them....
Humans have not YET discovered Civilization, neither do they know what
it is.. They confuse it with technology and deodorants, and cameras on
every corner and every class room.. They think Civilization is BIG
BROTHER WATCHING YOU from Washington and from the Sky (with drones).
The world at the Present is full of Savage of your kind. And the more
technologically Advanced the more Savage they are to their own people
and to others..
NOW ONLY A COMPLETE SURRENDER TO MY Mesbahiyan ZAOUIA OR Amorabits
RIBATS CAN GET ANYONE TO PARADISE....
fasgnadh
Apr 9, 2012, 9:33:10 AM4/9/12
to
raven1 shows what a jealous little atheist bitch he is:
Like the Spanish, English, Dutch, Germans, British, Romans,
Ottoman Turks, Mongols, Greeks, Persians, Egyptians
...shall we go on? B^p
America next?
At least all of those had a GO, and SUCCEEDED, unlike the
sorry arse atheist FAILURES all through history;
# From: raven1 <quotht...@nevermore.com>
# Newsgroups: alt.atheism
# Subject: Re: Anyone seen Hysteria, Abu Baker Bashir and Kelsey
Bjarnyard? B^D
# Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2008 21:15:11 -0500
# Message-ID: <87ttk498t9sueojr7...@4ax.com>
#
# There has never been a "Great, Enduring Atheist Civilization"
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA
What a pathetic bunch of LOSERS! B^]
---------
The foremost atheist Philosopher of our age recently
launched his new book "Religion for Atheists" and
no atheists are interested in talking about it,
including all the ones who eagerly embraced Dawkin's
even more enthusiastic endorsement of atheist Gods he claims
'came into being'(sic)
From his book Launch:
"A few years ago it struck me that there is a resource
that is a provider of Wisdom, and consolation,
and an ethical framework, and it's rather fascinating and
has dominated the mental landscape of human beings for thousands of years
I'm thinking, of course, of religion.
And the problem is, I'm an atheist."
Yes, that's certainly a problem for any atheist! B^D
or for anyone living in any of the atheist regimes they ran! B^[
"Not just a bit of an atheist, I really am an atheist."
You make it sound like you expect people not to believe atheists!
B^D
"So, this doesn't, in a way, make me an ideal cantidate to write
about religion, but at some point it did strike me that religions
cannot be, in the words of Christopher Hitchins, "the source of
the poison of everything", it's implausible, they've been around
for thousands of years, they reflect the collaborative intelligences
and sensitivities of millions of people and the idea that everything
to do with them is false and wicked just didn't start to stand up to
the scrutiny I applied to it, as I thought more about the subject.
So, that's really the fruit of my thinking"
That religion is really the source of so so many good and useful
contributions to civilisation that Hitchin's malicious lies just
don't stand up.. 8^o and as atheism is devoid of anything
worthwhile itself, it needs to STEAL some of the many great ideas
religion has to offer:
" my new book,Religion for Atheists is a deliberate attempt
to look at a number of areas where I believe that religions
have things to offer for non-believers"
Sure, Truth, Love, Compassion, Justice, Sincerity, Charity,
Mercy, Courage, Integrity..
all the virtues atheism lacks, and doesn't even understand, all
the spiritual values that atheists reject completely...
# From: Budikka666 <budi...@netscape.net>
# Newsgroups:
alt.atheism,alt.religion,alt.religion.christian,alt.agnosticism
# Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 03:38:16 -0800 (PST)
# Message-ID:
<bfcf3a9d-9711-449a...@m3g2000yqf.googlegroups.com>
#
# You can keep your spiritual values.
# I'll piss on them and pass on them.
#
# Budikka
" ..and perhaps believers know about these things already,
but for non-believers I wanted to look at that."
