CANADA: True Patriot Love Foundation launches Highway of Heroes concert tour : CANADA MILITARY NEWS: Nov 24- How Middle East Losing Religions- links/world's oldest religions/africa-religions/what if we had no religion?/links-Islam still has not evolved/ and how about The Ottoman Empire Holocaust folks and talk about barbarism in 2das world- it's no different is it... with SPOILT RICH MUSLIM KIDS ISIS- beautiful old religions and cultural beauty now being ruined in Middle East and Africas- kind of like we did with our First Peoples of Canada and America

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CANADA MILITARY NEWS: Nov 24-PG2 - How Middle East Losing Religions- links/world's oldest religions/africa-religions/what if we had no religion?/links-Islam still has not evolved/ and how about The Ottoman Empire Holocaust folks and talk about barbarism in 2das world- it's no different is it... with SPOILT RICH MUSLIM KIDS ISIS- beautiful old religions and cultural beauty now being ruined in Middle East and Africas- kind of like we did with our First Peoples of Canada and America- PAGES 1, 2 AND 3
http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2014/11/canada-military-news-nov-24-pg2-how.html

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CANADA - MACLEANS (1905)

How the Middle East is losing its religions

Thousands of years of history are unravelling as minority faiths flee religious persecution

Brian Bethune

November 18, 2014http://www.macleans.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/MAC46_ANCIENT_PEOPLES_POST01.jpg

STRINGER Iraq/Reuters

For Westerners inclined to think of the Middle East as a vast Islamic sea dotted with islands of the other two Abrahamic faiths—Christianity and Judaism—last summer’s scenes in Iraq were as surprising as they were horrific. Who were the Yazidis whom the fundamentalists fanatics of Islamic State were murdering, kidnapping and ultimately besieging on Mount Sinjar? And what was the meaning of the belief—widespread even among peaceful Muslims—that the Yazidis, a Kurdish-speaking minority, were devil worshippers?

Gerard Russell, a former British diplomat fluent in Arabic and Farsi, was as shocked as anyone, but he wasn’t surprised. He had already spent years writing Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms: Journeys into the Disappearing Religions of the Middle East, and he was aware that in 2007 four co-ordinated suicide bombs had killed 796 Yazidis in modern history’s second-deadliest terrorism attack after 9/11. “I went back there in late August,” Russell says in an interview from London, “and found them in refugee camps. They’d had the stuffing knocked out of them. They want out, to go to the West, and I don’t blame them, but that will mean, for them and other minorities, the end of thousands of years of history.”

In Heirs, Russell seeks out and finds people who may forbid wearing the colour blue, make moustaches obligatory for men, believe in reincarnation, revere fire, peacocks or multiple baptisms. There are Mandaeans—Iraqi marsh dwellers who celebrate John the Baptist but are no more than polite about Jesus and outright reject Abraham—some of whose rituals have millennia-old Babylonian roots; Zoroastrians, adherents of ancient Persia’s pre-Islamic faith; Druze, whose religion makes no demands upon them, save that they marry within it—a precept Amal Alamuddin ignored when she wed George Clooney in September; Samaritans, now down to a mere 750 individuals in two communities in Israel; Egypt’s Christian Copts; the polytheistic Kalasha of Afghanistan; and Yazidis.

It’s the Yazidis who forbid blue, although they no longer remember why, and demand moustaches. Their God is too ineffable to take much action on Earth, and the major force for good or ill is His lieutenant, Melek Taoos, visualized as the Peacock Angel. That’s already troublesome for the Yazidis in the Middle East, where the Druze believe the tempter in Eden was not a serpent but a peacock. Far worse, though, in the opinion of their Muslim neighbours, the Yazidis equate Melek Taoos with Iblis, the chief rebel angel, who Muslims equate with Satan. But their reverence, the Yazidis counter, is because of Iblis’s repentance—he eventually put out all the fires of hell with his tears, and was restored to his former position as chief angel. “Far from worshipping the devil,” Russell says, “the Yazidis believe there is no such entity.”

Like the other minority faiths, the Yazidis are witnesses to an older form of religion, says Russell, who is a Roman Catholic. “Christianity and Islam are ideological religions—there is doctrine and practice not tied to ethnicity. With the Yazidis and Mandaeans, a distinct people has its distinct gods; they are all passionate for their religion, even when they don’t know it in detail. It is a marker of who they are, like language or ethnicity elsewhere. They are not missionary religions and they maintain themselves by strict controls on marrying out.”

That particular control will be hard to maintain as they disperse as refugees among many Western nations. Visiting a Yazidi acquaintance in Buffalo, N.Y., Russell ponders the future of the family’s teen daughter: since Yazidis must marry within their social caste as well as their faith, there are no more than a handful of eligible men for her in all of North America. “Of course, the Internet will help,” Russell acknowledges, “so they could find a husband in Sweden or Germany. But the young can’t be denied their free choices in the West.”

That’s why Russell was feeling a mix of emotions as he wandered a supermarket in metropolitan Detroit. Even Iraqi Christians, the country’s largest religious minority—1.4-million strong as recently as the 1990s—have been decimated by violence, persecution and ﬂight. In the middle of modern Americana—among the cereal boxes, vegetables and soup cans—Russell heard women speaking in Aramaic, the everyday language of the Holy Land in the time of Jesus Christ. “You can now hear more Aramaic in Detroit than in Baghdad,” he says.

He felt uplifted and sad at the same time. “I was glad so many were personally secure,” says Russell, but he couldn’t help but worry about all those scattered ancient peoples as distinct cultures. “They can try to recreate their lives and their communities here, but it won’t be easy and it won’t be the same.”

http://www.macleans.ca/news/world/the-middle-east-loses-its-religions/

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OLDEST RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD- DO NOT INCLUDE CHRISTIAN OR ISLAM

The oldest forms of worship in the world are ancestor worship, shamanism, and animism, which are thought to date back to at least around 300,000 BCE. The oldest religions that are still widely practiced are are Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Jainism. Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism all came from India, while Judaism originated in Israel and Taoism in China. Shintoism, a Japanese spiritual practice that is still practiced today, dates back further, but is not strictly speaking a religion. Other very old forms of worship include pantheism, Zoroastrianism, and Confucianism.

Early Forms of Worship

Pre-organized forms of religion generally centered on rituals, ancestor worship, shamanism, and animism. Ritual burials are speculated to have occurred up to 300,000 years ago, and were almost certainly practiced since at least 100,000 BCE. Ancestor worship also played a major role in pre-organized worship, and was found throughout the world. Shamanism, the practice of a selected person going into an altered state of consciousness to communicate with spirits or animals, was also widely practiced, and is thought to be evidenced by cave paintings dating back to 320,000 BCE. This was closely connected to animism, the belief that all things have a soul or spirit.

As cities began to develop, god and goddess worship became more common. Around 35,000 BCE, many figurines shaped like women began to be created, which are thought to have been used in a form of goddess worship. Shinto practices began to develop in Japan around 14,000 BCE, though they weren't codified until the 8th century CE. In 9130 BCE, the first known man-made temple was built, called Göbekli Tepe. It was apparently used in shamanistic or animistic worship.

Organized Religions

Polytheism

Polytheism is the belief in many gods and goddesses, and was practiced by a number of societies, including the Sumerians, Ancient Egyptians, Ancient Greeks, Ancient Romans, Ancient Chinese, and Celts. Though all of these societies worshiped differently, polytheistic religions do tend to have similar types of deities, like creator deities, water deities, mother goddesses, and love deities. For instance, Isis was a mother deity in Ancient Egypt, while Ninsun served a similar role in Sumerian culture, as did Gaia in Greek culture. Similarly, the role of the water deity was played by Mazu in China, Poseidon in Greece, Neptune in Rome, and Lir in the Celtic tradition.

Hinduism

Hinduism is the oldest organized, the third largest, and the major religion of India. It has no known founder, as it was organized from a variety of traditional beliefs from different cultures and mythologies. The roots of Hinduism are thought to date back about 5,000 years. Hinduism has two great theistic movements: the cult of Vishnu called Vaishnavism, and the cult of Shiva or Shaivism. It advocates commitment to dharma, an ideal way of life. Hindus, or believers of Hinduism, believe in karma, or the force of one's actions, and reincarnation, or the passage of a soul from one body to another body.

Judaism

The religion of the Jews, Judaism is considered the matrix for Christianity and Islam. With a history of over 4,000 years, Judaism is based on monotheism, the belief in one God. The Hebrew Bible, or the Old Testament in Christianity, is the fundamental source of Jewish belief, notably its first five books collectively called the Torah or Pentateuch. Judaism follows a system of law, called Halachah, which regulates personal values, family relationships, social responsibility, and civil and criminal justice.

Buddhism

Buddhism is the religion founded by Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha or the awakened one, in the 6th century BCE. It was the most successful religious movement derived from Hinduism and eventually spread throughout India and other Asian countries. Buddhism can be divided into two main branches: the more conservative Theravada, or "Way of the Elders," and the diverse and liberal Mahayana, or "Great Vehicle." Buddhist teaching is centered on the Four Noble Truths: suffering or duhkha, desire as the cause of suffering, suffering can end, and existence of a way to end suffering.

Jainism

Jainism is believed to be founded by Mahavira in the 6th century BCE, though Jains regard him as only the last of the Tirthamkaras, or 24 founders of the religion. The philosophy of Jainism is centered on the belief that every living thing has a soul, and thus it promotes non-injury to all life-forms. Jainism is divided into two sects: the Svetambara and the Digambara. The Svetambaras wear white clothes, while the Digambaras go naked. Jain monks, however, commonly wear cloths over their mouths to prevent them from unconsciously breathing in and accidentally causing injury to a living thing.

Taoism

Taoism is thought to have been founded around the 3rd or 4th century BCE, which is when the primary text of Taoism, the Daodejing, dates back to. The author of the Daodejing, Laozi, may have lived around the same time as Confucius, the founder of Confucianism. Those who practice taoism try to live in accordance with the "way" or dao, which is the completely indescribable source and flow of everything. Main concepts in Taoism are wu wei, which is the process of doing things effortlessly or non-intentionally, and the "Three Treasures," which are compassion, moderation, and humility. This religion is connected with many physical practices, like qigong and tai chi, as well as the concept of yin yang, which is the belief that opposites are actually completely interconnected.

Other Religions

Other very old religions include Zoroastrianism, Confucianism, mystery cults, and paganism. Zoroastrianism is thought to have been founded around the 6th century BCE, and is notable for being one of the first religions to use the concept of the struggle between good and evil. Confucianism, which is more of a philosophy than a religion, was founded by Confucius in the 5th century BCE. It posits that there is an ideal structure and hierarchy of the world, and that people have a moral obligation to fulfill their roles in that hierarchy.

Mystery cults took place primarily in Ancient Greece and Rome, and involved the secret, usually ritual worship of specific gods and goddesses. Notable mystery cults included the Eleusinian mysteries, which centered on the goddesses Demeter and Persephone; the cult of Isis, which was centered on the Egyptian goddess Isis, and later other similar goddesses; and the cult of Cybele, who was a mother goddess figure.

http://www.wisegeek.org/which-are-the-oldest-religions-in-the-world.htm#didyouknowout

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Ethiopia: Story of world’s oldest illustrated Bible authenticated

Saturday 10 July 2010 / by Leila Kaddour-Boudadi, Translated by Chigba Njokanma

The Abba Garima manuscripts, kept in an Ethiopian monastery and until now considered to be from the 11th century, have made a journey back in time. Carbon-14 dating has revealed them to be from an earlier period—between 330-650 AD. As it stands, Ethiopia possesses the oldest illustrated copy of the Gospel in the world.

No one could have guessed that one of the manuscripts kept at the Abba Garima monastery, near Adwa in the North of Ethiopia, was the oldest illustrated Bible yet to be discovered. However, after recent carbon-14 dating, there is no more doubt that the manuscripts at Abba Garima, named after the monk who founded the monastery, are not from the 11th century AD as specialists were determined to believe, but rather from between the 4th and 6th century AD.

This recent discovery disproves earlier theories put forward by scientists. Ethiopia, well known for its long history of Copist monks, was not known to have any decorated manuscripts from before the 11th century, so much so that experts concluded that the art [of illuminated manuscripts] was developed much later. Now, this recent discovery proves the opposite. The mere existence of this manuscript is miraculous—it escaped the hands of the troops of Muhammad Gran [Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi], ruler of Adal, who invaded the region [Aksum] in the 16th century. The fact that the monastery is difficult to access, being 7000 feet above sea level and surrounded by cliffs, is a likely reason for that.

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Over 1,600 years old, these manuscripts, which have never left the monastery, are in surprisingly good condition according to experts. “The Garima Gospels have been kept high and dry which has helped preserve them all these years and they are kept in the dark so the colours look fresh,” explains Blair Priday of the London-based Ethiopian Heritage Fund, a charity organization working together with the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

According to legend, the manuscripts were written in a single day by the monk Abba Garima who came from Constantinople in 494 AD, which fits the recent dating of the manuscript. In order for him to accomplish this feat, God supposedly delayed the setting of the Sun. The scripture exists in two illustrated volumes and is recorded in Ge’ez, a southern Semitic language which exists exclusively in written form as early as the 3rd century AD. The illustrations in the manuscripts depict the Four Evangelists—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—and show for the first time the Jewish Temple.

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Experts hope that the Abba Garima manuscripts remain in the monastery, — this is even more likely to happen as the monks have always believed the holy texts to possess magical powers: “If someone is ill they are read passages from the book and it is thought to give them strength,” says Mark Winstanley who helped to preserve the manuscript. All that is left is to convince the Ethiopian authorities—the Abba Garima manuscripts need a miracle right now.

http://www.afrik-news.com/article17928.html

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GENOCIDE

Monday, November 24, 2014

Genocide is defined as the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, religious, political, or ethnic group. The word, from the Greek genos, meaning “race,” “nation,” or “tribe,” and the Latin cide, meaning “killing,” originated from the tragic events in the Middle East during the end of the Ottoman empire from 1910 to 1933, which called for a legal concept to describe the deliberate destruction of large groups.

Holocaust is defined as the deliberate and systematic destruction by fire of a racial, religious, political, or ethnic group. The word derives from the Greek holos, meaning “whole” and kaustos, meaning “burnt”.

From 1843 to 1945, the Turks, Kurds, Arabs and Persians committed genocides against the Assyrian nation and other Christian peoples in Asia Minor [Middle East]. These international human rights violations were crimes against humanity and served as examples for future atrocities of this manner against the Jewish people in Europe. In these genocides, 750,000 indigenous Christian Assyrians living in their ancestral homelands (known today as the republics of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran), including 1½ million Christian Armenians and 300,000 Hellenes were burned, slaughtered, and shot systematically. Defenseless men, women, children, and the elderly became victims of these genocides.

http://www.atour.com/~aahgn/archives.shtml

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One picture, one thousand dead

by Professor Nikos Lygeros — mathematician, artist, poet, human rights activist. (opus)

Posted: Wednesday, August 08, 2012 at 02:25 PM UT

One picture, one thousand dead

N. Lygeros
Translated from the Greek version by Evi Charitidou

- I’d like to show you a photograph, but I don’t dare…
- Why?
- I’m afraid of your reaction…
- So, is this photograph so terrible?
- It’s not this that is terrible.
- What is then?
- The crime!
- The crime?
- A crime against humanity.
- What exactly is it about? You seem upset.
- It’s about my history.
- I didn’t know that your people have suffered genocide.
- I don’t hold this against you.
- But, I hold it against me.
- You hadn’t been born in 1933.
- Neither did I die then.
- Do you still want me to show you the photograph?
- Yes, of course.
- You won’t hold against me that I made you suffer.
- Isn’t this friendship?
- There you are.

The shock is unbearable. His friend is trying to hide the photograph.

- No, I have to see it, because it’s in your soul.
- It’s true. It’s graven on my soul.
- I’m really sorry for not ever….
- Don’t say this…I didn’t dare talk you about this.
- But why?
- I was afraid of being accused.
- Accused of what?
- Of propaganda.
- You are crazy!
- No, but society is absurd.
- Thus, certain people question the existence of this genocide.
- Yes, in the name of politics.
- Death is not politics.
- But, crime is.
- It’s a crime against humanity.
- Except that sometimes humanity consists of few humans.
- From now on, I’ll belong to them.

http://www.atour.com/~aahgn/news/20120808a.html

PHOTO

http://www.atour.com/media/images/news/aahgn/hellenic/nikos-lygeros/genocide.jpg

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Turkey runs, Turkey hides, Turkey guilty of Genocide

by Nicholas Tanery, Zinda Magazine - May 2, 2001

Posted: Thursday, May 10, 2001 at 10:09 PM CT

A throat slit in Paris is called a murder, 50,000 throats slit in the East and it is a question. -Victor Hugo

On the evening of January 26th the Portland Art Museum's Sultans Ball a $250 black tie affair celebrating the opening of Khalilis Ottoman exhibit Empire of the Sultans-was treated to hours of demonstrations by local descendants and survivors of Turkey's Genocidal campaign in the Eastern Mediterranean. Greeks from Cyprus and Pontus in a brotherhood of sorrows with the other maligned and dismembered Ancient peoples of the East the Armenians, the Assyrians and the Kurds chanted and tweaked the faded consciousness of Portlands elite collaborator exhibit patrons. You can afford a conscience screamed an Armenian American from Salem, Oregon. The Legacy of the Turks and the Ottoman Turks is slavery, torture and the race extermination of Greeks and Armenians I hope you enjoy your evening its on the dead Greeks and Armenians cried a Greek American PSU student. The exhibit is supported by deep pockets the American Turkish Council, the American Friends of Turkey (a depository of Death Merchants and retired American military officers and CIA operatives), Fred Myer, and Portland State University's Turkish Studies Program-funded directly by the Turkish government. The exhibit and the brochures and lectures accompanying the exhibit exalt the Ottoman Turkish multiculturalism a historical timeline in the published brochure has the gall to caption the American Declaration of Independence directly above a portrait of Turk autocrat Selim the Grim. The historical record of the true legacy of the Turks and their Sultans is in direct contradiction to this exhibit's attempt to sanitize Turkey's rap sheet of transnational Crimes Against Humanity. Don't take my word for it simply ask the Kurds, ask the Greeks, ask the Assyrians, ASK THE ARMENIANS!

