 Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem, Bismillahir Raheem, Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem, Alhamdulillah, our Lord is the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, peace be upon you, and peace be upon you, and peace be upon you, and peace be upon you, and peace be upon you, Alhamdulillah, this is the last minute, like history month lecture. It could have been next Thursday, but next Thursday is not February, so it's no longer Black History Month. That's not sound reason. Anyway, but I think it's a great opportunity as Muslims to learn something by Idnilahi about the history of Muslims, primarily Muslims of African descent in the Americas, and what are the implications of that for us? I listened recently to a fairly idiotic talk by this Muslim who was interlocutor, was some non-Muslim Southern guy, and they were talking about basically how we don't need Black History Month, because if we have Black History Month, then we have to give the Italians, we have to give everyone a month. And so the problem with that, brothers and sisters, is that everyone is not an indigenous community in this country. There are three indigenous communities. In other words, communities that were firmly established at the time that the country was founded. Those three indigenous communities are the native people, of course, who were generally killed, destroyed, and wiped out. The European settlers and the African slaves. Now, the difference between the European settlers and the African slaves is that before the first Europeans, so they say, Columbus discovered America in 1492. An interesting date, because that's the date the last Muslims were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula, or the end, the fall of Granada, and the end of Muslim political power. The Great Expulsion was in 1613 after the Inquisition, and after the forced conversion of all the Muslims to Christianity, they became what were known as Moriscos. So in any case, so even before 1492, there's archeological evidence that Muslims were in the Americas, north, central, south, and the islands of the Caribbean. Overwhelming evidence. If you want to read up one of the most significant books in this regard is a book by Dr. Ivan Van Serteman. These Muslims who were in the Americas were from West Africa. And in the interest of time, in the interest of time, we won't go into some of the evidence that he presents, but it's very strong evidence. Unlike, and so a lot of people, and you'll see this online because it's generally living in a very kind of anti-Muslim climate. Muslim does anything you have to, even if it's positive, you have to put some, we say throw some shade on it. So they say, oh well, the Vikings were here before the Muslims are. So not to get into who came first contest, but unlike the Vikings or other European explorers, Muslims established relationships with the native people. So there was a textile industry and exchange. There was a evidence of a very vibrant trade between West Africa and the Americas and the islands of the Caribbean. Anyway, before British colonization, Spanish colonization. So the initial colonizers were the Spanish. And the British and French came later and generally further to the north. So you end up with Quebec and Canada, which was started as a French colony. So in any case, the Spanish were bringing African slaves to the Americas. The Muslims were very, very rebellious because Muslims did not like being slaves. As a result in 1522, I gave this talk with greater detail because I had more time at the lighthouse. I mentioned Don Carlos Colombo, Don Diego Colombo. On the plantation of Don Diego Colombo was the first slave revolt. It was under led by a group of Wallow Senegalese Muslims. Now the significance of this, not only is it the first organized slave revolt. So the Muslims have been a problem from the very beginning. Not only was the first organized slave revolt, but Don Diego Colombo is the son of Christopher Columbus. And so you see the Muslims are integrally wrapped up with the very history of this so-called New World. So much so that Christopher Columbus's son's plantation was the site of the first slave revolt. And that first slave revolt was undertaken by the Muslims. Now the Spanish issued several edicts forbidding the importation of Muslims. So these Muslims, what they feared, one of the things they most feared and they stated this is that the Muslims will convert the native people to a slave. As a result, we have records of Muslims who were either killed or imprisoned for life or making dow. So for example, in 1540, near present-day Mexico City, there was an escaped slave who ran away. He was living amongst the native people. Then was Pedro Gilafor. Gilafor was the Spanish for Walloff. He was also Senegalese Muslim. He was boiled to death in a pot of oil, a cauldron of oil for his activities amongst the native people. So if you think you have it hard, in 1562 in Peru, two Muslims run by the name of Luis Salano and another by the name of Lupe de La Peña. Luis Salano was killed in the records state for practicing and propagating Islam. Lupe de La Peña was sentenced to life in prison for practicing and propagating Islam. And so the Muslims, not only were maintaining their religion, they were seeking to spread their religion. Which means what? That they weren't ashamed to be Muslims even under the conditions of slavery. And so again, what relevance does that have for us? What is our attitude on the condition of total freedom? These are ancestors. And when I say our ancestors, not just people of African descent. They are spiritual ancestors. They belong to every Muslim. Every Muslim should relate to their story. Otherwise, those of us who aren't Arab, why should we relate to the Sahaba? Because they are spiritual ancestors. Why do we relate to the mothers of the believers? We're not blood descendants of them. We're not their great-great-to-the-whatever-power-grandchildren because they are our spiritual mothers. Why should we relate to Ibrahim? Millatabikum Ibrahim because he's our spiritual father. All right. And so these are our spiritual ancestors. And that's very important. Why? Because in, this was on the island, this revolt was on the island of Hispaniola. And they are Spanish called the present home of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Okay. So, and we'll talk about, since we mentioned Haiti, so this is Spanish colonization. Muslims were here before even British colonies. Muslims are here. You're our ancestors. Our ancestors were here. And they were not only sacrificing their blood, sweat, and tears for no compensation to build this place. They were being killed, martyred for practicing and propagating the faith. So we should never forget that. As we mentioned Haiti, the Haitian Revolution, the greatest slave revolt in the history of humanity. That's what the Haitian Revolution was. The greatest, most successful slave revolt in the history of