Many Black people in America chose to embrace Al Islam and simultaneously become known as the indigenous Muslims because they did not come to America voluntarily unlike those who chose to migrate here. The historical circumstances that led to this reality has placed those who are descendants of ones who were enslaved in position to decide to become the progressive, premier leaders of the world and advance humanity or to be and stumped in growth and development. This unique position exists because the descendants of enslaved Africans in the Americas are the only people on the planet earth that were trained to systematically destroy themselves to ensure a dominance of White supremacy.
As a result of the African Holocaust and the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade, the reality their oppressors created established what we will call an inferiority complex that was passed from one generation to the next along with the painful legacy of oppression. We may see remnants of it today when some Black schoolchildren may think its characteristic of being White to get good grades, or when little Black girls who when tested by Dr. Kenneth Clark to state their preference between the Black doll or the White doll, they always chose the latter, or the amount of Black teens who have developed such a feeling of worthlessness that they relish in taking the life of another Black youth as evidenced in the videotaped murder of an innocent student named Derrion Albert in Chicago. If left undetected and unchecked the Black inferiority complex can be just as lethal as a loaded gun. We mention this, because some Blacks who have embraced Al Islam have not dealt with this for themselves, which manifests in different areas and the consequences have been catastrophic on a completely different level.
The first area is in the change of physical characteristics (i.e style of dress, voice dialect, mannerisms, etc.) Many times Muslim African Americans who have been born and raised in the USA speak as if they never knew how to speak English and begin to mimic an Eastern dialect. Some of them, when asked about this usually say it’s something they hadn’t noticed. Along with the voice change, comes the style of dress. In place of slacks and a shirt lies a thobe (one piece overgarment for men) and a kifaya (head scarf for men) because they say they need an “Islamic dress code”.
As Muslims, we are all familiar with making ourselves different than our non Muslim counterparts, but have we really given thought to what that actually means. If our non Muslim counterparts advocate injustice we must advocate justice. If they say that consumption of alcohol is fine, we must not say that nor support its consumption. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) stated that for man to be suitable for making salat (prayer), he defined the aura (the only required body parts which must be covered during prayer) as being from the navel to the knees. Additionally, the only garment that Muslim men are obligated to wear is the ihram (white clothing worn while performing Hajj). Whenever these two criteria are met, the person can claim fulfilling an “Islamic dress code”, according to the Qur’an and Sunnah regardless if one chooses to wear slacks and a sweater, a business suit, or a thobe and kifaya. As long as this criteria is met one can dress to reflect whatever style or culture one chooses. With this made clearly known, the following question comes to mind: Why do some Muslim African American men still feel this style of dress and change in voice is required upon them to be recognized by others as Muslims? This along with the next area will be followed up in Part 2.
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