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 Islam, A Faith for Liberation
UU Church of Ogden
Mar 9, 2008
Rev. Theresa Novak

Asalom aleikum
Greeting means peace and blessings upon you in Arabic. Good morning! 
Today, I am going to talk about Islam, and, in particular, Islam as it has been experienced by African Americans.  I took a semester long class several years ago on this subject while I was a student at Starr King School for the Ministry.  This sermon draws heavily from that class, taught by Professor Ibrahim Farajaje, the Dean of the Starr King faculty. 

I have shared much of the content of this sermon before with other congregations, but always wonder some about the wisdom of speaking on this particular topic.  There is so much misunderstanding of Islam in the world today.  I believe it is important to speak up with a different perspective. But how can I, a white Unitarian Universalist, speak authentically about the experience of African Americans and about what Islam has meant to so many of them?  I have only looked at that experience through the window of scholarship, through one visit to a small mosque in North Oakland, through a couple of Sufi Sikrs that were held at Starr King.  Still, even the small glimmer of understanding I gained from looking through those windows, moved me and startled me.  It is this sense of wonder I would like to share with you today.

There are somewhere around 1 billion Muslims worldwide and as many as 8 million in the United States.  Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. The rate of growth of Islam in the United States is also very high.   40- 60% of American Muslims have African-American heritage.

The above statements could make some people, nervous.  A lot of the nervousness is, I believe, based on a fear of Islam which seems to be encouraged daily by many in our national leadership.  Even among liberals, there is a certain almost dumbfounded lack of comprehension, a confusion even, about why anyone - particularly someone who is a member of an already oppressed group - would freely chose a religion that is sometimes perceived as monolithic, extreme, and oppressive.  

I must admit, I had some of that same confusion myself.  The media portrayal of Muslims tends to focus on the extremes.  Women certainly were oppressed in Afghanistan under the Taliban.  It was interesting to learn than Islam, when it first began, brought many new rights to women, including education.   Gay and lesbian people are sorely oppressed in much of the Islamic world.  It was interesting for me to learn that while the Qu’ran has the same old Sodom and Gomorrah story that Christians have misinterpreted for centuries, those ugly Leviticus verses are not repeated in the Qu’ran.  It is important to not judge any religion by its extremists.  The term “Progressive Muslim” is not an oxymoron.
   
With that as a background, I am going to try and explain, as best as I can, why it makes some sense to me that so many African Americans have found a spiritual home in Islam and why we, as Unitarian Universalists, might look at this as a cause for celebration instead of fear. 
   
First, a little history.

Remember learning about Christopher Columbus and his brave voyage?  I do. Columbus and the Pinta, the Nina and the Santa Maria, he discovered America, right?  Later I learned, as you probably did, about the Norse explorer, Leif Erickson.  Still later, there was a little bit of discussion about how the American continents weren’t exactly empty when Columbus and Erickson came.  I learned tidbits about the complex civilizations and cultures that flourished in this hemisphere prior to the invasion of the Europeans.  What I didn’t learn about until I took the class in seminary is that there were African Muslims who traded with the peoples of the Caribbean and Central America for hundreds of years before Columbus.  It is well documented, just not well known. 
   
It was not a coincidence that Columbus sailed from Spain, a country that had been under Islamic rule for 700 years.  Trade and travel throughout the Muslim world was common in those times and Africa was a center for Islamic study.  One would guess that Columbus was actually pretty darn sure what he would find by sailing west, since so many African Muslims had already made similar voyages.
   
Then there were the horrors of the Atlantic slave trade.  Estimates vary, but approximately 30-40% of the people captured and transported to the Americas as slaves were practicing Muslims. 

Quite a number were literate and could read and write in Arabic and recite large portions of the Qur’an from memory. 

In some areas slaves were even able to continue practicing their faith for a time.  There are records of slave colonies on the Sea Islands of Georgia and in the Caribbean where people were able to retain their Muslim identities through much of the antebellum period.   We didn’t learn about this in school probably because it didn’t fit with the images of the uncivilized African savage that were so popular.  Quite a few of the names and stories were recorded, however. 
   
One of the more famous Muslim slaves was Job Ben Solomon who was able to win his freedom and return to Africa in 1734.  He was highly literate and knew the Qu’ran by heart. There were many others, and their stories make fascinating and heart wrenching reading.
   
The trauma of capture and brutal bondage disrupted the cultural and religious heritage of most of the slaves, but Islam has continued to resonate with African Americans through the present day.   I want to mention a few of the most significant Muslim groups in African-American history.
   