humanity. At the heart of it, there were two Muslims. One is Mecandal, Mandinka. Mecandal was an island. He was totally fluent in Arabic. This is the records. Now we're, now we're French. Same island, no, Haiti under French colonization. Massive coffee and sugar plantations. Mecandal was working in the sugar press. One of the features of the sugar press is that when slaves are feeding the canine to be crushed, if their hands got caught, their arm would be chopped off because it was cheaper to get a new slave than it was to stop the press. So Mecandal had his right hand was chopped off. Eventually he ran away and he was at large. He was sought by the French. He lived in the mountains of President de Haiti and Dominican Republic for 18 years, wreaking havoc on the plantation and the owners, the slave owners. He specialized in poisoning their wells and some of them also. The French claimed he was responsible for 6,000 deaths. He was resisting. He was finally captured. He escaped and then he was recaptured and he was killed in 1752 while he helped to lay the groundwork for the Haitian Revolution. Closer to the actual time of Haitian liberation, the great uprising, one of the leaders was Bookman who came to Haiti from Jamaica. Bookman was a nickname given to Muslims because Muslims were known to carry their Korans around with them. So they were called Bookman. So Bookman came from Jamaica to Haiti and he led the great slavery boat finally being killed in 1791. So two of the greatest figures in Haitian history, two of the greatest instigators of Haitian independence were Muslim, a candle and Bookman. Now someone would say, well, the revolt couldn't have been all that. Look how poor Haiti is today. You know why Haiti is so poor? You have a little, a small nation because the Haitians paid in today's term from the time of their independence until the 1930s almost $30 billion in gold to the French as reparations. So next time a European tells you they don't believe in reparations, say you believe in them when someone's paying them to you like the Haitians in Haiti honored that which because thousands of plantations were destroyed and the independent Haitians agreed to pay the French slave owners, colonizers, reparations and that basically drained Haiti of all the finance capital that could have been invested in building up the island. That's what Haiti's amongst other reasons. There are some other significant reasons is impoverished through the extinct standard is now but that doesn't undermine the fact that they fought for and they secured their independence and they drove the French off of their islands and the greatest and most successful slave revolt in human history. So again, notice the dates. We're just beginning to see the birth of the United States but even before that during the time of the British colonies. So during the time of the British colonies you have Muslims who are being brought into the Americas. Perhaps the most famous was a was an alum. He was the son of the leader of his people who came from a place at the time who was taken into bondage in 1731. And notice 1731 America is not America yet. This is the British colonies. He was taken into slavery on his way back to his homeland of Bundu in eastern present day eastern Senegal close to Guinea. Ayou bin Suleiman. Ayou bin Suleiman known in these parts as Job bin Solomon. His biography written by an individual by the name of Thomas Blunt, B-L-U-E-T-T is called The Fortunate Slave. Just to show the place of Muslims and overall African-American history this is the oldest extant work of African-American literature. This is the oldest existing work about an African in the Americas. The Fortunate Slave. I saw an original copy at the Shamburg Museum in New York City. Why was he the Fortunate Slave? As we said he came to Annapolis, Maryland 1731 sold into bondage in Kent County, Maryland. Like many slaves, he ran away. The reason he ran away, so he ran away when they caught him in Pennsylvania. He told them he's a Muslim. He wrote Arabic. They couldn't read Arabic. Probably they couldn't read anything because remember universal public education didn't start until the mid 19th century under the leadership of Jules Burns in post-revolutionary France. So generally people couldn't read or write. For that reason many of the Muslim slaves who were totally literate in Arabic they became the bookkeepers of the plantations because the numbers you could recognize those. In any case, Fortunate Slave. So he's captured. He's brought back to his plantation. What usually happens when a runaway slave is brought back to the plantation that he or she ran away from? And you see roots? What happened to Junta Kente slash Toby when he kept running away? He'd beaten brutally. Then they finally chopped his foot off. So you're not going to run away anymore. Hey, you've been Suleiman, the Fortunate Slave. His owner asked him, why'd you run away? He said, I couldn't pray in peace. I'm doing my Salat and your bratty kids are pouring pouring dirt on my head. So he said, we could fix that. He gave him a Musalla. He said, you pray in this room. He's the Fortunate Slave. He still wasn't happy because he was from cattle pastoral people. So they put him over the livestock. Still wasn't happy. He wrote a letter in Arabic to be taken to his father back in Africa to send gold to purchase his freedom. Remember, his father was the leader of his people back in Bundu. The letter was sent. He heard that Captain Pike who was the captain of the ship that had brought him to Annapolis that the ship had returned a year later. He sent the letter to Pike to take back to Africa. When the letter reached Annapolis, Pike had sailed on to England. The letter was sent to England. When the letter got to England, Pike had sailed on to West Africa. The letter ended up in the hand of James Oglethorpe. Anyone who know, wasn't at the Lighthouse last week, who James Oglethorpe is? Actually someone last week they knew. James Oglethorpe was to become, once he went to the American colonies, one of the founders of the originally slave-free colony of Georgia. At this time, Oglethorpe was in England. Oglethorpe sent the letter to Oxford University where it was translated from Arabic into English by one of the Orientalist scholar. Oglethorpe was so intrigued by the euridition of a Yubeminsule man, he sent the money to Maryland to purchase his freedom. He's a fortunate slave. Now he was in bondage for 18 months. He left America or the British colonies in 1733. Six weeks sailing across the ocean, he learned English. Because he didn't learn English during those 18 months. These are adults. You drop a kid anywhere. If they're from three years old to eight years old, they'll learn the language in six months. No accent. Adults don't learn like that. Adults working on a slavery plantation definitely don't learn like that. Adults in an environment where you're beaten if it's found out that you're learning to read or write, definitely don't learn like