Black Lives Matter is not concerned about black lives everywhere. They are more concerned about wreaking havoc with white America and getting money from them in reparations rather than aiding their brothers and sisters at home and around the world
Black American lives are more important than anyone else’s. And the worst thing that ever happened to America was the arrival of white people. So goes the new refrain.
“As oppressed people living in the US, the belly of global empire, we are in a critical position to build the necessary connections for a global liberation movement. Until we are able to overturn US imperialism, capitalism and white supremacy, our brothers and sisters around the world will continue to live in chains.”
And so all are told that it is the fault of white people that others are failing. And it is also the fault of the Jews. That is the Black Lives Matter mantra. This is the New America. Blame others. Don’t take responsibility for your own failings or the failings within your community. Today, diverse groups want reparations.
Black Lives Matter also attack America for wanting closer ties with Africans. Black Lives Matter say that the creation in 2006 of AFRICOM, a regional U.S. military command promoting closer ties amongst African governments, the African Union, and the U.S. military is terrible. “In reality, this effort was designed to expand western colonial control over the region, its people and their resources. AFRICOM is a major example of U.S. empire and is a direct threat to global Black liberation.” America working closer with black Africans is bad? My head is spinning from that one.
And of course, if only the white people had not enslaved them,taken them from Africa, life would be better. There is no question that the treatment of Africans taken from their homes, sold into slavery and then put on ships unfit for animals was unconscionable. And that Americans, white Americans treated people as things is despicable-especially as these were the people going to Church on Sunday and talking about Jesus and his teachings-which included the most important one of all: that all people are created with equal, intrinsic value. All life is sacred. Somehow these God-fearing people turned Africans into “not people.”
But slavery was ended because of the principle that all people are created equal. The principle that comes from the Hebrew Bible then shared by Christianity and brought to America. It was Republican President, Abraham Lincoln who brought forward the Emancipation Proclamation. There won’t be one in any Muslim country. And Martin Luther King Jr. was able to demand civil rights action based on the teachings of Jesus, not Mohammed, for in Islam not all people are created equal. Not all life is held to be sacred. Tolerance for all in Islam does not exist.
Granted, life in America is still far from perfect amongst the races, but it is time to stop blaming “whitey.” And as far as reparations go; go after the people who bought and sold you into slavery: The dark-skinned Arab Muslims; buying black people from black people willing to sell their own.
This blame game is made possible because we have made a conscious decision not to talk about the Arab/Muslim slave trade, “the longest yet least discussed of the two major slave trades.” The Arab trade of Blacks in Southeast Africa predates the European transatlantic slave trade by 700 years as Islam spread into eastern Africa in the seventh century. Muslims were selling goods to the African kingdoms and the African kingdoms were paying with their own people. In most instances, no violence was necessary to obtain those slaves.
So let’s look at the history of slavery because humanity is ill-served when held in a dangerous false narrative.
It’s estimated that between 650 CE and 1900, 10 to 20 million people were enslaved by Arab slave traders. Others suggest more than 20 million enslaved Africans had been delivered through the trans-Sahara route into the Islamic world. At the beginning of 10th century the calipha in Baghdad had 7,000 black eunuchs and 4,000 white eunuchs in his palace.
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Islamic racism toward Africans grew as the slave trade grew. “The word for slave – Abid – became a colloquialism for African. Other words such as Haratin express social inferiority of Africans.” To the Muslims,African, black skin, and slave came to mean the same thing. The symbolism is astounding. And in Islam a slave is a dhimmi, if that. Freedom was not guaranteed even if an African chose to convert to Islam and his children now born to a Muslim were still not guaranteed freedom. There was and is no escape.
Some scholars say the Arab slave trade continued in one form or another up until the 1960s, however, slavery in Mauritania was only criminalized in August 2007.
Yet, slavery is still alive and well in Africa in the Sudan.
And Muslim leaders in Africa continue to attack Christians. Mr. Muhammadu Buhari, the Muslim leader of Nigeria, a former military dictator, has mounted a campaign of intimidation against his Christian opponents in the south of the country rather than stop Boko Haram, the Islamist organization. Now 50,000 children face death by starvation and 500,000 people have been made homeless.
And today “Hamas is playing a serious role in the bondage of black Africans.” Muslim slave trading of blacks has not stopped.
Despite these facts Black Americans are converting to Islam. Philadelphia, where the Democratic Convention was held, is home to more than 200,000 followers of Islam; most of them black. This is the Stockholm Syndrome writ large. Joining the group that enslaved you long before white Christians got involved, and sold you to the East and to the West. And now, Black Lives Matter are embracing Muslims in the Middle East and attacking the Jews in Israel. Black Lives Matter “unequivocally” supports BDS and has “a lot to learn from the movement.” The Jews, millions now back home in their historical land, gave the world the ethic that underpins the West, freedom and democracy. These black people, the descendants of the enslaved are embracing Muslims, whose ancestors were primarily responsible for their enslavement. The wonderland of Alice is showing up everywhere these days.
If Black lives really mattered, then these organizations would be working in their hardest hit communities, like Chicago, where nearly half of their young men are out of work and out of school. They would be teaching the importance of family-children with two parents, with at least one working. They would teach their children respect –for their elders, for others and for law and order; that drug dealing is wrong, that stealing is wrong, that murder is wrong, that abuse is wrong, and most importantly, that with rights come responsibilities.
Black Lives Matter is not concerned about black lives everywhere. They are more concerned about wreaking havoc with white America and getting money from them in reparations rather than aiding their brothers and sisters at home and around the world.
Diane Weber Bederman is a blogger for ‘Times of Israel’, a contributor to Convivium, a national magazine about faith in our community, and also writes about family issues and mental illness. She is a multi-faith endorsed hospital trained chaplain.
