Namira Islam, executive director of MuslimARC, speaks at the organization’s Michigan Gala on Nov. 10, 2018, at the Arab American National Museum Annex in Dearborn, Michigan. Photo by Tamanna Azim. The Muslim Times has the best collection to refute racism and sectarianism Suggested reading: Remembering Malcolm X Can Help Overcome Racism and Sectarianism
Source: Religion News Service
By Aysha Khan
(RNS) — It began, as so many social justice movements these days do, on Twitter.
Namira Islam, a Bangladeshi-American lawyer living in Detroit, had noticed that many of the ongoing conversations about Muslims online showed ignorance of the faith group’s racial demographics.
Black Muslims were often presumed to be converts or activists. Black Muslims discussing their experiences with racism would receive messages saying that promoting separatism is un-Islamic. Non-Muslims as well as many prominent Muslims seemed to equate the faith with being Arab or South Asian. And the slur “abeed” — Arabic for “slave” — was commonplace.
As Black History Month approached in 2014, she rallied a crew of about 20 activists and scholars to launch a new hashtag: #BeingBlackAndMuslim.
“We wanted to reflect on the erasure of black Muslims in the conversations we were seeing online, as well as in our communities and institutions,” Islam said. “Because those erasures reflect what we’re seeing everywhere else.”
And it resonated. For four hours that Feb. 10 five years ago, the hashtag trended on Twitter not only in the United States, but globally. The responses showcased black Muslims’ pride and joy in their culture and experiences, Islam said, as well as the heartbreak and betrayal they felt at the hands of their brothers and sisters in faith.
Because of the racially egalitarian messages in the Quran and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, “people think if you’re Muslim you can’t be racist,” Islam noted. But that couldn’t be further from the truth, she said.
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Categories: Americas, Racism, Sectarianism, The Muslim Times, USA