Dr. Jasmin Zine is a full professor of Sociology, Religion and Culture, and the Muslim Studies Option at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada, and an affiliated faculty member with the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project (IRDP) at U.C. Berkeley, California.
In her book “Canadian Islamic Schools: Unravelling the Politics of Faith, Gender, Knowledge, and Identity” (Published by: University of Toronto Press, 2008, p. 52), Dr. Jasmin Zine wrote:
“Similarly, the Prophet in his final khutba (sermon) provides a dear basis for a spiritually centred antiracism paradigm: ‘There is no White superior to Black, or Black superior to White. There is no Arab superior to non-Arab. People are differentiated only through their piety and good actions.’ As Abou El Fadl (2002, p. 14) points out, the Qur’anic conception of justice is predicated on a high level of moral agency; Muslims are enjoined to stand up for justice even if it goes against their own interests. This is reflected in the following verse from the Qur’an: ‘Oh you who believe, stand firmly for justice as witnesses for God, even if it means testifying against yourselves, or your parents or your kin, or whether it is against the rich or poor, because God prevails upon all. Follow not the lusts of your heart lest you swerve, and if you distort justice or decline to do justice, verily God knows what you do’ (4:135). Perhaps it is this verse that inspired the great Muslim leader Malcolm X to declare: ‘I am for truth no matter who tells it. I am for justice no matter who it is for or against’ (in Myers & Jenkins, 2000, p. 32). These are only a few examples of Islam’s strong support for social and environmental justice.”
A slightly different version appeared on Jasmin Zine’s PhD thesis “Staying on the ‘Straight Path: A Critical Ethnography of Schooling in Ontario” (pp. 72-73):
Similarly, in the last sermon or khutba of the Prophet Muhammed, he provides perhaps the first clear basis for a spiritually centred anti-racism paradigm by stating that:
There is no White superior to Black, or Black superior to White. There is no Arab superior to non-Arab. People are differentiated only through their piety and good actions.
Furthermore, as Abou El Fad [2002,p.14] points out, the Qur’anic conception of justice is predicated upon a high level of moral agency, as Muslims are enjoined to stand up for justice even if it goes against their own self-interests, as related in the following verse from the Qur’an:
Oh you who believe, stand firmly for justice as witnesses for God, even if it means testifying against yourselves, or your parents or your kin, or whether it is against the rich or poor, because God prevails upon all. Follow not the lusts of your heart lest you swerve, and if you distort justice or decline to do justice, verily God knows what you do [4: 135].
It is this verse that perhaps inspired the great Muslim leader Malcolm X to say,” Tam for truth no matter who tells it. 1 am for justice no matter who it is for or against” [cited in Myers & Jenkins, 2000, p. 32]. These are only a few examples to exemplify the intrinsic basis in Islam for social and environmental justice as goals to be sought after and maintained as part of Divine ordinance. These foundations under-gird the principles in the critical faith-centred epistemology and inform the premise upon which they are based.
Malcolm X’s statements on Jews, Israel, Zionism and Christians
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabaz, born Malcolm Little and better known as Malcolm X, was an African American convert to Islam activist during the civil rights movement and a vocal spokesman for the Nation of Islam.
Malcolm X served as the public face of the Nation of Islam for a dozen years, where he advocated for black supremacy, black empowerment, and the separation of black and white Americans, and publicly criticized the mainstream civil rights movement for its emphasis on nonviolence and racial integration.
His advocacy of achieving “by any means necessary” put him at the opposite end of the spectrum from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s nonviolent approach to gaining ground in the growing civil rights movement.
In the 1960s, Malcolm X began to grow disillusioned with the Nation of Islam, as well as with its leader Elijah Muhammad. He subsequently embraced Sunni Islam and the civil rights movement after completing the Hajj to Mecca, and became known as el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz.
