The below speech I delivered at the Sadiq Mosque in Chicago, IL during an African American History program, February 2012. The excerpt is lengthy but is being posted per requests.
Over the last two years I have been engaged in the research and preparation of a historical exhibit of the early African-American pioneers of Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam. This exhibit is now ready and is called, “And they Prayed Too…”
In this research, I learned the value of perspective and narration. The narrator of a story controls the angle of the story and directs the conclusion of the story for the listener. For example, in the story of Columbus discovering America we find considerable disparities between the story we learned as children being taught that Columbus DISCOVERED America from today’s offering of...he ARRIVED in America. Or the ill-conceived narrative of pilgrims and the turkey dinners vs. the mass slaughterings, poison blankets and genocide as told from the Native American perspective.
Who tells the story controls how the story is told. We can move forward in history to the discourse around the Emancipation Proclamation, again, depending on which perspective the story is being told creates a different resolve. Was the emancipation proclamation intended to free the slaves or was it intended to save the union. Who is telling the story...however, the narrator in this case rarely ever mentions the pre-emancipation proclamation act called the 2nd Confuscation which focused on freeing the slaves, was signed by Lincoln but later retracted for...well...today we aren’t talking about that. The point here...is the one who tells the story controls how the story is told. Truth and accuracy in the narrative is critical to preserving honest history.
The history of Muslims in America is a fairly young discourse. The study, research and conversation is recently being addressed within the last 20-30 years and is being told from various perspectives. Scholars and historians are beginning to include the Muslim in the context of American history. It is being included as part of the American fabric, not quite like baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and chevrolet but more like Honda...yea, they’re made in America but they’re really not American. Islam’s inclusion in the American fabric is speckled and suspect in most cases. Following this trend, if we were to fast-forward 20 years from today we could agreeably presume Islam in America to be severely slanted and tainted with post 9/11 narratives, corrupted with terrorist significations and an American public suffering from Islamophobia.
In this effort to capture the Muslim in American history, is the study of the African-American in Islam. This is exciting work and greatly important not for it to just be told but for it to be told accurately and inclusively. We have seen the story on PBS of Prince Abdur Rahman, the Muslim Prince who was captured and brought to America in 1778. Some of us remember Roots, Alex Haley’s, monumental work depicting the African Kunta kente as a Muslim and shows him greeting other slaves with the greeting Salaam Alaikum. Historians differ on the percentage of Muslims brought to America during the slave trade with numbers ranging between 5-20%. We can look prior to 1492 and find African Muslims in America before Columbus. Leo Weiner, Ivan Van Sertima and others show African Muslims in Native American communities before America’s DISCOVERY.
This information not only weaves Islam and Muslims into the fabric of America but actually makes Islam in America even more ‘indigenous’ than Christianity. However, Islam remains nearly absent in celebrations and observances of African American history and American history.
We are limited to iconic figures as the source of relevance instead of the systems and regular folk that created the iconic figure being the architects and support systems. This limited narration debilitates the historic value for future generations to find a similar source for growth. Although, 'American Islam' is beginning to find footing in African-American discourse, the impact of Ahmadiyya in America isn't being represented in it's full contributing fare.
Ahmadiyya is referenced by many African-American historians as being significant in the development of African Americans in Islam. However, recent notables such as Dr. Sherman Jackson have began using references like "proto-Islamic" and "early Islamizers" in place of Ahmadiyya. This increasing mis-labeling and negation of credence has inspired myself and others to embark on a journey to tell our story, to give our narrative and as we say, to set the story straight.
In 1921, just a few miles down the road in Chicago, once was the center of Islam in America and still one of the most important historical locations of Islam in America. Mufti Muhammad Sadiq, the Ahmadiyya missionary was sent to America with specific directives to spread the message of Islam. After establishing 4448 Wabash as the headquarters of the Ahmadiyya Movement in America, he quickly developed a publication that would be used to promote and educate Americans on Islam called the Moslem Sunrise.