One was the Moorish Science Temple, founded in 1913, during the time of the great migration when 1 ½ million blacks migrated from the rural South to escape a depressed agricultural economy and increasing racial violence.   Racism was a nationwide phenomenon though, and in the summer of 1919 there were at least 26 white instigated race riots in northern cities.  The Moorish Science Temple became a spiritual home, a safe haven, and an active political force for many of the refugees from violence and hatred.
    
In 1920, Muhammad Sadiq came to the US from India as a missionary for the Ahmadiyya Movement of Islam.  Their missions to America and other parts of the world had a specific multi-racial focus. I particularly like the image of missionaries coming TO the United States, don’t you?  Its racially inclusive message was in stark contrast to the segregation common in America’s Christian churches.   A quote from Sadiq, “The Trinity is an illusion - the word is not found in the Christian bible and its principle cannot be sustained.  God created all races, all colors; Islam makes no difference between race and class.”
   
The Nation of Islam was founded in 1931 and under the leadership of Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X, the religious group grew rapidly in the 1960's. In the 1970's, Elijah’s son and successor, W.D Muhammad, reorganized the group, drawing it closer to the practices of traditional Islam, admitting individuals of all races.  In 1977, Louis Farrakhan led a splinter group that disliked the changes and they took the name of the Nation of Islam for themselves.  Today WD Muhammad’s organization has 2.5 million members, the majority of whom are African American.  Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam has only 20,000 or so.

So we have heard some about the long standing historical connection that African Americans have to Islam.  But a lot of people have roots in one religion yet chose another.  What might be the religious reasons? Many of you may have heard of the five pillars of Islam.

It will be helpful, I think, to go over them briefly.   

The first pillar is Shahadah, or witness.  It is an affirmation.  La ilaha il Allah - Muhammadun Rasul l’Allah: There is no God but God and Mohammad is the prophet of God.  Muslims are decidedly NOT Trinitarians.  They believe that Jesus was an important prophet, but not the literal son of God.  Sounds a lot like a Unitarian doesn’t it?

The second pillar is Salat, or prayer.  A devout Muslim prays 5 times a day in praise of and in gratitude to God.  This pillar is something some Unitarian Universalists might have trouble with.  I am reminded of the old joke that most Unitarian Universalists are very opposed to prayer in schools and quite a few are not terribly fond of it in their churches either.    Still, even for a devout humanist, it is hard not to be impressed.  To spend several minutes, 5 times a day, every day, focusing on gratitude and on something larger than yourself is a pretty awesome spiritual practice.
   
The third pillar is Zakat, or alms.  Once a year, a Muslim is supposed to give 2 ½ % of his or her assets, or capital - not just income, capital - to the poor.  Talk about a culture of generosity!  In the Qur’an the giving of alms is associated with worship since faith in God is expressed by good deeds.  Deeds not creeds.  That sounds pretty familiar too, doesn’t it?
   
The fourth pillar is Sawm or fasting, which is done worldwide in the month of Ramadan. 
Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset in remembrance of when the first verses of the Qur’an were revealed.  Like the daily prayers, this is a very personal and intense focusing on God. 
   
The fifth pillar is the Hajj, or Pilgrimage. Muslims from all over the world gather in Mecca during the last month of the Islamic year.  It is the largest annual assembly of people in the world and dates back to the days of Abraham.  It is a profoundly religious experience. 

It is interesting to me that four out of the five pillars of Islam involve spiritual practice.  It is a religion of doing and being much more than it is a set of particular theological beliefs.  This is even truer for the Sufi tradition within Islam which focuses on a mystical relationship with the divine. 

Let’s look, however, at some of the traditional theology of Islam as contrasted with traditional Christian theology and I think we will see some more reasons why the religion might be so attractive.  I stress the word traditional because there is a lot of diversity among Muslims just as there is among Christians.

First, there is no concept of original sin in Islam.   People are born essentially good and not deserving of punishment.  How wonderful!  How similar to our Unitarian Universalist principle about the inherent worth and dignity of all!  The original sin concept has been used to keep the downtrodden in their place, from the peasants in the middle ages to the slaves in the Americas.  If the theology is such that people are evil then why bother to treat them humanely on earth? 

If there is no original sin, then there was no Divine reason for Jesus to die on the cross.  Jesus is in the Qur’an too, but he is not the son of God and he did not die in order to save anyone.  This is very different from the traditional Christian atonement theology which has God purposely sacrificing Jesus in order to save humanity.  In Islamic theology, Allah would never require such an unfair sacrifice.  Muslims believe that God is too merciful and just to have done such a thing.  Without an atonement theology, suffering is not glorified. 