After a brief period of travel across Africa, he publicly renounced the Nation of Islam and founded the Islamic Muslim Mosque, Inc. (MMI) and the Pan-African Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU). Throughout 1964, his conflict with the Nation of Islam intensified, and he was repeatedly sent death threats. On February 21, 1965, he was assassinated. Three Nation members were charged with the murder and given indeterminate life sentences. (Wikipedia)
Malcolm X has been more important in death than in life by becoming a symbol for the black and Islamic movements in the US.
Malcolm X’s statements on Jews, Israel, Zionism and Christians
Malcolm X’s speech at UC Berkeley (October 11, 1963)
“So that in Islam, since we believe that there is one God, we believe that all of the prophets who came forth on this earth taught the same religion. Abraham was a Muslim; Moses was a Muslim; Jesus was a Muslim. And as Black men in America, we accept the religion of Islam because we recognize it as the true religion of God. This is why I’m a Muslim. I am a Muslim because the Honorable Elijah Muhammad has taught me that Islam is God’s only religion. And it does say in the Holy Qur’an that this religion [Islam] will overcome all other religions.”
Malcolm X’s speech at Harvard Law School Forum (December 16, 1964)
“I’m a Muslim. Now if something is wrong with being Muslim, we can argue, we can “get with it.” I’m a Muslim, which means that I believe in the religion of Islam. I believe in Allah, the same God that many of you would probably believe in if you knew more about Him. I believe in all of the prophets: Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad. Most of you are Jewish, and you believe in Moses; you might not pick Jesus. If you’re Christians, you believe in Moses and Jesus. Well, I’m Muslim, and I believe in Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. I believe in all of them. So I think I’m “way up on you.”
Malcolm X’s sermon “Black Man’s History” (December 1962)
“It’s because the Jews have the longest record of history that they can call themselves the Chosen People. The Christians can’t call themselves the Chosen People because their history is not long enough. They can’t go back to the time when the choice was being made. The Hebrews, the so-called Jews, can go back so far they can lay claim to that which is actually not theirs. But the reason they can claim it is that nobody else they are dealing with can go back far enough to disprove them. Except the Muslims… Remember, Abraham’s religion was Islam. Abraham wasn’t a Jew, Abraham wasn’t a Christian, Abraham wasn’t a Buddhist, Abraham was a Muslim, which means he obeyed God… Who is the seed of Abraham? Is it this blue-eyed, blond-haired, pale-skinned Jew? Or is it the so-called Negro — you? Who is it? And what makes it so pitiful, many of our people would rather believe that the Jews are God’s Chosen People than to believe that they are God’s Chosen People. They would rather believe that the Jew is better than anybody else. This is a Negro. Nobody else would put everybody else above him but the Negro. I mean the American Negro. Remember, God said that the people would be strangers. The Jews aren’t strangers. The Jews know their history, the Jews know their culture, the Jews know their language; they know everything there is to know about themselves. They know how to rob you, they know how to be your landlord, they know how to be your grocer, they know how to be your lawyer, they know how to join the NAACP [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People] and become the president -right or wrong? They know how to control everything you’ve got. You can’t say they’re lost… Isn’t that what the Jews told Jesus? Now look at it. If the Jews said to Jesus, two thousand years after Moses supposedly led the Hebrews out of bondage, that they had never been in bondage -now you know the Jews had Moses’ history, they knew who Moses was- how could they stand up and tell Jesus they had never been in bondage? Not these things that you call Jews. They weren’t in Egypt, they weren’t the people that Moses led out of Egypt, and the Jews know this. But the Bible is written in such a tricky way, when you read it you think that Moss led the Jews out of bondage. But if you get a Jew in a good solid conversation today and you know how to talk to him, he’ll have to admit this, that it wasn’t out of bondage that Moses brought them -it was out of somewhere else- and where Moses really brought them is their secret, but, thanks to Almighty God, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad knows their secret, and he told it to us and we’re going to tell it to you… at the end of time one would come who would destroy the whole white race. Moses taught them [the Jews] this. And this is why when the Jews, two thousand years later, were looking for the Messiah, they thought that Jesus was the Messiah and they put him to death because they knew when the Messiah came he was going to destroy that whole race of devils. The Jews knew this, so they put him to death thinking that they could stop him from destroying them. But actually, they made a mistake because Jesus two thousand years ago wasn’t the Messiah. Their time wasn’t up two thousand years ago. Their time would not be up until two thousand years later, the day and time that we’re living in right now. So, brothers and sisters, my time has expired. I just wanted to point out that the white man, a race of devils, was made six thousand years ago. This doesn’t mean to tell you that this implies any kind of hate. They’re just a race of devils. They were made six thousand years ago, they were made to rule for six thousand years.