"It strikes me that at the moment the world is really divided into
believers and non-believers and the debate has become at times very
fierce, there are people, some of whom live in North Oxford who
have suggested not only that religion is unbelievable but also
that it's ridiculous, and that people who believe in anything are
simpletons, maniacs .. people who must be lectured at, to remove
the folly of their intellectual errors."
We all know the "person from North Oxford" he's criticising for
being such an arrogant, rabid demagogue with extreme views, is
Richard Dawkins B^]
"That's not really my approach, I think such an approach is sterile,
I don't think one makes progress"
True, Dawkins extreme militancy and all the money spent on Bus
ad lies to proselytise for new atheist converts never worked!
"It doesn't strike me that this is really a productive way
to go forward."
Mate, I have been telling the dimwitted Dawkinite Drones that
for YEARS now! But they are completely blind to reason! B^D
" How do you live a good life outside of a religious structure?
Well that's silly, when the good life you want to emulate
exists WITHIN that moral framework and claims that the SPIRITUAL
values are what brings life to the attempts at self-transformation!
It's like you want the Light from a lightbulb, using only
the physical MATTER, not invisible, electromagnetic ENERGY! B^D
It's been tried in EVERY atheist state and failed! B^]
How can these atheist 'thinkers' be so dumb?
"This is THE question facing modern society, and we haven't
necessarily answered it that well."
You atheists have NEVER answered it, B^D but the majority
religious societies that you want to emulate clearly have! B^]
"I think it's a legitimate question and my book is an
attempt to answer that question."
Sure, the hilarious part is that you think atheism needs
to copy religion ...because it HAS the answer already!!!!
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAHA!!
Just what Dawkins, Bukakke, Vurgil and all the other
ex-atheist believers are trying to do! ;-)
Except, THEY are copying the BELIEFs in Supernatural Beings,
i.e. they are FABRICATING GODS to WORSHIP! (Just
like every atheist tyranny tried to do with political cultism ;-)
Whereas De Botton wants to steal the PRAXIS of religion: B^D
"My starting point is to say that we should learn to STEAL from
religions."
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAA!
Priceless! The starting point for Atheist 'philosophy' is
that having no ideas of their own the unoriginal atheists
need to pinch the ideas of the, more successful, religious!
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAA
"you know some people have accused me of advocating a
'pick and mix'approach to religions, and I say you know what?
you're absolutely right, that's completely what I'm doing,
a pick and mix approach.
Some people have said 'religion's are not a buffet, from which
you can go round choosing the best bits', and my answer is yes they are.
And that's precidsely what I'm doing. So i've taken my plate,
and I've gone round the different faiths, and I've done precisely that."
- Alain de Botton, Lanching his new Book, Religion for Atheists
The Wheeler Centre, Melbourne 19/3/2012
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/bigideas/stories/2012/03/19/3455152.htm
---------
alt.atheism FAQ:
http://altatheismfaq.blogspot.com/
http://groups.google.com.au/group/alt.atheism/msg/7c0978c14fd4ed37?hl=en&dmode=source
"Atheism is the natural and inseparable part of Communism."
-Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin)
"We must combat religion"
-Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin)
“Down with religion and long live atheism;
the dissemination of atheist views is our chief task!”
- Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin)
"Our program necessarily includes the propaganda of atheism."
- Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin)
http://www.atheistnexus.org/photo/2182797:Photo:8290?context=latest
http://www.atheistnexus.org/photo/2182797:Photo:8295?context=latest
http://www.atheistnexus.org/photo/2182797:Photo:6348?context=latest
http://www.atheistnexus.org/photo/2182797:Photo:17478?context=latest
"How can you make a revolution without firing squads?"
- Lenin
http://www.atheistnexus.org/photo/2182797:Photo:17475?context=latest
http://www.c96trading.com/Nagant_NKVD_300h.jpg
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01001/Tsar-family_1001874c.jpg
Ottoman Turks, Mongols, Greeks, Persians, Egyptians
...shall we go on? B^p
America next?