that. And so a lot of people will condemn and say, African-Americans, why do you speak these ebonics? Why don't you all learn the Queen's English? When you get beaten for learning the Queen's English, you tend to develop other means of expression that don't always conform to the rules that have been laid down by the Queen to speak in the most distinguished and intelligible way. Anyway, he's a fortunate slave. He learns English six weeks on the boat. Gets to England. He's so impressive that he starts debating in English the scholars at Oxford and Cambridge. And they're so impressed. Actually, I have a picture of them. So I need to dispatch someone to my car. You have the key. Go get the book out of the back seat. Thank you, young man. You're a gentleman and a scholar. Most importantly, a decent guy. So we have a picture of Ayub and Suleyman. He has an audience with the Queen. He's inducted as a full member into the Spalding Regent Society at the time the most prestigious academic society on Earth whose membership included Sir Isaac Newton and Alexander Pope. And Ayub and Suleyman as a full member. Not an honorary curiosity as a full member. Much of what we know about his life comes from the record of the Spalding Regent Society. His portrait was painted. Now this shows again, this is a lesson for us. He was wearing European clothes. He had been sold into bondage. He's in England. He refused to be painted in anything other than his native dress. And so when the artist who painted him, he said, how can I do that? I've never seen your native dress. He said, you got pictures of Jesus everywhere in his native dress and you never saw him. So he described it. And so based on his description, the artist paint the picture that you'll see momentarily and shall not happen. So he's the fortunate slave. He gets an audience with the Queen. The Queen's outfits him with a ship load of the latest books and scientific instruments, etc. Make some a full agent of the Royal African Company, which isn't necessarily a good thing and then sends him back to Africa as a free man. Fortunately, Ayub and Suleyman while he was in England, one of the things he did, he wrote three copies of the Quran from his memory. I have a photocopy of one of the pages of one of those Musaqs. He was trained and that's why he could debate. He was trained in rhetoric, logic. Thank you, sir. The gentleman and the scholar, as I said, most important and decent guy. This is Ayub and Suleyman as he was painted by the artist based on his description. This is how you paint me in my dress. So what is the point for us? Don't be ashamed to look like a Muslim. Don't be ashamed to look like a Muslim. It's good for your health. And if you think it's tough, this is Ayub and Suleyman. So he just came out of a situation of bondage and they never broke his will. They never stole his dignity because no one can steal your dignity. You can only give it away. As Muslim, we shouldn't give it away. It's not for sale and you definitely not getting it for free. So, unfortunately, now when he's going back to the Wundu, he has guns and pistols and the plane hooked them up. He also has a European travel companion. I'll put out his name. They encountered the same slaving party that had kidnapped him and sold him to Captain Pike. So he's ready to pull out his gun and start blasting. But his European companion, he said, They outnumber us because they had those old school guns and when you put the shot, there's gunpowder. He might have gotten one of them. So he said, no, we can't do it that way. We're outnumbered. So just relax. So they didn't recognize him. He has these European clothes on at this point. It's been a few years. So he asked him, you remember this Fulani guy? Sold to Captain Pike. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They said a funny thing happened. We sold the guy. We got some guns, amongst other things, and we gave one of the guns to our king as a gift. Then one day the gun went off and killed the king. He said, okay, I don't need any revenge. That was great. So he's the fortunate slave. Now this is British colony. Right after independence, same date, 1731, Ibrahim Abdul Rahman is captured in a battle sold in the slavery, sails across the Atlantic, across the Caribbean. Arduous journey ends up in Natchez, Mississippi. Like, hey, you've been Suleiman. Some of you saw the PBS kind of, what would you call that? Half feature film, half documentary. He runs away, but he soon consigns himself to his fate and he goes back and he becomes again, he becomes the bookkeeper of the plantation. And so Mr. Cox, who owns the, or Foster, who owns the plantation won't sell him at any price. Now he was, he's called Prince. You can read his book. So a beautiful book, a beautiful, well-documented, thorough book. The whole book is about Ibrahim Abdul Rahman. It's called Prince Among Slaves by Terry Alfred. I highly recommend it. Now the thing, he was called Prince because of his regal stature. He carried himself like a prince. The reality was he was a prince. He was the son of Ibrahim Sori. Ibrahim Sori was the, after Karamako Alpha, the unifier of the Fulani people in present day Guinea, Fouta Jalon. He was the son of Ibrahim Sori, Maudou, the great. He was a prince. And there's something interesting in his story. Well, he was a young man. Now both Ayoub bin Suli man and Ibrahim Abdul Rahman studied in Timbuktu. I was blessed to go to Timbuktu. It was, it was overland. It was, it was, you understand if you go to Timbuktu why Timbuktu is like a metaphor for a distant, far off place. So even in American lore, Timbuktu has its place. Some of you remember the 1920s New York Yankees. Anyone baseball fans, you could be a Muslim and good. You're not wasting your time with that nonsense. But Babe Ruth, now how many of you heard of Lou Gehrig? Lou Gehrig, he had ALS and in fact the disease is named after him. Lou Gehrig's disease. So they would say, come on babe, come on Lou, hit that ball to Timbuktu. Or was it Kalamazoo? Whatever it was, Timbuktu is far. But it was one of the greatest centers of learning in the history of this Umba. One million manuscripts to this day in Timbuktu. Every religious and worldly science is captured in those manuscripts. So they studied there. I went there. I'm praying everyone prayed. I pray that they prayed here and praying and making dua. Get some of that. Allah Akbar. In any case, so Ibrahim Abdul Rahman, this would be 1791. He comes in Natchez, Mississippi. When he was a young man back in Fouta Jalon, a European explorer was lost. His father's soldiers found this guy, brought him to their town, nursed him back to help. He passed through Natchez, Mississippi. He saw Ibrahim Abdul Rahman in the marketplace and he was stunned. Said, this man's father saved my life. He went to Mr. Foster and he begged and cajoled. He tried. He wouldn't. He said Prince is not for sale at any price. His prince was literally running the plantation. Not for sale. 1827 fast forward