Tag: Islam

The extraordinary voter turnout and jubilation at the polls this week in Southern Sudan reflect the desire of so many to free themselves from decades of oppression and marginalization by successive Northern-dominated regimes. The government failed to make unity a viable option.

Four and half decades after El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X) made the Hajj to Mecca, his grandson, Malcolm Shabazz, made his pilgrimage. In this, the first interview to be published in the U.S. about his experience, Malcolm says, "Now, by the Will and Grace of Allah, I am a revolutionary Muslim who is in service to the people, especially to the masses of downtrodden and oppressed." Don't miss Malcolm's Report Back from Mecca, Tuesday, Dec. 28, 6:30 p.m., at Twin Space, 2111 Mission St., San Francisco.

Islam is a very prominent faith in the Black communities of Amerikkka, and during Ramadan the SF Bay View thinks that it is important for us to have the best possible understanding of the different cultures among us so that organizing can be facilitated against a common foe, the organized bodies that are oppressing us.

This month Muslims around the world are observing Ramadan, which is compared in the Black revolutionary tradition to how Black August is celebrated in the prisons, where people fast during the day, exercise more, study more and recommit themselves to their belief system. Under this section I am submitting two stories that look at the faith of young Black Orthodox Muslims in the Bay Area, one from a male perspective and one from a female perspective.