At least all of those had a GO, and SUCCEEDED, unlike the
sorry arse atheist FAILURES all through history;
# From: raven1 <quotht...@nevermore.com>
# Newsgroups: alt.atheism
# Subject: Re: Anyone seen Hysteria, Abu Baker Bashir and Kelsey
Bjarnyard? B^D
# Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2008 21:15:11 -0500
# Message-ID: <87ttk498t9sueojr7...@4ax.com>
#
# There has never been a "Great, Enduring Atheist Civilization"
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA
What a pathetic bunch of LOSERS! B^]
---------
The foremost atheist Philosopher of our age recently
launched his new book "Religion for Atheists" and
no atheists are interested in talking about it,
including all the ones who eagerly embraced Dawkin's
even more enthusiastic endorsement of atheist Gods he claims
'came into being'(sic)
From his book Launch:
"A few years ago it struck me that there is a resource
that is a provider of Wisdom, and consolation,
and an ethical framework, and it's rather fascinating and
has dominated the mental landscape of human beings for thousands of years
I'm thinking, of course, of religion.
And the problem is, I'm an atheist."
Yes, that's certainly a problem for any atheist! B^D
or for anyone living in any of the atheist regimes they ran! B^[
"Not just a bit of an atheist, I really am an atheist."
You make it sound like you expect people not to believe atheists!
B^D
"So, this doesn't, in a way, make me an ideal cantidate to write
about religion, but at some point it did strike me that religions
cannot be, in the words of Christopher Hitchins, "the source of
the poison of everything", it's implausible, they've been around
for thousands of years, they reflect the collaborative intelligences
and sensitivities of millions of people and the idea that everything
to do with them is false and wicked just didn't start to stand up to
the scrutiny I applied to it, as I thought more about the subject.
So, that's really the fruit of my thinking"
That religion is really the source of so so many good and useful
contributions to civilisation that Hitchin's malicious lies just
don't stand up.. 8^o and as atheism is devoid of anything
worthwhile itself, it needs to STEAL some of the many great ideas
religion has to offer:
" my new book,Religion for Atheists is a deliberate attempt
to look at a number of areas where I believe that religions
have things to offer for non-believers"
Sure, Truth, Love, Compassion, Justice, Sincerity, Charity,
Mercy, Courage, Integrity..
all the virtues atheism lacks, and doesn't even understand, all
the spiritual values that atheists reject completely...
# From: Budikka666 <budi...@netscape.net>
# Newsgroups:
alt.atheism,alt.religion,alt.religion.christian,alt.agnosticism
# Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 03:38:16 -0800 (PST)
# Message-ID:
<bfcf3a9d-9711-449a...@m3g2000yqf.googlegroups.com>
#
# You can keep your spiritual values.
# I'll piss on them and pass on them.
#
# Budikka
" ..and perhaps believers know about these things already,
but for non-believers I wanted to look at that."
"It strikes me that at the moment the world is really divided into
believers and non-believers and the debate has become at times very
fierce, there are people, some of whom live in North Oxford who
have suggested not only that religion is unbelievable but also
that it's ridiculous, and that people who believe in anything are
simpletons, maniacs .. people who must be lectured at, to remove
the folly of their intellectual errors."
We all know the "person from North Oxford" he's criticising for
being such an arrogant, rabid demagogue with extreme views, is
Richard Dawkins B^]
"That's not really my approach, I think such an approach is sterile,
I don't think one makes progress"
True, Dawkins extreme militancy and all the money spent on Bus
ad lies to proselytise for new atheist converts never worked!
"It doesn't strike me that this is really a productive way
to go forward."
Mate, I have been telling the dimwitted Dawkinite Drones that
for YEARS now! But they are completely blind to reason! B^D
" How do you live a good life outside of a religious structure?
Well that's silly, when the good life you want to emulate
exists WITHIN that moral framework and claims that the SPIRITUAL
values are what brings life to the attempts at self-transformation!