The Ottoman Empire was commandeered by a nomadic tribe originating from Central Asia whose armies steamrolled, and through forced assimilation of conquered subjects destroyed indigenous cultures and depleted indigenous populations from the mountains of Kurdistan in Eastern Asia Minor to the Greek and Serbian homelands in the Balkans. For the Turks human slavery was protected until the 20th Century, Christian minorities in the occupied lands lived in enclaves and were subject to a head tax that literally was enforced with the Turkish punishment of decapitation. Pre-teen boys were basic human commodities that fulfilled the lustful desires of Ottoman tax registers, and taken away from their parents were forced into a life of servitude in the Sultans praetorian guard- (the Janissaries). The printing press was officially outlawed in Ottoman Turkey until the 19th century and endures brutal official censors to this very day (some recent examples include the arrest and detainment of Turkish author Nadire Mater forinsulting the military the Kurdish daily Ozgurluk is published in exile and Turkish newspapers are subject to police raids and state terror (see Kurdish intellectual and poet Yasar Kemals editorial Cloud of Lies published in Der Spiegel.) By the 19th Century internal revolutions by oppressed enclaves in mainland Greece, Serbia, in Kurdistan, and Bulgaria led to nominal independence from the Ottoman political system. The Greek revolution of 1821 was dearly won by revolutionary Greek guerrillas the kephts-who in their mountain steadfasts liberated the Ancient Greek city of Athens and the Greek lands of Peloponessos and Attiki from 400 years of Ottoman political oppression. The Bulgars paid a heavy price for their independence with thousands of dismembered and mutilated peasants in macabre human hillsides. British statesman Gladstone noted I am ashamed to call myself a member of the human race since the Turks are also human By 1912 and 1913 the whole of the Balkans had won its right to self-determination. From the Macedonian region, there came two Turks who went on to eliminate forever the pesky minorities and build a Turkey for the Turks. Talat Pasha and Kemal (later to be named Ataturk) the founder of the Republic of Turkey.

Both Talat and K. Ataturk were instrumental in implementing the part pogrom of the Young Turk Party<Ittihad ve Terrakki>, the so-called party of Union and Progress. The party was formed in 1908 on the slogan of equality and fraternity but by the dawn of WWI it was transformed into a racist terror network ultimately becoming the undisputed government of Turkey and became bent on creating a "Turkey for the Turks. The first step involved the extermination of the indigenous people of the region that traditionally followed the Christian faith-Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians-through the clever use of Islam and collaborator muftis and hodjas to incite hatred among their beleaguered Turks who owed their misfortunes to this ruling Young Turk Party. Backroom deals sealed with the German government dragged Ottoman Turkey into WWI. The second phase was implemented during the dictatorship of General Kemal Ataturk, and it involved the slow-motion genocide of the proud Kurdish nation (soon after 'the Republic of Turkey" was formed the Kurds officially became "mountain Turks" and began active revolts, 26 in all with the PKK rebellion as the most recent)

On April 24, 1915 behind the smokescreen of WWI, the Turkish government arrested over 200 Armenian community leaders and intellectuals in Constantinople and speedily deported them into the Turkish interior. This day marks the Day of Remembrance for the victims and survivors of the Armenian Genocide, eerily April 24th is also the Day of Remembrance for Shoah (the Jewish Genocide). In May of 1915 the Allied powers warned Turk leaders that they would be held accountable for "Crimes Against Humanity and Civilization", thus coining a new term in International law (see Vahakn Dadrian' s The History of the Armenian Genocide 1995) The Armenians were deported from the length and breadth of Ottoman Turkey promised that they would be resettled in "a safer place. Agents of the Young Turk Party oversaw these death marches which led this sea of humanity, 1.5 million in all, into the ravines and valleys of Anatolia where they were ruthlessly butchered wholesale with blunt instruments by government organized Turkish death squads. The U.S. ambassador to Ottoman Turkey Henry Morgenthau said in his memoirs"when the deportation order was given it was clear that a death warrant was issued for the Armenian race" (Ambassador Morgenthau's Story 1918) After the war, coded telegrams ordering the genocide sent by Talat to Turkish provincial administrators were read in court and Talat was sentenced to death in absentia (Germany had granted him political asylum) Even more ironic is the fact that immediately after K.Ataturk solidified his rule in Turkey , the denial of the crime of genocide by Turkish officialdom began in order to create the boundaries of the new Turkish boundaries be they real or imaginary. In 1942, Nazi Germany exhumed Talat's remains in a state ceremony and shipped them back to Turkey. Today, there stands a grand mausoleum in Ankara memorializing Talat and a major thoroughfare named in his honor. Nazi leadership knew all too well the international impunity granted to the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide. Adolf Hitler told his SS generals in 1939 before embarking on the Holocaust "Kill without Mercy .After all, who now remembers the annihilation of the Armenians"(Dadrian's Warrant for Genocide 1999)

It may be instructive at this point to refer to Ziya Gokalp, chief propagandist, and ideologue for the Young Turks and the intellectual influence for Talat and K. Ataturk. Uriel Heyd, Gokalp's British intellectual biographer, has noted, "He laid in his writings the foundation of the national and modern state which was eventually established by General Kemal Ataturk."(Heyd's Foundations of Turkish Nationalism: The Life and Teachings of Ziya Gokalp 1950) Gokalp glorified a distant and mystical Turkish past when a GREY WOLF led the Turks out of the fogs of Central Asia. (the Grey Wolves are a racist paramilitary secret society that permeates all levels of Turkish society akin to the influence of the KKK in the U.S.A. during the 1920's) Ziya Gokalp also claimed for the Turks conquerors such as Attila and Genghis Khan as Turkish cultural heirs. Following this frame of reference "Greeks, Armenians who lived in Turkey would remain a foreign body in the national Turkish state"(Heyd)

Greeks in the Black Sea littoral of Asia Minor called PONTUS (meaning sea in Greek) were exposed to the worst treatment of Turkey's Genocidal Mentality. K. Ataturk had a thing for Greeks, he was born in the Greek city of Thessaloniki, and had been commandeer of Turkish military units defeated by Greek guerillas in Macedonia during the Balkan liberation from Ottoman Turk rule. Kemal hid in the shadows during Talat's reign in 1915-1918, however he proved himself a worthy ghazi (warrior and destroyer of Greeks) in the years following WWI. His close associates named him Bozkurt (Grey Wolf). K. Ataturk landed at Pontus in the Black Sea port of Samsun on May 19,1919-a day of mourning that is commemorated as the Pontic Greek Genocide every May 19th. Pontic Greeks have existed in their native region since the days of Jason and the Argonauts pre-dating the 3rd Century BC K.Ataturk and his Turkish armies systematically destroyed PONTUS. Some 700,000 Greeks were ousted from their ancestral homes by orders of General Kemal Ataturk and marched into oblivion-their bones litter the mountain pathways of the Pontus mountains. Greek owned properties were stolen by their Turk murderers and have laid the financial base for at least one contemporary Turkish family of economic power. After a systematic campaign of race extermination the Greeks were also destroyed in Smyrna (renamed Izmir in 1930) by Turkish armies under the command of K. Ataturk. Over a hundred thousand Greek civilians were massacred in September 1922 under the watchful eyes of a 27-ship armada from the U.S.A., Britain, Italy, and France. Smyrna was burned to the ground save for the Standard Oil compound. Admiral Bristol, the U.S. State Dept. man on the ground in Smyrna, had little regard for the lives of Greeks he had said "the Greeks are the worst race in this part of the world" (Marjorie Housepian Dobkin Smyrna 1922 1998) The international community through its silence has pardoned the perpetrator of this crime. The classical Pontic Greek city of Trapezounta has been renamed Trabzon and its cultural heritage is thoroughly destroyed. The Pontic Greek diaspora, which was sent to the four winds, has settled throughout the world and is entering its second and third generation. Pontic Greeks have begun now after generations of recovery to publish their memoirs-Sanho Halo, a survivor of the Pontic Greek Genocide, is beautifully memorialized by her daughter Thea in the current bestseller "Not Even My Name. An old man in Queens, N.Y. where over 40,000 Pontic Greeks now reside told me once" The Turks stole our face, defaced our beautiful Pontic culture, their time will come and they will pay either in money or in blood. The despair of poor tattered Pontic Greeks who settled as far from the PONTUS homeland as North America, Australia, and Northern Europe is being answered by their grandchildren who are reacting to the nightmares of their ancestors with calls to action.

The Armenian Genocide is now recognized by the UN, the Europarliament, and the French government. Despite persistent protests by the State Department, the U.S. Congress was set for a vote of the Armenian Genocide resolution on the House floor only to be shelved by Bill Clinton in the midnight hour through the personal plea of intervention by Israel's Shimon Peres. The perpetrator of the Jewish genocide has delivered over $60 billion in reparations to Israel, the peoples of the genocide in Asia Minor-Armenians, Assyrians, and the Greeks of Pontus-have gotten a kick in the ass. The genocide of the Assyrians (some 500,000 who were exterminated in waves that swept away the Armenian nation) is still unknown. Assyrians were also massacred when Turkey, in a precedent for the later invasion of Cyprus, invaded the province of Hatay Alexandetta in Syria during the 1930's. The slow-motion genocide of the Kurds is ongoing and steadily aided and covered-up by the U.S.A. and the descendants of another genocide, the Israelis. Cyprus endures a brutal Turkish military occupation to accommodate Anglo-American bases in northern Turkish occupied Cyprus. Greek demonstrators are slaughtered by Turkish Grey Wolf terrorist operatives. This same Grey Wolf organization is responsible for the "disappearances" and outright lynchings of Kurdish activists and intellectuals throughout Turkey. These same Grey Wolf terrorists are behind acts of arson that devastate the Greek islands every summer.

An International Industry of Denial is being financed by Turkey with the healthy support of Israel and the U.S. State Department. The services of top-notch K street lobbyists are enlisted including the million dollar arsenals of Phillip Morris Inc., a long list of arms merchants, and B'nai B'irth. So far, the Turkish Embassy supported by its front organization Institute of Turkish Studies (I.T.S.) has funded over 20 Turkish Studies programs in various American universities. The Chair of Turkish Studies in Princeton, Heath Lowry, resigned after being exposed as a ghostwriter for Turkish ambassador Nuzhet Kandemir. The letter he was busted ghost writing specified verbatim classic genocide denialist propaganda intended for distribution to a New York publisher. In Portland State University, the current holder of the Chair of Turkish Studies is an active mentor and former trainer for Ahmet Sozen. Sozen is an insider of Rauf Denktash's cryptic feudal regime in Turkish occupied northern Cyprus. A source in Cyprus, who I am not at liberty to disclose, tells me that Sozen is the intellectual arm of the Grey Wolves on the island of Cyprus. Sozen has penned several texts that the regime uses to cover-up for its crimes against the Greeks of Cyprus. Azmi Suslu fancies himself a protégé of Young Turk ideologue Ziya Gokalp and is considered the modern Joseph Goebbels of Turkey's fascistic society. Strangely, he made his premier in America in Portland, Oregon and spewed his propaganda to unknowing innocents in Portland State University thanks to the services of PSU's chair of Turkish Studies. PSU president Dan Bernstine along with other high ranking faculty took a very expensive trip to Turkey in 1999 to visit Turkish head of state Sulexman "the Butcher of Kurds" Demiral, while there Bernstine signed some sort of official agreement with Ataturk Research Center in the Prime Ministry's office. In a letter which I came across, Nuzhet Kandemir writes to his patron Bernstine "I have been closely following the ill-intending efforts of certain anti-Turkey ethnic lobbies."

The indigenous people of Asia Minor are experiencing a second killing. Denial and erasure of memory is the final phase of genocide, as genocide scholar Israel Charny has so eloquently expressed in his landmark book Is the Holocaust Unique? (I.Charny 2000) Apo Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdish rebellion, has noted his unnerving anger as a young man when confronted with the physical and spiritual ruins left behind from the previous victims of Turkish criminality-Armenians,Assyrians, Pontic Greeks. The diaspora of this collective genocide has come back to haunt the Turkish racists. The State Security Council of Turkey recently issued a 14-page document detailing the grassroots activism of the Assyrian nation in exile. Assyrian hunger strikes in Sweden and the Netherlands, demonstrations outside Turkish diplomatic posts spanning the globe, in June 2000 Assyrian protesters occupied the Laussane Municipal Building in Switzerland to highlight Turkey's Crimes Against Humanity. Internet activism, spearheaded by the heroic grassroots American Hellenic Media Project AHMP and the Assyrian International News Agency AINA, have drawn attention to the plight of Father Yusuf Akbulut (an Assyrian priest imprisoned in Turkey for affirming the historical reality of the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Genocide) Thanks to the campaign the courtroom was packed with international observers to Turkey's embarrassment. AHMP volunteers successfully convinced Actor Antonio Banderas to decline the film role of Ataturk in a $65 million film hagiography of the late ethnic cleanser financed by B'nai B'irth. Incidentally, B'nai B'irth is also the major Jewish lobby sandbagging the Armenian Genocide resolution and is a major promoter of Ataturkism (the Jewish organization paid for a full page ad in the N.Y. Times congratulating the fascistic Turkish State on the occasion of its 75th anniversary) Genocide is born of racism, bigotry, and absence of the fundamental principles of human rights and civil liberties. The diaspora created by the Genocidal Mentality of the Turks now begins to confront Turkey head-on to face its past in order to save the present and to create a future of real democratization. Democracy is not possible when the Turkish state denies the oppression of Greeks in Cyprus, denies the slaughter of Kurds, denies Turkey's genesis in genocide.

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Christian Africa History

Christian Africa | 2000 Years of History

About African Holocaust Society

Until lions tell their tale, the story of the hunt will always glorify the hunter

– African Proverb

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will

– Frederick Douglass

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear

– 2 Timothy 4:3

Every man is rich in excuses to safeguard his prejudices, his instincts, and his opinions.

– Ancient Egypt

Cowardice asks the question: is it safe? Expediency asks the question: is it political? Vanity asks the question: is it popular? But conscience asks the question: is it right.

– Dr. Martin L. King, Jr

God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God

– Matthew 5:9

We are not Africans because we are born in Africa, we are Africans because Africa is born in us.

– Chester Higgins Jr.

Don't waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don't cast your pearls to swine! They will trample them, then turn and attack you

– Matthew 7:6

Leave no brother or sister behind the enemy line of poverty.

– Harriet Tubman

MAAFA

New Article | Religion and War

WARNING: There are unscruplous charletons soliciting money for "Christian causes" under the banner of "Christians being percecuted" around the world, especially in African countries. Please you are encouraged to validate all such claims outside of their controlling circles of information, most of them are either not true, or hyped up. They exploit people's fear of each other, and lack of information to turn a profit.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect

Romans 12:2

This site intends to serve three aims: (a) to provide information about Christianity and the African World (the continent and Americas); and (b) to offer a guide to African Christian's global identity in the context of culture and personality. (c) Protect Africa's unique Christian Orthodoxies. It is also a cultural and historical site on a progressive understanding of African traditional Christianity

from the lenses of this promising community of people—the Africans. The objectives are Pan-African and Pan-Africanism creates unity through fostering knowledge between different African religious groups in the world. The site aims to give service to these reflections by dealing with historical truth from a cultural Pan-African position.

Christianity is revolutionary or oppressive depending on who is teaching it. Like any tool, in the hands of the slave master, or the missionary it will justify Africa's oppression. An African centred reading of Christianity however produces radically different paradigms.

Culture has never been static, and certainly no static culture has survived history. A culture which is inflexible in a globalized world is a culture on the verge of extinction. African Culture is not a monolith and while the foundations remain fundamentally unaltered, the interpretation and expression of continues to be a forever blossoming flower.

At the beginning of the colonial era less than 5% where Christian, after colonialism less than 50% of Africa was Christian, this rapid transformation created a high degree of cultural displacement, unlike with Islam which was steadily Africanized for over 1000 years. Christianity has been plagued with the history of European conquest and today it is yet to escape that legacy and become an agent of true liberation. With the exception of Ethiopia, the intention of Christianity in Africa was never to create development, in any capacity, in the African mind.

Today Christianity in Africa shares almost equal space with Islam. Both expand at the expense of the native African belief systems. That has always been the way of the world, life and death, and we must accept that reality but also learn from those histories and ancient traditions.

Don't waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don't cast your pearls to swine! They will trample them, then turn and attack you

Matthew 7:6

Christianity has been a traditional part of the dynamic African landscape for over 2000 years. And beyond argument remains a fundamental sculptor the African cultures in Sudan and Ethiopia. The majority of Christianizing in Africa is unfortunately linked to the enslavement and colonization.

Nazerteh Church (Shembe SA)

In the making of the slave you realize it was not the Bible or Jesus that was ever the problem, it was the slave masters "Two readings of Christianity" one reading secured his desires of exploitation and the other reading secured passive obedience from the enslaved — a slave master friendly version. We can take a third reading and that is our revolution. So it is necessary to deal with tradition African Christianity, which is a beautiful example of African agency within Christian theology.

The man that took your eye is telling you to turn the other cheek. The guy that never forgives is telling you to forget

BEYOND SLAVE MODELS

Before Jesus and Mary, there was Ancient Egypt With all the devotion to God it is strange how most cannot explain one Biblical story or even understand the history of Christianity, or the life of Jesus. They cannot even have an intelligent objective conversation about the religion they hold so dare. As much as they claim to love God and the church, they never ever want to actually discuss anything about the real Bible

beyond "what the pastor said." So extreme is this brainwashed mind-set is they see Muslims, Jews, and even other Christians (who might even be identical to them) as heretics and beyond salvation.Yet they do not know the difference between Psalms and Timothy. And then there is that wonderful mechanism of closing down when challenged about their knowledge of the scripture. That defense mechanism for preventing the pre-programmed pastor message from being eroded by truth.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, thought like a child, and reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I no longer used childish ways

1 Corinthians 13:11

How is this possible? Because despite the 2% good in these new churches it implants concepts "Have faith", "Praise the Lord" but in almost every instances it attaches no hard ethics to this rhetoric. So these statements of "belief" are left abstract and floating. It also explains why we see (esp in Southern Africa) people living such contradictory lives, pastors who sleep with 1/2 the choir, alcohol abuse followed by church at 8am, vulgarly dishonest people, stealing and wickedness – just after mass. Because the religion is not actually attached to any true morals or practicality of living in the real world, and while everyone has these issues at least there should be some sense of right and wrong — even when engaged in a "sin."' It distracts the mind from seeking development and consciousness of self. It does not inform people about their history, their culture. It does not stimulate the mind to learn more about anything other than their narrow teaching of a very dynamic and rich Bible. Divorced from reality and in a spritual/intellectual vacuum people are better exploited, and content to be passive in the development of their country and continent.

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away. A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (Tanakh)

There must then clearly be a time for revolution!