In the Moslem Sunrise, Sadiq would narrate events and stories like that of Br. James Soddick, who found this location and Br. Muhammad Yaqub who worked to renovate, create the dome and add other Islamic significations to make it into a mosque. Madam Rahatullah, who, described by Sadiq, “has been busy in New York and has already secured one American convert and one Muslim to the Ahmadia order”. He says “Madame will start lecturing in New York assisted by Mrs. Emerson (Allahdin)”. We see early the use of women in leadership roles during a pre-women’s rights era. Sadiq would also list the former and Muslim names of these early pioneers. Like Mr. Andrew Jacob of Chicago (Muhammad Yaqoob), Mr. Ellis Russel, of Chicago (Ghulam Rasul), Mrs. Carolina Bush (Hameeda), Miss Loucille Fraser of MI (Fatima) and many other names would grace the pages of the Sunrise...names from all over the country, various ethnicities, white, Latino but mostly African-American. These early editions are the primary source for accurate historical information of what the Ahmadiyya Movement was doing and achieving in America between the 1921-1924.
Sadiq didn't set out to focus his efforts on the African-American community. In a country where forcible captivity, oppression, dehumanization, lynching, stripping of language and religion, orphaning of children, emasculation of black males were all legal, Islam committed the most criminal of acts... to restore, to empower, to educate and liberate those suffering in America. It wasn't that we were Black, it was just the way of Islam, the promise of ease after hardship. William R. Jones raised a question in his book, 'Is God a White Racist', Islam answers this question of Theodicy or how does God resolve this evidential problem of evil or simply put, “Where is the benevolence of God when it comes to black sufferage?"
In a place where the defamation and criminalization of skin color were to create shame in a race of people, the eternal spirit of the oppressed could not be deterred. Islam awakened our Souls, rejuvenated our hope, promised a future and was the answer to the prayer of the sufferer.
Now let’s address the theology of liberation and social justice within Ahmadiyya around the world. At the turn of the 20th century, most countries of darker races were under colonial rule. The domination of the British had created an imperialist ruled Africa and Asia for generations. They would invade under the pretense that the inhabitants were barbarians, or in the language of Franz Fanon, the Wretched of the Earth. A Christian Hegemony would develop in the process... offering civilization with a bible in one hand and a gun and chains in the other. This Christian Hegemony or Christian Imperialism would be an abomination to the teachings of Jesus...an anti-Christ if you would, that would be used to dominate and oppress people of color and their nations.
When we speak of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in the context of liberation and social justice, we must look beyond the standard narrative of the cosmic reformer. Yes, we as Ahmadis know of him as a reformer and Messiah to Islam and savior to all religious traditions and we advertise and promote his to the public as such. But we must also view him as an existential hero in the struggle of the oppressed. A Messianic liberator raised to speak truth to power...Like Moses to Pharoah, like David to Goliath, like Jesus to the Ceasar. Ahmad’s Jihad of the Pen would be a nonviolent protest to oppression and injustice...let me repeat that...Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s Jihad of the Pen would be a nonviolent protest to oppression and injustice. His works would preceed the nonviolent movements of Ghandi and the Civil Rights movement in America. His prophetic ideology of “Breaking the Cross” would challenge the sociological, psychological and theological chains of White Supremacy and Christian Hegemony that was being brutally enforced throughout the black and brown world.
His message would resonate in the hearts of those victimized by an imperialist and discriminating Cross. It would remind the faithful of the love and justice filled teachings of Christ. It would reach the ears and inspire future revolutionaries and freedom fighters. Edward Blyden’s Pan-Africanism and Ahmad’s Pan-Islamism, would cross paths in a young Jamaican student in London. Marcus Garvey would be heavily influenced by Duse Muhammad and Khawaja din, who was a follower of Ahmad. Garvey would develop his vision of connecting African peoples all over the world and saw Islam as it's spiritual source. Tony Martin, in his book "Race First", speaks of these connections and how in UNIA meetings greetings of As-salaam Alaikum and chants of Allahu Akbar would be common. This Pan-Islamic thought is directly from the Islamic discourse of Ahmad. Sending Missionaries to America and Africa, the Ahmadiyya Movement would embark on a mission to liberate those oppressed...a spiritual revolution.
