how islam dealt with racism

7/30/2019 How Islam Dealt With Racism

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How Islam dealt with RacismBy Abdul Wahid

Racism has featured heavily in the UK over the past few weeks.

The conviction of two men for the cold-blooded racist murder of Stephen Lawrence18 years ago has been the most emotive issue - but by no means the only one.

The media attacked Dianne Abbotts clumsy remarks when she generalized thatwhite people [meaning 19th century colonialists] used to divide and rule blackpeople in the past - a generalisation that some might defend when one considersthat more than a few of those colonisers were reinforced in their actions by beliefsof their innate racial superiority.

Aside from this, the past few weeks has seen racist abuse toward Oldham football

player Tom Adeyemi, amongst other concerns about racism in football; and a pollof a thousand people in the newspaper the voice that showed 83% felt racism wasworse in the UK since the Macpherson report.

All of this has occurred against the backdrop of rising racist attitudes within Britain- whether the softer aspects that surround negative attitudes towards immigrants orthe harsher voices of the English Defence League in their xenophobia focusedagainst Muslims.

Racism emerges from a tribal mentality, where people feel bound together by theirbonds of tribe or race.

This is the history of tribalism down the ages, and it hasnt fundamentally altered.

Europes history of tribalism has been exacerbated by several factors.

In particular the nation state idea promotes a national identity - which all too easilyfosters a sense of national superiority and consequently nationalism. Nationalidentity is nothing more than a modern version of tribalism.

Also, the ideas that underpinned capitalist states wholly failed to build a bond that

connected people to each other in powerful way that supersedes tribalconnections.

Western states have wrestled endlessly trying to create a mentality that bindspeople together as human beings, but find it fraught with contradictions.

Muslims and Racism

Sadly, Muslims today are wholly not immune from racism.

They too have adopted the nation state as their modern day equivalent of tribe andtried to encourage feelings of a national identity in the Muslim world, soinstitutionalising division.


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We have all sensed how racist some of the Arabs are to the Pakistani, Indian andBangladeshi workers. Or how parents from the Indian subcontinent think aboutmarriage prospects for their children when faced with going outsidetheir owncultural and racial boundaries.

Yet, Islam did manage to overcome barriers of race and skin colour for centuries.Indeed, it still does better than most. A trip to Makkah or Medina shows howcomfortable Muslims are praying and worshipping side by side.

The region that is today called Saudi Arabia - where the Al-Saud family sits at thetop of a hierarchy that puts other Arabs from Hijaz and Najd second, followed byother gulf Arabs, and then all the rest - was not once a melting pot as pilgrimsvisited there and then settled. An average Saudi living in the Hijaz region couldlook white or black, or could pass for an Indian or may have slightly orientalfeatures descending from the Mongols. Even some of the their surnames betraytheir geographic diversity.

How did Islam manage to achieve this?

It stems back to the core Islamic beliefs laid down in the Quran and the Sunnah ofthe Prophet [sallallahu alaihi wassalam].

Allah SWT says in the Quran: O mankind, indeed We have created you from male

and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another.

Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you.

Surah al-Hujurat (49:13)

Allah SWT has addressed all humanity in this verse of Quran - not one sectionalone such as male or female, black or white, young or old.

He reminds humanity that it shares a common Creator, a common ancestrydespite the diversity of gender, race and geographical location.

He makes it clear that none of those things convey any inherent superiority of oneperson over another. Rather it is righteousness in terms of what one believes anddoes that makes one person better or worse than another.

Beliefs and actions are the products of thoughts - so they are something anythinking person capable of undertaking actions is able to achieve.

It is the value of individuals based on merit and nothing else.

This view of the belief in diversity of humanity is not confined to one verse. Thereare others, some which even describe the diversity as a sign for people ofknowledge.

And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the diversity ofyour languages and your colours. Indeed in that are signs for those of knowledge.

Surah Rum 30:22


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The Prophet SAW reinforced this view of humanity, race, belief and action in his

teachings. In his final sermon at the Hajj he said: 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.