after all these years in bondage. He writes a letter in perfect Arabic West African script to be sent to the king of Morocco. Now that shows several things. Number one, he was able to retain his literacy. He was able to retain. He was able to maintain his literacy after all of those years in bondage. That's very important. How was he able to do that? If you read the book, the Soviet books, amongst others, I suppose it's down here. Koran's were circulating on the plantation. When the situation is allowed, this is especially popular in Jamaica and Brazil. Slaves are actually learning in Brazil in madrasas. They had the low hat. They were recreating the educational foundation that's needed for the Muslim community. Slaves would ask for slaves who are going to Africa to bring them back. Masahed bring them back copies of the Quran. And so sometimes they would write in the dirt. The various chapters of Quran then erase it. So they had means to maintain their literacy. It also shows the networks that the slaves had established that rather the African Muslims had established amongst themselves in West Africa and those that reached across the Sahara because the relations between Muslims in Africa until the Moroccans invaded Sungei and overthrew and captured Gau on the Niger River. And Askeo Muhammad fled down river with 2,000 canoes. And so this was 1599. There was no armed Arab invasions of Africa. So you'll find some non-Muslim pan-African, say the African, the Arabs. I want to say Arabs, the Arabs. The Arabs invaded Africa and forced the conversion. And Islam is not a true African religion. It's hogwash. Islam spread peacefully in Africa. Starting with the Najashi during the time of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in Ethiopia. And then from that time forward, through the schools, through teachers, through mystics, through various peaceful means. So when the Moroccans invaded in 1599, all of that area, the entire Sahel, was already Muslim. And so when they got to Timbuktu, they found a great center of learning that was at that time presided over by a great Sheikh Ahmed Bamba, who they feared so much they exiled him to Morocco. When he got to Morocco, he couldn't even have a halakha like this. His level was too high. So he established a halakha to teach the Qadis, to teach the judges, and the Muftis. That's who were in his halakha, Rahimahullah. So this was Islam in Africa. And all these great luminaries studied there. And then they were brought to this land. They were alams. They were scholars of the religion. His letter ended up in Morocco. The U.S. Embassy in Tunja, Tangier. And then it was sent to the king of Morocco. Now Morocco has a distinction. This is also something that the Muslim-hating people don't tell you. Morocco was the first independent sovereign nation to extend diplomatic recognition to the newly established United States of America. I have a copy of the treaty. And where is it at? Somewhere. It used to be on the thing. I'm trying to think. Where'd it go? I'm in a smaller space right now. It's all good, though. I have it somewhere. The point is, so the king of Morocco sends through the ambassador at Tunja, Tangier Tunja. He, the ambassador, sends a request to Henry Clay. Henry Clay was the secretary of state at the time. Henry Clay gives a request to President John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States. John Quincy Adams sends a personal request and the money to liberate Ibrahim Abdul Rahman. And he tried to gather the money. He was able touring the north to free his wife and two of his children. The other four or five had to stay behind and he sailed back to Africa as a free man. These are your ancestors. These were Muslims who were practicing Islam. There are records of Muslims fasting Ramadan on a starvation diet. The average lifetime of a slave was 15 years. Why? Because it's expensive to take care of old people. Some of you were last night. We had a little lesson. I read a text message that came from a friend of mine who goes way back to the Air Force. And he lives in Ohio now. He sent the text and he said, I don't mind getting old. It's the medical problems I hate. It's expensive to take care of old people. They say we don't have socialism, right? Our president, America will never be a socialist country for poor people. That's what he should have said because we have socialism for the rich all day long. You want an example of socialism for the rich? You look at all these corporate tax breaks. Who is going to give Amazon three billion dollars to build a factory in Queens? The New York state government with taxpayers' money to go right into Mr. Bezos' pocket. That's called socialism for the rich. Three billion dollars. Anyway, that's called socialism for the rich. A few million dollars for wick or food stamps. These leeches, they have another form of socialism. They say we will never have a national socialist medical program. We already do. 70 cent of every health care dollar spent in this country is spent by the government for Medicare. All the old folks in the nursing homes and the skilled nursing facilities and assisted living facilities for being paid by Medicare, your tax dollars constitute 70 cent of every health care dollar. That, my friends, is called a public national health care system. And no one's going to mess with it. That other 30 cent, that's what's being contested. Why do I say that? Slave owners isn't going to put out that kind of money to take care of all people who can't work. So they literally work the slaves to death. So you wouldn't have any old people on the plantation. It's a fact. 15 years, there's the lifespan of the slave. They literally work to death, which means what? A semi-starvation diet. Starvation diet, no energy to work. Just enough surplus energy from that diet to work in those fields, but not enough to maintain strength and vitality for very long so you work yourself to death. On that diet, Muslims are fasting. So don't tell me when you get out of your air-conditioned car, house weather, and jump in your air-conditioned car and go to your air-conditioned job, I can't fast, I'm working. Don't do that. Think about your ancestors working in the sweltering heat in Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, and Louisiana in the summertime. 