By  Mowahid Hussain Shah

October 03 , 2014

Out of Darkness  

In mid-September in Springfield, Virginia, a large gathering of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) celebrated the 50 th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, a first major legislative step to empower the black community with fundamental rights. There was no reference to the sacrifices of Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali, who firmly stamped their class in the American arena. Perhaps there remains an apparent fear of incurring the displeasure of the mainstream white establishment.

Defeatism, too, is a factor. Advocated was the legalization of marijuana on the grounds that a disproportionate number of blacks have been arrested or incarcerated because of marijuana possession or use.

Race remains a cloud hovering over the American landscape. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders mentioned that no other US President faced the obstructionism encountered by Obama.

Visiting Charleston, South Carolina was instructive. South Carolina was the first state in the US to secede from the Union in 1860. Six more states in the American South quickly followed, forming the rebel Confederacy in 1861, and igniting the US Civil War, which lasted through 1865, culminating in the surrender of the seceding South and assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Charleston was one of the wealthiest cities, and South Carolina was one of the wealthiest states. Its economic opulence was built and ensured by slave labor and a particularly brutal plantation culture, wherein on large farms rice, tobacco, cotton, and sugar cane were grown. Underlying its mutiny from the Federation was the trauma of relinquishing privileged continuity. Without slave labor, the plantations were unsustainable and could not operate.

Though checked by law, the legacy of racism lingers. An article in the Charleston City Paper of September 9 pointed to the Southern white community’s “insistence that the black community as a whole is responsible for the criminal behavior of a select few young black men. More specifically, they are flabbergasted that the NAACP refused to address this problem.”

A critic of the NAACP states: “Look at yourself. You are literally standing on the sidelines blaming everyone else while the black community kills itself … The organization is TOTALLY SILENT on the high amount of blacks killed by other blacks.” Interestingly, it is similar to the criticism heaped on the entire Muslim community for the misdeeds of the few.

When Malcolm X went to Mecca, he witnessed first-hand the inclusive equality of Muslims paying homage to the ultimate and sole Superpower – the Almighty Allah. There, he had the eye-opening discovery of the corrupt futility of racist hate. Self-esteem comes through self-scrutiny.

Many US blacks are uncomfortable with acknowledging the impact of Islam as a redemptive force showing a pathway out of darkness.

Noteworthy to see is “12 Years A Slave,” which won the 2014 Oscar for Best Picture. Based on true events, the movie suggests that the massive cruelty of 19 th century US slavery was partly enabled by black passivity. Appeasement of tyranny incites more tyranny. When the hero is advised by a fellow slave on what he must do to survive, he retorts: “I don’t want to survive; I want to live.”

 

 

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PREVIOUSLY


Election 2004: Decisive but Divisive

Muslim Youth & Kashmir in America

The Big Picture: Wealth without Vision

Oxygen to Global Unrest

Punishing the Punctual

Change without Change

Don’t Be Weak

Passionate Attachment

The Confidence of Youth

The Other Side of Democracy

Campaign of Defamation

Pakistani Women & the Legal Profession

A Pakistani Journey

Farewell to Fazal

Mukhtaran and Beyond

Revamping the OIC

7/7 & After

Nuclear Double-Standard

Return to Racism

Hollywood – The Unofficial Media

The Sole Superpower

The UN at 60

A Slow Motion World War?

