African American Muslims Face Double Crises Since 9-11

January 15, 2005

Source: The Northwest Herald/ LA Times

http://www.nwherald.com/StyleSection/308332753332736.php

On January 15, 2005 The Northwest Herald reported, "if there is an American iteration of Islam – and worshipers here insist there is – the Mosque of the Islamic Brotherhood on the corner of 113th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue is it. This thriving, mostly black congregation is a place where Islam has no foreign accent, and where notions of Islam vs. the West lose all buoyancy against a backdrop of Boy Scout meetings, breast cancer fund-raisers and programs to combat AIDS and homelessness... For these worshipers, long relegated to second-class status, it's been a source of bitterness to find themselves marginalized yet again after Sept. 11, 2001, this time for reasons unrelated to blackness. Many say they are stunned to find they are treated as something less than authentic, not just by the dominant American society, but often by new Muslim arrivals from South Asia and Arab countries as well. There is gallows humor that they have gone from the back of the bus to the back of the camel."

See also: Islam, September 11