100 degrees with 98% humidity. Fasting Ramadan. This is documented. This is documented. Read about it. Sovian, do you talk about this in her book, Servants of Allah? African Muslims enslaved in the Americas. All right, so right at the inception of the nation, you have Muslims. Civil War, right on the eve of the Civil War. Omar bin Suleiman. Omar bin Suleiman, Omar bin Saeed, whose diary was recently released by the Library of Congress. You can download it for free, along with the English translation. Omar bin Saeed wrote a 30-summit page autobiography, the one I just mentioned. Omar bin Saeed wrote a section of the Risale of Ibn Abi Zayed al-Qairawani. That still exists. It's a very prolific writer. They said he converted to Christianity. One of the last things he wrote, and all of this is in Arabic. He wrote everything in Arabic. One of the last things he wrote was إذا جاء نصر الله والفتح نصر من الله وفتح قريب وبشر المؤمنين. He meant from Surah Nasser and Surah Saf, merged it together. إذا جاء نصر الله والفتح ورأيت الناس يدخلون في دين الله أفواج. So did he convert? They thought he was writing the Lord's Prayer. Over here at Jambal. Look at here. My slave can write the Lord's Prayer. Look at here. He read in Arab, Arab language. Look at there. He says the Lord's Prayer. Good thing they couldn't read Arabic. Omar might have gotten in trouble. Sitting Bull used to do that also. They put him on a train and truck him around. Come see Sitting Bull and he's cursing them in his native tongue. There's only these oppressed people to learn how to act. So Omar bin Said. Now Omar bin Said died around 1860, right at the beginning of the Civil War. Thereabouts. After the Emancipation Proclamation and slaves stopped coming in, new slaves with the abolition of slavery, the Muslim communities and the Muslim presence amongst the slaves began to die out because people could practice Islam. They could fast if they wanted to. They could wear their native garb when they could afford clothing. Many slaves were naked. Like what you see in movies like 12 Years a Slave and Jango. That's just Hollywood. Many of these slave owners wouldn't clothe their slaves because they wouldn't spend the money on clothes. And Sylvia, you've talked about that also because that was in expenditure. The average slave earned for their master $257 back then. Today that will be many thousands. The upkeep was $13. And so look at the profit rate. $13 upkeep, $257 in income from the average slave. That's the... Slavery... You could read, I think, as Eric Williams talks about how slavery established the surplus capital in the 19th century that allowed America to become a 20th century superpower. That's a fact. You're talking about in today's dollars trillions of dollars. Talking over 200 years. Trillions of dollars of free labor. So what do you do with that surplus? You invest it in the factories and the infrastructure and in the military might and the battleships that paved the way for this country to become a superpower. Anyway, so the Muslim presence begins to fade. Vestiges of it, the famous Work Progress Association study in the 1930s, Sapa Lo Island in Georgia and the coastal islands off the coast of Georgia where people talked about their grandmother or grandfather praying five times a day facing the east, bowing down. So there were, as late as the 1930s there were recollections of enslaved ancestors by family members who saw them practicing Islam with their own eyes. And there are other things time doesn't allow but generally the Muslim presence died down. Now there's a very significant figure here as time expires who began by creating the consciousness. So the Muslim presence dying down, the most dominant institution in the life of African Americans primarily in the south is the black church. And so you have a very strong hold by Christianity on the lives of black folks. This individual, Edward Blyden is instrumental in opening up the psychological space for African Americans to begin contemplating Islam again. House of Blyden in the 1850s he wants to go to Queens College presently a part of Rutgers University in New Jersey to study. They say, sorry Ed you're a black man you can't study here but we'll cut you a deal. We'll send you to Africa as a missionary. What a deal, right? You can't study here but you can go propagate the religion that runs the school that won't let you study in it. He took the deal. So Blyden goes to West Africa ostensibly as a missionary. Well in West Africa now Blyden is a pan-Africanist. Blyden has begun to study African people in the diaspora. So all around was called the black Atlantic the Caribbean Brazil should we come back after Asia and finish? Alright, come back after Asia. Through the schools the Sancori University Muslims are coming from all over the world to Timbuktu and so there are networks that are established and Blyden being a pan-Africanist he says he posits that maybe if Islam is spread amongst the African peoples in the diaspora it can unify the people and so he amongst other things he writes a book a very influential book the latter half of the 19th in African-American into circles Christianity, Islam and the Negro race so as I said in intellectual circles people begin to contemplate Islam as the foundation of a solution to the problems of African people in the diaspora and so this space was opened up to a large extent by the work of Blyden now there's a historical question here did Blyden ever become a Muslim? did he convert? there's a debate some say he did some say he didn't but his books were very influential and probably this is the most influential of his books and you can get it if you want to read it it's available it was repented by Edinburgh Press a couple decades ago Edinburgh University Press excuse me now as we move into the 20th century so generally speaking the presence of Muslims is dying out but thinking about Islam is starting to manifest itself now you have something at the beginning of the 20th century that revolutionizes the nature of the African-American community here in the United States I mean the United States what happened during this period in African-American and then wider American history? no I mean yes but not of primary import the great migration from the south to the north so you have the creation of these massive northern ghettos these new communities are cut off from the full impact of the black church that being the case experimentation with new forms of religious expression began to manifest themselves the first of these in Newark, New Jersey in 1913 when a man by the name of Noble Drew Ali not Newark, California establishes the Moorish Science Temple now the Moors more of this the Spanish word for Muslim and we even to just skip back very quickly in the interest of time when we were talking about the Spanish in the early 1500s we could have mentioned Columbus himself Columbus in his journals when he sailed past the southern coast of Cuba he noted that there was a beautiful mosque on the hill near the shore Cortes in his diary now Columbus these were all this is the height of the inquisition they all knew how to recognize a mosque Cortes when he gets to Tanachalachin the capital of the Aztec Empire he notes in his journal that there are beautiful temples and mosques both if he said beautiful mosques someone could say he meant temples if he said beautiful temples they say yeah he meant temples he said there are beautiful temples and mosques and we mentioned how the Spanish feared the spread of Islam what was the rallying cry of the conquistadors in the Americas Santiago Metamoros Santiago St. James the Muslim slayer Santiago Metamoros St. James killed the Muslims