Sadly, racism is so prevelant among Muslims that it is absolutely disheartening. As a Bosnian born Muslim, living in the States I am often told by Arab friends that 'Bosnians are lesser Muslims'. Who decided whose faith is stronger, why are we so full of judgments and yet scream how great of Muslims we are? Yet, Muslims are not allowing their children to marry people who are not the same skin color? Muslims today are in desperate need of soul searching and finding the right path. Being born into a culture that is overwhelmingly Muslim, does not make one Muslim but our faith and piety does.
Sallams to all.

It is strange that many "Muslim" websites are so apologetic that they rarely take the point about anti-racism to its logical conclusion. Islam came to be a guide to an ailing humanity, not to create venal poltroons cravenly APPEASING modern Pharoahs & Nimrods in their hubris. "Modern" Westphalian nationalism is just a variant of the antediluvian tribalism of the past. The worship of this idol is still strong & the resultant machiavellian Realpolitik is harming billions.

In "Hujurat"Allah said. Humans,certainly we have created you one mother and father and have distihguished you trible and nations.
In Allah,s opinion among yours the greatest are religious people.
Our prophet Muhammad (s.a.v.) said. There is no difference between arabs and foreigners that is other common.They are distihguished by their religion

In "Hujurat"Allah said. Humans,certainly we have created you one mother and father and have distihguished you trible and nations.
In Allah,s opinion among yours the greatest are religious people.
Our prophet Muhammad (s.a.v.) said. There is no difference between arabs and foreigners that is other common.They are distihguished by their religion.

The thing is that ofcourse being a human being by necessity comes with its colorful personalities. So Islam teaches us to look deeper for the good, as I understand it, not for the skin color or language or place of birth or brought up. ISLAM IS A TEACHING TOOL. Now it's up to the individual human how much he or she learnt from this vast ocean of knowledge and how much effort each put in to educate our souls, minds, hearts. And still being imperferect, we will make silly or serious mistakes and then here comes our chance to forgive one another and be patient. Now PATIENCE in itself is a big topic and I read a well known modern scholar recently who said the elements of patience, justice, courage, temperance (ability to control oneself) and prudence (practical wisdom) all need to be in harmony and balance, and be present in our lives in a very conscious way. Educate ourselves. Practice these qualities everyday. Force ourselves despite our lazy impulses to be PATIENT, JUST/HONEST, PRUDENT, FORGIVING/IGNORING SOMEBODY'S FAULT,CONTROLLING OUR ANGER & RESPONSE TO AN ADVERSE SITUATION. THINK,and USE GOODS WORDS even when we are angry.

Why do all this? For the love of Allah. Period.

So the list is endless and by constant self-education and reminders we can keep raising our spiritual ranks. Allah directs us to recognise that even within the good believers there are ranks. Ofcourse Allah alone can compute somebody's rank and we should not go around judging other people's spiritual ranks, except to better ourselves. Allah even commended competition in doing good deeds. That's the only healthy rivalry; and we know that a materialistic and base rivalry can only burn us out. So brothers and sisters join hands and hearts to serve Allah and mutually gain Allah's love. We MUST practice forgiving one another, otherwise we will all be in trouble in this world and in the next. These good characteristics must be practiced not just once or twice but thousands and millions of ti

Assalam! Yes, agreed. Because Islam represent unity in diversity just as Allah has stated in His Noble QUR'AN: "...and We have made you (mankind) into tribes and nations, so that you may know one another. But the best amongst you is the most God fearing"

It is unfortunate but RACISM is alive and well in
our religion. As an African American my visits to
the HOLY SHRINES have been awash in racism from
other Muslims of the land and of european
abstraction owing to their overall ignorance, lack
of Faith and just plain bigotry.If we truly in our
hearts follow our religion then RACISM will come
to an end amongst the entire UMMAH...A good muslim
WISHES FOR HIS BROTHER WHAT HE WISHESS FOR
HIMSELF...we should ponder over this and know that
this statement is a double edged sword...let os
follow the sunnah of our beloved PROPHET(pbuh) TO
RID OUR RELIGION OF THIS CANCER OF HATING A FELLOW
HUMAN BEING. Charity begins at home and then
spreads abroad. May ALLAH(swt) guide us to the
right path...ameen.