African Kings African Kings African Kings

JESUS OF THE BIBLE

Jesus plays a central role in Christianity, as well as in Islam. And while there is an debate on Jesus was a prophet of a "god" very few realize is that Jesus was a revolutionary, he was a socialist and he was a enemy of imperialism. He was also anti-corruption, and anti-capitalist. Yet very few Christians have that conversation when discussing "No one gets to the father but through me (my way of life)." The harsh question for Christians today is "What would Jesus be doing if he was alive today?" and that one question alone will show the serious spiritual and political detour of many so-called Christians. Would Jesus be driving the latest Lexus? Would Jesus be pro-War in the Middle East? Would Jesus support the invasion of Libya and the exploitation in the Congo by the super powers? Would Jesus be okay with the suffering of the Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli forces? Would Jesus support the designs of the Oligarchy? Would he marry two gay men in a ceremony? And would Jesus support the exploitation and race based privileges Europeans continue to enjoy? By looking at his ancient message we find all the answers to this basic question.

Some Africanist take issue with Jesus, but Jesus owned no slaves, he did not run a state, like David, Muhammad, Askia, Menelik, or Moses. He was not a military general (like Chaka Zulu or Hannibal), he carried no sword, he debauched no women, he had no debts. He was a poor Jewish man with few possessions who had a small following--not even a religion-but an intellectual social circle of revolutionaries. What did he ever do to anyone that would "spoil" his name today? And we must paradigm shift and re-think how we arrive at our twisted conclusions. The intellectual question is Who Was Jesus? Someone 1000's of years later decided to enslave Africans--in his name. Did Jesus sanction this in the Gospels? Did Jesus give them permission to name the ship "Good ship Jesus"? So why take issue with Jesus?

Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful

Joshua 1:8

Jesus or Paul?: Of the three Abrahamic faiths, Christianity is perhaps the most altered from its original teachings. Early Christianity was a sect of Judaism. In most denominations of Christianity, the voice of Paul overshadows the voice of all. Paul seems to be the great arbitrator that abrogates all previous teaches of Christianity. One of the most famous critcisms comes from Thomas Jefferson, who wrote in a letter to James Smith, that "Paul was ... the first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus." (Works, 1829 edition, vol. 4, p. 327.

There is also profound differences between Paul and Jesus: When the Southerners in our country sought to defend slavery, they called upon Paul to back them up, citing Ephesians 6:5 and Titus 2:9-10, where he exhorts slaves to obey their masters, and the fact that slavery was widely practiced, but Paul never condemned it once. Also Paul was very anti-woman. He ordered that they not be allowed to speak in the churches (I Cor 14:34-45) and that they stay home and take care of the children (1Timothy 5:14), and that wives should be submissive to the mastery of their husbands (Ephesians 5:22-24 and Colossians 3:18-19).

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference

Serenity Pray

While Paul teaches a salvation based solely on faith (Romans 3:28: "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.") and not one's deeds, Jesus reportedly teaches the opposte: that behavioral requirements (works/ deeds), rooted in an internal change of spiritual growth within the person (not external or apart from the person, though the gift of teaching and techniques to achieve this personal change are a gift of grace not earned or deserved by us, but requiring actions [deeds] to implement), are integral to salvation. Jesus was a Jewish rabbi who always upheld the Law of Moses. In his first public teaching, the Sermon on the Mount, he made it very clear in Matt. 5:18-19: "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach [them], the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." ("jot or tittle" in modern translations is "not one iota nor one dot".) Have heaven and earth passed away? Have all the prophecies, including those of the last days, been fulfilled?

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (Tanakh)

Even some of the occasions when Jesus seems to add to the Law or teach in new and different ways, he goes to great lengths to show that it is based on the Law. For example, when this rabbi asked by a "lawyer" (one versed in the Law of Moses) what was the greatest commandment in the Law, Jesus turns the question back to him and asks what is in the Law, and from that extrapolates his great commandments to Love God (from Deut 6:5) and Love Neighbor as Self (from Lev. 19:18) which was clearly the centerpiece of his ministry and his doctrine of active love and compassion for all. Paul, on the other hand, wants to throw out the Law of Moses! Romans 3:19-21: "Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law [is] the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets."

Some authors go as far as to state that Paul was, in short, a cunning rogue who pieced together a new religion from bits of this and that, and then dressed the whole thing up with a sprinkling of out-of-context Torah quotations. [4]

Thank God Ethiopian Christianity did not accept "love your enemies," or else the Italians at the battle of Adwa would have been welcomed with Injera instead of bullets and swords

Hebrew Slaves

Inside the Bible you have the religious story of the Hebrew Slave in Ancient Egypt. Yet many Africans enslaved mentally and physically could not see the parallels to their dilemma. Follow the Bible and liberate yourself from the modern Pharaoh. How come that obvious Biblical lesson escaped the most staunch Christian? The cry to Pharaoh was "let my people go", "deliver us out of bondage", yet somehow for 300 years Africans were given a religion that spoke of escape from bondage yet the most religious accepted this bondage as the natural order of things.

White Religion: Long before the Western Europeans acquired Christianity, Ethiopia, and later Kush (Sudan) had it. Christianity came from the world that included the Levant and Ancient Ethiopic nations. At some political opportune time Europe (late compared to Ethiopia acquired it). As a tool to aid and justify conquest two readings were engaged. One which allowed them to conquer the "savage" (that would mean non-White people), and one to pacify the "savage" (Always referring to people they were conquering). "Judge not," "love your enemy," and "Turn the cheek", was for the slave; "Eye for an Eye" was for the slave master. To expand their empires it was "saving souls" and to stop the new souls from fighting back it was "love your enemy."

If a white man comes to your door and tells you about the Kingdom of God and part of his solution is to sit still and have faith — do nothing to change the power balance or the inequity in the world, but accept the status quo and Africa's station in the bottom of every demographic. To accept slavery, apartheid, and colonialism, as one day God will come down and sort it all out. This is what is meant by "White man's religion" because it services White people's hegemony. The problem is not the Bible, or Christianity per se; the problem is who is reading it to you.

Christianity was adopted by Europeans — it was not created by them—but has become their chief religious agent in sculpting the World (replaced in our times with democracy). They made it their own by implanting their pre-Christian values and agendas onto a Middle Eastern faith—a non-White Jewish faith. This is a natural process as all people with agency seek to balance two things; absorb the benefits of new innovations (religious or otherwise), as well as maintaining their unique cultural identity and power centers. The problem for the African who received this Europeanized version of Christianity is while it worked to secure European interest, it did so at the expense of African interest.

Impact Beyond Religion

White Angel Black Devil The impact of European Christianity is profound, stretching beyond the boundaries of religion and influencing mainstrem Western values. A few concepts that it produced. (Please note these concepts only apply to the enslaved or controlled populous): 1. Don't Judge 2. Turn the Cheek 3. Be non-violent with oppression 4. Love your enemy. So embeded in the faith most think these are the theological core of the faith. But these sentiments do not even account for 1% of the Bible, what about the other 99%? These are not Biblical traditions. Of the 1000s of names in the Biblical tradition can one man, Paul and not Jesus, wipe out the entire sentiment of a faith?

Luckily Garvey, Nat Turner and Ethiopia were concerned with the other 99%. And the reason is the emphasis of the Bible is subjective. And it was carefully shaped in Western Europe to produce things like the beatitude (Latin: happy, fortunate, or blissful). These are Europeanized theological schools of thought, which have influenced the ideology of an entire faith (ideological globalization). So much so, that most cannot see Christianity outside of these Eurocentric boxes. To do so would mean studying Christianity of other nations, such as Ethiopia, which preserve a unique theology.

?I believe in a religion that believes in freedom. Any time I have to accept a religion that won't let me fight a battle for my people, I say to hell with that religion

El Hajj Malik Shabazz

DANGER AND CORRUPTION

Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart

1 Samuel 16:7

If the Bible says "Seek and Yeah shall find," "know the truth and the truth shall set you free ," why then are the pastor telling you only to listen exclusively to them? Why would they need to brainwash people with threats of hell fire or some spiritual calamity for consuming broader spiritual information? Why do most know more about the ideology of Christianity but yet cannot tie it to verses in the actual Bible? Are the pastors fearful of the Biblical messageto "Let the truth set you free?"

Church in parts of the African world (esp Nigeria, USA and South Africa) is almost a spiritual social club, and in some cases a day time rave; full of magic and circus tricks. It rarely conveys the deeper meaning of the Bible or the true teachings of Jesus. It is a power tool for priest to amass wealth and status by brainwashing unconscious victims looking for deliverance. It is never intended to create people who think for themselves, that challenge and resolve complex issues. It seems to replace that natural awareness, natural curiosity, with blind faith and narrow distorted understanding of reality. It always seems to close down the doors to intellectual development, logic and reason— creating functionites who just act and think in one way. Socialized into spiritual redundancy, ignorance, and at an impasse with mental development.

The error is not in the Bible or the Christian faith but in its exploitation. Christianity or any religion should develop the soul and the mind; it should inform and create consciousness. So if the only message is "have faith" and "In Jesus name" then that is not Christianity but a selective corruption which keeps the masses ignorant and impotent. Sitting down on your hands "faith" is not faith it is utter stupidity. While not a Biblical verse "God helps those who help themselves."

The Bible may be from God, but the interpretation is certainly from man

'Alik Shahadah

CHRISTIANITY & AFRICA

Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals

Martin Luther King

Ethiopia is home to the oldest Christian tradition in the world, as well as the oldest tradition of Islam outside of Saudi Arabia. Christianity was in Ethiopia (Abyssinia) long before there was an Anglican church, long before it was the state religion of Italy.

The adoption of Christianity in Ethiopia dates to the fourth-century reign of the Aksumite emperor Ezana. The kingdom was located along major international trade routes through the Red Sea between India and the Roman empire. Ethiopia was always part of the historical Biblical world, and had seen adherents to the Jewish doctrine. The legend of Queen Sheeba and her encounter with Solomon is legendary in this region.

Christianity, like Islam in West Africa was brought to Aksum via merchants. Ezana's decision to adopt Christianity helped solidify his trading relationship with the Roman Empire. Christianity afforded the possibility of unifying the many diverse ethnic and linguistic peoples of the Aksumite kingdom, a goal of Ezana's leadership. Again we see similarities between the political motives for the expansion of Islam in Africa. Aksum was one of the earliest states to develop a coin system in order to service its sophisticated and prosperous economy. Emperor Ezana was the first world leader to put the cross on coins that are the earliest examples of Christian material culture from Ethiopia.

The introduction of the ahistorical "White European" image of Jesus has done considerable damage to the African mind. Even in Ethiopia this image has been recently introduced by Europe and has been replacing traditional dark-skinned images of Jesus. Many, are now challenges this and returning the images of Jesus to an more realistic one of a man who comes from a hot climate.

If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless

James 1:26

AFRICAN CHRISTIAN HISTORY

Christianity a spiritual technology which codifies a way of life and dictates relationships between God, based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings.

Lalibella Adherents of the Christian faith are known as Christians. Most forms of Christianity teaches Jesus is the Son of God. This was agreed upon at the Council of Nicaea in 325 at the political command of Roman Emperor Constantine. Its main accomplishments were settlement of the Christological issue of the relationship of Jesus to God the Father; the construction of the first part of the Nicene Creed; settling the calculation of the date of Easter; and promulgation of early canon law. This turning point is not agreed upon by all Christian denominations and is the single greatest theological splinter with the other two Abrahamic faith (Islam and Judaism).

It is the trinity, deification of Christ and subsequent salvation in Christ, above all other factors, that separates Christianity from Judaism and Islam.

Jesus was a Jewish reformer so early Christianity began as a Jewish sect in the mid-1st century. However, the term Christian was no where in this period of history. Ignatius of Antioch was the first Christian to use the label in self-reference and made the earliest recorded use of the term Christianity (Greek ???st?a??sµ??), around 100 AD. With advocates such as Paul (formerly Saul) it quickly grew in size and influence over a few decades, and by the 4th century had become the dominant religion within the Roman Empire. It is argued by some scholars that Christianity emerged as a distinct religion in a bid to separate itself from Judaism which was under Roman persecution. When The Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity following his victory at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312. Under his rule, Christianity rose to become the dominant religion in the Roman Empire, and the most popular religion in the world with over 2 billion adherents.

for at least the first three centuries of their common lives, Judaism in all of its forms and Christianity in all of its forms were part of one complex religious family, twins in a womb, contending with each other for identity and precedence, but sharing with each other the same spiritual food, as well

Daniel Boyarin

During the Middle Ages, most of the remainder of Europe was Christianized, with Christians in North Africa and Ethiopia.

menelik

Another early example of Africans in Christianity comes in the form of Saint Maurice was the leader of the legendary Roman Theban Legion in the 3rd century, and one of the favorite and most widely venerated saints of that group. He was the patron saint of several professions, locales, and kingdoms. He is also a highly revered saint in the Coptic Orthodox Church.

With 6,666 of his African compatriots, St. Maurice had chosen martyrdom rather than deny his allegiance to his faith, thereby creating for the Christian world an image of the Church Militant that was as impressive numerically as it was colourwise.

The Africanized image of Maurice reached its apogee during the years 1490 to 1530. Images of the saint died out in the mid-sixteenth century, undermined by the developing African slave trade. Despite mass conversions of Africans to Christianity, Eurocentric Christianity did not want to reinforce any positive image of African inclusion in Christian history nor did they want to add nobility to African identity. The process of Christianity was to better control Africans not promote a sense of ownership in Christian history.

AFRICA'S OWN CHRISTIANITY

In order to brainwash Africans to the superiority of the European version of Christianity they first had to be brainwashed to the superiority of the European race and culture. In every instance when that notion of any form of superiority was void (Ethiopia), challenged or debunked, Africans, and others, have demonstrated agency and created their own orthodoxies taking elements in the name of self-interest. What we saw in most of Africa was a failure to get to grips with White supremacy, which got more problematic as Europe first demolished the walls of agency that protected African people. [2] They introduced a Christianity that was abstract from the realities of the world and African life. Faith without purpose, belief without understanding and meaning. Creating some of the most brainwashed and enslaved people who get caught in a cycle of perpetuating ignorance about self.

I don't have enough faith to be an atheist" It certainly takes a leap of faith to look at all of creation and believe it happened by accident

Ethiopia, and parts of North Africa, which created their own orthodoxies outside of the colonial template. In the rest of Africa orthodoxies have been formulated by Africans after the introduction via missionaries, reasons for doing so are: 1. Reject the politics of European domination and control. 2. To promote Christian values through an African aesthetic and world-view. 3. To assert agency and cultural identity aligned with the values of Christianity, without the Eurocentric cultural imposition.

•Ethiopian Orthodox Church

•Celestial Church of Christ. (Benin and West Africa)

•Zionist Church [Shembe (Nazareth) (Southern Africa and Zimbabwe)

•Aladura (Nigeria)

Africans have a duty to protect Africa's unique Christian Orthodoxies and reject Western variants of Christianity. See Missionaries

ETHIOPIAN CHRISTIANITY

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church Tewahedo ( Amharic: ?????? ?????? ???? ?? ??????). It is uniquely African as outlined below:

Biblical canon

The Tewahedo Church Canon contains 81 books. This canon contains the books accepted by other Orthodox Christians. The Narrower Canon also contains Enoch, Jubilees, and I II III Meqabyan. These last differ substantially from the Greek I, II, III Maccabees, and the canonical Enoch differs from the editions of the Ge'ez manuscripts in the British Museum and elsewhere (A-Q) used by foreign scholars (OTP), for example in treatment of the Nephilim of Genesis 6.

The current 81 book version was published in 1986, containing the same text as previously published in the Haile Selassie Version of the Bible, only with some minor modifications to the New Testament translation. The Broader Canon has never been fully published or scrutinized, but is said include all of the Narrower Canon, as well as two Books of the Covenant, four Books of Sinodos, an Epistle to Clement, and the Didascalia. These may not all bear close resemblance to works of these titles known in the west.

Oldest Illustrated Bible (330 C.E)

Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself

Matthew 22:37-39

Lalibella Rock Church World's first illustrated Christian bible was recently discovered at Ethiopian monastery The world's earliest illustrated Christian book has been saved by a British charity which located it at a remote Ethiopian monastery. The incredible Garima Gospels are named after a monk who arrived in the African country in the fifth century and is said to have copied them out in just one day. Beautifully illustrated, the colours are still vivid and thanks to the Ethiopian Heritage Fund have been conserved. The incredible relic has been kept ever since in the Garima Monastery near Adwa in the north of the country, which is in the Tigray region at 7,000 feet.

Experts believe it is also the earliest example of book binding still attached to the original pages. It was written on goat skin in Ge'ez. There are two volumes which date from the same time, but the second is written in a different hand from the first. Both contain illustrations and the four Gospels. Carbon dating, however, gives a date between 330 and 650 - which tantalisingly overlaps the date Abba Garima arrived in the country.

LANGUAGE ( ??? )

The divine services of the Ethiopian Church are celebrated in the Ge'ez language, which has been the language of the Church at least since the arrival of the Nine Saints (Abba Pantelewon, Abba Gerima (Isaac, or Yeshaq), Abba Aftse, Abba Guba, Abba Alef, Abba Yem'ata, Abba Liqanos, and Abba Sehma), who fled persecution by the Byzantine Emperor after the Council of Chalcedon. The Septuagint Greek version was originally translated into Ge'ez, but later revisions show clear evidence of the use of Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic sources. The first translation into a modern vernacular was done in the 19th century by a man who is usually known as Abu Rumi. Later, Haile Selassie sponsored Amharic translations of the Ge'ez Scriptures during his reign, one before World War II and one afterwards. Sermons today are usually delivered in the local language.

Architecture

There are many monolithic churches in Ethiopia, most famously the above-mentioned twelve churches at Lalibela. After these, two main types of architecture are found—one basilican, the other native. The Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion at Aksum is an example of the basilican design, though the early basilicas are nearly all in ruin. These examples show the influence of those architects who, in the 6th century, built the basilicas at San?a' and elsewhere in the Arabian Peninsula. There are two forms of native churches: one oblong, traditionally found in Tigray; the other circular, traditionally found in Amhara and Shewa (though either style may be found elsewhere). In both forms, the sanctuary is square and stands clear in the center, and the arrangements are based on Jewish tradition. Walls and ceilings are adorned with frescoes. A courtyard, circular or rectangular, surrounds the body of the church. Modern Ethiopian churches may incorporate the basilican or native styles, and utilize contemporary construction techniques and materials. In rural areas, the church and outer court are often thatched, with mud-built walls.

The Chapel of the Tablet at the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion allegedly houses the original Ark of the Covenant.