Taking a quote from The Black Studies Reader, “Just as the UNIA was the Universal Negro Improvement Association with universality in the political sphere, the Ahmadis connected the faithful to a worldwide, multiracial, but ‘non-white’ religion.”
Richard Brent Turner would say in his monumental work, Islam in the African-American Experience, “Thus, its global perspective was as expansive as Garvey’s and almost as radical in its strategies for the liberation of people of color.”
Mufti Muhammad Sadiq trained ‘local’ Americans to be missionaries. These ‘American’ missionaries, Black men, would be named ‘Sheiks’ and their duties included preaching, teaching and leading local congregations in their respective communities. Sheik Ahmad Din of St. Louis was touted as, “a Zealous worker for Islam”, by Sadiq. Ahmad Din led a committed group of early African-American Muslims like Brother Omar (Mr. William Patton) and Sister Noor (Mrs. Ophelia Avant) in the 1920’s. Richard Brent Turner, would say, “African-Americans in Sadiq’s new American Ahmadiyya Movement played integral roles in its success. From street-preaching with slogan’s like, "Come change your name, get back your original language and religion, and you won't be a nigger anymore!"
These ‘Sheiks’ were vital to the spread of Ahmadiyya in burgeoning African American communities. Robert Danin takes note in Black Pilgrimage to Islam, “Before returning to India in 1923, Sadiq had ordained at least a dozen indigenous “Sheiks” who, in his opinion, were doing their utmost to promote the Ahmadiyya doctrine. Their efforts had spread throughout a network of approximately sixteen missions in cities stretching from the Mississippi to the Atlantic. Besides Sheik Ahmad Din, Sheik Ashiq Ahmad and their protégé Wali Akram, one must include Sheik Nasir Ahmad and Sheik Saeed Akmal of Pittsburgh, Sheik Ahmad Omar of Braddock, Pennsyvania, Abdullah Malik of Columbus, Ahmad Rasool of Dayton, and Shareef Ali of Cincinnati.
At a time when there were only 1 or 2 missionaries in America, these Sheiks, these Black men trained by Sadiq would raise Muslim communities throughout the country. They would lecture at local Masonic Halls, Temples, Churches, they would write articles speaking out against racism and on Islam. African-Americans dispersed across the middle of America helped to build the American Islam to thousands strong.” And let me add here a quick correction to the African American Muslim narrative. Some of these Sheiks did move away from Ahmadiyya and are credited with establishing significant Islamic communities that still today facilitate the journey of African Americans to Islam. But again, we’re setting the story straight. Their foundations, the spark that lit their fires, the message that awakened their spirits...was Ahmadiyya.
Sadiq would speak out against racism during this post-reconstruction period of legal segregation in America in articles such as; "Crescent or Cross?" and "True Salvation of the American Negroes--The Real Solution of the Negro Question", Ahmadiyya would address the "color line" in Christian worship. The divide between the Black church and White church. Sadiq would say, "I saw black people walking past two and three white churches before he dare stop to say his prayers. And I saw white people walking and riding past dozens of black churches before they would stop to say their prayers….The question of color must be erased from the church service…”.
This isn't to lessen the importance and role of the Black church, particularly, in the current absence of substantial Muslim voices. The works of Richard Allen and George Leille who founded the AME and 1st Baptist churches respectively, recognized the need to pray to a just God who wanted Black folk to fight for freedom, as opposed to remaining confined to the upper pews in the church of the slave master and listening to prayers for good crops and "obedient" slaves. In the message of Ahmadiyya Black folk would find Liberation long before James Cone would develop in his work, “A Black Theology of Liberation” in the context of the church.
Meanwhile, Islam’s Theology of Liberation just was...
Over the next few decades, the Ahmadiyya Movement would continue to grow and influence the African-American community by providing Islamic literature and Holy Qurans. African-Americans continued to struggle through the Great Depression, discrimination, Jim Crow laws and racial inequieties.