that was the rallying cry in the Americas and we know there are cities called Metamoros scattered throughout the Americas why is that question that awaits your serious research and investigation but back to the 20th century so the great migration creates this space people being cut off not totally because the church goes but the full sociological and socializing impact of the black church remains in the south and in these northern ghettos that are created through the great migration you begin to see other forms of religious expression one of these being the more science temple eventually in 1930 in Detroit, Michigan you have the beginning of the nation of Islam from Detroit temple number one to Chicago temple number two to Washington DC temple number three and then when Malcolm comes in but we'll get to that you have the nation of Islam really taking off before then those you have the more science temple you have the individual who's not a Muslim but again to show how Islam is intertwined in African American history probably one of the greatest 10 African movements in the history of the African American people is the United Negro Improvement Association under the leadership of Marcus Garvey now Marcus Garvey was Jamaican Garvey goes from Jamaica to London in London there is a Sudanese, Egyptian individual some theory says African American who's running a pan-Africanist newspaper with an Islamic flavor and that individual is Dusey Muhammad so Dusey Muhammad becomes Marcus Garvey's mentor so Marcus Garvey was mentored by a Muslim they both leave London Marcus Garvey goes to Harlem and he starts the UNIA Dusey Muhammad so then we're talking late teens early 1920s Dusey Muhammad goes to Detroit and in Detroit he starts a multinational, multi-ethnic Islamic organization with the Iraqi Shi'is and Sunnis the Lebanese Shi'is with the other Muslims migrated there African American converts white converts they form a very powerful Islamic organization that influences Islam in Detroit to this very day if you want to read about that there's a book called Old Islam in Detroit fascinating story Old Islam in Detroit and you can see Dusey Muhammad a committed Muslim who starts this organization is the mentor of Marcus Garvey now Marcus Garvey has two very illustrious students one is a writer for his newspaper and one is an organizer in the UNIA one of his principal organizers in the Midwest who are those two individuals Earl and Louise Little who are Earl and Louise Little Malcolm X's parents Omaha, Nebraska and subsequently outside of Lansing, Michigan Earl Little is the organizer Louise Little was one of the chief writers for the Garveyite newspaper so Malcolm didn't grow up in a house Malcolm told his teacher he wanted to be a lawyer because he grew up in a home where there was intellectual life in a home where there was activism and organizing that's the the cauldron that shaped and forged Malcolm X and then his hopes were dashed and his father was murdered his mother was driven crazy he ends up out in the streets he goes to the East Coast he lives with his sister he drifts but then he eventually he comes back to his roots as if he were laying in that jail cell and he heard a voice Malcolm remember who you are you are my son Malcolm wakes up and he goes back to save the kingdom wait that's the lion king anyway you get the picture so Malcolm X comes out of this home and eventually in the mid to late 40s mid 40s Malcolm X joins Malcolm Little joins the nation of Islam and becomes Malcolm X that history is pretty well known what's not well known is that during the same time so if we go back to 1920 around that time Mufti Muhammad Sadiq he was an Ahmadi scholar of Islam from India the Indians had to live with the African Americans all people contrary to popular myth a lot of Indians are dark skinned people so they're putting in the ghetto he starts propagating Islam amongst African American peoples on the east coast he builds a movement he's a very knowledgeable person he attracts very talented individuals amongst them Sheikh Wali Ekram Wali Ekram is an African American convert who has a patent for the railroad coupler for train cars so when Mufti Muhammad Sadiq leaves America he's succeeded by an individual who doesn't know Arabic and isn't a scholar so he tries to teach a group of African American converts Urdu Urdu is a beautiful language but as a convert I can tell you when you convert to Islam you want to learn Arabic not Urdu I mean Chicken Tikka Musallah you want the basics Samosa, Biryani food you want to be able to eat well but you want to learn Arabic and so when Mufti Muhammad Sadiq goes all of these people who are with the Ahmadis they become Sunni Muslims and they go on Sheikh Wali Ekram goes on to form the first Cleveland mosque so we're talking the early 1930s simultaneously you have people who are coming out of that particular movement others who form the first Pittsburgh mosque Ezzodine village a Muslim village outside of Philadelphia you have a little later on Sheikh Dawood Faisal and his wife mother Khadija in New York City in Brooklyn so you have a number of Sunni Muslim organizations emerging then in the 1920s I mean excuse me 1960s so this is we're talking what I just mentioned 1930s so as the nation of Islam is building these Sunni movements are also building up in the African American community and so you have a a very strong Muslim presence in the African American community primarily in the urban centers of the north you have the more science temples you have a lot of mores there were fezzes their book is in the Quran they called the Quran but it's the Quran the Tibetan book of the dead in interesting ways but still this this Moorish Muslim presence they have their temples you have the nation of Islam you have these various Sunni Muslim movements all coming together in the community to establish a very high profile for Islam amongst African American people primarily as I said in the urban centers of the north you also have a lot of very prominent jazz musicians converting to Islam which also raise the Ahmed Jamal and many others so Dawood Suleiman these also raise the profile because these are celebrities and we know the power of celebrities don't with Khabib here's Khabib fight Muslim kid going to school post Khabib fight after he knocked McGregor out like hey he's one of us if he could do it I could do it so celebrities have that power and so you have a very very high profile in the community during these decades then in the 60s you have a number Malcolm starts his he leaves the nation he starts Muslim mosque incorporated brings Sheikh Hassan from the Sudan and when Malcolm's killed that morphs into several different movements you also have the emergence of the Darul Islam movement and you have in DC the emergence of the Islamic party of North American Muzaffar-ud-Din Hamidullah you have these various movements coming together coming together and Islam is a very very positive liberation of force because they're