Arabian Knights around the campfire (Black Muslims)

Submitted by Ray Sarlin (Australia), Oct 12, 2005 at 00:56

Thirty-five years ago, as the Black Muslim Movement was gaining momentum in parallel with the anti-Vietnam War Movement, I served in the Infantry in the Central Highlands and spent many evenings conversing philosophically with my radio operator, a Black Muslim from Chicago, about life and death in the United States. I plead no special inside knowledge from those chats, but will note that I carried away a strong feeling that (some) leaders of the Black Muslim Movement had embraced Islam because (1) it demonstrated a break from the "turn the other cheek" of Christianity which suited neither their militancy nor their left-wing ideology and (2) they believed that they could fashion Islam in the USA into what they wanted it to be. These Black leaders manifested the "White arrogance" towards Arabs and other minorities that so bothered them when they perceived it applied against Blacks. Their view of Islam seemed to be that it was intellectually and politically weak and malleable.

If true, it would appear that they grasped a tiger by the tail... certainly as regards the political. Strength and weakness... I've often reflected on the paradox.

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