Ark of the Covenant

The Ethiopian church claims that one of its churches, Our Lady Mary of Zion, is host to the original Ark of the Covenant that Moses carried with the Israelites during the Exodus. However, only one priest is allowed into the building where the Ark is located, ostensibly due to dangerous biblical warnings. As a result, international scholars doubt that the original Ark is truly there, although a case has been put forward by controversial popular writer Graham Hancock in his book The Sign and the Seal.

Throughout Ethiopia, Orthodox churches are not considered churches until the local bishop gives them a tabot, a replica of the tablets in the original Ark of the Covenant. The tabot is at least six inches (15 cm) square and made from alabaster, marble, or wood (see acacia). It is always kept in ornate coverings on the Altar. Only priests are allowed to touch the tabot. In an elaborate procession, the tabot is carried around the outside of the church amid joyful song and on the feast day of that particular church's namesake. On the great Feast of T'imk'et, known as Epiphany or Theophany in Europe; group of churches send their tabots to celebrate the occasion on a common location where a pool of water or a river is located.

Similarities to Judaism and Islam

The Ethiopian church places a heavier emphasis on Old Testament teachings than one might find in any of the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic or Protestant churches, and its followers adhere to certain practices that one finds in Orthodox or Conservative Judaism. Ethiopian Christians, like some other Eastern Christians, traditionally follow dietary rules that are similar to Jewish Kashrut, specifically with regard to how an animal is slaughtered.

Similarly, pork is prohibited, though unlike Rabbinical Kashrut, Ethiopian cuisine does mix dairy products with meat. Women are prohibited from entering the church during menses; they are also expected to cover their hair with a large scarf (or shash) while in church, per 1 Cor. 11. As with Orthodox synagogues, men and women are seated separately in the Ethiopian church, with men on the left and women on the right (when facing the altar). (Women covering their heads and separation of the sexes in churchhouses officially is common to some Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Christians, as well as many conservative Protestant and Anabaptist traditions; it also is the rule in some non-Christian religions, Islam and Orthodox Judaism among them.) Ethiopian Orthodox worshippers remove their shoes when entering a church, in accordance with Exodus 3:5 (in which Moses, while viewing the burning bush, is commanded to remove his shoes while standing on holy ground). Furthermore, both the Sabbath (Saturday), and the Lord's Day (Sunday) are observed as holy, although more emphasis, because of the Resurrection of Christ, is laid upon Sunday.

After Saluddin retook the Holy City in 1187, he expressly invited the Ethiopian monks to return and even exempted Ethiopian pilgrims from the pilgrim tax. His motivation for this kindness are unknown; perhaps he remembered the hijrah where Ethiopia sheltered the first Muslims.

CHRISTIANITY AND SLAVERY

To be obedient to them that are your masters, according to the flesh, in fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ

Bible

It is amazing the capacity for evil in people who wake up on Sunday and go to Church and sing high in the name of God. And the evils they do are not reflected on, or connected to the spiritual message they cling so dearly to and arrogantly force on others with moral superiority. Two worlds, one of religious purity and self-righteousness and the other of unspeakable evil to those chained by the yoke of slavery— yet the two worlds failed to reconcile.

Religion was not a garb put on for Sunday, and laid aside till Sunday returned again

Hariet Jacobs

Christianity, like Judaism and Islam does not outlaw domestic slavery; slavery was a feature of the time, which dealt with prisoners of war, debt, and criminals. It was integrated into the social fabric in which these three faiths were born into. In the case of Christianity, the numerous references to slavery do not facilitate racial Chattel Slavery. Both from time to time insist on the basic need for humanity within slavery. However both the Old and New Testament recognises and accepts the institution of slavery. The Jews are frequently reminded, in both the Bible and the Talmud, that they too were slaves in Egypt and should therefore treat their conquered people decently. Numerous Biblical references allude to equality :

Darfur TruthDid not He that made me in the womb make him [the slave]? And did not One fashion us both?" (Job 31:15). Darfur report

But slavery was a clear reality of the Biblical Judo-Christian societies.

Darfur TruthAs for your male and female slaves who may belong to you, you may buy male and female slaves from the nations all around you. Darfur report(25:44)

Darfur TruthAlso you may buy slaves from the children of the foreigners who reside with you, and from their families that are with you, whom they have fathered in your land, they may become your property. Darfur report(25:45)

Darfur TruthYou may give them as inheritance to your children after you to possess as property. You may enslave them perpetually. However, as for your brothers the Israelites, no man may rule over his brother harshly. Darfur report(25:46)

It is also clear that slavery is accepted in the New Testament as a fact of life. Some passages in the Pauline Epistles even endorse it. Thus in the Epistle to Philemon, a runaway slave is returned to his master; in Ephesians 6, the duty owed by a slave to his master is compared with the duty owed by a child to his parent:

Parents and masters are likewise enjoined to show consideration for their children and slaves. Thus it can be concluded, In Christianity, all humans, of the faith, are equal in the eyes of God and in the afterlife however this equality didn't extend to, and hence was not recognised before the secular laws of man. Those not of the faith, were in another, and in most respect an inferior group. In this respect, Greek perception of the barbarian "the other" and the Judeo-Christian-Islamic perception of the unbeliever coincide.

Jesus, though he repeatedly denounced sin as a kind of moral slavery, said not a word against slavery as a social institution." Now slavery was all around the world in which Jesus preached, there is no escaping this reality. He would have dealt with it on a daily basis yet did not see cause to renounce it in all of his messages. The writers of the New Testament did not oppose slavery either.( Cardinal Dulles, Avery. "Development or Reversal?".) Slaves were told that their suffering was similar to the suffering that Christ endured. Paul also puts forward that "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." The Epistle to Philemon has become an important text in regard to slavery, being used by pro-slavery advocates as well as by abolitionists. In the epistle, Paul writes that he is returning Onesimus, a fugitive slave, back to his master Philemon. Paul also entreats Philemon to regard Onesimus as a beloved brother in Christ. Cardinal Dulles points out that, "while discreetly suggesting that he manumit Onesimus, [Paul] does not say that Philemon is morally obliged to free Onesimus and any other slaves he may have had." According to tradition, Philemon did free Onesimus, and both were eventually recognized as saints by the Church. T. David Curp asserts that, "Given that the Church received Philemon as inspired Scripture, Paul's ambiguity effectively blocked the early Fathers of the Church from denouncing slavery outright." In the Epistle of Paul to Titus, Paul appears to support the servitude of slaves: "Tell slaves to be submissive to their masters and to give satisfaction in every respect; they are not to talk back, not to pilfer, but to show complete and perfect fidelity, so that in everything they may be an ornament to the doctrine of God our Savior."

AFRICAN CHRISTIAN DILEMMA

One of the largest issues within African communities is the rise of Pentecostal multimillion dollar conglomerates. This is the only way to describe them because the operate more like a business than a religion. There is no humility and no value transferred. It is basically a day-time party or circus show. Nigeria's pastors run multi-million dollar businesses which rival that of oil tycoons.

In Nigeria Bishop Oyedepo was followed on the rich list by Pastor Chris Oyakhilome of the Believers' Loveworld Ministries. He was worth between $30 and $50m.These pastors are flamboyant many of them have private jets and expensive cars. On the other end of the world Europe is producing gay priest and now atheist priest (who do not believe in God).

These Nigerian preachers are just capitalist who exploit a natural human spiritual desire. And people do have this spritual need, and if it is not filed with a meaningful understanding of the creator, that void will be filled with these entertainers. Many of these so-called Churches in Nigeria and South Africa are Day time Clubs. [More soon]

MISSIONARIES

Churches are closing down all over Europe, some being turned into luxury houses. In Norway only 32% practise Christianity. Norway has one of the lowest church attendance in the world - Africa and South America the highest. Yet despite this, year after year, missionaries up and leave Norway and other parts of Europe and head to Africa to tell Africans about God.

Under the mask of "Saving African souls" colonialism took roots in Africa. The like of David Livingstone were the colonial fixers collecting intelligence and preparing the minds of Africans for final occupation. What stood in his way, in parts of Africa, was the Arab slave trade.

Two versions of the gospel of Christianity were taught, one for the purpose of "making slaves" and another version for "keeping slaves." Turn the cheek only applies to keep the enslaved African from uprising, the promise of heaven keeps the enslaved African content with his plight on Earth. None of these Biblical principles are at the heart of European expansion. [More Soon]

BIBLE AND POLYGAMY

See African Marriage

Very little in the Bible prohibits polygyny, and it is more an taboo is Western culture, but not in Christian teology as believed by many African Christians. The New Testament does not specifically address the morality of polygamy. (1 Timothy), however, states that certain Church leaders should have but one wife: "A ''bishop'' then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach" (chapter 3, verse 2; see also verse 12 regarding deacons having only one wife). Similar counsel is repeated in the first chapter of the Epistle of Titus; however, the redactor of 1 Corinthians (chapter 7, verse 2) writes, "Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let ''every'' man have his own wife, and let ''every'' woman have her own husband." In modern times some Roman Catholic theologians have argued that polygamy, though not ideal, can be a legitimate form of Christian marriage in certain regions, in particular Africa.

CHRISTIANITY AS A TOOL OF EUROPEANS

One of the most destructive elements in the making of the slave-master paradigm was Eurocentric Christianity's depiction of God, and subsequently the divine ethnic social dynamic, which placed Whites as masters, Africans as Slaves. The blue-eyed blond-hair God cast an inferiority complex that would span every successive generation of African peoples. These images single-handedly upheld a system of subjugation and oppression: God is white as your master is white, obey God, and obey your master for you master is God. Mental enslavement served the physical enslavement as slaves were cast into the understanding that it was simply the way of the world-their lot in life. The malicious prevalence of Christianity was strategic with military precision, a gospel for undermining African culture and laying the way for colonial servitude. It pacified and eliminated the last notion of home from the displaced Africans.

Arabian Slavery

The rebellious and discontent emotions were appeased with the promise of heaven that would only come for a slave when they died after serving their master well. Without the implantation of Christianity the slave would have quickly become discontented and despair at the horrors around them. In time, those left in Africa and those in the New World thanked God for the White man who saved them from so-called paganism and delivered them into glory. Noble Afrikans names like Achebe, Ayesha and Askia were replaced with trite European names like Elizabeth, Charles and Johnny.

And so, in this was a mental trap that would span into the present-day. The act of Baptizing was not one of surrendering your soul to Christ but to the White man. Though many Afrikan converts to Christianity saw the vulgar contradictions between the Bible and the Europeans, without power there objections were rendered mute.

Interestingly, in Africa some rulers who became devote Christians labelled Christian Europeans as infidels as the Christian gospel and European actions were in such sever conflict. Some of us in this mental religious prison, constructed by our oppressors, gave absolute loyalty to our slave masters who become the parent, the representation of god on Earth. A divine being, though harsh, still represented our best interest. It was thus the ultimate goal of the Negro to emulate the habits, customs, and precepts of the European. The master's loves and hates became our loves and hates, his code of dress became our code of dress. The pale skin and straight hair became the standard of beauty and all means were taken to lighten dark skin and un-kink curly hair to look as massa looked. In this social chaos we became the cultural step children of Europe living and dying within a European defined framework.

CHRISTIANITY AND HOMOSEXUALITY

See Pan-African and Homosexuality

The homosexuals and lesbians have gained considerable political and social momentum in America. They have "come out" as the term goes, left their closets, and are knocking on the doors of your homes. Through TV, Radio, Newspapers, and Magazines, they are preaching their doctrine of tolerance, equality, justice, and love. They do not want to be perceived as abnormal or dangerous. They want acceptance and they want you to welcome them with open, loving arms, approving of what they do.

In numerous states in America several bills have been introduced by the pro homosexual politicians to ensure that the practice of homosexuality is a right protected by law. Included in these bills are statements affecting employers, renters, and schools. Churches could possibly be required to hire a quota of homosexuals, and "sensitivity" training courses would be "strongly urged" in various work places. There is even legislation that would force the state to pick up the tab for the defense of homosexual agendas in lawsuits while requiring the non homosexual side to pay out of his/her pocket. Is this fair? Of course not. But fairness isn't the real issue here. It is social engineering. Think about it, the homosexual community wants legal protection for having intercourse with the people of the same sex. And, if that weren't enough, it wants its views taught in schools, promoted over the airwaves, and codified in literature.

Unlike other sins, this sexual sin has a judgment administered by God Himself: He gives them over to their passions (Rom. 1:26-28). This means that their hearts are allowed to be hardened by their sins. As a result, they can no longer see the error of what they are doing. Without an awareness of their sinfulness, there will be no repentance. Without repentance, there will be no forgiveness. Without forgiveness, there is no salvation.

Homosexuality is a sin in all the Abrahamic faiths; there is no escaping this fact. No volume of Hollywood pressure or token pro-Gay priest can change the canon of Christianity. Homosexuality is therefore disallowed and incompatible with the faith, like any sin, and those who engage in it should seek repentance, according to scripture. The sin of homosexuality is in multi-catagories, sex outside marriage and more over the immorality of the homosexual sex. People can be Christian and gay, but to legalize it is where the problem lies. The Church does not advocate violence to people for their sexual orientation, but it also does not promote this sin. The accusation of "hate crimes" is a straw man argument that carries no water, as it is not an issue of hate but an issue of principle disagreement on religious grounds.

Anyone who disagrees with the pro-Gay rhetoric is labelled backward, primitive, stone age and narrow-minded. So name calling is the new intellectual response to disagreement. So much for plurality and freedom of thought. Any interpretation of Biblical scripture which makes homosexuality undesirable is now called a narrow interpretation.

There is no African cultured church that accepts Homosexuality as normal. There are Africans bought and paid for that support all kinds of things (e.g, Desmond Tutu) but this does not change the African church's position on the issue from Nigeria to Ethiopia.

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed

Genesis 2:24-25

A lot of work has gone into re-writing the Bible to suit the fashion of the day. We live in an age where the loudest voice in media gets the first and last word. That voice becomes the standard, confusing the majority. Saying a wrong thing 1 million times and printing it on every magazine will not make a lie become the truth, regardless of how many times that lie is repeated. Those Christians who fail to convert their beliefs to the new trend are lablled; old fashion (at best), bigots, homophobic, and backward. While these insults can be thrown liberally at Christians and Muslims, Muslims and Christians are severally punished if they call homosexuality dirty and anti-human.

Words such as "modern", "we live in different times." have been introduced to thwart obvious moral traditions. But God is forever, and his word is forever - This is a Christian belief. God created one model of human from Adam. So humanity is still God's creation subject to the laws of God. If you believe that the Bible has an expiry date on the back and God's teachings have a sell-by-date then throw the entire religion out. Regardless of if we take a literal meaning to the Bible we know that immoral sexual acts are nothing new, the text of Sodom and Gomorrah speak to this and sole purpose is to warn humanity. The pro-homosexual revisionist argues that the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah was that the residents wanted to commit an act of rape. That the rape would have been homosexual is not an issue, according to their argument. However, Jude 7 indicates that Sodom and Gomorrah's punishment was due to their sexual perversion. Their sin was not simply one of violence (rape) but of sexual immorality (homosexuality). As further evidence of the sinful nature of homosexuality, Leviticus 18:22, and 20:13 both describe homosexuality as "an abomination."

2 Timothy is the rebuttal to all those who challenge solid Biblical ethics.

2 Timothy 4:3

DEALING WITH HOMOSEXUALITY

Just because someone is gay it does not mean that the entire person is discarding from society, they may by gay but good people; helping the sick, feeding the poor, being honest people. The critical thing is not to collapse homosexuality into an identity or immoral sub-culture; as it clearly is in the Western world. Regardless of if people are born that way or socially engineered that way, homosexuality like any other sociable undesirable trait must be treated as such. Some people are alcoholics, some people have an insatiable desire to cheat on their wives. These desires are no different to the desires of a homosexual person. And just because someone has desires to cheat doesn't mean they should not resist, justifying it and promoting it would be a greater crime. Like any temptation some people will seek to re-write anything to accommodate and justify their desires, may it be stealing land or committing homosexual acts, or cheating on their wives. The mass media has done a good job of obstructing the natural distain by suggesting to people into believing if you are gay it is okay, if you want to drink yourself to death, it is okay. If you want to use abortion as a birth control - it is a woman' right. However in the heat of a woman post-abortion she feels an inhumanity which no anti-life group can treat, because her actions speak to something spiritual which is not accounted for or valued in the neo-liberal societies of the Western world. None the less you can mask your shame, but it doesn't make it less shameful. People who find themselves homosexual must therefore avoid at all cost accepting it as okay. There is nothing okay about it, regardless if you do it or plan not to do it. Every human has challenges to overcome and most of us will fail, a failure to control unnatural desires is a human failure which needs reflection.

Is it possible to be a gay Christian? If the phrase "gay Christian" refers to a person who struggles against homosexual desires and temptations – yes, a "gay Christian" is possible. However, the description "gay Christian" is not accurate for such a person, since he/she does not desire to be gay, and is struggling against the temptations. Such a person is not a "gay Christian," but rather is simply a struggling Christian, just as there are Christians who struggle with fornication, lying, and stealing. If the phrase "gay Christian" refers to a person who actively, perpetually, and unrepentantly lives a homosexual lifestyle – no, it is not possible for such a person to truly be a Christian.[2]

Cowardice asks the question: is it safe? Expediency asks the question: is it political? Vanity asks the question: is it popular? But conscience asks the question: is it right

ML King, Jr.

RELIGION AND AFRICA

Superstition and witchcraft still hold many of our people in a cycle of fear and wasted time and resources. It contributes to a huge waste of money and effort and abuse by the people who purport themselves to have the powers to help others to attain their wicked goals or the powers to fend off spiritual attacks by the wicked

Regardless of what is published, all great nations achieve greatness by solidifying polities and empires around spiritual or political uniformity: Kemet did it, Songhai did it, and Aksum did it. Therefore, religious or ideological conformity has been at the backbone of greater human conglomerations.

And even in Rome with its many gods and plural religious ideology there was political uniformity on the notion of “being Roman. “As is the case with the Pax-American national identity and culture of diverse groups of immigrants. The God concept does not survive long outside of the bottle of religion; religion is an institutionalized set of rituals which securely pass on the God concept from generation to generation. The paradigm shift demands a new center of gravity in revisiting these facts as they are inseparable from human sociological development.

It might not be right, but one thing we need to swallow is that all "advances" and "Civilization" is the product of imperialism. Take a look at Ethiopian history. Kmt in her brutal conquest of Nubia, and Nubia's conquest of Kemet? If our primary issue is with imperialism, then the only thing to celebrate is hunter-gatherer societies. There is a profit from imperialism which every society of technological sophistication has inherited, and we must deal with this.

