Click HERE to hear the interview w/ Brother Ali
Yesterday we did a special radio show focusing on religious intolerance toward Muslims in America and amount of viciousness that’s been emerging with the debate around Ground Zero and the proposed Community Center/ Mosque..
We started off by talking with Minneapolis rap star Brother Ali. We talked about his new album US and where he’s headed musically speaking. Afterwards we go in on the Ground Zero controversy. Ali gave us an in-depth and insightful break down on the history Muslims in America and what Islam is really about…
He did a great job dispelling many of the myths surrounding this religion which is practiced by a couple of billion people. He also talks about the media tricks being played both in terms of how this has been depicted. He expressed concern about how the end of Ramadan may land on 9-11 and that right-wing forces will use the occasion of showing people celebrating the end of Ramadan and twist it to make it seem like they are celebrating the 9-11 attacks
One of the most telling points that Brother Ali laid out was the demographics of those who practice Islam.. The average Muslim is not Arab. In the US the average Muslim is Black. Check out our interview with Brother Ali in the link below..
http://www.swift.fm/mrdaveyd/song/59766/
In part two of our interview we chop it up with Muslim reporter and journalist Nida Khan who has been covering the protests near Ground Zero. She talked about the violence directed at Muslims since this controversy started and how things are more intense than they were after 9-11. Khan who has just returned from Pakistan talked about how anti-Muslim sentiments play out overseas. She also focused on a recent article she penned called Islamaphobia Weapon of Choice for the Midterms. Here Khan talks about how much of the hoopla is about political position so one can have a wedge issue to get people wound up over.
Click HERE to hear intvs w/ Nida Khan & Keith Ellison
We followed up our conversation with Nida Khan with a Congressman Keith Ellison who called to weigh in. Ellison who is from Minneapolis and good friends with Brother Ali, is the only Muslim in Congress. He confirmed much of what Khan said and focused on the unique campaign challenges him and some of his colleagues have come election time. He felt that making Islam a wedge issue will backfire. Ellison also dropped science about the difference between culture and religion.
This came up when we spoke about the concerns raised about how women are treated and other practices. Ellison was meticulous with his answer as he talked about stonings and flying planes into buildings are pure distortions of the religion and to the degree any sort violent practice is widespread has more to do with culture then religious tenet. Its kind of like us having an Easter Bunny to celebrate Easter. The bunny is culture. The Resurrection of Christ (Easter) is the religion.
He talked about the practice of covering ones head. Ellison pointed out the irony of making fun of Muslim women who choose to wear a Hijab while finding it perfectly acceptable that Nuns and quakers may keep their head covered. He pointed out in traditional Black churches very few women will show up without their finest Sunday hat..
You can listen to our interviews with both Keith Ellison and Nida Khan by clicking the link below
http://www.swift.fm/mrdaveyd/song/59788/
While listening to these interviews check out just how over the top things are getting.. yesterday a Cab Driver was stabbed after being asked if he was Muslim
You can see the News Report by clicking the link below
A city cab driver is in the hospital after being stabbed by a passenger who allegedly asked if he was Muslim, police tell NY1.
Investigators with the New York City Police Department say it all began Monday night when a 21-year-old man hailed a cab at 24th Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan.
Police say the passenger asked the driver, “Are you Muslim?” When the driver said yes the passenger pulled a knife and slashed him in the throat, arm and lip.
The 43-year-old driver was able to lock the passenger in the back of the cab and call 911.
Both the driver and the passenger were taken to Bellevue Hospital.
As of late Tuesday, no charges had been filed.
Some of what they say makes sense. Of course politicians have to find someone sort of issue to suck people in. That is what politics is all about, Obama said it this when he was on the view.
However, let’s face it, there are muslim extremist in the world who hate the current “status quo”. They believe that one must rid the world of infedils(you and me).
I don’t think that anyone hates islam. However, we all know that these men killed in the name of their religon. So why stir up controversy by putting a mosque in the spot where the evil occured? That’s crazy. Most of the people in this country are Chrisitians(nomially of course).
People are too little minded to realize that not all muslims are bad. The media hasn’t demoralized Islam. They have demoralized the Taliban and other Islamic groups.
Keep in mind that it does say in the Koran, that Muslims should kill Christians and others.
A brick was thrown at a Mosque today in Cali and a cab driver stabbed in NY… a brother was almost beat.. I guess that was what? Anger at the Taliban? Folks attacking Muslim extremist? Did you see those signs.. Stop Islam?? Half the people in the Black community are Muslim.. Have they been running around killing Christians.. You make excuses for inexcusable behavior..
As far as killing Christians?? Negro Please.. That’s ridiculous.. Don’t go pulling quotes out of context otherwise we can pull our own quotes out of the Bible and conclude that God is violent and wants us to go out and do things like the Crusade..
There is no religion or spiritual system on earth that exists without a cultural component. How can culture and religion be separate and both be a way of life? You can’t separate language from culture and all religions are expressed through a language. Just like you can’t separate a tree from it’s roots. Language doesn’t fall from heaven, it is created by people who share a common culture.
Nobody said u can seperate religion from culture.. but there is a difference.. ie easter bunny and easter celebration of christ.. Stoning a woman bc of infidelity as opposed to not doing that.. U listen to the interview Keith Ellison was pretty clear in breaking that down
@loverboy
You level thinking is abysmal. NOWHERE within the Quran does say to kill Christians or jews…NOWHERE.
The problem is you use an ignorant sloppy Christian interpretation for The Quran:
“I don’t need to learn to read and understand the original language of the book nor understand historic context of the text. I can just read a english translation and figure it out for myself. ”
If that’s the average Christian definition of “bible study” that’s fine but that is NOT how you read the Quran and interpret the text.