It's like you want the Light from a lightbulb, using only
the physical MATTER, not invisible, electromagnetic ENERGY! B^D
It's been tried in EVERY atheist state and failed! B^]
How can these atheist 'thinkers' be so dumb?
"This is THE question facing modern society, and we haven't
necessarily answered it that well."
You atheists have NEVER answered it, B^D but the majority
religious societies that you want to emulate clearly have! B^]
"I think it's a legitimate question and my book is an
attempt to answer that question."
Sure, the hilarious part is that you think atheism needs
to copy religion ...because it HAS the answer already!!!!
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAHA!!
Just what Dawkins, Bukakke, Vurgil and all the other
ex-atheist believers are trying to do! ;-)
Except, THEY are copying the BELIEFs in Supernatural Beings,
i.e. they are FABRICATING GODS to WORSHIP! (Just
like every atheist tyranny tried to do with political cultism ;-)
Whereas De Botton wants to steal the PRAXIS of religion: B^D
"My starting point is to say that we should learn to STEAL from
religions."
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAA!
Priceless! The starting point for Atheist 'philosophy' is
that having no ideas of their own the unoriginal atheists
need to pinch the ideas of the, more successful, religious!
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAA
"you know some people have accused me of advocating a
'pick and mix'approach to religions, and I say you know what?
you're absolutely right, that's completely what I'm doing,
a pick and mix approach.
Some people have said 'religion's are not a buffet, from which
you can go round choosing the best bits', and my answer is yes they are.
And that's precidsely what I'm doing. So i've taken my plate,
and I've gone round the different faiths, and I've done precisely that."
- Alain de Botton, Lanching his new Book, Religion for Atheists
The Wheeler Centre, Melbourne 19/3/2012
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/bigideas/stories/2012/03/19/3455152.htm
---------
alt.atheism FAQ:
http://altatheismfaq.blogspot.com/
http://groups.google.com.au/group/alt.atheism/msg/7c0978c14fd4ed37?hl=en&dmode=source
"Atheism is the natural and inseparable part of Communism."
-Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin)
"We must combat religion"
-Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin)
“Down with religion and long live atheism;
the dissemination of atheist views is our chief task!”
- Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin)
"Our program necessarily includes the propaganda of atheism."
- Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin)
http://www.atheistnexus.org/photo/2182797:Photo:8290?context=latest
http://www.atheistnexus.org/photo/2182797:Photo:8295?context=latest
http://www.atheistnexus.org/photo/2182797:Photo:6348?context=latest
http://www.atheistnexus.org/photo/2182797:Photo:17478?context=latest
"How can you make a revolution without firing squads?"
- Lenin
http://www.atheistnexus.org/photo/2182797:Photo:17475?context=latest
http://www.c96trading.com/Nagant_NKVD_300h.jpg
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01001/Tsar-family_1001874c.jpg
Brad Guth
Apr 9, 2012, 7:11:02 PM4/9/12
to
right here, just slugging away at anything that comes our way.
You know, I really wouldn't mind being a Jew, especially considering
all the social/political perks and financial benefits that most others
(especially like yourself) do not get. However sadly, that's not the
case, not even when you think it is.
Btw; on at least some issues I can fully agree with your
interpretation of history, religion and government, but nowadays those
issues of agreement have been getting fewer and much further between.
Perhaps you could fix that.
Warhol
Apr 10, 2012, 12:17:40 AM4/10/12
to
Op 10-4-2012 1:11, Brad Guth schreef:
Forgotten Hopes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IECUGbB0d_s
I'm looking at the sun
Waiting for night alone
Only with darkness dreams
Lunatic screams.
And your name are written everywhere
On my walls
Drops of rain mixed with tears and blood
still holding my wish
until the death take my breath
Pain is still here
Never goes away
couldn't vanish the past
during the period that i had
still feel the same fears
that i had from many years
Even i know the truth. but this is only my attitude
Pain is still here
still feel the same fears
that i had from many years .