Alex Haley Interviews Malcolm X (May, 1963)
Malcolm X: “Another thing to think of—in the 20th Century, the Christian Church has given us two heresies: fascism and communism. Where did fascism start? Where’s the second-largest Communist party outside of Russia? The answer to both is Italy. Where is the Vatican? But let’s not forget the Jew. Anybody that gives even a just criticism of the Jew is instantly labeled anti-Semite. The Jew cries louder than anybody else if anybody criticizes him. You can tell the truth about any minority in America, but make a true observation about the Jew, and if it doesn’t pat him on the back, then he uses his grip on the news media to label you anti-Semite. Let me say just a word about the Jew and the black man. The Jew is always anxious to advise the black man. But they never advise him how to solve his problem the way the Jews solved their problem. The Jew never went sitting-in and crawling-in and sliding-in and freedom-riding, like he teaches and helps Negroes to do. The Jews stood up, and stood together, and they used their ultimate power, the economic weapon. That’s exactly what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is trying to teach black men to do. The Jews pooled their money and bought the hotels that barred them. They bought Atlantic City and Miami Beach and anything else they wanted. Who owns Hollywood? Who runs the garment industry, the largest industry in New York City? But the Jew that’s advising the Negro joins the NAACP, CORE, the Urban League, and others. With money donations, the Jew gains control, then he sends the black man doing all this wading-in, boring-in, even burying-in—everything but buying-in. Never shows him how to set up factories and hotels. Never advises him how to own what he wants. No, when there’s something worth owning, the Jew’s got it. Walk up and down in any Negro ghetto in America. Ninety percent of the worthwhile businesses you see are Jew-owned. Every night they take the money out. This helps the black man’s community stay a ghetto.”
Interview (January 23, 1963)
Malcolm X: “We’ll do it the same way the Jews got what they wanted. They got their own state, their own country. No, they got it, and yeah, well you’re right, it was given to them by England and Truman. But, sir, no the Jews are the ones who usually represent themselves as white liberals. More so probably than any other segment of this society. Now if the Jews are genuinely liberal and they want to help the Negro, then they should show the Negro how to use the same kind of strategy and tactics to solve his problem that they used to solve their problems. And you’ll find that all over this country, wherever the Jews have been segregated and Jim Crowed, they haven’t sat in, they haven’t been sittin’ or Freedom Riders, they usually go and use the economic weapon. They bought Atlantic City, and now they can go there. They bought Miami Beach and now they can go there.”
Malcolm X’s article “Zionist Logic: Malcolm X on Zionism”, The Egyptian Gazette (September 17, 1964)
“The Zionist armies that now occupy Palestine claim their ancient Jewish prophets predicted that in the “last days of this world” their own God would raise them up a “messiah” who would lead them to their promised land, and they would set up their own “divine” government in this newly-gained land, this “divine” government would enable them to “rule all other nations with a rod of iron.”
If the Israeli Zionists believe their present occupation of Arab Palestine is the fulfillment of predictions made by their Jewish prophets, then they also religiously believe that Israel must fulfill its “divine” mission to rule all other nations with a rod of irons, which only means a different form of iron-like rule, more firmly entrenched even, than that of the former European Colonial Powers.
