Muslim Thought

In the quest to indigenize, integrate, and formulate our unique culture, it remains vital to learn the history of Muslims in America in all its forms. Toward that end, the makers of “Prince among Slaves”, the story of an African Muslim prince sold into American slavery, set out to do just that - to help us understand a remarkable story in our history.

This film also won the award for the Best Documentary at the 2007 Black Film Festival. The first screening will be shown in the Washington D.C. area on December 1, 2007. For more information, please visit Tariq Nelson’s site.

MuslimThought strongly encourages everyone to support this historic premier and we look forward to the continuing success of such efforts.

Written by Danish S.

FINDING REAL SOLUTIONS

Surmounting the challenge we’ve discussed will not come with empty slogans and clamor. As any dietitian or fitness expert will tell you, when it comes to losing weight, it’s not just about diet and exercise, it’s about changing your attitude, your behavior, and your lifestyle. In the case of Muslims and the struggle to indigenize and integrate, we have to identify why we’ve been unsuccessful on a larger scale thus far (excluding Blackamerican Muslims). At the crux of that problem we will find much of it can be linked to the lack of this unique culture. The lack of it leads to an inability to connect our priorities to our reality - to put America first. Just being able to read and process the last phrase of that previous sentence without feeling alienated will require a complete change of mindset and character.

Read more »

Written by Danish S.

MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

Islamic jurists (fuquha) often include culture as a determining factor when issuing religious rulings and edicts. In religious terminology the term “‘urf” is often used to denote a similar concept. The word urf is commonly defined as “custom” but its didactics in Islamic law equates to what is referred to as “culture” in the West. For example, when Islamic scholars ask about the urf they mean in plain language, “What is the cultural norm [of a region, country, or society]?”

Read more »

Written by Danish S.

This article will be released as a series over the coming days. Please continue to check back with us and remember to help spread the word!

INTRODUCTION

Many who will read material from this site will wonder “What’s the big deal about an American Muslim identity?” or “What’s wrong with our parent’s cultures?” Some immigrant Muslims will feel slighted and others even insulted. There will be many second generation (and beyond) young people who will be further confused as their try to “fit in” in America.

Read more »

Written by Danish S.

I failed to mention in the post below that the reason I initially didn’t feel compelled to provide a more detailed analysis of the conference is because there are already several excellent ones out there.

Please check these out:

1) Tariq Nelson

2) Imam Johari Abdul Malik

3) Dr. Esam Omeish

4) Marc Manley (www.manrilla.net)

5) Umar Lee

Please feel free to leave more links for reflections and commentary on the conference in the comments section.

Written by Danish S.

We apologize for the delay in posting this but pray it will still be of benefit.

As we get ready to release some of our much anticipated content, we thought it was critical that we not let the opportunity pass to post some thoughts on this historic and momentous conference that took place this past weekend in Philadelphia, PA. The theme of the conference was “The State of the Blackamerican Muslim Community” and it was nothing short of amazing.

Read more »

Welcome to Muslim Thought!

Those of you who have already read the About Us section of this site may already be familiar with what we’ll be writing about here.

Essentially we want to make our humble contribution to the indigenization of Islam in the West. We plan to do this by analyzing various trends, events, problems, and successes (and learn our lessons from the failures too) in the Muslim community and provide various perspectives about them.

The largest and most critical issue in the challenge of Muslims and Islam being widely accepted into American society is the lack of a unique Muslim American culture. Never before in the history of Islam has a Muslim population emigrated from lands that were predominately Muslim and settled into the Western world – permanently. This has posed unprecedented challenges and tough questions for scholar and layman alike.

Fiqh issues aside, the lack of such a culture is seriously hindering the progression of Islam in the West, particularly in North America. Combine that with the “back home” mentality that is unfortunately so prevalent nowadays in the Muslim community and you have a stalemate.

We hope to keep our audience keenly aware of how we can change that by not only writing about it but informing you of and encouraging you to partake in social causes, political issues, events, and other things of interest that will further refine this process of indigenization. Additionally, we’ll propose solutions to many of the challenges Muslims face in the West and even try to re-examine classical issues in a contemporary light. Of course, at the end of the day it’s up to us as individuals to decide how we can make a positive impact in our lives and that of those around us.

How do you plan on making that impact?