......................................................
.....................................................
CLEAN VOCALS .. madro amoriam
DRUMS .. hazem tafour
GROWLING VOCALS ..hazem tafour
HARSH VOCALS . hazem tafour
lyrics . Monika zanze
GUITARS . KEYBOARD . RHYTHM . BASS . RECORDING . COMPOSING . MELODY'S
.BY. madro amoriam ........................................
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IECUGbB0d_s
I'm looking at the sun
Waiting for night alone
Only with darkness dreams
Lunatic screams.
And your name are written everywhere
On my walls
Drops of rain mixed with tears and blood
still holding my wish
until the death take my breath
Pain is still here
Never goes away
couldn't vanish the past
during the period that i had
still feel the same fears
that i had from many years
Even i know the truth. but this is only my attitude
Pain is still here
still feel the same fears
that i had from many years .
......................................................
.....................................................
CLEAN VOCALS .. madro amoriam
DRUMS .. hazem tafour
GROWLING VOCALS ..hazem tafour
HARSH VOCALS . hazem tafour
lyrics . Monika zanze
GUITARS . KEYBOARD . RHYTHM . BASS . RECORDING . COMPOSING . MELODY'S
.BY. madro amoriam ........................................
Warhol
Apr 10, 2012, 1:02:53 AM4/10/12
to
Op 9-4-2012 15:33, fasgnadh schreef:
The Moon Struck serpent with the many heads shall lose them all...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxBGerWLHcs
> raven1 shows what a jealous little atheist bitch he is:
>> On Sat, 07 Apr 2012 18:40:17 +0200, Warhol<mol...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Let Us Be Moors: Islam, Race and "Connected Histories"
>>> Hisham Aidi
>>
>> You can be a Moor if you like; they lost their empire and are
>> consigned to the backwater of history.
>
> Like the Spanish, English, Dutch, Germans, British, Romans,
> Ottoman Turks, Mongols, Greeks, Persians, Egyptians
>
> ...shall we go on? B^p
>
>
> America next?
>
>
> At least all of those had a GO, and SUCCEEDED, unlike the
> sorry arse atheist FAILURES all through history;
>
>
America has left one option open... Surrender to the Moor baby Siba...
>> On Sat, 07 Apr 2012 18:40:17 +0200, Warhol<mol...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Let Us Be Moors: Islam, Race and "Connected Histories"
>>> Hisham Aidi
>>
>> You can be a Moor if you like; they lost their empire and are
>> consigned to the backwater of history.
>
> Like the Spanish, English, Dutch, Germans, British, Romans,
> Ottoman Turks, Mongols, Greeks, Persians, Egyptians
>
> ...shall we go on? B^p
>
>
> America next?
>
>
> At least all of those had a GO, and SUCCEEDED, unlike the
> sorry arse atheist FAILURES all through history;
>
>
The Moon Struck serpent with the many heads shall lose them all...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxBGerWLHcs
Brad Guth
May 4, 2012, 8:21:00 AM5/4/12
to
Brad Guth
May 4, 2012, 8:24:02 AM5/4/12
to
On Apr 10, 12:35 am, Warhol <mol...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I received the word today the basement is in two years from yesterday...
>
> but even in your cave my hand shall get you or you will bitten by
> serpents...
>
> I will tell you when times comes... and as for this summer you better
> leave Arizona... it is gone be very hot... ha ha ha... I just shaw it on
> CNN...
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlBxNcNAvzE
>
> Op 10-4-2012 8:49, saulle...@cox.net schreef:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > WHEN CAN I EXPECT MY BASEMENT, LYING PIGO?
>
> > I KNOW ALREADY: NEVER!
>
> > GO FUCK YOUR DAILY CAMEL, FUCKER!