SPEAK THE ETHICS OF THE FAITH

Let us begin with de-focusing the labels (names which religions go by). Why not have a debate around values? The question of what are the components within any given religion that foster development for African people. Islam is just a name for a collection of values which constitute the religion of Islam and govern adherents to that faith. It is almost immature to have a debate about cultural displacement in Africa with the rise of Islam if you do not identify the core value changes of each given society. Because the minute the debate switches to value formations which grow out of the ideology of Islam we find the entire discourse changes. Because are we saying given alms to the poor, was alien to Africa? Are we saying an egalitarian society is harmful to Africa? Circumcision, animal sacrifice? This needs to be the new platform for debate because once we identify values then we quickly realize the names are immaterial in unifying the continent. As Karenga said we need to discuss the ethics of the religion and then we will see we all are generally on the same page.

If our objective is at we state, Pan-African unity, how are we going to get there? How will we get if we are divided along the color line? How will we get there by letting borders divide us? And how will we get there by letting religion divide us? Those using religion to cause tension, or those using religion as a tension are one in the same. How can it be Pan-African if it is not tolerant of ethnic, religious, color, national differences among African people?

Religion is a bottle with a label on it, spirituality is the thing inside. Religion is the culture of spirituality, the container which gives it structure.

' Alik Shahadah

Constantly poking at Islam and Christianity does not to solve any inherent problem within those systems. If 90% of the people you are trying to unite belong to those faiths then agitation will only be met with resistance. The options are leave the topic alone or seek to Africanize these faiths, the same way Europeans Europeanized Christianity in the form of the Roman Catholic Church or how the Chinese converted Indian Buddha into a Chinese cultural treasure. Islam is the fastest growing religion in Africa and is virtually immune to the taunts of the all-powerful USA, so what about the less than 0.001% of self-branded Afrocentrics? The basic political intelligence tells us unity does not require uniformity and all those seeking to divide are nothing but false prophets lusting for their own shortsighted egos. At best, they sell more books by appealing to the intellectual fast-food junkies looking to feed hatred by attacking easy targets. But ask what is the solution? No real remedy except to place people in a spiritual wasteland.

With Islam Malcolm X became one of Pan-Africa’s greatest heroes. And with Christianity Garvey created the floor on which we all stand. With Islam, the libraries of Timbuktu were built preserving the histories of Africa. And with Christianity the greatest East African Kingdom of Aksum forged its way and annexed Southern Arabia. With a Middle Eastern religion, Europe went onto conquer the world, at what point in their history did they stop and cast out these religions lamenting the gods of old? At what stage in the greatness of China, past and present did Buddhism interrupt their glory? So why is Africa the only continent that cannot take thecvfse spiritual technologies and make them serve her interest?

There is not one major indigenous African faith that had an issue with slavery, not one African native religion had principles that denounced slavery. Therefore, the challenge which is posed to Islam and Christianity for having a tolerance for slavery is also true for the religions native to Africa. If these mainstream religions are mentally enslaving people why is there the same problems existing in countries that do not have the influence of these faiths? Does Benin have some superiority claim over Ethiopia? But if their argument is correct then we should see this. We should see more agency in Benin than in Islamic-Christian Ethiopia. Because if these religions as separate elements are enslaving people then how do you explain Ethiopia. In treating a prostate cancer it is usually a good idea not to cut out the bladder and leave the prostate. Mis- identifying religion is a waste of time; it is only convenient for people who do not want to waddle through the complexities of the African problem.

Now Islam did destroy some good aspects of West African culture but how do we weights this from the comfort of our current location in time? One might as well say anything that changes is destruction; The script destroyed oral tradition, the car destroyed the donkey, the cd destroyed the record, and the turntable destroyed the musical instrument. Islam has been used to impose Arab culture, but this is because Africa was lacking agency. Turkey held its own, so why don't we? And yes Christianity was the excuse used to drive a trade in Black skin. It was also the vector for mental slavery. None of this is in denial. No where in history do cultures stay static in a world in motion, change is part of the cycle of life. And just as in life, after the fire the rains come and bring life. The challenge is realistically salvaging from the ashes of history a clean place to start from.

In the northern parts of West Africa, human sacrifice had become rare as Islam became more established in these areas such as the Hausa States. There was a rise in general justice, education, nation building, health, etc. We must be careful judging good and bad with our modern eyes because we take for granted many moral norms were absent in the historical record. For example we all know you don't kill a man and take his wife, or steal someones's car if it is unattended. But in antiquity this would not have been considered a problem. The Afar of Ethiopia have no problem with any of the above, so clearly this African habit which is not unique to the Afar is a problem in modernity. Because our first location is truth, which harmonizes our lives verse leaves us at risk. In Islam there is a tradition of justice, in some ancient African systems in the belly of the Sudan if the rains do not come they killed the king. In other victims had to be ritually sacrificed to feed the lust of gods. Now these are some extreme examples but we must be realistic when we understand that the world we recognize as civil has a lot to do with the morals, which come from Islam and Christianity. And to finalize the most critical point both Islam and Christianity as well as Judaism are philosophical children of Ancient Kemet, an African civilizations. Now Kemet spiritual systems are physically dead and it is neither practical or wise to reprise them from the dust of the Nile Valley. What we do have in front of us is a continent which is either Christian or Islamic. Which path makes more sense to fix the dilemma of Africa? Convert everyone or Africanize these faiths?

If someone's religion informs their lives to be righteous, care for the sick, to feed the poor and stand up against oppression and inequity, to speak truth in the face of lies, to seek social advancement, to feel guilt when in error, to be critical of self, to have honor in the face of challenges, to treat others with respect and dignity, to be equitable in business, to be fair in all dealings and to do the work necessary for progressive advancement of humanity; then that is a good religion. It makes no difference what you call that religion or where it comes from if it does not function in cultivating a better human being.

http://www.africanchristian.org/

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FAQ's African and Islam

ISLAM AND AFRICA:

This site serves two aims: to provide information about Islam in the global African world (Continent and Americas) and as a guide to African Muslims globally identity in the context of culture and personality. This site is a cultural and historical site on progressive Pan-African Islam

About African Holocaust Society

People of Africa

Until lions tell their tale, the story of the hunt will always glorify the hunter

– African Proverb

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will

– Frederick Douglass

The most pathetic thing is for a slave who doesn't know that he is a slave

– Malcolm X

Every man is rich in excuses to safeguard his prejudices, his instincts, and his opinions.

– Ancient Egypt

Islam has been part of the African landscape for over 1400 years. Beginning with the Hijra of Islamic refugees to Ethiopia in 615. And beyond argument remains one of the most fundamental sculptor of the African reality, past and present.

What kind of world do we live in when the views of the oppressed are expressed at the convenience of their oppressors?

– Owen 'Alik Shahadah

We are not Africans because we are born in Africa, we are Africans because Africa is born in us.

– Chester Higgins Jr.

Leave no brother or sister behind the enemy line of poverty.

– Harriet Tubman

MAAFA (LINKS-LINKS)

Linguistics and African Reality

Religion in African Diaspora

African Cultural Footprint

Somali: Money and Civil War

Africa Before Slavery

African Influence in Barbados

ABOUT ISLAM AND AFRICA: This site intends to serve two aims:(a) to provide information about Islam in Africa (the continent and Americas)

; and (b) to offer a guide to African Islamic global identity in the context of culture, politics and personality.

It is also a cultural and historical site on progressive understanding of Islam from the lenses of this promising community of people—the Africans. Which shows a religion, which is dynamic, hospitable, and beautiful. But not without its challenges. The objectives here are Pan-African that create unity through fostering knowledge between and about different African religious groups in the world. Islam has been a central force in the creation of the plethora of African Kingdoms (from Ethiopia, to Islamic Spain, to the largest African empire of Songhai), and has been part of Africa since its emergence. Sculpted by African and Arab agents, Islam is one of the fastest growing religion among Africans (Black people) and the largest religion in Africa— accounting for 1/4 of the world's Muslim population of 1.5 billion. Islam and Africa is also the most misunderstood, under-represented, and misrepresented.

The site aims to give service to these reflections by dealing with historical truth from a cultural Pan-African position. We aim to focus on an African-Centered Islam as distinct from Arabized Islam, or a monolithic restrictive Wahhabi Islam or the Hindu influenced Indo-Pakistani variant of Islam.

In any multi-faith continent, knowledge of self must include knowledge of our neighbors. Ignorance of each other has been the tool which others can use to create friction. Anyone who does know this will become a victim of the oppressors biggest weapon "divide and rule." In seeking a Pan-African future a constructive dialogue is necessary which deals with Africa today and not a mythical romantic historical Africa. Culture has never been static, and certainly no static culture has survived history. A culture which is inflexible in a globalized world is a culture on the verge of extinction. African Culture is not a monolith and while the foundations remain fundamentally unaltered, the interpretation and expression of continues to be a forever blossoming flower.

Islam has been a traditional (while not indigenous) part of the dynamic African landscape for over 1438 years, far older as a contained religion than much of the 11th and 15th century native religions that came with the Bantu expansion into Southern Africa and West Africa. Beginning with the Hijra of Islamic refugees to Ethiopia in 615.

And beyond argument remains one of the most fundamental sculptor of the African reality, past and present. And with every step towards Islamization Africa has responded with the Africanization of Islam creating Africa's own Islamic orthodoxies. And by the time of the Atlantic slave system approx 15-30% of the enslaved Africans that arrived in the New World were Muslim. Influence much of the culture and traditions of African American people.[3] These enslaved Muslims stood out from their compatriots because of their "resistance, determination and education"(Hill/Lippy 2005)

Islam has always taken on the cultures of the peoples it passes over. Just like water passing over a rock. There is no such thing as African Purity, cultures smash through deserts and cross trade routes, and they travel through immigration borders and disregarding our notions of geography and race. Throughout history, Africa has influenced, and been influence. Names, foods, cultures, religions, genetics have jumped between Asia and Africa from the dawn of humanity.

ABOUT ISLAM : For information on other African faiths click here

African Kings African Kings African Kings

WHAT IS ISLAM?

Whoever of you sees wrong being committed, let him change it with his hand. If he is unable to do that, then with his tongue, and if he is unable to do that, then with his heart

Hadith (Muslim)

Islam ( ???????? ) is a gloabl spiritual technology, which codifies a way of life and dictates relationships between God, the environment and other human beings. Religion is the culture of spirituality, the container that gives spirituality structure. The code of Islam serves to create cohesion among its members by propagating certain core principles.

Astrology and Mathematics From Mali The highest ideal governing all forms of Islam is Tawheed, the oneness of Allah (the absolute and only divinity). Communal activities form ibadats that facilitate a relationship with God: (iman), prayer (salaat), pilgrimage (hajj) and fasting (sawm) and alms giving (zakaat). Zakat serves as a socio-economic wealth distribution system, which has deep parallels in ancient African practices. The ultimate aim of the Islamic faith is to guide humanity to a successful balanced, and structured society, with morality as the apex principle by showing obedience to the laws of the Creator, Allah. The final destination is for the deeds of the individual to be weighed to allow entry into paradise (al-Jannat), A concept found in Ancient African Egypt thousands of years earlier. Unlike Western Christianity, Islam--just like native African religions does not dichotomize religion and state. Sharia is therefore just another political system with Islamic ethics. Sharia is no more or less valid as a system of governance compared to democracy, or communism.

And Sharia, just like democracy (an ideology forced all over the world by war or threat of war) or communism, extreme practices can have elements of oppression.

Islam is not only a 1400 year old religion, but moreover 1400 years of dynamic ideological evolution, and constant adaptation based upon scholarship traditions. There is an entire science of fiqh (jurisprudence) which constantly, reflexively evaluates the modern prevailing conditions Muslims find themselves in. So that it stays relevant to modernity. So Islam can form policies and attitudes based on new science because of the institutionalizing of the ancient traditions.

The Hajj was not only for religious worship, it was a centralized place for networking, exchange and a kind of global market. This was where people aquired new information and ideas which they took back to their local communities. Out of these networks came new business relationships, political relationships, and development. (See Kanka Musa)

While most religions bear the following format, Islam is different: Christianity - Christian, Hinduism - Hindu, Judaism - Jewish, Rastafarian - Rasta, Buddhism - Buddhist. But the followers of Islam are called Muslims. This is because the name of the religion is not after its founder but after its theological root—Submission to God in peace (Islam). Muslim is one who submits. In Islam drawing images of God, Muhammad, Jesus or any prophet is strictly prohibited. There is a total taboo (haram) on discussing "What God looks like, and what race God is," therefore the issue of race are only temporal—not divine.

Even as the fingers of the two hands are equal, so are human beings equal to one another. No one has any right, nor any preference to claim over another—You are brothers

Muhammad (SAW)

Some unique under-discussed aspects of social Islam is it was in response to social-economic-racial inequality in Arabia (Hijaz). Islam was born into a multicultural racialized world similar to today (i.e. Black and White (Arab)). It was the first religion to be preach emancipation as a core doctrine.

RISE OF ISLAM IN AFRICA

The key means by which Islam is particularly true regarding the spread of Islamic civilization in Africa, which was the result of a profound global trading network which stretched eastward from Futa Turo, to Walata, the Akan, Timbuktu, Jenne, the city states of Hausaland, Kufra, lake Chad, Darfur, Sennar, Soba, Suakin, the Two Sacred cities of Mecca and el-Medina stretching eastward along the Silk Road as far as the imperial capitals of China

Muhammad Shareef

See African contributions to Islam

The presence of Islam in Africa, predates all notions of “an Africa” by at least 1000 years. This is also true for Judaism and Christianity in North-East Africa. So by the time a notion of an “Africa” and the later formulation of an “African identity” superimposed on the people of that continent;, Islam was already a standard identity in Africa. And this is a critical perspective in how we engage the study of an authentic Africa, which is largely a modern construction projected backwards in time.

Astrology and Mathematics From Mali

Islam entered Africa (Ethiopia) before it reached the Indus river of India, or the poppy fields of Afghanistan, the heart of Palestine, Iraq or Persia or even the city of Medina in Saudi Arabia. East Africa and the Arabic world have a deep historical Afro-Asiatic relationship which is defined not only by the Arab slave trade, but in cultural and linguistic, political engagements.

The process of Islamization in West Africa was by African traders such as the Fulani. Islamization and Arabization was the principle process which operated in North Africa (including Sudan) resulting in its Arabized Berber population. The process in East Africa (Kenya and Tanzania) was the legacy of Arab colonization, with the exception of Abyssinia (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti) and to some extent Somalia.

In West Africa, Islam was the religion of the elites, merchants and rulers for over 1000 years. Later on Islam became a military force of conquest which was used to expand the faith and the Islamic polity. Two forces silently worked themselves out in the background of African life, the Islamization of the area, and the equally potent Africanization of Islam.

The final wave of Islamic domination came to parts of Africa with colonization Because Islam was familiar, its legacy of resistance appealed to the ordinary person who saw corruption in their own native systems (made up of elite collaborators), and alien culture and inequity in the actions of Europe. The Wolof, and even the Serer, who were historically resistant to Islam, peaceful became a dominant force in Islam. Islam was for most a social conscious revolution against the imperial Western ambitions and this featured in many of the 18th century conversions in West Africa.

The Oriental aspects of Islam has become largely modified in Negroland, not, as it too generally supposed, by a degrading compromise with the Pagan superstitions, but by shaping many of its traditional customs to suit the milder more conciliatory disposition of the Negro

Edward Wilmot Blyden

mansa musa hajj Mansa Musa was an important Malian king from 1312 to 1337 expanding the Mali influence over the Niger city-states of Timbuktu, Gao, and Djenne. Mansa Musa (Mansa meaning emperor or sultan and Musa meaning Moses), the grandson of one of Sundiata's sisters. Timbuktu became one of the major cultural centers not just of Africa but of the world. Vast libraries, madrasas (Islamic universities) and magnificent mosques were built. Timbuktu became a meeting place of poets, scholars and artists of Africa and the Middle East. Even after Mali declined, Timbuktu remained the major Islamic center of Africa (Hooker 1996). Mansa Musa maintained a huge army that kept peace and policed the trade routes.

Mansa Musa's hajj, which may have even indirectly funded support for the Italian renaissance, was the only time in recorded history that one man directly controlled the price of gold in the Mediterranean. Musa's Hajj across North and West Africa to Mecca , inadvertently devastated the economy of the region. In the cities of Cairo, Medina and Mecca, the sudden influx of gold devalued the metal for the next decade.

In recent times Islam has seen a rise in previously non-Muslim countries particularly Rwanda. During the Rwandan genocide mobs avoided searching in local Rwandan Muslim neighborhoods, which were used to hide Tutsi and other persecuted people. In places like Cyangugu, it was also widely believed that local Muslims and Mosques were protected by the power of Islamic magic and the efficacious Jinn. Post-genocide many Rwandese mass converted to Islam because of protection Islamic communities offered them.

Ancient African Trade Routes

We picture Islam and picture Arabs on horseback, swinging swords and conquering Africa, chopping heads of all who cling to "heathen ways" while screaming Allahu Akbar—that is Hollywood, that is the deliberate fabrication of crusader mythology. Even when Islam came with armies, like in parts of North Africa, tribal leaders agreed—for political and practical reasons— to embrace Islam, and as was the custom the entire "tribe" embraced Islam. And we should never isolate religion out of the 1000 reasons people went to war. Why would Islam be the primary agent of conflict when so many other reasons, like standard national expansion avail themselves? Why is Islam always the motive? Who is inserting this undue emphasis. Even when war "for the sake of Allah" was declared, very rarely were the motives any different to the standard "I want to expand my power." Everyone did this, Muslim and non-Muslim. Even Muslim vs. Muslim was common place because the wars were about gold not God.

And evidence of this is the gradual process of Islamization in places like West Africa and Egypt. Had it been overtly forceful it would not have absorbed the cultures of the people who embraced Islam. There is also a longstanding myth that the Arab slave trade Islamized Africa. There is no logic in making slaves into new Muslim as it would lead the way to their manumission. Accepting Islam was part of the self-determination of many nations to enhance their trade relations and political position. It moreover allowed them to unify greater territories and create multi-ethnic polities. (just like was the case for Ezna building a Unified Abyssinia)

RADICAL ISLAM

See War Myth

When Islam is defined by imperialism, it modifies Islam to suit its objectives. Terms like Islamist, radical Islam, political Islam, fundamentalist Islam, which contrast the Western preferred moderate Islam, apolitical Islam. There is certainly no authentic version of Islam that is moderately apolitical; impotent in face of tyranny, silent in the face of oppression and exploitation. Islam is political and there is zero fragmentation of Islam as a religious system versus Islam as a system of governance.