all focusing on black liberation so there's a very prominent movement now the Darul Islam movement splits in the 1980s a Sheikh from Pakistan Sheikh Jilani comes and pulls a lot of people and then this begins the movement of the Fouqara which uses called the Fouqara and so a lot of people who were in the Darul Islam movement first go to Afghanistan to try to fight the Soviet Union start to establish rural communities and compounds one in Fresno but I think the brothers and sisters move from there to South Carolina upstate New York and various parts of the country and then you have the part of the Dar that didn't go with Jilani and that part of the Dar eventually Imam Jamil Al-Amin becomes affiliated H. Rap Brown takes his Shahadim becomes affiliated with that strain of the movement so you have the nation you have the more science temple you have the Islamic party of North America you have the Darul Islam movement this is moving up the 70s 80s a little later on and here we are today now the what lessons can we take from this history as we said that this is Muslim history in America this isn't just African-American Muslim history and people make a terrible mistake because when African-American Muslims assert some sort of independent history and identity as part of the ummah so it's black nationalism but when other Muslims assert the ethnic identity we say oh they're Bosnian Muslims they're Egyptian Muslims they're Sudanese Muslims they're Pakistani Muslims to be clearly distinguished from Bengali Muslims right or wrong and so and there's nothing wrong with that as long as we're unified in terms of our purpose, our focus and our sense of mission the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam al adhan al habasha the adhan is for the al hikmatu yamanee al hikmatu yamanee al iman yamanee faith and wisdom are yamanee and if you leave the other people then there will be no one like you and the honor is given to Salman al-Farisi and he said Salman the Persian and his people so ethnic national identity is a part of our religion Allah says in the Qur'an I have made you into nations and tribes that you recognize each other not that you build these mutually exclusive movements that undermine each other and we know that you recognize each other and recognize the distinction and the uniqueness and the contribution each people have to make to the overall your own your own your own to the overall unified so we should be cognizant of that we should embrace this history because as a this is the payoff where Muslims who might not be of African descent embrace this history you no longer illegitimate in this country no one who can't even speak English with the Austrian accent I'm not referring to a former California governor or something like that can come to you and say you Muslims don't belong here this is a Judeo Christian country Salman you need to go study some history and get out of my face that's what happens when you embrace this history you have roots right here deep roots that predate the establishment of the country itself so this this is history to be embraced this history to be celebrated and it's a chapter in the book of the umma it's a chapter in the book of the umma and we're writing that together collectively all of us we're writing that chapter but that chapter has a very prominent section that's focused on this history we have to embrace it so I'll stop here and uh take a few questions comments Bismillah sit down yes sir why they come sit down because the slaves couldn't establish educational institutes Islam is a knowledge based religion slaves could practice Islam if they had the courage, the fortitude but they couldn't build madrasas they couldn't build masjids they couldn't build social institutions that are necessary to foster a communal existence and so as long as new slaves are coming from Africa there are new Muslims coming once you slave is over no more Africans are coming therefore no more African Muslims are coming and so then the presence of Muslims due to death another factor you notice everyone I mentioned here was a man because most of the many of the Muslim slaves they were war captives and so women weren't out fighting the wars therefore women weren't being kidnapped and sold in the slavery at the rates of men so very pious people they didn't want to marry a non-Muslim woman brothers I'm just saying they didn't that ain't right they didn't okay let me sober up so they didn't establish families and that was another reason once you stop bringing new slaves the presence begins to fade away and disappear no institutions a tendency not to marry if you couldn't find a Muslim wife and there were far more Muslim men due to the nature of how slaves were tossed and brought into bondage and so as a result it died out until the likes of Blighton began to get people thinking about Islam and a positive light and this is very now very staunch staunchly Christian environment and then the great migration creates those social spaces and dislocations that allow for the emergence of new forms of religious and African-American community does that make sense better quality sisters yes one two the French forcefully converted Muslims from the beginning the Protestants early on generally because of the this is all happening with the beginning of the enlightenment so freedom of conscious freedom of religion even in the first amendment which would come with the birth of this nation they let the Muslims practice later on with the emergence of the emancipation movements they ironic the Quakers and other emancipation societies helped to breed in an atmosphere of intolerance that led to a lot of Muslims being forced by their argument was you're kidnapping these people and then you're letting them just live like pagans you should be civilizing them and so that aided to the beginning of forced conversion and then with the emergence of various evangelical movements amongst the Protestants those led to very strong proselytization and forced conversion of Muslim slaves in reference to what what are you referring to in the con the first and second resurrection in what context in context of the enlightenment and conservative yeah the first awakening in that context the first awakening and so anyway but still despite that you have Muslims who still practice their religion as you mentioned some of these names that we mentioned Muslim women how many of you are familiar with the book of the Negroes you got it people they're doing you must be a nation of readers destroy yourself it's actually it's a it's what they call it a historical novel but it's rooted in facts so it's the story of the book of the Negroes where there's a Muslim young girl who's kidnapped along with her father actually her father is killed with a young man the kidnapped stolen in the slave her name is Amenatu so Amina and in the slave in around South Carolina owners a Jewish person she's able to gain her freedom she goes to New York during the Revolutionary War New