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Black Sunni Muslims and the Farrakhan Litmus Test

Black Sunni Muslims and the Farrakhan Litmus Test

Last updated on: September 19, 2016 at 7:45 pm by Hakeem Muhammad

Black Sunni Muslims and the Farrakhan Litmus Test 2016-09-19T19:45:07-05:00 Hakeem Muhammad

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The Farrakhan litmus test has been widely observed by sociologists to describe a phenomenon in which African-Americans seeking to advance in their careers must repudiate controversial outspoken black leaders.
Derrick Bell, the first tenured African-American professor of Law at Harvard University and the originator of Critical Race Theory, writes in Faces at the Bottom of The Well, The Permanence of Racism that “just as blacks in South Africa have to carry a passbook to go from place to place, black Americans have to carry their last statement refuting Farrakhan.”

The Farrakhan Litmus test functions to make the dominant white, mainstream society more comfortable and palatable to white audiences and is rooted in racist double standards which are never applied to white politicians. This occurs primarily because in Derrick Bell’s perspective,”Farrakhan is perhaps the best living example of a black man ready, willing, and able to ‘tell it like it is’ regarding who is responsible for racism in this country.” Due to this, black politicians from Harold Washington to David Dinkins to Obama have been pressured into denouncing Louis Farrakhan. In a critique of this, in Tim Wise’s Farrakhan is Not the Problem: The Arrogance and Absurdity of America’s Racial Litmus Test, the anti-racist activist writes:

Perhaps when white folks begin to show as much concern for the bigoted statements and, more to the point, murderous actions of white political leaders as we show over the statements of Louis Farrakhan, then we’ll deserve to be taken seriously in this thing we call a national dialogue on race.”

Unfortunately, the Farrakhan Litmus Test is not only a tool of white racists, but it also functions in the interactions in Muslim communities. The Farrakhan Litmus Test creates a situation in which black Sunni Muslims are pressured or told to distance themselves from their brothers and sisters in the Nation of Islam and Louis Farrakhan in order to be accepted as Islamically legitimate and a “true Muslim.”

Why Would Snoop Dogg attend a NOI event?
A textbook case of this occurred as a watched a Youtube interview titled,”Rapper Snoop Dogg joined Nation of Islam (NOI), but is this Islam?” Of course, the title of the video is inaccurate as Snoop Dogg never joined the Nation of Islam, he merely attended an NOI event. Yet, the video contains an interview of an Imam who belonged to the community of Imam Warrith Deen Muhammad and was part of the pre-1975 NOI. The interviewer inquired as to why Snoop Dogg would attend a NOI event by Farrakhan who held to deviant theological doctrines instead of going to an actual mosque to learn about “real Islam.”

The Imam in response to the interviewers criticisms of Farrakhan stated that, “I’m not comfortable with making it seem as though I’m trying to insult Farrakhan. Minister Farrakhan happens to be a friend of mine. He’s a great leader and he deserves respect.” In saying this, he rejected the Farrakhan Litmus Test. I find the angle of the video to be problematic— are black Muslims only valuable when they can repudiate Farrakhan and the NOI? Instead of bringing the Imam on the show to garner spiritual insights or Islamic guidance, it would appear he was brought to the show exclusively to disavow his previous history in the Nation of Islam and speak against Farrakhan

The reason why Snoop Dogg would attend a Louis Farrakhan speak is actually quite obvious. The NOI were instrumental in settling the feud between the “east coast vs. west coast” hip-hop beef. Furthermore, the NOI has been at the front lines in working to improve the conditions in black communities. As a result many hip-hop artists look at Farrakhan with respect and admiration. Most importantly, Snoop Dogg is a free black man who has the right to go where he pleases. Perhaps, if Sunni Muslims were as concerned with the well-being of the black community as the NOI, then maybe Snoop Dog would be interested in visiting an Sunni Masjid.
Another textbook case of this occurred when I observed on Facebook a prominent African-American Islamic scholar post a very eloquent and witty video of Louis Farrakhan. In the video, Farrakhan responded to white people telling black people that they should go back to Africa. The video did not have anything at all to do with concepts of Islamic theology, yet in the comment section of the post there were a plethora of comments condemning Farrakhan’s theological views and calls to repudiate Farrakhan.
Imagine an Islamic scholar posting a video a Facebook video of the “I Have a Dream” speech and in response and instead of affirming the racial egalitarianism in the speech, I decided to indict Dr. King for his belief in the trinity which is against the islamic concept of tahwuid. On top of that, I decided to interrogate the theological views of a scholar to ensure that he does not subscribe to the trinity. Yet for merely posting a clip of a Farrakhan video that went viral a prominent African-American scholar of Islam had his own theological views interrogated to ensure people that he was not in fact a follower of Farrakhan.

