Islam Ended Racism 1400 Years Ago! - Black or White? Doesn't Matter
Published on
When you look at this picture, what do you see? This image was taken in Coney Island, New York in 1906. This is a human zoo. At the center, there's a native Filipino child surrounded by people who are doubtful about whether she's even human. But there's no doubt that they think they are superior. When you look at all the photos, the only word that comes out is racism. The year is 2025. We are making great developments in fields like artificial intelligence, space travel and many more. But at the same time, despite all these advancements, we still couldn't solve the problem of racism. Imagine a scenario where thousands of people don't even see you as a human being.
Even your death is considered insignificant because you don't look like them. How did racism emerge? What happened about this in history? And what is happening today? And finally, you will look at how centuries ago Islam brought a magnificent solution to one of the greatest shames of humanity. If you're ready, let's begin. Let's go back to the images we showed you at the beginning. How happy do you think this child is? She doesn't even know where she is. When you first see it, you find this mentality almost impossible to understand. "You fully deserve all the mistreatment and cruelty I'm going to do to you. Why?
Because you're not the same color or race as I am." Yes, that is exactly what they think. These people are primitive according to them. They can ridicule them because they consider them as savages. They see them as pathetic and worthless. The human zoo tragic examples of how cruel humanity can be. It became very popular in many major cities such as Paris, Hamburg, London, Milano, New York City, and Chicago. In 1906, Madison Grant, President of the New York Zoological Society, went so far that he exhibited a man from Congo named Ota Benga in a cage at the Bronx Zoo in New York City. On top of that, he put him in the same cage with an orangutan, a gorilla, and a chimpanzee. Do you know why?
Because those in the cage were described as the ancient ancestors of human beings. So this man from Congo was so-called the missing link in evolution. And that's exactly how everyone should see him, no matter how he feels there. But were the things that happened in America only against black people? Unfortunately not. Now let's go back to the period of torture of the Native American people. The Indian massacre. To the period when America started to be colonized. Tragically, the number of people who were killed is still not known even today. Someone comes from across the ocean and makes you a stranger in your own homeland. And tries to ethnically cleanse your race.
The pages of history are full of examples like this. Don't you think that these racist people, whom we still see examples of frequently, need a consciousness that will open their eyes? I claim that if those people had a consciousness that existed 1400 years ago, these events would never have happened. But what was there 1400 years ago? More than 100,000 people are waiting for the words to come out from the mouth of this person, whom Allah sent to them as His messenger. This event is known in history as The Farewell Sermon.
Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, looks at the enormous crowd in front of him and starts both addressing them and the people of all centuries, and says, An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab, nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab. Also, a white has no superiority over a black, nor a black has any superiority over a white except by piety and good action. In this speech there are many more messages for humanity. Let's stop here and think about it. If the people behind all these crimes had the consciousness and understanding of Prophet Muhammad and those who listened to him that day, would these events have happened? I don't think so.
In the 13th Ayah of Surah Al-Hujurat, Allah says, "O humanity! Indeed, We created you from a male and a female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you may get to know one another. Surely the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous among you. Allah is truly All-Knowing, All-Aware." So why are we divided into different nations? To get to know, to meet one another. Not to exclude or humiliate each other. Not to be arrogant, not to exploit or colonize the other. We are put into different nations to meet each other. Think about it. If all of humanity had the same skin color and the same language, would we be interested in meeting other people?
We would say that they are all the same anyway, wouldn't we? But Allah created us differently so that we can be inspired by each other in a positive way. But why should we have this closeness? Because the Ayah says, "We created you from a male and a female." Since we are all descendents, children of Adam and Eve, it means that we are each other's brothers and sisters. We are each other's cousins. Isn't the logic in the Ayah very beautiful? For example, imagine you have a cousin, but neither of you knows that. Years later, when you finally meet after hearing about each other, you would want to be close, wouldn't you?
In the pages of history that are full of racism, wherever Islam went, it has illuminated those places like a lamp and brought this principle of brotherhood. In every land it's reached, it rejected racism and fought against this mentality. There are so many examples of it in history. Let me give just one of them. In the 15th century, an unprecedented decree was issued in Spain. All the Jews were decided to be expelled from the country. We are talking about more than 100,000 people. They had lived there for hundreds of years. And all of a sudden they were kicked out. While they had no idea where to go and what to do, a Muslim state welcomes them. The Ottoman Empire.
It accepts thousands of Jews and allows them to settle in its lands. Of course, after seeing the atrocities they commit against Palestinian Muslims, we clearly see how grateful Israel is in return for this great favor. But isn't it very sad to see that although Islam is a religion that stands against racism the most, it is also the most persecuted religion by means of racism? In different parts of the world, we hear about Muslims being racially discriminated against. Palestinians whose land has been stolen by the Zionist occupiers and who have been slaughtered, including women and children. Muslims in Myanmar who have been displaced from their homes by the Buddhist regime.