These Israeli Zionists religiously believe their Jewish God has chosen them to replace the outdated European colonialism with a new form of colonialism, so well disguised that it will enable them to deceive the African masses into submitting willingly to their “divine” authority and guidance, without the African masses being aware that they are still colonized.
The Israeli Zionists are convinced they have successfully camouflaged their new kind of colonialism. Their colonialism appears to be more “benevolent,” more “philanthropic,” a system with which they rule simply by getting their potential victims to accept their friendly offers of economic “aid,” and other tempting gifts, that they dangle in front of the newly-independent African nations, whose economies are experiencing great difficulties. During the 19th century, when the masses here in Africa were largely illiterate it was easy for European imperialists to rule them with “force and fear,” but in this present era of enlightenment the African masses are awakening, and it is impossible to hold them in check now with the antiquated methods of the 19th century.
The imperialists, therefore, have been compelled to devise new methods. Since they can no longer force or frighten the masses into submission, they must devise modern methods that will enable them to manouevre the African masses into willing submission.
The modern 20th century weapon of neo-imperialism is “dollarism.” The Zionists have mastered the science of dollarism: the ability to come posing as a friend and benefactor, bearing gifts and all other forms of economic aid and offers of technical assistance. Thus, the power and influence of Zionist Israel in many of the newly “independent” African nations has fast-become even more unshakeable than that of the 18th century European colonialists… and this new kind of Zionist colonialism differs only in form and method, but never in motive or objective.
At the close of the 19th century when European imperialists wisely foresaw that the awakening masses of Africa would not submit to their old method of ruling through force and fears, these ever-scheming imperialists had to create a “new weapon,” and to find a “new base” for that weapon.
DOLLARISM
The number one weapon of 20th century imperialism is zionist dollarism, and one of the main bases for this weapon is Zionist Israel. The ever-scheming European imperialists wisely placed Israel where she could geographically divide the Arab world, infiltrate and sow the seed of dissension among African leaders and also divide the Africans against the Asians.
Zionist Israel’s occupation of Arab Palestine has forced the Arab world to waste billions of precious dollars on armaments, making it impossible for these newly independent Arab nations to concentrate on strengthening the economies of their countries and elevate the living standard of their people.
And the continued low standard of living in the Arab world has been skillfully used by the Zionist propagandists to make it appear to the Africans that the Arab leaders are not intellectually or technically qualified to lift the living standard of their people … thus, indirectly “inducing” Africans to turn away from the Arabs and towards the Israelis for teachers and technical assistance.
“They cripple the bird’s wing, and then condemn it for not flying as fast as they.”
The imperialists always make themselves look good, but it is only because they are competing against economically crippled newly independent countries whose economies are actually crippled by the Zionist-capitalist conspiracy. They can’t stand against fair competition, thus they dread Gamal Abdul Nasser’s call for African-Arab Unity under Socialism.
MESSIAH?
If the “religious” claim of the Zionists is true that they were to be led to the promised land by their messiah, and Israel’s present occupation of Arab Palestine is the fulfillment of that prophesy: where is their messiah whom their prophets said would get the credit for leading them there? It was Ralph Bunche who “negotiated” the Zionists into possession of Occupied Palestine! Is Ralph Bunche the messiah of Zionism? If Ralph Bunche is not their messiah, and their messiah has not yet come, then what are they doing in Palestine ahead of their messiah?
Did the Zionists have the legal or moral right to invade Arab Palestine, uproot its Arab citizens from their homes and seize all Arab property for themselves just based on the “religious” claim that their forefathers lived there thousands of years ago? Only a thousand years ago the Moors lived in Spain. Would this give the Moors of today the legal and moral right to invade the Iberian Peninsula, drive out its Spanish citizens, and then set up a new Moroccan nation … where Spain used to be, as the European zionists have done to our Arab brothers and sisters in Palestine?…
In short the Zionist argument to justify Israel’s present occupation of Arab Palestine has no intelligent or legal basis in history … not even in their own religion. Where is their Messiah?