Elite vs. Street

Iqbal Today

Macedonia to Multan

Defending our Own

2006 & Maulana Zafar Ali Khan

Error against Terror

The Limits of Power

Cultural Weaknesses

Aggressive at Home, Submissive Abroad

Global Storm

The Farce of Free Expression

The Changing Mood

Condi & India

Xenophobia

Looking inward

Re-Thinking

A Tale of Two Presidents

Close to Home

Flashpoint Kashmir

The Spreading Rage

Confronting Adversity

The Illusion of International Law

Other Side of Extremism

Five Years after 9/11

The Educated Ignorant

The Decline of Humor

Icons

Six Years of Insanity

The War Not Being Fought

Munir Niazi

Compliance & Defiance

Counter-Message

Miscast

The Goddess of Wealth

The Meaning of Moderation

The Tora Bora of Fear

Clash of Civility

The Early Race

Challenge & Response

Will & Skill

Zealotry

Movie-Media and Pakistan

Hug with a Thug

Quest for Integrity

Unconquered

Vanity

Bringing Back the Past

Stuck in Iraq

Islam, Science and the West

Turmoil over Turkey

Leaders versus Leadership

Might Does Not Make Right

Kursi First

Vision & Will

Battle of the Billionaires

Assassination Alley

Extremism and Change

Rosy Expectations

Short-Term Gain, Long-Term Pain

Not Winning

Beyond Baghdad: Five Years after

The Hijab of Democracy

Hate, Fear & Hope

Weapon of Words

Hide N’ Seek

Yanking in the UN

Obama’s Breakthrough

Let Lahore Be Lahore

National Mood & Sports

Flirting with Fire

Trips Abroad

Georgia on the Mind

Duel for the White House

Zia to Zardari

Palestine: Avoiding the Unavoidable 

Not Working 

In the Ring 

Obama’s America

Smiles & Dreams

Quiet Deeds of Good

Crime and Indifference

Journey of Understanding

VIP-hunting

Terror via Counter-Terrorism

Umpires or Vampires?

The Long Road

Yesterday’s Reminder

Appeasement and the Real Threat

Israel’s Washington Agenda

New Challenges

Cairo and Beyond

Re-fighting Old Battles

America ’s Super Villains

Activism in America

Style without Substance

Overcoming Barriers

Ashes to Afghanistan

The Looming Change

Fear and Possibilities

What Is Not Debated 

Hired Guns

Rampage at Fort Hood

Manmohan in Washington

The Long Duel

Green Nukes

Vision and Division

Avoiding Why

Striving to Matter

Shame-proof

Anxiety and Opportunity

Putting Iraq in America

The Right Strategy

Looking Beyond

Rot at the Top

Strategic Folly

Daring & Caring

Over-Stepping on Turkey

Sudan : Perils of Provincialism

Old Fears, New Target

Europe ’s Stain

The US-Pakistan Enigma

The Status Quo Is Unacceptable

9 Years after 9/11

License to Steal

US Muslims at the Crossroads

Tumor of Terror

An Arab Voice

Disastrous Decisions

Double Game

Sticky Wiki

What Quaid Was Not

Money Conspiracy

Pharaohs & Pirates

Greed and Cricket

Change & Challenge  

Forty Years after 1971

Abandoning Our Own

Rewarding Failure

Osama and Obama

Tsunami of Tolerance

Representation and Presentation

Meek and Weak

Change or the Same?

No Easy Exit

Nation to Non-Nation

10 Years after 9/11

Shining India?

Big Power, Small Politics

Rule of the Gun

Proxy of the Powerful

Fight for Fairness

Republican Race

Actors or Directors

Speaking out

Professional Sycophants

More Provinces?

Too Much Information

Soft Separation

Soft Poison

Unemployment & Over-Population

Seize the Day

The Arab Awakening

Ben Bella

At University of Gujrat

Good People Behaving Badly

Playing Over-Smart

Do Less

Resisting the Resistible

Performance, Not PR

Home-grown Havoc

Salutation to the 65 th Year

Plague of Provincialism

USA Elections 2012

Rage

Fight or Flight

Rift and Drift

Obama II

Me and We

Small Role or Small Actors?

On Losing

Who Will Guard the Guards?

Loyal to Their Loot

Prevail or Fail

Perceptions and Reality

Toll of Occupation

Re-think, Re-examine, and Self-correct 

The Washington Tribe

Voice and Vision

Moral Slump

Wall of Illusion

Under One Banner

Bitter Harvest

Gallows and the Throne

Scent of Power

At a Standstill

Leaders and Leadership

The Deadline

Fighting Darkness

Distant Connections

Governance: The Long View

Discussion in DC

Darkness in the Mind

Killing Kennedy and Liaquat Ali

Yahya Khan Speaks on 1971

Quaid & Xmas in Washington

150 Years of FC College

Tyranny of Money

50 Years of Ali

A Dose of Truth

Little Guy, Big Impact

A Reassessment in Washington

Crimea & Kashmir

Democracy or Oligarchy?

Afghan Elites: Blaming Pakistan

Pitfalls of Intervention

Arabs in America

Never Give up

German Journey

Tyranny of Today

Manipulating Language

March & Match

Destroyers


2001

 

Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
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