Their number is more than 1 million. Gangs in India, in large protests are saying things like, "If a Muslim works in your shop, fire him immediately. If any shopkeeper fails to do so, we'll put a boycott poster outside their shop." The unimaginable genocide and assimilation committed by China to Uyghurs in East Turkestan. Thousands of places of worship were destroyed and countless children were banned from receiving religious education. You might wonder, don't these people who commit these acts of racism against Muslims or any other group feel guilty? For example, how can Israel ease its conscience while bombing an innocent baby?
This is where a concept from psychology comes into the picture. Demonization. In other words, to make an innocent person look bad or inferior. And by believing this, to justify and normalize the atrocities that they commit against them so that they can ease their consciousness. Exactly the Israeli government's way of thinking. Aren't they the ones who drop bombs on civilians after saying after saying "We are fighting against human animals and we are acting accordingly?" But the way how this sick mentality is formed is also explained in the Qu'ran 1400 years ago. At a time when neither the field of psychology nor the word racism had emerged.
The Qu'ran explains this with the concept of Original Sin. When this term is used, people usually think of Christianity, which is a belief that every child is born sinful. But don't confuse this with what Christianity says. Because when we ask the question "What is the original sin?" to Islam, the answer is very different. Let's remember the story very briefly. When God created the first human being Adam, there were angels, and there was also a jinn called Iblis, also known as Satan. Strangely enough, Satan says the following sentence to God about Adam that will sound very familiar to us. He said, "I am better than him.
You created me from fire and created him from clay." It is very clearly a racist statement. He bases his superiority on the fire from which he was created and looks down on Adam who was created from dust. This is how Satan rebelled against God. And this sin brought his end. If we focus on that story in the Qu'ran, we see the following chain of events. As Adam is being created, Satan sees a different type of being. He thinks of him as a stranger and becomes cold towards him. Then he begins to think that he is superior than him. Finally, he reveals what he has been hiding in himself.
In order to prove his superiority, he ignores Adam's other virtues and attacks him on the basis of his material qualities. All of these are actually the order in which racism is formed. So the Qu'ran is actually describing the psychology of a crime that would be humanity's shame and disgrace for centuries. And it is showing this as a quality of Satan who is the enemy of God, so that the believers should see the ugliness of this sin and distance themselves from it. How amazing is that? Isn't it really strange to see that even the first human being, our first ancestor, was a victim of racism? So people need guidance in order to not to fall into this mistake.
The guidance in the 13th Ayah of Surah Al-Hujurat. In other words, in Islam, your value is not determined by the things that are out of your control, things that you have no choice over. Rather, you determine it yourself by doing your best to be a pious believer. When I hear this Ayah, my mind goes to only one place in the world. To the meeting point of 2 billion Muslims, whether they can physically go there or not. Kaaba in Mecca. We are now at the heart of the Muslim world. We are in Mecca. Kaaba. Here, Muslims come from four corners of the world with different ethnicities, different backgrounds, different cultures, different races. And they come here with one common purpose.
Men dressed the same, two pieces of white cloth. Women dress modestly. And they come here only with one purpose, one common purpose. Worshipping their Master and try to be close to Him. Now I'm going to talk about a person whose whole world changed when he came to this Holy Land. Malcolm X. You may have heard his name before. He was a black American citizen who converted to Islam. He lived in the mid 1900s and was a well-known figure throughout the country. Over the years he witnessed a lot of racism and became very disturbed by it. So he was looking for a solution to this issue.
After becoming Muslim, when he went to Mecca to perform Hajj in 1964, he saw things that he could never have imagined. In one part of his letter, he expresses his feelings in the following sentences. "Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient Holy Land. I've been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors. America needs to understand Islam because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem." He says this at a time when racism was far more intense than it is today.
Islam is the one religion that is able to eliminate the race problem from America's society. It is Islam that will end the belief that color is a sign of superiority. It is Islam that will end the racist attacks on innocent children. Don't you think that everything is very clear? As human beings, there is no limit to the cruelties and injustices we can commit when we are left unattended in this world. And many times we tend to justify or normalize our crimes with rationales like demonization. You don't even realize what we are doing is wrong. But at the same time, we are such human beings that we can choose the right thing among countless possibilities of wrong choices.
