RISGate 2016: 3 Things (Among Many) Muslims Did Right

Black Muslim Scholarship and the Bigger Picture

The reality of the country’s tenacious race system, its White supremacist underpinnings and impact on the lives of marginalized peoples requires consistent resistance as well as vigilant edification about its vacillating facets from writers, thinkers, and scholarship. While it appears that racism in America is disappearing, its manifestations are always changing, so it is important to point out subtle racism in the forms of microaggressions, implicit bias and rhetorical bigotry when present.

Alhamdulillah, Black Muslims readily produced discerning analytical unpackings of biased statements made during the RIS convention and correlated them to larger issues of Black Muslim resistance and racial microaggressions in Muslim spaces.

On the radio program Got Privilege: Our Leadership, Accountability, and Dismantling anti-Black Racism in the American Ummah, Kameelah Rashad, Margari Aziza and Donna Auston discussed the need for increased cultural knowledge and relevancy among Islamic scholars and leaders.

In his Facebook video #RISGate2016 The Muslim Community and White Privilege – Where Do We Go From Here, Imam Marc Manley addressed the statements, racial rhetoric, celebrity scholarship and the need to think critically about the future thought leaders in Muslim communities.

Black Muslims continue to publish articles generating a body  of constructive criticisms on the many layers of social issues regarding race, anti-Blackness, leadership, scholarship and Muslim interaction that RISgate 2016 revealed – they include:

• Dear Non-Black Muslims: Your Silence is Not Peaceful by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow
• Imam Hamza Yusuf & The Compound Ignorance of White Supremacy by Hakeem Muhammad
• What You Can Do to Learn About Structural Racism Post-#RIS2016 by Kameelah Rashad
• Discussing Controversy: Hamza Yusuf at Ris by  Ustadh Ubaydullah Evans
• Hamza Yusuf and the Dangers of Black Pathology by Nadirah Angail
• False Eloquence by Shadeed Muhammad
• He Apologized? We Have No Idea What An Apology Means by Umm Zakiyyah
• Between Personal Mistakes & Public Responsibility: A Response to SHY & RISGate by Marc Manley

Black Muslims contributed an array of standpoints on the RISgate 2016 issue, and some articles included trenchant disparagers, staunch defenders and character vouchers. However, the discrete writings of Black Muslims focusing on larger issues of intracultural racism and anti-Blackness appearing in multiple guises among Muslims provide much-needed perspective and knowledge to combat it.