FBI

That split occurs when Western forces seek to pacify opposition from a faith that is equipped to be a enduring tool of resistance. (Sudan, Crusades, Algiers, Somalia, Afghanistan, etc).

Radicalism and fundamentalism, when they exist, and they do exist, can only be defined by authentic representatives of the faith, not by the Islamic scholars for dollars; but by the Qur'an and Hadith. We cannot live in a multicultural world where elements of Islam are first filtered for Western acceptance before being deemed acceptable. And there is no escape or propaganda that can change the core tenants of Islam, there is no degree of acquiesce in leadership that can make Islam some spiritual hocus pokus with no political teeth.

What is loosely, nebulous, hypocritically, termed the war on terror™ is a Western response to a failure of convention treatment to resistance stemming from “religious” fervor. Conventional treatment for Pan-Africanism, strains of socialism, and other social dissenting movements was be to throw money at the problem, causing them to soften. However, this conventional treatment of trinkets for opinions fails at every conceivable level with the so-called Islamist. You cannot offer them alcohol, positions, money, not even a billion dollars, in exchange for acquiesce. Because the antibodies in the Islamist ecosystem are vulgarly intolerant to accommodating anything which remotely smells Western. What Islam, as the spiritual motivational energy, therefore represents—in its most resistant strain—is a serious impasse, an “unknown” obstacle to any imposition. As it fails to respond to conventional treatment, the West has deployed unconventional treatment. In comes the media to brand any and all forms of religious dissent (violent or non-violent) to imperialism as extremist, hardliner, and radical. The nebulous nature of language mask realities, blurs objectives, so much so the sole arbiter on what constitutes terrorism, radicalism is detemined by one player in the fray.

And when there is a fundamentalist element in some applications of Islam, then we must also look for the fundamentalist element in Western foreign policy—because one sometimes creates the other. And why is Zionism, the Western created and approved system of extremist fundamentalist, which governs Israel not classified in this way? Why are the numerous occupations under Western foreign policy not labeled as a form of terrorism and extremism? It is very hard to engage actual cases of extremism when disingenuous agendas labeling even people seeking Sharia governence as terrorism—it is not, unless self-determination is no longer a human right.

POPULARITY OF ISLAM

?I believe in a religion that believes in freedom. Any time I have to accept a religion that won't let me fight a battle for my people, I say to hell with that religion

El Hajj Malik Shabazz

Islam is one of the most popular religions in Africa. Even outside of its traditional territories (East, North and West Africa). Islam is on the rise among the Khoisan people of Namibia and very popular in Rwanda due to the protection/shelter Muslims gave victims of genocide. All of this against the strong current of Western dedication to the demonizing of every inch of Islam.

Islam allowed a greater centralization of governance which was traditionally ethnocentric. This allowed for a far more egalitarian society which appealed to many of the "weaker" nation groups. Islam has been a profound contributor to African culture beyond the boundaries of the Islamic faith. The dress we associate with African culture is from Islamic culture. The Kufi, Islamic skull cap which is cross-religious, comes from West African Islamic dress culture. The African word Kufi is now the standard term across Islam for referring to that style of head-dress.

In America the Nation Of Islam is the single largest force in recent history for conversions to Islam and almost overnight creating a new Islamic identity, the African-American Islamic cultural identity. Iconized by powerful people such as Malcolm X and Farrakhan. Cities like Philadelphia even have their own integrated Islamic language "Sunni Joint - Beard", "Deen = religion." It is intertwined in the African-American identity even where people are not Muslims because of the names like Alliyah, Rihanna, Shakira, Shanice, Rahim, Na'im, etc.

Many of the philosophies manifesting in the Diaspora are claiming Africa origins but are inefficient at navigating the moral corridors of life. While there are academic ring-tones and sound bites, they fail to have systems, which address the human spiritual thirst. Their subjects are left wanting; floating spiritually disconnected to be ultimately annexed in the worst expressions of Eurocentric conduct or the primitive world of spookism. Islam with is strong African conscious associations is very different to Eurocenrtism and yet presents itself as an equal force with infrastructure and sophistication. It is not Western, it is not White, it has a spirit of resistance which attracts Africans everywhere.

The wonders of the Islamic world testify to one indisputable fact, that Islam has the power via its ideological structures to extract the best out of humanity. From deserts we see massive civilizations appearing overnight. We see Arab-African building Andalusia, we see universities and science flourishing and which impact on European development. History testifies to the potential of Islam as a unifying force and a force for giving a power advantage.

And like anything which grants this power, it can be used for good (Universities) or bad (Conquest and Arabization). But It is this same real potential that captures those who seek success within its ideological structures.

O My Servants, indeed I have prohibited injustice for myself, and I have prohibited it amongst you

Hadith

THE "ISLAMIST" TODAY

The campaign to fracture and split Islam from Africa is an age old colonial campaign. What is really stinging the West is after all their plotting and planning all the so-called "horrible" Islamist (a Western manufactured political term with zero meaning to anything but Western propaganda) so dear to their propaganda machine are the ones winning the hearts and minds of the people. But if you just read BBC you would never think people want these "radicals" it means there is something missing in the reports. Egypt, all over the Arab spring the very thing the West hated is the one thing that is rising. Let see how "democratic" values critical to the Western "moral" campaign pan-out when the process of democracy puts their interest at a disadvantage. Part of the Western problem is in their arrogance they assumed the world is what they say it is, hence they create dichotomies and assume everyone else believes in them— not the case. The campaign to push religion out has not worked, what is happening the people see the pro-gay west, the immorality, the consequences of capitalism, greed, and inequity in the West and do not want that future for their country.

COUNTRY STATS

Statistics on Islam (CIA) : Algeria 99%, Benin 15%, Burkina Faso 50%, Chad 50%, D.R Congo 7%, Ivory Coast 60%, Djibooti 94%, Egypt 86%, Ethiopia 47%, Ghana 30%, Kenya 7%, Libya 97%, Malawi 20%, Mali 90%, Mauritania 99%, Mozambique 20%, Niger 80%, Nigeria 47%, Senegal 92%, Somalia 98%, South Africa 2%, Sudan 70%, Tanzania 35%, Tunisia 98%, Uganda 16%

ISLAM & REVOLUTION

If one of you sees something wrong, let him change it with his hand; if he cannot, then with his tongue; if he cannot, then with his heart and this is the weakest faith

Hadith [Sahih Muslim]

Islam like the radical teachings of Jesus, is a revolutionary religion. It is the only major world religion to be abolitionist in its Holy text - the Qur'an. But like any tool of revolution it can be poorly used if poorly understood. Some things cannot be denied from Islam is the fact it has been part of shaping Pan-Africanism and African consciousness.

Islam underwent a change in the time-line in West Africa. It started out as the religion of the minority elite (trader and administrator) to become a reaction of popular resistance against arbitrary rule of the reigning aristocracies, combating the negative impact of the Atlantic slave system in general. [Senegambia and the Atlantic Slave Trade (Africa) Hardcover) by Boubacar Barry]

It has produced more African kingdoms and preserved African history via agami. And Islam's role in aggressively repelling colonialism in Africa. (Senegal, Algeria, Sudan, etc). The first Jihad in the Western Hemisphere was the Bahia Muslim Slave uprising in 1835 . The revolt was the largest slave revolt in Brazil and the largest urban slave revolt in the Americas.

Buy now Motherland

The campaigns of Nasr al-Din's (Tubenan movement) anti-slavery and Western imposition galvanized Africans in the region in the late 17th century.

The most excellent jihad is to speak the truth in the face of an unjust ruler

Prophet in Mishkat, Hadith

Cheik Anta Diop In the Diaspora the process of Islamization (making new Muslims) is an equal counterpart to the process of African consciousness. African consciousness in the Diaspora has largely been expressed through conversion to Islam; the two walk hand in hand, thus becoming Muslim is associated with becoming aware of an African identity. This makes Islam unique as a vehicle for revolution. Islamophobia and Eurocentrism has hidden much of Islamic contributions and tried to create rifts in the African world by funding and encouraging Black revisionist.

In the UK, the mechanisms of Islamization in African communities (in recent years) has been radically different due to the Salaafi-Wahabbi impact which divorces African consciousness from Islamization. However, the historical record is loaded with the contributions of Islam to Africa but also to Pan-Africanism and the foundation of Black consciousness. Islamic influence is a fundamental partner in Pan-African thought development. Commanding what is right, and forbidding what is wrong provides a mechanism whereby the Muslim communities can fight off various social, moral and spiritual ills and maintain a healthy and dynamic life. Where the African is concern this is why Islam has an appeal as Malcolm X said:

?I believe in a religion that believes in freedom. Any time I have to accept a religion that won't let me fight a battle for my people, I say to hell with that religion

Malcolm X

In recent history the list includes Elijah Muhammad, Farrakhan, Malcolm X, Duse Muhammad, Cheikh Anta Diop, Edward Wilmot Blyden, and even African conscious musicians such Art Blakey and many conscious hip-hop artist .

?It was out of Trinidad that African Muslims called the Mandingoes wrote legislation to the British Parliament applying for repatriation back to Africa in 1833. It was African Muslims out of Trinidad who gave the world the idea of repatriation that was transformed into reparations

Farrakhan

SHARIA - POLITICAL ISLAM - BANKING

See War Myth of Religion

Islam has a political system embedded in its foundation, there is no way to escape sharia as part and parcel of Islam. It would be like discussing Islam and leaving off the praying. There is no complete Islam without its political system, because how can a "way of life" not also instruct politics for ruling people? So in theory why would Muslims need democracy when sharia deals with the governance of Muslim lives? And the reason this logic is not well received because the media has constructed and cherry picked examples of sharia as backward, barbaric and oppressive: e.g.. Sharia = Taliban. Why would we assume that is the only expression of Sharia? Especially when much of the African kingdoms were under sharia law, Islamic Spain which was a sanctuary for Jews and persecuted people during the Almoravid reign for over 500 years. And this was not unique in the history of sharia, the mighty learning centers were a haven to all, because of the reputation Islamic governance had for degrees of justice and truth. Even in the UK sharia law has done a better job than so-called secular law with family affairs and is tolerated because of its success rates. Right now in Europe Islamic banking (based on sharia law) is adopted and used beyond the believers of Islam because of its ethical policy (the entire concept of Ethical banking started with Islam). Islamic banking is the new banking revolution in Europe and HSBC and other major banks now engage in it. Even in South Africa most banks now offer Islamic banking. But none of these conversations come up when sharia is mentioned in Western media, leaving the most ignorant debates to go on; informed by CNN on one hand and Hollywood on the other.

There is no area of Islam more misunderstood, demonized and misrepresented by utter ignorance than the topic of sharia. Lets get straight to the truth, skipping religion for the moment. Sharia is bad for business. Sharia threatens Western trade in the vices the feed their economies; liberal media, alcohol, etc. It is necessary to use every single muscle in the Western arsenal to demonize Sharia. Sharia like socialism and communism is a competing political ideology. Sharia can be very destructive in the hands of the wrong leadership, but which one caused the deaths of millions of people in the 21st century, sharia or Western democracy? What was the motives for poisoning and slaughtering millions of people in Indochina? Countless wars after wars all over the world in the bloody name of Western democracy. So it is hypocritical if fear of persecution, intolerance and violence are being used as the primary augments by the detractors of sharia.

Now why is Shariah such a hot topic? For the same reason communism was 40 years ago. Its all about political power struggles. Why do people, even practicing Muslims, run when they hear the word? Because of the Western indoctrination. If you lived on Mars for the last 1000 years you would treat Sharia with the same academic neutrality as Democracy, Socialism, Capitalism and all the other isms failing as builders of civilization. We have to ask our selves, are the best components of democracy (justice, balance, fair play) absent from Sharia? Does anyone actually know what Sharia means? Is Sharia a monolith? Is the Taliban and Saudi models the only examples of Sharia? The point here is we cannot even begin the debate because of the prejudicial climate which was created to frame the debate.

NOTION OF TIME | PARADIGMS

One thing that Islam brought to Africa and also to Arabia was something that is often neglected, and overlooked but has profound administrative and social implications. And that is a notion of time based structure. In Islam the day is divided into 5 sectors, Fajr, Zuhr, Asr, Magrib and Isha. Observance of the daily prays or Salaat, means that people lives are governed by time base. The consequences of this spill over into all areas of social, administration, legal and trade. Time in the Qur'an is a divine element in which gives humanity a notion of the local time, but also the finality of time. A notion also sacred in Ancient Egypt:

By (the Token of) Time (through the ages), Verily Man is in loss, except such as have Faith, and do righteous deeds, and join together in the mutual teaching of Truth, and of Patience and Constancy.

Qur'an (103:1-3)

ISLAM COMPARED

Islam is closest theologically to Judaism, but socially to Christianity in terms of the mechanism of expansion and cultural impact. Islam is second only in world followers to Christianity with over 1.6 billion adherents.

It is the largest religion in Africa and the largest practiced religion on Earth. While the term practiced is subjective because being a Muslim has a completely different set of demand on it compared to Christianity. Islam's tenants are more observed by its followers than any other religion. Islam unlike Christianity is not fragmented into denomination in the same way. For example in Christianity you may have a Roman Catholic Church or a Baptist Church, generally speaking a Mosque is a Mosque. There are no Shia Mosque and Sunni Mosque; a mosque is a mosque, Shia use Sunni Mosque and no one is the wiser. And while denomination do exist it is radically different from denominations in Christianity. Islam is therefore far more theologically homogeneous than most other religions. For example no Muslim group will eat pork or hold partners with the supreme Deity. Honor is also an intangibles quality found in the Muslim world which does not have a cultural counterpart in Christianity. This maybe because of the old-world African, Asian and Middle Eastern cultures which practice Islam. Islam integrates culture far more rapidly than Western Christian which is general secular. This integration protects the cultures which are Islamized but sometimes cause non-Islamic practices. to be treated as aspects of the religion for example FGM (which is an African tradition seen in Ancient Egypt). But some Muslims and Western detractors associate it with Islam because African Muslims communities do it.

Being a member of the Islamic faith requires more active declarations than most other religions. Being a Muslim is therefore less flexible and far more specific than "being a Christian" or "being a Jew." This radical difference means being Muslim has a inherent responsibility to adhering to the Islamic doctrine. And while Judaism has an ethnic inheritance, this tendency in Islam is quasi-taboo. Rabbinic Judaism claims Judaism as a matrilineally pass-down. Being Muslim requires the Shahada (???????) and an acceptance of the canon of the Islamic doctrine. Committing blasphemy (shirk | Arabic: ???? ) (challenging God as the supreme deity) can take someone out of the fold of Islam. In the canon of Islam you cannot be technically born a Muslim (contrary to the culture of some Indo-Pakistani Muslims), you must accept the religion. Islam holds that all people are born in a state-of-Islam and thus all children are born Muslim. Christianity does not have such clear parameters. Judaism is difficult to compare because the definition varies depending on whether a religious, sociological, or ethnic aspect is being discussed. But Rabbinic Judaism holds that anyone who does not follow the Talmud is not a Jew. The problem of White dominance is very true for the entire Jewish discourse even more so than Christianity. Judaism today is not Judaism in antiquity. Mainstream Judaism is a European cultural expression which evolved first Islamic Lands (Maimonides) and later Medieval Europe. Islam suffers from the new dominance of Saudi and Iranian brand of Islam with the same issues of Orthodoxy.

ISLAM & NATIVE AFRICAN SYSTEMS

Islam spread across to West Africa (by African traders such as the Fulani people) from as early as the 8 th century by African traders and was firmly established by the 11 th century. The peaceful non-obstructive course Islam took in West Africa was mainly because those propagating the faith were culturally and ethnically identical to those receiving it. Also the indigenous African had many features in common, such as animal immolation, communal pray, celebrating ancestors, circumcision, polygamy, dowry bride gifts, and the spirit or jinn world. The African spirit world of Bori and Zar was bridged to the Islamic world of jinns whom like African spirits could be friend or foe.

Shared Values Such similarities between Islam and indigenous African religions facilitated a general peaceful conversion and religious tolerance in West Africa. Islam hence left African culture uniquely African and a traditional African Sufi Islam was formed over the centuries. This brand of Islam in time even reshaped Islamic culture in the lands beyond Africa.

Afrocentrism has never been able to answer the question; between Islam and Ancient KMT, and Ancient KMT and so-called native faiths, which had more in common? There is no escaping that Islam and Ancient Egypt had far more in common with each other than say the religions of Dahomey. Bias and unbalance are a form of corruption because it mask objectivity and kills alternative paradigms for processing information – regardless of who is doing it. When opinions are formed in an intellectual vacuum and not via a process of dialectics it can often mask obvious realities and solutions that are looking us in our face.

COMING OF ISLAM

In 1324, the Mali king Mansa Musa is said to have told the Arabic historian, Al-Umari that "his predecessors had launched two expeditions from West Africa to discover the limits of the Atlantic Ocean

When Islam arrived, war and servitude were features of African and Arabian life. Judaism existed among certain Arab tribes as well as Christianity, and like them Islam did not blatantly out law slavery; Islam did however blatantly outlawed chattel enslavement. The Qur'an with every reference to slavery ask the believer to free the slave as atonement for sin, the term "emancipating a slave and feeding an orphan" are repeated constantly throughout the Qur'an as acts which gain God's favor. Islam is therefore the only abolitions mainstream religion which contains within its scared text a message of manumission. Also there were regulations which enhanced the pre-Islamic laws with respect to the treatment of enslaved people. Ideally they were entitled to good care, to the same clothing and food as their masters. These enslaved people were more akin to indentured servants in Europe than Chattel slaves in the Americas.

EGALITARIAN CODE & RACE IN ISLAM

All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a White has no superiority over Black nor a Black has any superiority over White except by piety and good action.

Prophet Muhammad

One unique feature of Islam is it egalitarian code. The only superiority in Islam is piety (Taqwa).Therefore when people enter say a Mosque there is absolutely no hierarchy, may someone be a president or a pauper. They wash (wudu) in the same place, they pray (salaat) in the same place. There is no front row, or recognition of political or economic station in the canon of Islam.