Any person who has a basis islamic education knows “infedils” it’s not Islamic word nor concept. it’s Christian concept and word denoting all non-Christians. Islam doesn’t have one word denoting all non-muslims because it doesn’t have such contempt concept of non-believers like Christians do.
As well as this is not masjid it’s an islamic center. Two different concepts. A masjid is a place where you prostrate (sujud). it’s main focus is the musalla,place where your pray (salaah). The “ground zero mosque” has is suppose to havea swimming pool,a basketball court and interfaith prayer room. That is not a masjid. It’s a community center based founded by Muslims. Which is a western concept. There are no Islamic centers within the tradition of Islam. It is new western phenomena based upon the cultural conditions of living in Europe and North America.
Davey,
I’m not against Islam in any way shape or form, but the articled stated Keith Ellison dropped science about the difference between culture and religion. I was making the point that all religions are a deification of a groups culture or way of life!
Let’s get the record straight. I don’t condone any type of violence toward another human being for any reason. Regardless of race, color or creed.
Hamza, abysmal can also mean profound, so i’ll take that as a complement. Why would I read a book written by some dude who came out of a cave while foaming at the mouth (normally a sign of being possessed by a demon).
Tell your Muslim brothers to fight against the Taliban and other extremist groups because are the ones to blame for this hoopla. They give the Koran a bad name.
People have abysmal ways of thinking and that is why they(Muslim bashers) are behaving this way. Mankind has a tendency to generalize, this is one of his biggest curses next to pride.
@DaveyD
I can find a lot of negative things in the bible myself. Half of the black people in this country are not Muslims, what planet do you live on black man? Only 5-10 percent are Muslims (not from Wikipedia my friend)…I know you’re not going to go by brother Ali’s stats…I hate to tell you, but he’s no statistician.
For your information Daveyd, The bible is a library that has been around for over 2000 years, the Koran doesn’t come close to weighing as much as the bible.
The more I read, the more this sounds like some New York jewish mafia stuff here. 🙂 This ain’t nothing but some Zionist people in New York snubbing their noses at America, while our kids are overseas fighting for their family and children protection over in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the rest of their family controls the United States “media” so…. Do America a favor – let Israel fight the Arabs in the Middle East – not on American soil. Damn it, you people own all of the media and music, all of the oil, all of the diamonds, all of the banks and “finances”, all of the Catholic and Baptist Churches, all of the natural resources, what freaking more do you people want?!!! Send them all back to the Middle East, especially those trouble making “Zionist” responsible for financing this Mosque in “America”. And also the one’s hring all of these illegal ailiens to do cheaper construction and housekeeping and other cheap tax-free labor for “them” here in America. (Oh, its all connected, just keep following “the money trail”, America. It’s going to lead all the way back to Obama, trust me).
And Black people better reseach who first enslaved them and “financed” the Middle Passage before they start jumping on the band wagon. Because these people have historically used religion (islam and jewry)to enslave your race.
You and your brother go from being a waiter to billionares in less than three years?! ONLY IN JEW YORK. 🙂 KEEP FOLLOWING THE MONEY TRAIL, PEOPLE. Don’t let the media pass this off on Egypt (Kemet), these “financer” (money launderers) people aren’t Arabs!
@kde-g
Jews, the Slave Trade, and Slavery
1. The vast majority of New World slaves were captured, bought, traded, and employed by non-Jews.
2. Some Jews participated in the slave trade, owned slaves, and even helped formulate and disseminate the pro-slavery ideology. Other Jews, including the Cincinnati abolitionist Max Lilianthal, Isaac Wise, and Rabbi David Einhor of Baltimore attacked slavery.
3. The Jewish expulsion from Spain coincided with establishment of trading links between Africa, Europe, and the Americas. As a result, the Sephardim found themselves dispersed over critical nodes of the new system, transferring assets and information.
4. The only place where Jews came close to dominating a New World plantation system was the Dutch colonies of Curacao and Surinam.
5. In the antebellum South, about 5,000 Jews (out of 20,000) owned one or more slaves, making up 1.25 percent of Southern slaveowners.
6. The largest Jewish slaveholders were Judah P. Benjamin owned 140 slaves near New Orleans; and Major Raphael J. Moses owned 50 slaves near Columbus, Georgia.
7. No southern Jewish intellectual questioned the injustice of slavery.
The Arab and Islamic Slave Trade
1. Arabs were involved in the capture and transport of slaves northward across the Sahara desert and the Indian Ocean region into the Middle East, Persia, and the Indian subcontinent.
2. The trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean slave trade was much older than the transatlantic slave trade and continued into the 19th century.
3. As many African slaves may have crossed the Sahara Desert, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean as crossed the Atlantic.
4. An estimated 11,612,000 slaves crossed the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Sahara Desert from 650 to 1900, compared to 11,656,000 across the Atlantic from 1500 to 1900.
Black Slaveholders
1. In 1830, approximately 3,775 owned 12,760 slaves. One in ten free black household heads owned at least one slave.
2. Some were relatives or family members, who could not legally be emancipated.
3. During the 1840s and 1850s, the number of black slaveholders decreased substantially. In South Carolina, the number fell from 450 in 1830 to 171 in 1860.
Read a book called “The Secret Reationship Between Blacks and Jews”, pub, and then we can talk. It was documented from the writings of all jews. Where you getting your propaganda? Not the one they put selling asss out Russell Simmons up to write. Facts only!!!