I,agree with nour and d adik,some brothers r difficult to be around them, jamal

Allah advices mankind not to fight each other and hold allah's 'rope' tightly. He has made the mankind into nations, tribes and various races...only wth purpose of 'knowing each other'It is unfortunate to see the fight between muslim groups...which may lead to our own destruction. we muslims can unite.....even if there r some minor differences in opinions. May Allah bless us to b broad minded and love each other fr the sake of Allah

I have never witnessed Real Muslims that value Islam as being racist.
However I have been a target for racism from brothers that only pop up in the Masjid now and than and generally live a life of kufarr.

agree

....and what is written in the Quran about people of different tribes, with different languages, what is written about getting to know the differences, the education process of it all?
I don't have a problem with most Hadith, but to me Quran comes first.
I just got back from Indonesia, where the greeting of Assalamualaikum is not returned by many because it comes out of the mouth of a white guy who is believed to be none-Muslim.
Racism? Yes, absolutely, combined with ignorant idiots a real bizarre cocktail of Indo Muslims.
Such societies follow Islam? My mind wonders.
Wassalam, Axel MJ Cremer

i think people become racist quite easily, because of a tendency to visually identify with others, and we believe easily in negative things about 'other' groups, and generalise it to the whole group, even without evidence.

religion is supposed to push back against this tendency, just as it is meant to be a barrier against human weaknesses of pride, lust, and so forth. so long as there is racism and major sins, that means the society needs *more* religion, not less, even if its outward image is 'pious'; in fact, it probably needs to place less emphasis on the appearance of religion, and more on the fundamentals.

The quote is taken out of context with regard to either the US electorate or Obama. What has the entire quote got to do with Obama or the small majority by which the US electorate voted got to with piety? Furthermore, isn't it a bit histrionic, selective & reductionist to imply that the election of a half-white Obama was to do primarily with race, instead of other factors such as the failing economy, civil disunity in wartime, or disenchantment with arguably one of the greatest series of foreign policy disasters by the opposing party in US history?

Asalaamu alaikum, I have been around many different ethnic muslims and I have not personally experienced racism,alhumdullilah, butI know it's very prevailing within the ummaah hence the Arab slave trade.Also the white-washing and arabicizing of African culture has also greatly caused a rift between muslims in the form of false hadiths such as the one that claims the Prophet to have been white or fair skinned when obviously he was not. For example, his Grandfather was reportedly "Black as midnight!" And the Prophet's ancestry can be traced back to Black Africa and the original Arabs are from Yemen and Oman and they are very dark people.Aslo most of the Biblical patriarchs and prophet were of African stock(Ethiopia, Egypt,etc..)and the Prophet is genetically related to Isa(puh).Even the term "middle east" is a subjective one because North Africa and the Arabia are not seperated.It's all North African hence Arbs are really African people as we all are.The hue-man race is the Adamic race.So I think the Prophet(pbuh) realized that al-Islam was the final message to all of mankind whereas mostly all the prophets before him were mainly for their respective people. Arabs as a people are no more important to Islam than the French muslims but I think the Arab-Oil Monarchy and the tribe of Ibn Saud is responsible for most modern day prejudices that we find because technically a monarchy in Islam is haram but htey hold the key to Islam's holiest place which is Mecca.So their sense of entitlement greatly marginnalized other people. But I live in the Southern States of the US and I see muslims that one would call "rednecks" embracing Islam and to me that is more powerful that the cases of racism because like the Prophet said we are all children of Adam.When you die ur skin color is not going to get you in hell or heaven.But racism originated in Europe as we know it and it has rotted many of society and it's people!

How abt all Arabs being against shia ummah ?? For
this they are able to let Israel or western force to
attack and put Iran just like Iraq and all the muslim countries behind 100 year than the rest of the world without the basic needs and we are okay with it and all these articles about how we
are not treated right is our fault and we have
a thinking of a slave. I went for Haj this year
and Saudi's are worse of all Muslims as they treat you in their country not as their guest but
they are doing us a favor for having us when we
pay them more than they deserve and they should
be the one who should feel honoured that we are there.

subahanallah,even in the Holy land of mecca,i experience racism.not good from the ummah.

Any muslim who claims there is no racism within the Muslim Ummah is either blind or naive. I have been a victim of racism in the masjid, and it is a sad commentary on the muslim ummah. How can we expect non-Muslims to accept us when we can't even accept ourselves? None of us is any better than the other, except by piety. Thanks for sharing this article.