Race is real in Islam, and the purpose of race is a blessing to humanity. It is a gift to create a diverse and beautiful world. It is also a challenge which test our development and humanity. But today we see a Wahabbi imposed mono-cultural Islam which tries to destroy culture and religious diversity within Islam. And while Wahaabism tries to make obsolete, it is the Arabized culture which they bring as the norm for diverse people. So race is irrelevant as long as Islam is Arabized.

in Africa the biggest baddest richest most powerful man in that country after hearing the Adzan must go to the Mosque and take off his shoes, and like everyone else -- with zero special treatment, kneel before God. No front row seat, no special designated area. He must sit and pray with the people. Islam has this function of instructing humility and putting people of all status as equals before God.

Nothing in creation is accidental, Black skin is not an accident, or a topic not to be discussed. In both the Qur'an and Hadith, the Prophet refers to both Ethnicity and Nationality. Thus the issue of race can never be smooth over with "it doesn't matter." If it did not matter then we are saying God made a mistake.

O Mankind, We created you from a single (pair) of a male and female and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other

Qur'an

ISLAM AND AFRICA

Islam was founded in a multi-ethnic Arabia which lay 22 km of the coast of the African continent. Prior to the rise of Islam, Ethiopia, a super power of that time, had annexed modern day Yemen and parts of Saudi Arabia for centuries. The Qur'anic accounts of the mighty forces of the Ethiopian general Abraha, who marched towards Mecca with an arsenal of elephants, this testifies to the power of the ancient Ethiopian Empire.

Islam In Africa: Photo copyright Underthissun.com Photographer Betelihem Zelealem c 2006

Islam in Ethiopia

Historically, Islam was a religion inseparable from trade relationships. Africa and Arabia were old partners in trade so it is no surprise that Africans were among the first handful of people to accept the new religion brought by the Prophet Muhammad. It is said that when Bilal the Ethiopian, one of the most revered legends of Islam, first heard of Islam he called it the ancient religion. The call to pray which echoes over Muslims lands today was first carried on African lungs (by Bilal).

Islam became a permanent feature in Africa when the prophet Muhammad in 612 sent the first group of the early Muslims to be protected from Arab persecution by the Negus of Ethiopia; this was the first Hijirah. Islam was thus spreading in Africa before it even reached Medina.

The Eurocentric opinions of Orientalist scholarship has been copied into Africanist europhone writings. These attitudes reflect a failure to account for the full complexities and heterogeneity of Islam and its history in Sub-Saharan Africa

Bangura, Islam and the West African [2]

It is important to note that while Islam generally disseminated in most of Africa peacefully it took wars, such as the Riddah wars, to conquer the Arabs into accepting Islam. In the mid-tenth century during the rule of the Ummayad Caliph Abdul-Rahman III (929-961), Muslims of African origin sailed westward from the Spanish port of Delba (Palos) into the “Ocean of darkness an fog.” They returned after a long absence with much booty from a “strange and curious land.” It is evident that people of Muslim origin are known to have accompanied Columbus and subsequent Spanish explorers to the New World.

Also it is reported that the descendants of Kanka Musa of Mali made and epic voyage with a 2000 strong fleet in search of the Americas. Recent linguistic, cultural and archaeological finds in Brazil and Peru offer documentary evidence" that West African Mandinka Muslims explored the early Americas. Islam spread across to West Africa (by African traders such as the Fulani people) from as early as the 8 th century by African traders and was firmly established by the 11 th century.

The peaceful non-obstructive course Islam took in West Africa was mainly because those propagating the faith were culturally and ethnically identical to those receiving it. Also the indigenous African had many features in common, such as animal immolation, communal pray, celebrating ancestors, circumcision, polygamy, dowry bride gifts, and the spirit or jinn world. The African spirit world of Bori and Zar was bridged to the Islamic world of jinns whom like African spirits could be friend or foe.

Such similarities between Islam and indigenous African religions facilitated a general peaceful conversion and religious tolerance in West Africa. Islam hence left African culture uniquely African and a traditional African Sufi Islam was formed over the centuries. This brand of Islam in time even reshaped Islamic culture in the lands beyond Africa.

Diop: The primary reason for the success of Islam in Africa, with one exception, consequently stems from the fact that solitary Arabo-Berber Travelers to certain Black kings and notables, who then spread it about them to those under their jurisdiction, promulgated it peacefully, at first... What is to be emphasized here is the peaceful nature of this conversion, regardless of the legend surrounding it. (Pre-Colonial Black Africa, page 163.)

Asante: The religion of Islam made each Muslim merchant or traveler an embryonic missionary and the appeal of the religion with its similarities to the African religions was far more powerful than the Christian appeal. (Asante, Genocide in Africa 1991 10)

Diop: The Arab conquests dear to sociologists are necessary to their theories but did not exist in reality. To this day no reliable historical documents substantiate such theories. ((Pre-Colonial Black Africa, page 102)

Timbuktu, photo Owen Alik Shahadah copyright Underthissun.com

Mosque at Timbuktu

When Islam proliferated in West Africa around the 9 th century, one of the first universities was founded by African Muslims. It was called Sankore, Arabs and others came to Sankore which was built in Timbuktu to learn from the African erudite who lectured on Islamic belief, Islamic jurisprudence, astrology, science, and many other subjects. Timbuktu was reputed for African erudition where books and those who traded in books were the wealthiest elites of the merchant society.

The bulk of African history after the Ancient Egyptians Medew Netjer , was written in the Arabic language by both Africans and Arabs. The Arabic script also served as an agami to write languages such as Swahili, Wolof and Mande. For thousands of years Arabic served as the international language of trade as English is today. Some of the hidden histories of Africa are locked in as many as 700,000 Arabic manuscripts written by ancient African scholars. One of these the Tariq-ul-Sudan, details the history of Islamic West Africa, but this manuscript remains inaccessible to non-Arabic speakers.

NATION OF ISLAM

See | Nation of Islam

A sect of Islam, NOI teaches Black pride, economic empowerment within an Islamic framework. They now teach that their founder Wallace Fard Muhammad was the Mahdi of God (Allah).

Cheik Anta Diop

Nation of Islam produced Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan, Muhammad Ali; and Warith Deen Mohammed. All of which have been instrumental in Diaspora Islam. Elijah Muhammad (the principle leader until his death) is perhaps on of the most influential Muslim religious leaders in recent times, responsible for the rise of Islam among the African-Diaspora. NOI was known as a pioneer of self-determination and do for self (Black empowerment). Elijah was a living example of separation and racial independent in America, as oppose to strike for inclusion and justice NOI created their own sustainable world inside of America. Elijah took broken people and gave them back pride in their race, morality, and discipline.

No other Diaspora leader has created such economic and social transformation since. By the 1970s, the Nation of Islam owned bakeries, barber shops, coffee shops, grocery stores, laundromats, a printing plant, retail stores, numerous real estate holdings, and a fleet of tractor trailers, plus farmland in Michigan, Alabama, and Georgia. In 1972 the Nation of Islam took controlling interest in a bank, the Guaranty Bank and Trust Co. Nation of Islam-owned schools expanded until, by 1974, the group had established schools in 47 cities throughout the United States. In 1972, Muhammad told followers that the Nation of Islam had a net worth of $75 million.

While controversial, from a sociological perspective, the Nation of Islam (NOI) are a Muslim community. Disputes to their "validity" are internal religious issues. And such objections to their inclusion under the 'banner of Islam' have been silenced by their reform to mainstream Islam (praying, Ramadan, etc). It can be argued that their Islamic identity is just as valid as that of some Shiite or other sects. Unfortunately elements of anti-African racism are nested in objections to NOI because it is Islam on African-American terms they cannot be controlled or turned into little Black Arabs or dressed up like little Black Pakistanis. Nation of Islam is on a spiritual journey and should be embraced and encouraged into the Islamic brotherhood.

HIJAB | ISLAMIC VEIL

The hijab identifies women as followers of Islam, with it also comes tremendous responsibility. The hijab is not merely a covering dress, but more importantly governs behavior, manners, speech and appearance in public. The headscarf is an outer manifestation of an inner commitment to a Muslim woman's faith. It symbolizes a commitment to piety and is a form of spiritual beauty. It is also a symbol of human cultural diversity.

Our Story Our Voice (2007)

The hijab is the culture of Islam worn on the bodies of Muslim women. The hijab is also a political symbol which calls multiculturalism into account in the West. And the respect of their cultural dress crosses the religious-geographical divide, even in the West, people automatically have a different sphere of engagement when dealing with women in hijab. The same is true for all cultural attire; it informs behavior and in turn behavior is informed by it. No Muslim woman wears a Hijab to help Westerners better understand Islam. Islam makes sense to Muslims, it doesn't become valid because some White person somewhere "Gets it." And while it is okay for Europeans to have rules about dress, it seem to be deemed "oppressive" when Muslim people also have rules which govern their dress code.

Ignorance cannot see beauty outside of its own narrow cultural constructions. And I pity such people that look at our diverse world with distain

'Alik Shahadah

Islam or West, who is oppressing women Contrary to popular belief the hijab is a high fashion item worn in some many different styles it is an additional woman's dress and deeply varied and expressive. Some ways of pinning it alone speak to the culture where people come from (e.g. Malaysia vs. Somalia).

The hijab is a alternative paradigm of beauty, style and femininity. Some have noted that the hijab re-focuses it on areas of the woman's non-sexualized beauty-- like the eyes. Any woman therefore wearing the hijab is instantly transformed to another paradigm of beauty. [Google result on Hijab diversity]

The Hijab has extended its influence far beyond the corridors of Islam. What is rarely written about is the profound influence of the Hijab on what is widely now considered an African headdress style. All of these stylistic variations seen from Erica Badu to Nigeria come from the consequence of cultural sharing between when Islam entered into Africa. What is largely considered "African dress" is a direct variation of "Islamic dress."

The false focus on a woman head-dress is part of the Eurocentric tradition of removing "the other" to bring diversity into a European notion of acceptability. Thwarting the very diversity they claim to support in their human rights rants.

Islam or West, who is oppressing women Europeans through the lens of cultural supremacy and sheer arrogance assume that the values of Europeans should be the values of the world. And unless the rest of the world is struggling to be more like them, the world is backward and oppressed.

This is the continuation of the tradition in orientalist thinking which misunderstood everything in African culture it saw. It is ironic that the issue of "liberation" in the West is anchored almost exclusively to sex: Freedom is an expression of excessiveness and immorality.

And while they would say "choice" when it comes to Western societies, the word is "coerced, and brainwashed" for Islamic communities. However, the majority of Hollywood actresses and singers always end up 1/2 naked in FHM and the like to appease the sexualization and commodification of Western markets. Yet this is not labeled as a form of denigration and oppression. There is a serious social expectation in Western societies to sexualized women, from Rihanna to Beyonce, all of them express themselves with degrees of nudity. The hijab mirrors the "halal' beauty of a woman, her grace, her composition, her humanity. Her femininity as a women is not suppressed by transmitted within different paradigms.

So what is the real issue the West has with the Hijab? The Hijab is a cultural political symbol of the face of the rise of Islam. Every year more of the West sees women wearing this "alien" dress on their high streets. It is a political sign of a world they have always been at odds with. But now the Muslim is again in Europe, but not with weapons of war, but weapons of culture. Now in the UK we see White skinned British girls walking down Oxford street in hijab. A serious threat to the "Europeanization" which is being diminished in the face of multiculturalism.

NIKAB (NIQAB)- FACE VEIL

The Niqab (the extra veil that covers some Muslim women's face in public) can be viewed from different perspectives. Some have raised the issue of security where face identity maybe required (banks, ID cards etc). That can easily be fixed with regulations that are sensitive to both parties interest. Because in all honesty when is the last time a woman in a Niqab held up a bank? However, from an Islamic perspective there is zero demand for a Muslim woman to wear a Niqab. It is an self-inflicted "extra" sign of piety people place on themselves (like monks self-enforcing celibacy). Nikab - Face veil

Islam makes it clear that Mizan (balance) is key to the religion, that not to make the religion a burden: No one was wearing a Niqab at the time of Muhammad. While subjective, the Niqab does become a excessive burden that adds no true spiritual reward. It does have some cultural value where it is an aspect of identity and social piety. Either way this is an internal issue for Muslim people to debate. As long as we have true freedom if women feel like the Niqab is an aspect of their spirituality then no one nowhere has a right to stop them from their version of Islamic spiritual expression.

The Right to Life

The first and the foremost basic right is the right to live and respect human life. The Holy Qur'an lays down:

"Whosoever kills a human being without (any reason like) man slaughter, or corruption on earth, it is as though he had killed all mankind ..." (5:32)

"Do not kill a soul which Allah has made sacred except through the due process of law ..." (6:151)

The Right to Justice

This is a very important and valuable right which Islam has given to man as a human being. The Holy Qur'an has laid down: "Do not let your hatred of a people incite you to aggression" (5:2). "And do not let ill-will towards any folk incite you so that you swerve from dealing justly. Be just; that is nearest to heedfulness" (5:8).

Equality of Human Beings

This has been exemplified by the Prophet in one of his sayings thus:

"No Arab has any superiority over a non-Arab, nor does a non-Arab have any superiority over an Arab. Nor does a white man have any superiority over a black man, or the black man any superiority over the white man. You are all the children of Adam, and Adam was created from clay" (al-Bayhaqi and al-Bazzaz).

The Security of Life and Property

In the address which the Prophet delivered on the occasion of the Farewell Hajj, he said: "Your lives and properties are forbidden to one another till you meet your Lord on the Day of Resurrection."

God Almighty has laid down in the Holy Qur'an: "Anyone who kills a believer deliberately will receive as his reward (a sentence) to live in Hell for ever. God will be angry with him and curse him, and prepare dreadful torment for him" (4:93). The Prophet has also said about the dhimmis (the non-Muslim citizens of the Muslim State): "One who kills a man under covenant (i.e. a dhimmi) will not even smell the fragrance of Paradise" (al-Bukhari and Abu Dawud).

The Protection of Honor

Holy Qur'an clearly lays down: (a) "You who believe, do not let one (set of) people make fun of another set. (b) Do not defame one another. (c) Do not insult by using nicknames. (d) And do not backbite or speak ill of one another" (49:11-12).

The Rights of the Non-Combatants:

Islam has first drawn a clear line of distinction between the combatants and the non-combatants of the enemy country. As far as the non-combatant population is concerned such as women, children, the old and the infirm, etc., the instructions of the Prophet are as follows: "Do not kill any old person, any child or any woman" (Abu Dawud). "Do not kill the monks in monasteries" or "Do not kill the people who are sitting in places of worship" (Musnad of Ibn Hanbal).

ISLAMIC THREAT

Another sale, $30 billion to Saudi Arabia, so much for fear of radical Islam. If radical Islam has $30 billion dollars to spend on arms you can be our friend, if you don't well you can just be plain old Al-Qaeda fundamentalist Islam. The deal secures 50,000 jobs in America. And for public performance, and public performance alone Islam is factored as enemy number one. Now and then it has almost exclusively been about the politics of money and resources. If Iran is in America's pocket and buying arms and getting its energy from the Western alliance and helping Israel then the debate over "Islamic fundamentalism" doesn't come up. If the Taliban were happy allowing American soldiers to train in the mountains then the issue of the Burqah would never get to the New York times. Religion is used to persuade the public of a course of action to support Western economic and political interest.

For the last 1000 years the biggest threat to European imperialism was Islam. The one thing that almost took over all of Europe. The one force that was mightier and more long-lasting the communism. Now tracing back a lot of the antagonism becomes clear. Edward Said claimed a "subtle and persistent Eurocentric prejudice against Arab-Islamic peoples and their culture." He argued that a long tradition of false and romanticized images of Africa and the Middle East in Western culture had served as an implicit justification for Europe and the US' colonial and imperial ambitions." He goes on to state "So far as the United States seems to be concerned, it is only a slight overstatement to say that Moslems and Arabs are essentially seen as either oil suppliers or potential terrorists."

In the mid Prince Henry the Navigator expeditions were sent to create much-needed maps of the West African coast, to defeat the Muslims, to spread Christianity, and to establish trade routes. Prince Henry attacked the Muslim port of Ceutha in Morocco. This successful attack in 1415 inspired Prince Henry to explore West Africa, most of which was unknown to Europeans. Prince Henry wanted to find the limits of the Muslim world to circumvent and destroy the Islamic advantage. He was also looking for the mythical Christian empire of the priest-king Prester John.

A royal edict, for a while, prohibited the taking of African Muslims as slaves due to the likelihood of rebellion. The rise of Islam in America among African-Americans has been seen as an extension of this threat. And it must be remember that Spain for 800 plus years was controlled by Berber Africans, West Africans and Arabs.

It is evident that people of Muslim origin are known to have accompanied Columbus and subsequent Spanish explorers to the New World. Also it is reported that the descendants of Kanka Musa of Mali made and epic voyage with a 2000 strong fleet in search of the Americas. Recent linguistic, cultural and archaeological finds in Brazil and Peru offer documentary evidence" that West African Mandinka Muslims explored the early Americas.

ORIENTALISM - MYTHS & ISLAM

Knowledge is a function of information received, which is diminished or enhanced by the condition of the mind receiving it.

' Alik Shahadah

The knowledge of any subject is limited by the information received and the conditioning of the mind which processes this information. These two variables explain that all studies are subjective and bad information = bad conclusions. Low information on living Islam continue the veil of ignorance. African Islamic studies is traditionally treated as a marginal and not a serious aspect of the Islamic world. (David Robinson) We have seen this with how Islamic Spain was treated until recently. And this anti-scholarship is the foundation of how African scholars outside of the African Islamic world treat Islam and Africa.

With the most ridiculous turn of the century notions still being posed as fact. the myth of Islamic intolerance, where every study shows Ancient Islamic societies are some of the most peaceful, non-violent and tolerant societies compared to similar societies in antiquity. And still today Muslim communities are safe, peaceful, tolerant, and hospitable.

One of the sources of pseudo-intellectualism is the Afrocentric aka Afro-Orientist (absorbing Eurocentric phobias, and orientalistic world view like an orphan minion inherits the agendas of their master) regarding the "origin" of Islam. But foreign to who? Was Africa one big happy Afrocentric-pagan romantic construction before Islam? So foreign to who? Foreign to the Amhara of Bahir Dar? - No. Foreign to the Tuareg of the Sahel -No. Foreign to the Mandé and the Fulani (who brought Islam to the region)? - No. What about the people of the Swahili coast with their long history of cultural fusion? - No. Was it perhaps fore+ ign to the Muslim Khoisan of Namibia? Maybe it was, but they chose Islam out of their own self-determination: no coercion, no Arab conquest, no "convert or die."

The origin of this website is the UK (for the sake of argument), what bearing does that have on the content of this page? The language of Islam is Arabic.

The language of this website is English, what bearing does that have on this sites unique ability to articulate a deeply African consciousness? Arabic is not an ethnic language, like Gurage of Ethiopia, it is primarily a Lingua Franca for large communities of diverse ethnic groups.