What the Farrakhan Litmus Test Misses

Farrakhan makes incredibly bold statements that many Sunni Muslims may find shocking and disturbing. Nonetheless, they deserved to be thoroughly analyzed and learned from. Farrakhan is a very powerful and respected voice in America among oppressed black people. The flippant dismissals of insights that he offers the Muslim world only deserves to draw a further wedge between the descendants of black slaves in America and the Muslim world. What is revealing is that much of Farrakhan’s ministry problematic and critiques the manner in which black descendants of slaves in America have been excluded from the intellectual traditions of Sunni Islam.

Why is Farrakhan’s ministry so opposed to the traditional scholarly authorities of Sunni Islam? Perhaps Farrakhan wholesale rejects religious authority from the Sunni Islamic world exemplifies black rage at how the descendants of African slaves were cut of entirely from the educational institutions within the Sunni Islamic tradition.

When Farrakhan raises the rhetorical question of “Why aren’t you following the opinion of the scholars Farrakhan? I teach scholars and reteach what you think you know,” perhaps black rage over how, under the bondage of slavery, blacks could not receive an ijaaza to even be qualified to learn and transmit Islamic knowledge and in the post-slavery era could only learn traditional sciences in Islam, often in a paternalistic way that failed to move Islam forward for black liberation.

When Farrakhan declares, “You black people can’t go putting your light up under the Arab world,” perhaps this is black rage at how the manner in which Islam was taught in universities of Saudi Arabia failed to adequately evoke Islamic tradition for black liberation, which was the aim of the NOI and often became a tool of Arab paternalism over black people.
When Farrakhan declares “Don’t tell me about all your heavy scholarship. Your heavy scholarship got you under the nations of the earth,” perhaps, it demonstrates black rage at how Islam had been completely wiped out from our enslaved black forefathers with no protection from the outside Islamic world—black rage at how in the post-slavery era any Islamic science via fiqh or the science of hadith would have to be learned outside our community, again, often in a very paternalistic way.

In a very prominent incident, Farrakhan shared a story in which a scholar of Islam gave him a book to read in Arabic. In response, Farrakhan said that he could not read Arabic to the dismay of the scholar. When asked how he could be such a prominent Muslim figure and not know Arabic, Farrakhan stated that the people who seek to reach black people do not speak Arabic—they speak English and do not even speak the English language very well.

While many Muslims devote extensive time towards the study of tajwid, which are the rules governing pronunciation during recitation of the Qur’an, Farrakhan declares, “Muslims: Don’t talk to me to death about are you reciting surah so and so Ayat so and so, yeah brother I read it. Now what are we going to do about it?” perhaps this is black rage at how many Arab Muslims, instead of coming to the black community to teach people Arabic and work in the cause of Islam choose to establish Food and Liquor stores selling black people pork, wine and liquor. Perhaps its black rage over how many Islamic sciences that are widely accessible in affluent Muslim communities are not as accessible in inner-city black communities.

Whether one agrees with Farrakhan or not, he raises valid criticisms of the marginalization of black people within the Muslim community. In response to critics of his, Farrakhan declares, “If you have the proper aqueeda, you must have the proper actions that bear witness to your aqueeda.” Instead of employing the Farrakhan Litmus Test, Muslims should bear witness to their aqueeda by seeking to duplicate the NOI’s efforts in uplifting black communities. Prove Farrakhan incorrect when he says that Sunni Muslims “just go to the mosque to pray, read the Qur’an in Arabic, but you’re not developing the powers of your own being to change the reality of the world.” With anti-blackness structuring the world and making the reality of black lives devastating, what exactly do you do in your mosque to challenge it?

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