Human suffering is, in fact, a very bad thing, and Muslims are called to work to end it.  They are not asked to “turn the other cheek” and to suffer oppression and injustice as the cross that God has somehow sent to them to bear.

I quote from Malcolm X:

There is nothing in our book, the Koran, that teaches us to suffer peacefully. Our religion teaches us to be intelligent. Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery. That’s a good religion.

Let me be clear, however, that the religious right is wrong (which I know doesn’t surprise you), Islam is NOT a religion that glorifies aggressive violence. 

The Qur’an is very specific in saying that violence is only justified as a defensive measure, and that it should be used at the minimal level required for that defense.

Most Christian imagery has pictured Jesus with white skin and God as an old white man with a beard.  I have had trouble with the male image of God and I can see how someone who has been the victim of racism could have serious problems with images of a white God.   Muslims do not make images of God at all and God is described as containing all genders.

All genders and all races included.  From the beginning, Islam was racially integrated.  The Qur’an says quite explicitly: 

Among other signs of His is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the variety of your tongues and complexions. Surely there are signs in this for those who understand.
All those who are in the heavens and the earth are His.

So in addition to a strong historical connection with the religion, those are a few of the theological reasons that African Americans in particular might be attracted to Islam.  There are doubtless many more. 

So why should we as Unitarian Universalists celebrate this?  The reasons are, again, I think both historical and religious.  I have already mentioned the oneness of God that links Islam to Unitarian beliefs. There is another connection.  We know about the Unitarians in Transylvania.  We were visited a few weeks ago by a Unitarian Minister from Transylvania. Many Unitarian Universalist Churches in America have partner churches in Transylvania these days.  It is something we ourselves might want to consider doing some time.  But, back in the 15th century, the Transylvanian Unitarians didn’t have the churches in America to partner with.  Instead they partnered with the Islamic Sultan Suleiman of the Ottoman Empire.  The relationship was a good one, Turkish soldiers protected the only Unitarian King in history, supporting his claim to the throne.   At one point the Sultan sent a gift of 1000 Turkish prayer rugs that were hung in Unitarian churches throughout Transylvania.

There are other historical links between Unitarian Universalists and Muslims, some probably even in the Americas.  The connection in Transylvania, though, is an important and powerful one.  It was a significant part of how our tradition survived in that part of the world.  So we can celebrate, in gratitude, at least some of our own history with Islam.

I am not going to stand here and pretend I like everything about the Muslim faith. I don’t agree with some of the theology.  But I also don’t agree with a fair amount of traditional Christian theology either.  And some Muslims and some Muslim countries are oppressive - to women and certainly to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.  The same can, however, also be said about some Christians and Christian countries.  Islam did get it right, from the very beginning, about racism though.  The Qur’an has never been used to justify racial discrimination like the Bible has. 

And Islam also got it right about at least some level of religious freedom.  A quote on this from the Qur’an, 

“Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from Error: whoever rejects evil and believes in Allah hath grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks.”

Unitarian Universalists can certainly celebrate “no compulsion in religion”
as it is very close to our own “free and responsible search for truth and meaning.” Unitarian Universalists can also celebrate and encourage the many progressive Muslims, many of whom are African American, who work diligently every day to improve the status of women and to become more inclusive of all gender identities and sexual orientations.

Also, as we are gathered today, in this religious community, we know how much it means to us to have found this space.  Our religion is one of practice too.  How we live in the world, with each other, with the whole of creation is what is most important to us.  For many of us, finding Unitarian Universalism has been a coming home, a sanctuary from a sometimes not very life affirming world.  Our principles guide us and hold us to the hope of making the world a better place, building a world community with peace, justice, and liberty for all.  For many African Americans, rediscovering Islam has been a similar coming home:  a sanctuary from a racist society, a religion that affirms the humanity of all races, one that is filled with hope for a better world.

Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations, a free and responsible search for truth and meaning.    How can we not celebrate these principles of ours wherever they might be found? 

I invite you now into a spirit of prayer or meditation:

Divine spirit, Allah the most merciful
We are grateful.
We are grateful that some of us, who were torn so cruelly from our homes and sold into slavery, had the pillars of Islam on which to lean.
We are filled with sorrow
for the pain and suffering that is brought into this world
When people forget
that we are all
A part of the Holy web of creation.
We are grateful
For our sorrow.
As it moves us,
To work for justice.
May the world be filled with joy
May all wounds be healed
May gratitude and peace sweep the earth around.

Amein, Amen, and Blessed Be

    

 

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