Arabization

Buy now Motherland

Islam originating from a multi-cultural society moots all baseless arguments that suggest that coming from Arabia has any special negative significance. Afrocentricity comes from America, would historians 1000 years from now see Afrocentricity as a foreign European construction? Because none of it has been written in an African language and none of it comes out of geographical Africa. So what makes something African or Arabian culturally? Only its values and principles. It is therefore critical that a paradigm-shift in intellectual debates deal with the value formulations of Islam as oppose to some colonial monolithic understanding of an Islam (which they saw as an competing adversary). It is regressive and anti-intellectual to keep throwing 1960's reactionary arguments at a continent so diverse. "foreign", "Invasion" is the languages of victims, not people of agency. Aksum was no victim when they embraced Christianity, no more so than when Rome did.

What part of the ablution ritual is "foreign", What part of communal pray is foreign to Africa? Islam hugs a large constitutions of values under one umbrella. Polygamy was not introduced by Islam, neither was the sexual modesty. Zakat is neither foreign nor harmful? So what are these pillars in Islam that are so deeply destructive to Africa? Asante would argue that it created a disloyalty for things Africa and reassigned value to things Arabian and in principle we must concede this as a valid observation across all mainstream religions. But beyond the Hajj and the usage of Arabic, it would be fair to say that the majority of the Islamic faith does not do this. More over how is it then possible for Islam to create might Ottoman empires in Europe? (who used Arabic). How is it possible for a religion that reassigns values at the scale Asante discusses able to create such superpowers which ultimately annexed Arabia and oppressed the very same Arab people? If the Ottomans (who are not an Arabic people) fit into Asante's theories how did these cultural orphans create a massive empire which lasted for 600 years and creating some of the most marvelous arts and science the world has seen? And what about the Mughal Empire of India, or the Islamic people of Indonesia and China? Something is not adding up when theory attempts to make the jump to reality. It would be far more correct to say, that regardless of what system you bring, African or otherwise, if AGENCY is lacking you will witness cultural disloyalty in preference of a "foreign" cultural transplantation. Because Islam did not create weak statelets of pseudo-Arabs in the Sahel of Mali and Nigeria. And it is for this very reason that Timbuktu was sacked by outsiders (Berbers and Morocco), despite all parties on both sides of the conflict being Islamic.

If Islam was incompatible with Africans then how was it able to be used to create the libraries of Timbuktu? Or the scholarship of the university of Sankore, which still exist? How was it able to produce Malcolm X and Askia? Where is the massive history of this idealistic Africa that they speak of? Even the dress we today globally associate with "being African" is an Islamic import.

If Islam or African Christianity in Ethiopia is foreign, and hence undesirable, then was Christianity not also foreign to Europe? How has that "foreign" product serve Europe? Has it been an agent of advancement or destruction? So "Foreign" is a baseless anti-intellectualism for a pub debate not in an progressive African historiography. Even with Europe losing a part of its culture to Christianity it has undoubtedly been the backbone of its political supremacy.

CULTURE AND ISLAMIZATION

The other notion of an Islamic monolith (per Edward Saïd observations) assumes that Islam is one cultural (?????) product of Arabia. Islam takes on the cultures of the peoples it passes over. Just like water passing over a rock. Islam and Arabization might coexist but that does not make them one and the same thing. As Ali Mazrui explains, the processes sometimes run in opposite directions. But Islam, like any ideology coming in, takes on the personalities of those bring it; as long as agency is in place. And it is very important to state, that Islam has never been a monolith.

Islamization rarely equals Arabization. The creation of new African-Caribbeans Muslims in London is not by Arabization, but an Indo-Pakistanization,

because the dominant agents of Islam in London are Pakistanis. The agents of Islamization in Barbados are Indians, specifically Gujarati Indians.

Dr. Mazrui: Arabization

So with the conversion of Islam you get an imposition of Gujarati Islamic flavors. The same is true for Durban, South Africa. In Cape Town the Malay culture dominates and flavors the Islam to that cultural orientation. In America the process of Islamization is via the Black consciousness of the Nation of Islam. In Indonesia the process of Islamization (making new Muslims) carries the cultures of Indonesia Asian people, which is very different from the Arabization process. So in Ramadan you see the ritual of breaking fast might be relatively standard across all these groups but the foods used is culturally unique to each group. In Indian communities Indian food is used, in Ethiopia they use Ethiopian food in the Iftar ritual (evening meal to at the end of fasting).

All of these examples show how many non-Muslims authors have oversimplified and reduced Islam with very poor understanding of the diversity of Islam. The assumption of Arabization (as what happens in Sudan) is not true for Ethiopia and Senegal. The Fulani people that brought Islam into these regions would have been the dominate depositors of cultural to the variation of Islam in these territories. Cultures fracture and reform creating new realities which seed progress and usher in diversity. That has always been the way of the world.

Africans, like all other Muslim people, must separate out the culture (?????) from the religious ideology (???) in shaping new flavors of Islam. The Prophet Muhammad was not only a prophet in the religious sense; he was a man, an Arab Qureshi, and a 7th century person. So the sunnah (way) of the prophet would be informed by all of these considerations. Maybe the Prophet licked his fingers after eating his favorite Arabian food (honey, meat and wild birds). Had he been Chinese that would be chopsticks and chow mein, and he would not have licked his fingers. Had he been French it would have been a knife and fork with a croissant, had he been Ethiopian it would have been ingera and Wot. None of this is an aspect of the faith, but a cultural trend, which is inescapable. The Islamic etiquettes of eating and leaving space for breathing however are acultural, and applicable independent of culture. This wholesale taking of traditions is sometimes stifling, unproductive, tedious, and regressive. And while being all of these things the most critical values, and ethics are lost.

ISLAM AND SLAVERY

See Arab Slave Trade

A popular myth, in the non-Muslim world, is that Muslims have not dealt with slavery in their communities. And how would we measure this, especially when Muslims are even less knowledgeable about the history of slavery, esp the history of slavery and Islam. However, how would we measure what Muslims do if we are outside of these communities? The language barrier, the cultural barrier alone puts Islam behind a political and cultural veil. Islam is not structured into diocese like the Anglican Church which has supreme representative for that sect. therefore Islam cannot make flashy Press conference on slavery on behalf of the Islamic world. Many Muslim scholars addressed the issue of slavery, in Iraq, in Mauritania, in Sudan, people like Alik Shahadah (ArabSlaveTrade, 500 Years Later, Motherland), Ali Mazuri, all deal with these issues. No group anywhere independent of race, politics, religion has done enough on the issue of slavery.

Also bear in mind the current anti-Islamic climate. When Islamic Charities such as Islamic Relief and Muslim Aid are working hard in the African world they do not get the press and publicity like Oxfam, leaving people to make ridiculous generalizations about Muslim communities. Zakaat, a social-economic structure is hard wired into Islam which has been feeding the impoverished of the world for 1400 years. Social issues are key to the Islamic faith, Islam is not a secular religion and social resolution is embedded in the articles of faith.

Other cultures limit a master's right to harm a slave but few exhort masters to treat their slaves kindly, and the placement of slaves in the same category as other weak members of society who deserve protection is unknown outside the Qur'an. The unique contribution of the Qur'an, then, is to be found in its emphasis on the place of slaves in society and society's responsibility toward the slave, perhaps the most progressive legislation on slavery in its time

Jonathan Brockopp

Qur'anic legislation brought two major changes to ancient slavery which were to have far-reaching effects: presumption of freedom, and the ban on the enslavement of free persons except in strictly defined circumstances (Lewis). It became a fundamental principle of Islamic jurisprudence that the natural condition, and therefore the presumed status, of mankind was freedom. Despite this, there were the greedy and the vindictive that sought to make slaves of their Muslim brothers and sisters as well as other Africans.

Despite the Arab dominated Middle Eastern and Trans Saharan slave trade in African captives the religion of Islam is the only mainstream faith to activity emancipate enslaved people as a aspect of religious devotion. "Free the slave" is repeated constantly in the Qur'an Hadith. The natural condition of humanity in Islam is therefore freedom and justice. Islam therefore is a revolutionary religion born into a world where slavery was part of the fabric of that society. On paper and in the living traditions of the prophet of Islam emancipation was part and parcel of the Islamic belief. So the question is the same question posed to other faiths, where did things go wrong? How can a religion so open about abolition be practiced by the Arab slave traders? How is it possible to oppress Africans and then pray five times a day reciting the very verses that say:

Righteousness is not turning your faces towards the east or the west. Righteous are those who believe in GOD, the Last Day, the angels, the scripture, and the prophets; and they give the money, cheerfully, to the relatives, the orphans, the needy, the traveling alien, the beggars, and to free the slaves

Qur'an [2:177]

There is no blemish on the religion of Islam but on the greed and inequity of some Muslims. This is seen across the board the blatant hypocrisy of humanity. The White Christians sang praises to God and preached about the enslavement of Israel in Egypt while having slaves in the dungeons of Goree and El Mina.

ISLAMIC EMPIRES OF AFRICA(LINKS-LINKS)

The most numerous Empires in Africa's history are the Islamic Empires. Songhai was the largest African empire, even larger than Kemet at it's summit. Songhai was 1.4 million km2 (1500), followed by Mali, followed by Aksum, followed by Kanem and then Ancient Ghana.

•Kanem Empire (700 AD - 1376 AD)

•Kingdom of Kano (1000 AD - 1805 AD)

•Ifat Sultanate (1285 AD - 1415 AD)

•Songhai Empire (1340 AD - 1591 AD)

•Bornu Empire (1369 AD - 1893 AD)

•Adal Sultanate (1415 AD - 1555 AD)

•Sennar Sultanate (1502 AD - 1821 AD)

•Dendi Kingdom (1591 AD - 1901 AD)

•Wassoulou Empire (1878 AD - 1898 AD)

•Sultanate of Darfur (1603 AD - 1874 AD)

•Kong Empire (1710 AD - 1894 AD)

•Kingdom of Gumma (1770 AD - 1899 AD)

•Fouta Tooro (1776 AD - 1861 AD)

•Kingdom of Gomma (1780 AD - 1886 AD)

•Kingdom of Jimma (1790 AD - 1932 AD)

•Sokoto Caliphate (1804 AD - 1903 AD)

The most pathetic thing is for a slave who doesn't know that he is a slave

Malcolm X

AFRICA, RELIGION AND SLAVERY

Full Article here

There is not one major indigenous African faith that had an issue with slavery, not one African native religion had principles that denounced slavery. Between the most aggressive slavers in West Africa such as Oyo, Benin, Igala, Kaabu, Asanteman, Dahomey, the Aro Confederacyl – none of them Christian or Muslim.

None of them with principle objections to slavery. Therefore, the challenge which is posed to Islam and Christianity for having a tolerance for slavery is also true for the religions native to Africa. The only true difference between Islam and Christianity and indigenous faith is power. They had more power to destroy and had the added side-effect of carrying the culture of the conquering party: may that party be Arab, European, or another African group (see Songhai and Mali).

And today the old urban legend of religion and oppression is invalid. The new tools of oppression hide themselves in western democracy. And that Trojan horse contains the soldiers of the free market, globalization and debt. False focus is a death sentence when worrying about a spider when a lion is about to pounce.

Islam, Christianity, and what became known as Vodun all fell prey to human greed. All were used to enhance the position of the slavers. So in native African faith based societies (Dahmoney especially) the rituals which were set-up for purity and celebrating the deities became an opportunity to acquire more captives.

Life is beautiful and ugly too, but always diverse enough to respect the good in something while cursing the bad. Rome was a tyrant where Africa was concerned. But it doesn't mean every last thing in Rome was vile. Our world is far too sophisticated for such simplistic deductions. Ships carried every African from the Motherland to Africa (America?), do we curse the ship? Surely without ships there could never have been slavery. Planes were used to drop poison on Ethiopia, do we curse the plane?

What in the message of Jesus said "Go to African and get as many Africans as you can?", Where in the Qur'an does it say "Where ever you find a Black make him a slave"? Democracy right now is making a job and a half of creating new colonies, this does not invalidate the principles of democracy just because of Obama and Bush's misuse.

If these mainstream religions are the principle agent of mentally enslaving people why is there the same problems existing in countries that do not have the influence of these faiths? Does Benin have some superiority claim over Ethiopia? But if the argument was correct then we should see this. We should see more agency in Benin than in Islamic-Christian Ethiopia. Because if these Abrahamic faiths, as separate elements, are enslaving people then how do you explain Ethiopia's rich and power history? In treating a prostate cancer it is usually a good idea not to cut out the bladder and leave the prostate. Mis- identifying religion is a detrimental to Africa; it is only convenient for people who do not want to waddle through the complexities of the Africa's problem. And the language of "destruction and domination" is political language, not historical language. The script destroyed oral tradition, the car destroyed the donkey, the cd destroyed the record, and the turntable destroyed the musical instrument. It is no different with culture and religion anywhere.

Many religion or spiritual systems, for hundreds of years, in West Africa practiced, and still practice, Trokosi: The giving of virgin girls to the gods for services or religious atonement. Similar practices were also found in the royal court of the Kingdom of Dahomey (in what is now Benin), in the 18th and 19th centuries. Wives, slaves, and in fact all persons connected with the royal palace of Dahomey were called "ahosi", from "aho" meaning "king", and "si" meaning "dependent" or "subordinate." In traditional Efik societies It is believed that Abassi gave certain tribesmen the ability to heal the sick through necromancy. If the witch doctor was unable to heal the ill person, they were thrown on a fire because it was believed that Abassi did not want them to be healed. So we must understand the "flaws" of spirituality and religion are not exclusive to the Abrahamic faiths. And with the coming of Islam many of these harmful practices were destroyed. Islam was not selective and some serious aspects of culture were also washed away with its rise. And this must be considered in a holistic understanding in presenting valid arguments regardless of our position on religion and Africa.

More wars are caused over land and resources than God. The largest wars in human history had nothing to do with religion. Even during the crusades (which were supposed to be a Muslim-Christian conflict), the crusaders killed many non-Western Christians. However, far more emphasis has to be placed on greed, wealth disparity, and its effect on the human condition. In the absence of religion, slavery would have taken place. In the absences of democracy and communism, wars would have taken place. If we look at the most ruthless dictators most of them do not kill in the name of religion, (Mao for example said religion was poison). The problem with Mao et al was religion competed with him as a god-head. The biggest wars in history are not really in the name of religion; even the crusades were about Europeans acquisition of trade routes, which Muslims controlled. Outside of Islam and Christianity slavery existed, the largest slavers on the continent were neither Muslim nor Christian. All arguments support that religion is not the primary agent in the oppression of Africa, now or then.

It might not be right, but one thing we need to swallow is that all "advances" and "civilization" is the product of degrees of imperialism and conquest: Take a look at Ethiopian history. Kmt in her brutal conquest of Nubia, and Nubia's conquest of Kemet? Or the bloody Mfecane of Shaka Zulu as he forcible united the Ngoni people. If our primary issue is with conquest, then the only thing to celebrate is hunter-gatherer societies. There is a profit from conquest which every society of technological sophistication has inherited, and we must deal with this. The human challenge is therefore how to advance without exploitation.

Terms like "Islamic Invasion" and "foreign religions" are painted all over African history as if this was the only process by which Christianity and Islam came into Africa. Islam has been a native part of the African landscape for 1418 years, Christianity for 2000 and Judaism for far longer. Yet history paints Christianity in Europe as if it was fundamentally a European institution. Europe Europeanized Christianity just like how they paint Buddhism in China as if its origins where Chinese. So the notion of Christianity being a European project needs to be challenged. They were Churches in Africa long before the Vatican.

Europeans and Arabs did not walk into Africa to enslave Africans because of a deep hatred for dark skinned people: The primary motive was profit. South African apartheid was the same. It was a system, which protected European privilege and opportunities. Race was used as a justification to secure this privilege and most found justification in the Bible, the same Bible that Martin Luther King and Nat Turner used for liberation.

You cannot measure an African success with a European ruler

' Alik Shahadah

RELIGION

SPEAK THE ETHICS OF THE FAITH

Religion is a bottle with a label on it, spirituality is the thing inside. Religion is the culture of spirituality, the container which gives it structure.

' Alik Shahadah

With Islam Malcolm X became one of Pan-Africa’s greatest heroes. And with Christianity Garvey created the floor on which we all stand. With Islam, the libraries of Timbuktu were built preserving the histories of Africa. And with Christianity the greatest East African Kingdom of Aksum forged its way and annexed Southern Arabia. With a Middle Eastern religion, Europe went onto conquer the world, at what point in their history did they stop and cast out these religions lamenting the gods of old? At what stage in the greatness of China, past and present did Buddhism interrupt their glory? So why is Africa the only continent that cannot take these spiritual technologies and make them serve her interest?

Islam has been used to impose Arab culture, but this is because Africa was lacking agency. Turkey held its own, so why don't we? And yes Christianity was the excuse used to drive a trade in Black skin. It was also the vector for mental slavery. None of this is in denial. No where in history do cultures stay static in a world in motion, change is part of the cycle of life. And just as in life, after the fire the rains come and bring life. The challenge is realistically salvaging from the ashes of history a clean place to start from.

In the northern parts of West Africa, human sacrifice had become rare as Islam became more established in these areas such as the Hausa States. There was a rise in general justice, education, nation building, health, etc. We must be careful judging good and bad with our modern eyes because we take for granted many moral norms were absent in the historical record. For example we all know you don't kill a man and take his wife, or steal someone's car if it is unattended. But in antiquity this would not have been considered a problem. The Afar of Ethiopia have no problem with any of the above, so clearly this African habit which is not unique to the Afar is a problem in modernity. Because our first location is truth, which harmonizes our lives verse leaves us at risk. In Islam there is a tradition of justice, in some ancient African systems in the belly of the Sudan if the rains do not come they killed the king. In other victims had to be ritually sacrificed to feed the lust of gods. Now these are some extreme examples but we must be realistic when we understand that the world we recognize as civil has a lot to do with the morals, which come from Islam and Christianity. And to finalize the most critical point both Islam and Christianity as well as Judaism are philosophical children of Ancient Kemet, an African civilizations. Now Kemet spiritual systems are physically dead and it is neither practical or wise to reprise them from the dust of the Nile Valley. What we do have in front of us is a continent which is either Christian or Islamic. Which path makes more sense to fix the dilemma of Africa? Convert everyone or Africanize these faiths?

REFERENCES

Encyclopedia of religion in the South. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. p. 394

http://islamandafrica.com/

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Monday, November 24, 2014

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