I mean, human beings are capable of going to extremes both in cruelty and good morals. Don't you think that the one who created them and sent them into this world will surely guide them? Even when we as humans produce a work, don't we want it to be the most beautiful? So of course, the one who created us will also want us to reach the most beautiful level. Allah has always wanted to guide us to the best in everything through the revelations He gave to the Prophets. What we have been talking about from the beginning is just one part of the message that the last prophet, Prophet Muhammad, brought to all humanity. Just one of the 6000 plus verses of the Qu'ran.
Just one of the dozens of issues that the Qu'ran solves so wisely. If even that just one solution is so uniquely powerful, isn't it clear that this book is the ultimate guidance that humanity desperately needs?
Even your death is considered insignificant because you don't look like them. How did racism emerge? What happened about this in history? And what is happening today? And finally, you will look at how centuries ago Islam brought a magnificent solution to one of the greatest shames of humanity. If you're ready, let's begin. Let's go back to the images we showed you at the beginning. How happy do you think this child is? She doesn't even know where she is. When you first see it, you find this mentality almost impossible to understand. "You fully deserve all the mistreatment and cruelty I'm going to do to you. Why?
Because you're not the same color or race as I am." Yes, that is exactly what they think. These people are primitive according to them. They can ridicule them because they consider them as savages. They see them as pathetic and worthless. The human zoo tragic examples of how cruel humanity can be. It became very popular in many major cities such as Paris, Hamburg, London, Milano, New York City, and Chicago. In 1906, Madison Grant, President of the New York Zoological Society, went so far that he exhibited a man from Congo named Ota Benga in a cage at the Bronx Zoo in New York City. On top of that, he put him in the same cage with an orangutan, a gorilla, and a chimpanzee. Do you know why?
Because those in the cage were described as the ancient ancestors of human beings. So this man from Congo was so-called the missing link in evolution. And that's exactly how everyone should see him, no matter how he feels there. But were the things that happened in America only against black people? Unfortunately not. Now let's go back to the period of torture of the Native American people. The Indian massacre. To the period when America started to be colonized. Tragically, the number of people who were killed is still not known even today. Someone comes from across the ocean and makes you a stranger in your own homeland. And tries to ethnically cleanse your race.
The pages of history are full of examples like this. Don't you think that these racist people, whom we still see examples of frequently, need a consciousness that will open their eyes? I claim that if those people had a consciousness that existed 1400 years ago, these events would never have happened. But what was there 1400 years ago? More than 100,000 people are waiting for the words to come out from the mouth of this person, whom Allah sent to them as His messenger. This event is known in history as The Farewell Sermon.
Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, looks at the enormous crowd in front of him and starts both addressing them and the people of all centuries, and says, An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab, nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab. Also, a white has no superiority over a black, nor a black has any superiority over a white except by piety and good action. In this speech there are many more messages for humanity. Let's stop here and think about it. If the people behind all these crimes had the consciousness and understanding of Prophet Muhammad and those who listened to him that day, would these events have happened? I don't think so.
In the 13th Ayah of Surah Al-Hujurat, Allah says, "O humanity! Indeed, We created you from a male and a female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you may get to know one another. Surely the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous among you. Allah is truly All-Knowing, All-Aware." So why are we divided into different nations? To get to know, to meet one another. Not to exclude or humiliate each other. Not to be arrogant, not to exploit or colonize the other. We are put into different nations to meet each other. Think about it. If all of humanity had the same skin color and the same language, would we be interested in meeting other people?
We would say that they are all the same anyway, wouldn't we? But Allah created us differently so that we can be inspired by each other in a positive way. But why should we have this closeness? Because the Ayah says, "We created you from a male and a female." Since we are all descendents, children of Adam and Eve, it means that we are each other's brothers and sisters. We are each other's cousins. Isn't the logic in the Ayah very beautiful? For example, imagine you have a cousin, but neither of you knows that. Years later, when you finally meet after hearing about each other, you would want to be close, wouldn't you?
In the pages of history that are full of racism, wherever Islam went, it has illuminated those places like a lamp and brought this principle of brotherhood. In every land it's reached, it rejected racism and fought against this mentality. There are so many examples of it in history. Let me give just one of them. In the 15th century, an unprecedented decree was issued in Spain. All the Jews were decided to be expelled from the country. We are talking about more than 100,000 people. They had lived there for hundreds of years. And all of a sudden they were kicked out. While they had no idea where to go and what to do, a Muslim state welcomes them. The Ottoman Empire.
It accepts thousands of Jews and allows them to settle in its lands. Of course, after seeing the atrocities they commit against Palestinian Muslims, we clearly see how grateful Israel is in return for this great favor. But isn't it very sad to see that although Islam is a religion that stands against racism the most, it is also the most persecuted religion by means of racism? In different parts of the world, we hear about Muslims being racially discriminated against. Palestinians whose land has been stolen by the Zionist occupiers and who have been slaughtered, including women and children. Muslims in Myanmar who have been displaced from their homes by the Buddhist regime.