And when he saw evidence of a resurgence of tribalism, he spoke out against it inno uncertain terms.

Abu-Dawud reported that the Prophet (S.A.W.) said "He is not of us if he calls to

asabiyyah, and he is not one of us if he fights for the sake ofasabiyyah, and

not one of us if he dies on asabiyyah."

In another situation Imam Muslim narrates that when when two men of differenttribes disagreed, each one called to his group for help, so each group got ready to

support their man, then the Prophet (S.A.W.) said, "What is this? Are you

calling the call of the people ofJahiliyyah? Leave it, for surely it is filthy."

In another authentic narration from Abu-Dawud, the Prophet (S.A.W.) said, "Allah

(S.W.T.) took away the asabiyyah ofjahiliyyah from you, and your boasting

about your fathers. So, man is either a righteous believer or a corrupted

non-believer. You are the children of Adam, and Adam is from dirt; let men

quit their boasting of their own people, they are nothing but coal from the

coal of Hell or they will be more humiliated in the sight of Allah more than

the dung beetle that pushes dung with its nose."

All of these - and more, even harsher examples - were clear rebukes to people whoshowed any signs of an identity or bond that superceded the Islamic identity andbond - whether based on family, tribe or interest.

Moreover, he encouraged a real melting of the community into one Islamic identitythrough actions.

He elevated an Abyssinian former slave, Bilal ibn Rabah al-Habashi, to be the firstcaller to prayer. He freed Umm Ayman, also known as Barakah, who had been aslave against from Abyssinia. He encouraged the marriage between her and Zaydibn Harritha who was no less beloved to the Prophet than any son would havebeen.

This melting came through ideas: the idea that all humanity is equal in its worthregardless of race or colour and the idea that belief in Allah and His Messenger isa higher bond to unite people and regulate society.

Amongst his companions and the Muslims of the time, the Prophet managed tocreate a real bond of brotherhood by encouraging acts of charity, kindness and

sacrifice for each other.

The manifestation of this in todays day and age is that if a Muslim put their tribal


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or national loyalty and bond above that which Islam ordained, they would be doingsomething that both wronged themselves and was a divisive action.

This is clarified in the Qur'an when Allah commands Muslims to hold fast, all of

you together, to the Rope of Allah, (Islam) and do not be divided among

yourselves" [Surah al Imran:103] . This alludes to a time before Islam came toMedina, when the main tribes of Banu Aws and Banu Khazraj were at war witheach other - with the various Jewish tribes holding the balance of power in terms ofalliances they kept with either Arab tribe.

The society that Islam wants is the kind of society where people gather on theideas and beliefs alone, such that the believers will have one united Ummahdespite their differing colours, languages, ethnic backgrounds, tribes, so that itbecomes one Ummah becomes like one body.

Islam doesnt cancel races, languages, and regions, but makes them members

and parts within this one body; they move with that body towards a common goal,in a way that none of the roles of any parts of the body is canceled or conflictswith other parts.

Even beyond this, in his Islamic state that originated in Medina, he managed totake the strength of this brotherhood of Ummah, as the basis of creating a senseof citizenship, by giving worth and value to non-Muslim citizens who signed up to

his constitution - the Sahifah al Medina - and paid thejizyah tax.

A few years ago, I saw a powerful example about how these Islamic ideascancelled racially motivated anger and hostility, in a dramatic and rapid way.

There was conflict between the black community and asian community one UKcity. The asian community was made up of largely Muslims and Sikhs andtensions had become heighten to the point that sectarian conflict seemedinevitable. Amongst the asian community there was a lot of generalisation aboutblack people which was heightening the chance of sectarian conflict.

A group of Muslims circulated a leaflet entitled Bilal was a black man targetingthe Muslims from the asian community, addressing the racial aspect of theconflict. The effect - of the title above all else - had an immediate effect to

diminish the racial aspect of the conflict for the Muslim community, and so put theother issues of disagreement in perspective. It was a powerful example of how areference to Islamic beliefs and history had an effect - even amongst non-observant Muslim youth.

how islam dealt with racism

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