Daud Salahuddin, a Chicago based musician would say in Minorities in the West by Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, "there was only one process for an African American to become Muslim during the 1940s and 1950s; the Ahmadiyya Movement. If you were not an Ahmadiyya, you were nothing. There was not a Sunni presence to be found in our community. If you were fortunate enough to be able to find a Muslim prayer book, you had better believe that it was produced by the Ahmadiyyas. "
I would be remissed to end this presentation without briefly recognizing the heavy influence of Ahmadiyya in the jazz community. From actual musicians to folk who just loved the music, Ahmadiyya would be the source of many conversions. Aminah McCloud observes in her book, Islam and the African American, "Ahmadiyya converts to Islam drew heavily from jazz musicians and created a distinctly Islamic culture that was highly visible in African American urban centers between 1917 and 1960…these musicians were major propagators of Islam in the world of jazz even though the subject of music was often a source of debate with the subcontinent Ahmadis. Some even developed a distinct jargon—a unique blend of bebop and Arabic.”
Robert Danin would note in Black Pilgrimage to Islam, “…Gillespie’s big band was a training ground for many of the great names in modern jazz…Curiously, it also proved to be fertile soil for Islamic dawa. In Philadelphia, Rainey met Sheik Nasir Ahmad. He soon converted to Islam, taking the name Talib Dawud. The band’s young tenor saxophonist, Bill Evans, followed him, taking the name Yusef Lateef, as did Lynn Hope, who became Hajj Rashid after making pilgrimage to Mecca in 1958. The drummer, Kenny Clarke, changed his name to Liaquat Ali Salaam and Oliver Mesheux became Mustafa Dalil.” Others included, Art Blakey, Fard Daleel, Nuh Alahi, McCoy Tyner, Ahmad Jamal, Dakota Staton (Aliya Rabia) and many more. Even the late Etta James speaks of joining Ahmadiyya in her autobiography, Rage to Survive, saying she did well for awhile but it became too "hard to keep up hanging with characters like James Brown..."
There are so many chapters we could cover in this story of Ahmadiyya in America and its influence and impact on not just African-American Islam but Islam in America. We’ve barely scratched the surface here today but hopefully this little scratching has gotten you itching for a little more...
In closing, I’d like to speak directly to the members of the Ahmadiyya Movement. Our hero is Our history...this is our story to tell to the world. What will they say about our time.....our generation .... What will future history books say about you and I? Will we help the statistics improve from the alarming, genocidal rates seen in violence, drugs, fatherlessness, disease, illiteracy,pain,agony, hopelessness and despair....I want to offer this reminder for those of you who are still listening ... Our Muslim legacy is rich with history makers, risk takers, community builders, like our fathers... Ali Razaa, Abdul Malik, and Abdul Hakeem, who weren't afraid to establish new Muslim communities....pulling personalities from the toughest to the most talented. They weren't afraid to step beyond their comfort zone to do the needed prophetic work. Or our mothers... Nasirah Razaa, Mubaraka Malik, and Rashidah Saeed, who all modeled what love in action looks like...providing a cozy bed, a hot plate and constant encouragement with open arms. They were our first teachers. They established and welcomed us as family...never judging...just loving us through. As African-Americans we take pride in our Black history.
We find strength in Fredrick Douglass, tenacity in Harriet Tubman and great resolve in W.E.B DuBois. But we must bring our muslim american history to life...be firm...authentic...be heard and know we/you are relevant. These are early pioneers who sacrificed, who endured, who paved this road, poured this foundation that we stand on today. We thank Almighty Allah for those that came before us ...Brother and Sister Ali of St. Louis, Sister Ameenah and Brother Uthman Khalid, Br. Hanif Ahmad, Br. Abdul and Sis. Mubarak Malik, Sis. Hameeda Khatoon Chambers, Br. Abdul Jamil, Br. Mohsin Rashid, Br. Sultan Lateef, Br. Muhaimam Karim, Br. Muksit Saabir, Br. Fahim Ahmad, and my own heart Sis. Rashidah Saeed. For them and countless others who live in our hearts and prayers we ask Allah, the Most High to provide them the best of rewards and to give us the strength to be the answer during this era, Assalaam Alaikum.
Hafiz Nasiruddin
Sadiq Mosque, Chicago, 2012
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