>
> > Saul Levy
>
> > On Tue, 10 Apr 2012 06:25:15 +0200, Warhol<mol...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> >> Op 10-4-2012 0:57, Uirgil schreef:
> >>> In article<8yBgr.5560$%E2.2...@viwinnwfe01.internal.bigpond.com>,
>
> >> This Nations where the titans... and Zeus promised them destruction if
> >> they surrendered not... Yeah Zeus is Moorish GOD too... and Hercules is
> >> my Gran'Da'Dy... isn't that a surprise...
CNN via your satellite HDTV, that you still don't believe its
satellite is parked in GSO.
> I received the word today the basement is in two years from yesterday...
>
> but even in your cave my hand shall get you or you will bitten by
> serpents...
>
> I will tell you when times comes... and as for this summer you better
> leave Arizona... it is gone be very hot... ha ha ha... I just shaw it on
> CNN...
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlBxNcNAvzE
>
> Op 10-4-2012 8:49, saulle...@cox.net schreef:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > WHEN CAN I EXPECT MY BASEMENT, LYING PIGO?
>
> > I KNOW ALREADY: NEVER!
>
> > GO FUCK YOUR DAILY CAMEL, FUCKER!
>
> > Saul Levy
>
> > On Tue, 10 Apr 2012 06:25:15 +0200, Warhol<mol...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> >> Op 10-4-2012 0:57, Uirgil schreef:
> >>> In article<8yBgr.5560$%E2.2...@viwinnwfe01.internal.bigpond.com>,
> >>> fasgnadh<fasgn...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> >>>> raven1 shows what a jealous little atheist bitch he is:
> >>>>> On Sat, 07 Apr 2012 18:40:17 +0200, Warhol<mol...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> >>>>>> Let Us Be Moors: Islam, Race and "Connected Histories"
> >>>>>> Hisham Aidi
>
> >>>>> You can be a Moor if you like; they lost their empire and are
> >>>>> consigned to the backwater of history.
>
> >>>> Like the Spanish, English, Dutch, Germans, British, Romans,
> >>>> Ottoman Turks, Mongols, Greeks, Persians, Egyptians
>
> >>> All of which were theistic nations/empires.
>
> >>>> raven1 shows what a jealous little atheist bitch he is:
> >>>>> On Sat, 07 Apr 2012 18:40:17 +0200, Warhol<mol...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> >>>>>> Let Us Be Moors: Islam, Race and "Connected Histories"
> >>>>>> Hisham Aidi
>
> >>>>> You can be a Moor if you like; they lost their empire and are
> >>>>> consigned to the backwater of history.
>
> >>>> Like the Spanish, English, Dutch, Germans, British, Romans,
> >>>> Ottoman Turks, Mongols, Greeks, Persians, Egyptians
>
>
> >> This Nations where the titans... and Zeus promised them destruction if
> >> they surrendered not... Yeah Zeus is Moorish GOD too... and Hercules is
> >> my Gran'Da'Dy... isn't that a surprise...
CNN via your satellite HDTV, that you still don't believe its
satellite is parked in GSO.
Warhol
May 4, 2012, 11:38:56 AM5/4/12
to
Op 4-5-2012 14:24, Brad Guth schreef:
Satellites are obsolete... the waves are bounced by ionosphere back to
earth... satellites you say??? I tell you space is still empty of any
man made object... begin to prove your satellite you paid for are there
above i would say... I think some have stolen your money, deceived you
in their lies.... thats all all all thats needed to say... they deceived
you and you still refuse to see the reality... Do Not Hate the Messenger...
earth... satellites you say??? I tell you space is still empty of any
man made object... begin to prove your satellite you paid for are there
above i would say... I think some have stolen your money, deceived you
in their lies.... thats all all all thats needed to say... they deceived
you and you still refuse to see the reality... Do Not Hate the Messenger...
