What to the Black Muslim is Your Fourth of July?

Fed up with being subjected to taxation without representation, American settlers revolted against the British Empire.  In commemoration, this July 4th, Americans will be lighting fireworks and celebrating individuals such as George Washington, Patrick Henry,  and Thomas Jefferson as great patriotic revolutionaries instrumental in freeing American citizens from the subjugation of the British Empire.  As a Black Muslim,  I will not be celebrating. Why?

In a comparative analysis of the social political conditions facing Black folks relative to English settlers, Malcolm X taught in his Ballot or the Bullet speech that, “Black people today [are] catching more hell than Patrick Henry ever saw.”  Continuing, Malcolm  X stated very emphatically, “Most of the white Founding Fathers who signed the Declaration of Independence were slave owners themselves.” Indeed, it is George Washington who once sold a Black slave for a mere bottle of rum, liquor and molasses. Thomas Jefferson was known to have abused an enslaved Black woman by the name of Sally Hemmings and  even wrote a document endorsing genocide against Native-Americans. Similarly, Benjamin Franklin in his article, “Remarks concerning the Savages of North America” describes indigenous Americans as barbarians.

Of course, when racism and the “founding fathers” are mentioned, a pass is often given that they were, “products of their time,” and we should seek to take from the good  and “move on.” The problem is, Black folks endured oppression far more horrific than the “founding fathers.”  However, unlike the founding fathers who took necessary actions to fight for their independence and were rewarded; when Black people did similar actions for their freedom, they were persecuted.   Many remain incarcerated as political prisoners and demonized as felons.

In Defense of Black Muslim Political Prisoners

The great Black freedom fighter, Assata Shakur, once said, “Because of Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X, the Muslim influence over our [Black]  struggle has been very strong.”  This is the legacy of Islam among the descendants of enslaved Africans.  Islam has existed as a momentous force that motivated Black folk  to seek freedom for themselves outside the confines of liberalism

Describing a fellow Black Panther Party member, Kamau Sadiki, Assata writes,  “He had been a Muslim for some time and was deep into it.”  As Assata describes her struggle to grapple with the theological problem of evil, as to how an all-Knowing, All Powerful God could permit Black suffering, she explains, “Kamau argued that Islam was a just religion, opposed to oppression[…]A true Muslim is a true revolutionary.” In the tradition of Malcolm X, in Kamau Sadiki’s analysis, to be a Muslim entailed a commitment to revolution to alleviate the suffering of Black people.  Kamau Sadiki is currently serving a life sentence for his refusal to assist the U.S government’s attempt to recapture Assata Shakur.

Similarly, former political prisoner Safiya Bukhari wrote that,“I became a Muslim(one who submits to the will of Allah) while in the Black Panther Party.””   As a member of the Black Panther Party For Self Defense she struggled against structural racism and would be unjustly incarcerated for doing so. ” Assata Shakur said of Safiya Bukhari,  “She was a warrior-woman who did everything she could to free her people and to free political prisoners.” It would even be a Muslim,  Sekou Mgobogi Abdullah Odinga, who would be charged for orchestrating Assata Shakur’s escape from prison.  Odinga writes, “They called the liberation of Assata Shakur kidnapping because jail-breaking was not a federal charge.”  

After serving 30 long years in prison, a paroled Sekou Odinga, still strong in his Islamic faith said, “I believe that al-Islam as taught by the Koran and the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad(A.S) is the best  organized system to free new Afrikan people and build the New Afrikan Nation.”  The Islamic agenda of Black liberation of Odinga traces its origins to Malcolm X. Odinga writes, “The teachings of Malcolm X, who was then with the Nation of Islam, became a big influence on me at that time. “

Black Muslims, should not be shy about honoring and openly celebrating  their revolutionaries and  freedom fighters who continued the Islamic legacy of Malcolm X because these Black Muslims actually fought for a  noble cause.  Malcolm X taught us,”“If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” In fact, it is these Muslims, from Kamau, Safiya, to Sekou, who are the true heirs of Malcolm X’s Islamic struggle for Black freedom. We should not believe media propaganda seeking to demonize them and should work to free them. 

There are many more Black Muslim  current and past political prisoners whose only “crime” was that they struggled for the freedom of Black people in a white supremacist world.  

European-Americans constantly laud individuals such as George Washington, Patrick Henry,  and Thomas Jefferson who declared independence under conditions that pale compared to the oppressive environments Black people continue to face, on land which they usurped from indigenous Natives.   They even have the audacity to have holidays in honor of individuals who have no redeeming qualities such Christopher Columbus who  actually killed native Americans  and even used  their carcasses  as dog food.

 Why then, should we be shy or even remotely apprehensive about honoring and publically revering truly heroic and noble  individuals who became political prisoners?   Malcolm X taught that Black Americans were facing more oppression in the United States than Patrick Henry and the”Founding Father”s ever endured when they declared independence from Britain. We must honor, respect, and continue to fight for the freedom of all of our political prisoners.

Pointing out the hypocrisy between the enslavement of Black people and July, 4th, Frederick Douglass once asked, “What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?” I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. “ I similarly ask: Oh America:  What to the Black Muslim, is your fourth of July? Without utter hypocrisy, what makes George Washington, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson “freedom-fighters” for the extra-judicial action they took against the British Empire  in the American revolution but   Black folks such as Sekou Odinga, Safiya Bukhari, and  Assata Shakur, Albert “Nuh” Washington, Kamau Sadiki, Imam Jamil Al-Amin, and Jalil Abdul Muntaqin,  considered “Criminals” for the extra-judicial actions they allegedly took  for the freedom of Black people?

With political prisoners still behind bars,  former political prisoners not receiving a dime in reparations for their unjust incarceration, and with these aforementioned Black muslims lambasted as  “criminals” instead of being honored as great  revolutionaries, the 4th of July celebrations are just as fraudulent and, hypocritical as when Frederick Douglas gave his historical address in 1852.