The Black American ‏Muslim

The Jewish Conspiracy

by Mahmoud Andrade Ibrahim

I have been asked, more often that I can count, ‘what is my position on Israel ?’ Usually the question is put to me by colleagues and co-workers after it has been determined that I am Muslim, but not always, sometimes I get the same question by someone sitting next to me in the local mosque. Its almost as if the answer to this query is a litmus test to determine my acceptance into the circles of civilized society.

I must say in all honesty that when I converted to Islam in 1968 at the young age of 16, Israel hadn’t made an impression on my consciousness.  As a young black teenager and the first cousin to an American heroine, Carlotta Walls   (click here)  of the courageous 'Little Rock Nine',  my entire focus was the health and well-being of black people in America.  However, after becoming Muslim the first rumblings of an Israeli-Arab conflict did begin to make an impression on me in the person of Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization.

The entire conflict was presented as a continuation of  European colonial incursion, this time not in Africa but in the Middle East.  The little guy was standing up to the giant, and as a black teenager who understood the importance of social protest having witnessed the power of the civil rights movement here in America, I was firmly entrenched in the Palestinian camp.  I believed then, and I do now, in a two state solution.  However, how that is to happen today is beyond my ability to comprehend.  I will say that I take the position, in any conflict around the world, that tyranny and oppression are to be resisted and those affected by it are justified in opposing it.  Allah says in the Qur’an, “oppression is worse than slaughter’.  In 1975, before a U.S  Congressional Subcommittee on International Relations that was Chaired by Lee Hamilton,  Edward Said, a Christian Palestinian intellectual and Professor at Columbia University, was asked to testify and he said, “Imagine to yourselves, that by some malicious irony you found yourselves declared foreigners in your own country. This is the essence  of the Palestinian’s fate during the twentieth century.”

Having said that, I personally don’t believe in knee-jerk reactions to anything and so I decided to subject my ignorance of Zionism, the political philosophy of Israel, to some investigation of its source material and was amazed to learn that the ‘father of Zionism’, Theodor Herzl , envisioned living in a peaceful co-existence along with the Arabs in Palestine, something I had been misinformed about previously. I learned that he didn't dehumanize the Arab person. His focus was to bring before the world, a proud Jewish Nation on par with every other nation on earth willing to contribute its talents to make the world a better place. Others that came after him perverted his noble aims and objectives and introduced a rabid racist component.  I should add that  Theodor Herzl did not live to see the state that he imagined come into existence and his vision of a peaceful Israel is something that has not yet materialized.

The truth is that I really don’t think much about Israel.  I have no reason to. I take the position that Israel has a right to exist and the right to protect its borders as does any other nation on the planet.  I don’t question the legitimacy of Israel in the same way that I don't question the legitimacy of the United States of America with its horrible history of genocide against the Native Americans and its  slavery of Africans and their descendants some of whom were my relatives, both tragedies which went on much longer that the 60 odd something years of Israel's existence. 

What I do think about is the Jewish Conspiracy and Blackamerican Muslims.

Is there a Jewish Conspiracy ? Yes, absolutely ! Has this Jewish Conspiracy been in existence for a long time?  Again the answer is yes !  Does the Jewish Conspiracy cover the globe as has been indicated by people who study these kinds of things?   Yes !    Is the nature of this conspiracy known and does there exist in the historical record evidence of this conspiracy ?  Once more the answer is a resounding,  yes !

One needs only to look at one of the oldest historical records ,the Bible, and one can see manifest evidence of the beginnings of this conspiracy.

In the Book of Deuteronomy 6,  ” Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise....”

The Jewish Conspiracy is simply the conspiracy to survive. Survive by remembering the commands of Almighty God !  Throughout history this has been the charge of the Jewish People. In every country or nation where there were or are Jews, there was the will to survive and  to do well and prosper under the most hostile conditions.  Was this conspiracy necessary for the Jewish people to get together and devise a method of survival, yes.

Jewish mothers conspire to make a better life for their children by educating them and providing an environment that nurtures the Jewish culture. Jewish fathers conspire to put bread on the tables of their loved ones. Jewish Rabbis conspire to provide the proper spiritual and temporal messages, which at times is pointing out which political candidate offers the Jewish community the best 'bang' for their buck. Jewish children conspire to make their parents proud and so they perform well in school and as a result become pillars of society with influence in medicine, economics,  education and sometimes even in politics.  Yes, there is indeed a Jewish Conspiracy.  

So the real question, as it concerns the American Muslim is, what can we learn from the participants of the Jewish conspiracy. What lessons can we draw?  

We might learn that attaching our hearts to the Qur'an is the only way to be successful.

We might learn that when we marry and have children, that there no sacrifice that is too great when it comes to educating our children. We might learn that the entire community should exist only for the purpose of educating and protecting our young. 

 We might learn that in order to preserve our Islamic cultural heritage, we will have to develop or support Muslim schools and not just pay 'lip service' to it.  We might learn that centering all of our attention on education while observing the Islamic traditions of worship,  modesty and a halal diet are the cornerstones of a healthy Muslim household and by extension, the entire American Muslim community.

We might learn that the divine command to… 'barter and trade among yourselves’ is the basic economic principle of any viable nation.  To make clothes for yourself and sell them in your community is industry.  To own your own stores and to buy food from each other is a way to provide employment for each other.  To cut hair, to repair shoes, to design and tailor clothes are private businesses that support our community.  We might begin to set up rug cleaning and moving companies and landscaping enterprises, web design/ computer tech companies and the like.  We just might see that we don’t lose our young men to the 'dunya'  because they are not interested in Islam but because we haven’t set up any business for them to be employed in.  We might realize that we  haven't been able to absorb and utilize the talents of our young men and women who have gone on to get college degrees in a real and honest way.  We might learn that standing up on our own is better than looking for charity from others.

 We might recognize the potential of our wives, mothers and daughters and allow them to  fully participate in organizations that fulfill our communal needs. We just might realize that it is our women who are the carriers of culture that the men, who are never home, are always taking credit for. 

We might learn that by accepting ourselves as American Muslims, with our own view and take on the world just may be the ‘shot in the arm’  that the entire Muslim world has been waiting for. 

Is there a Jewish Conspiracy, yes there is…And there had better be an American Muslim Conspiracy too !