Eugene Griessel
May 4, 2012, 12:20:12 PM5/4/12
to
Op Fri, 04 May 2012 17:38:56 +0200, Warhol <mol...@hotmail.com>
wrote:
>Satellites are obsolete... the waves are bounced by ionosphere back to
>earth... satellites you say??? I tell you space is still empty of any
>man made object... begin to prove your satellite you paid for are there
>above i would say... I think some have stolen your money, deceived you
>in their lies.... thats all all all thats needed to say... they deceived
>you and you still refuse to see the reality... Do Not Hate the Messenger...
Why should we not hate the messenger when the messenger is wilfully
deceitful, untruthful and a troll?
Eugene L Griessel
Computers are not intelligent. They only think they are.
wrote:
>Satellites are obsolete... the waves are bounced by ionosphere back to
>earth... satellites you say??? I tell you space is still empty of any
>man made object... begin to prove your satellite you paid for are there
>above i would say... I think some have stolen your money, deceived you
>in their lies.... thats all all all thats needed to say... they deceived
>you and you still refuse to see the reality... Do Not Hate the Messenger...
deceitful, untruthful and a troll?
Eugene L Griessel
Computers are not intelligent. They only think they are.
Brad Guth
May 4, 2012, 11:35:28 PM5/4/12
to
Warhol
May 5, 2012, 9:24:45 AM5/5/12
to
Op 5-5-2012 5:35, Brad Guth schreef:
if its only depended of a window... well why don't you provide me the
evidence that I am living a cave...
I meantime you dumb people who se things who are not there... neglect
the most important fact... you don't want to see the facts...
people are dying and you blind ones even don't give shit... So let me
get this right. Millions of children are dying with no drinking water
because dumb fucks dont give a shit?
I think that about sums it up. And these are the people in charge of
governments.
Hmm... And you want me see things which are not there... please
people... the people are dying of thirst and its real... They can spend
millions on an inanimate painting but nothing to get these children some
water, it's insane. 'Things' have more importance to them than children
that suffer...and the same run this world and make all the rules..which
people blindly follow...
You Moon struck fools should all be very ashamed... you preffer lies
than helping people in need... shame shame shame on you all... you call
your self civilizedbut inrealty you must be blind, deaf, dumb...
thats what I think about you guys who claim I live in a cave... wait I
will show what a cave is... then I will say to you... I Never Knew You:
Depart From Me, Ye That Work Iniquity...
Luke 13:23 Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved?
And he said unto them,
24 Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will
seek to enter in, and shall not be able.
25 When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the
door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying,
Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know
you not whence ye are:
26 Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence,
and thou hast taught in our streets.
27 But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are [NIV: I
don't know you or where you come from]; depart from me, all ye workers
of iniquity.
28 There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of
God, and you yourselves thrust out.
evidence that I am living a cave...
I meantime you dumb people who se things who are not there... neglect
the most important fact... you don't want to see the facts...
people are dying and you blind ones even don't give shit... So let me
get this right. Millions of children are dying with no drinking water
because dumb fucks dont give a shit?
I think that about sums it up. And these are the people in charge of
governments.
Hmm... And you want me see things which are not there... please
people... the people are dying of thirst and its real... They can spend
millions on an inanimate painting but nothing to get these children some
water, it's insane. 'Things' have more importance to them than children
that suffer...and the same run this world and make all the rules..which
people blindly follow...
You Moon struck fools should all be very ashamed... you preffer lies
than helping people in need... shame shame shame on you all... you call
your self civilizedbut inrealty you must be blind, deaf, dumb...
thats what I think about you guys who claim I live in a cave... wait I
will show what a cave is... then I will say to you... I Never Knew You:
Depart From Me, Ye That Work Iniquity...
Luke 13:23 Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved?
And he said unto them,
24 Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will
seek to enter in, and shall not be able.
25 When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the
door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying,
Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know
you not whence ye are:
26 Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence,
and thou hast taught in our streets.
27 But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are [NIV: I
don't know you or where you come from]; depart from me, all ye workers
of iniquity.
28 There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of
God, and you yourselves thrust out.
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