News:
All throughout the major headlines is the news of the grand jury’s decision not to indict Darren Wilson, a Ferguson, Missouri police officer who shot and killed the unarmed African-American teenager Michael Brown about three months ago. This verdict unleashed fury and disbelief of the judicial system in African American communities all throughout the United States. A fresh wave of violence hit the streets of American cities by some areas calling for the dispatch of the National Guard for additional protection to subdue the heightened riots calling for justice. (Source: The New York Times and Press TV, November 26, 2014)
Comment:
90 US cities held mass protests as a backlash to the grand jury decision. More than 2100 National Guard troops have been sent to Ferguson, Missouri to quell the eruption of the riots. Major streets, highways, and bridges have been blocked as protestors took to the streets including New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, and in front of the White House. Tempers raging, utter shock for the total disregard for the dead teenager – who an unarmed African American teenager also a US citizen- was gunned down. Too often has this scene occurred: different face different state all ending in the same consequences – falling victim to white police brutality and this case ended with fatal results. We see the legal criticism of what the officer should have done and what type of protocol to follow. But is that the real issue of the fallout of the national riots?
The underlying basis for this type of incidents occur and have been occurring throughout American history from the early beginnings of the newfound country to the rise of its American hegemony over the international scene. It still battles the same battle that shakes the government to its core. The issue of race and its impact on the make-up of society. When scrutinizing intensely racism is the absolute disease that eats up the American public. No matter how strong America is on the global scene and foreign policy – in its own backyard – racism still brings it down to its knees.
This is the question on everyone’s minds – how is this happening in the superpower domain? Is racism and prejudice woven in the fabric of American society? We see the prejudice towards anyone non-white be they, Muslims, African Americans, and Mexicans, migrant workers, and immigrants seeking a better life opportunity and even extending to women. How demeaning that this discussion still exists in today’s time!
Capitalism since its inception has yet to gather the various colors, races, ethnicities, and religions despite all the civil rights movements, amendments atop amendments, and Supreme Court Rulings all take the American public back to square one. Touting democratic rights making widespread claims of human rights for all people – overseas; yet grapple to find peace and harmony in its borders. Raw emotions allow observers to see the depth of the rottenness of ingrained prejudice into American ideology that when shone to the light reveals all its holes.
Just as the issue of rights for the black people come into the spotlight, attached is the minority discourse. Is the stagnant issue of majority vs. minority debate ever going to be solved?
In today’s cruel world, there does exist a solution that will bring harmony in society and to humanity, that can be found in the ideology or Deen of Islam. What causes these various groups of people to be united not only by geographical borders but also to the creed deep within the hearts of the people of various colors and ethnicities? Even after almost a century of the system being absent from the lives of the newer generations of the Muslims… what kind of ideological creed holds and combines the people from all around the world on the belief of La Illaha Illa Allah Muhammad Rasool Allah – this is what Islam is what it stands for humanity as a cathartic relief from all the chokehold of hatred, cruelty, sexism and prejudice to the point it severely affects the American perception of what is good and evil simply based on the stereotypes handed down from generation to generation and projected by the media. When does one stop to question this? Until how many Michael Browns have to be killed or how many hate campaigns need to churned out in order for the general public to realize they will never be “cured” from the disease they suffer unless they change the foundation their lives are based upon. Eric Draister, Founder of stopimperialism.org, said during a Press TV interview on November 26, “American culture is utterly hollow” and there is “the myth of democracy” in the United States. Numerous civil rights advocates also reiterate these sentiments, especially from the African American communities.
Whereas in the Islamic State –majority and minority group of people is a foreign concept since all those who hold the “tabiyyehiah” [belonging to the State or the closest meaning being citizenship] be they the original inhabitants of the land or the newly annexed people to the State. Here one holds full rights and protection granted by the Legislator, Allah Almighty, even though one may not be of the Muslim faith. In the Islamic Khilafah State, groups of people are not deprived of their responsibilities or rights due to their skin color or faith. It serves as a wonder to others that in today’s time the Muslim Ummah identifies with other Muslims all around the world with full empathy and compassion of their suffering or their happiness without ever seeing them or knowing them personally. Even though the Islamic State has been absent for almost a century, this bond still remains intact, Muslims as a group going back to the ideological bond view other people as human beings. This is radically different to the perspective in the American society, which still faces all sorts of societal dilemmas based on prejudice. How senseless can this discussion exist in this time and age. Western thinkers marvel at the unique creed of Islam that combines and gathers humans without the notion of any race being superior over another as if that race had any control over being born into that specific race. Stereotypes and formed perceptions that oppress and restrict people from reaching their full potential due to the limitations forced upon them. As we see in the United States, countless surveys show the trends of the poorest less educated lower job ranks all belong to the race outside the white race. The labels attached to the “outsiders” is one of suspicion and hostility and fear. Islam in its belief system elevates the human mind and its perceptions to see beyond skin color and taking the focus to one’s actions – and that acts as the measure for judgment. The Muslim is not superficial in thinking or behavior nor views skin color or a specific ethnicity as the determinant to worldly success.
While the civil rights groups and judicial panels still ponder on how to solve the crisis of racism, the answer will never be found in their ideology. Whereas Islam holds the truest solution which raised the freed black slave to the same status as the rich master during the noble Prophet Muhammad’s time in which he admonished the Arabs for their ignorant views more than 1400 years ago.
Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Um Muhanad