York was under the control of the British for a long time the British offered asylum to any runaway slave so a very large colony or community of runaway slaves established itself in New York as New York was falling to the Americans the slave owners are coming to reclaim their property from the newly liberated city so the British evacuated as many people as they could and Amina was described because as a Muslim she could write who inscribed the names of the people the British were evacuating and that book became that ledger became known as the book of the Negroes and I was blessed and fortunate in one of my trips to Canada to actually go to one of the archived libraries and to search through it I was looking for Muslim names in it and so that was a Muslim woman who has but generally you just had a far far greater presence of men because of the conditions of slavery huh? yeah I just learned that from you incorporate that into the next year's presentation I think I'm sorry for the interest of time I mean I am Malcolm X I think but the three iconic figures male figures there are many iconic female figures Thaney Luhamer Rosa Parks very but the three iconic male figures two are Muslims like the big global icons who is Malcolm X I mean Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali globally for nationally Medgar Evers and many others James Meredith but that global two of the three are Muslims and so I think their role what Ali did is miraculous in the sense that he gave he continued doing what Malcolm did Malcolm gave a voice to people who have been beat down and dehumanized and so you heard Malcolm like how could a brother talk like that not get killed and say he could do it I could do it and once Malcolm was going Ali inherited that mantle and Ali consciously he consciously cultivated that platform Ali always said boxing is a means for me to gain the stature that I need to preach Islam to the people Ali was like a die died in the world through and through so he said boxing is just a platform to give me the celebrity status that will help me to preach Islam and he actually he wanted to be the Muslim Billy Graham and he have 40 some odd speeches like sit down for a week and put in the rhetorical clear I mean well crafted speeches I heard one but I can't let anyone hear it anyway my wife doesn't even know this I just outed myself and they're filming it's been destroyed deleted but I mean he was serious about that he wanted to be the Muslim Billy Graham like I'm going to shout and preach Islam to the world at the same level Billy Graham and he was sharpening his oratory skill I said he wrote 40 some odd speeches to do just that and then Allah took his voice and he realized that you have to touch people in a different way and he was able to do that miraculously so Ali is an icon these are not even one in a generation figures these are once in a century figures that Allah brings up wisdom that he understands best to serve a purpose and then they're gone you catch them you catch them if you miss them you miss them but it could be anyone that's why it is very important Allah Allah Allah Allah to have taqwa and faith and Allah will use you in ways that you can never perceive so that was Muhammad Ali and MashaAllah MashaAllah this great great great individual who cast a long shadow on this and he was a Allah Ali had no bodyguards I mean he was the death threats I mean Malcolm was killed for less Dr. King was killed for less Ali is 10 I ain't going to fight your wars you know I'm going to I'm not going to be your your stereotypical sport champion I'm not going to box exhibitions for your army I'm not going to shut up and Allah protect him and no bodyguards he said Allah is my bodyguard well yeah and that endeared him the people he was very threatening to the people in power because after Ali what is what is Stokely Carmichael start telling people hell no we won't go hell no so Ali was threatening to the bad people but is very attractive to the good people and all over and look at Ali's life like at first he's champion of african-american people heavyweight champion defiant then he becomes Muhammad Ali Nazi champion of the whole Muslim world the Turks the Bosnians Arabs you name it if it's a Muslim Ali your champion he fighting people up watching the television two in the morning special broadcast then he opposes the war in Vietnam now he's the champion of the non-muslim Muslim struggling masses throughout the so-called third world and so you have a global global figure from a little skinny kid from Louisville, Kentucky anyway isolate leave me here all night yes the sister you had your hand up this is the last question slash comment well all of very strong people don't mess with them this is a second time in a week so very good a lot of bad things a lot of blessings bless your family and give everyone a long life with a lot of blessings and so we forge on may Allah bless us bless our ummah may Allah bring us together bring our hearts together bring our work together and but bless us to recognize that it's one army but it has many battalions and divisions so we're not all carbon copies of each other that we have different histories and that we should celebrate and that we should respect but we're part of one ummah and we have one destiny we have one mission but that mission has different subsets and we all have a part to play may Allah bless everyone in the name of Allah peace and blessings of Allah our master Muhammad and his family and his companions and many other may Allah bring us together and make us separate from each other we don't have we don't have we don't have we don't have we don't have we don't have Allah SWT in service for our brothers brothers, Muslims believers Allah souls send Your mercy your pardon and your forgiveness for ouridents ouraders and our meditation our believers our spiritual leaders wa mudarrisina, wa kulla man alemana wa lo harfaan, fa bariklahum, warhamhum, jami'an ya Allah, wa zid'al ahya'i minhum fi kulla qiyyya ya Allah, wa al-amwatu minhum ya Allah, fa nawir kuburahum wa wasya'a kuburahum wa atya'a kuburahum, wa fta'a fi kuburahum nawaafith, ta'ayyaroun qilalaha makanum fil janah, wa ja'al kuburahum raoudatan min riyadil jannah ya Allah, wa teqabbin minna, zinna wa la tanqusna, Allahumma farrij'anil muslimina fi kulli makan wa fi kulli balad, Allahumma farrij'anil muslimi wa khaffith'anil muslimi, Allahumma thabbit kulu ta'hi kulubana wa thabbit ka'akdamana wa astur'u iubana wa auqif hurubana, wa teqabbin minna jami'an ya Allah, anta meunana fa unsurna adil qumil kathireen bi barakat al-Qur'an al-Azim wa bi hurmati man arsaltu rahmatan lill alameen, Sayyidina wa Habibina wa kurrati a'yunina Muhammad, sallallahu alayhi wa alihi wa sahbihi wa salam tassinima katireen, Subhana Rabbika Rabbil Izzati, amma yasifuna wa salaman al-Mursaleen, wa alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen, wa sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa salam tassinima katireen al-Fatiha.