Their number is more than 1 million. Gangs in India, in large protests are saying things like, "If a Muslim works in your shop, fire him immediately. If any shopkeeper fails to do so, we'll put a boycott poster outside their shop." The unimaginable genocide and assimilation committed by China to Uyghurs in East Turkestan. Thousands of places of worship were destroyed and countless children were banned from receiving religious education. You might wonder, don't these people who commit these acts of racism against Muslims or any other group feel guilty? For example, how can Israel ease its conscience while bombing an innocent baby?
This is where a concept from psychology comes into the picture. Demonization. In other words, to make an innocent person look bad or inferior. And by believing this, to justify and normalize the atrocities that they commit against them so that they can ease their consciousness. Exactly the Israeli government's way of thinking. Aren't they the ones who drop bombs on civilians after saying after saying "We are fighting against human animals and we are acting accordingly?" But the way how this sick mentality is formed is also explained in the Qu'ran 1400 years ago. At a time when neither the field of psychology nor the word racism had emerged.
The Qu'ran explains this with the concept of Original Sin. When this term is used, people usually think of Christianity, which is a belief that every child is born sinful. But don't confuse this with what Christianity says. Because when we ask the question "What is the original sin?" to Islam, the answer is very different. Let's remember the story very briefly. When God created the first human being Adam, there were angels, and there was also a jinn called Iblis, also known as Satan. Strangely enough, Satan says the following sentence to God about Adam that will sound very familiar to us. He said, "I am better than him.
You created me from fire and created him from clay." It is very clearly a racist statement. He bases his superiority on the fire from which he was created and looks down on Adam who was created from dust. This is how Satan rebelled against God. And this sin brought his end. If we focus on that story in the Qu'ran, we see the following chain of events. As Adam is being created, Satan sees a different type of being. He thinks of him as a stranger and becomes cold towards him. Then he begins to think that he is superior than him. Finally, he reveals what he has been hiding in himself.
In order to prove his superiority, he ignores Adam's other virtues and attacks him on the basis of his material qualities. All of these are actually the order in which racism is formed. So the Qu'ran is actually describing the psychology of a crime that would be humanity's shame and disgrace for centuries. And it is showing this as a quality of Satan who is the enemy of God, so that the believers should see the ugliness of this sin and distance themselves from it. How amazing is that? Isn't it really strange to see that even the first human being, our first ancestor, was a victim of racism? So people need guidance in order to not to fall into this mistake.
The guidance in the 13th Ayah of Surah Al-Hujurat. In other words, in Islam, your value is not determined by the things that are out of your control, things that you have no choice over. Rather, you determine it yourself by doing your best to be a pious believer. When I hear this Ayah, my mind goes to only one place in the world. To the meeting point of 2 billion Muslims, whether they can physically go there or not. Kaaba in Mecca. We are now at the heart of the Muslim world. We are in Mecca. Kaaba. Here, Muslims come from four corners of the world with different ethnicities, different backgrounds, different cultures, different races. And they come here with one common purpose.
Men dressed the same, two pieces of white cloth. Women dress modestly. And they come here only with one purpose, one common purpose. Worshipping their Master and try to be close to Him. Now I'm going to talk about a person whose whole world changed when he came to this Holy Land. Malcolm X. You may have heard his name before. He was a black American citizen who converted to Islam. He lived in the mid 1900s and was a well-known figure throughout the country. Over the years he witnessed a lot of racism and became very disturbed by it. So he was looking for a solution to this issue.
After becoming Muslim, when he went to Mecca to perform Hajj in 1964, he saw things that he could never have imagined. In one part of his letter, he expresses his feelings in the following sentences. "Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient Holy Land. I've been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors. America needs to understand Islam because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem." He says this at a time when racism was far more intense than it is today.
Islam is the one religion that is able to eliminate the race problem from America's society. It is Islam that will end the belief that color is a sign of superiority. It is Islam that will end the racist attacks on innocent children. Don't you think that everything is very clear? As human beings, there is no limit to the cruelties and injustices we can commit when we are left unattended in this world. And many times we tend to justify or normalize our crimes with rationales like demonization. You don't even realize what we are doing is wrong. But at the same time, we are such human beings that we can choose the right thing among countless possibilities of wrong choices.
I mean, human beings are capable of going to extremes both in cruelty and good morals. Don't you think that the one who created them and sent them into this world will surely guide them? Even when we as humans produce a work, don't we want it to be the most beautiful? So of course, the one who created us will also want us to reach the most beautiful level. Allah has always wanted to guide us to the best in everything through the revelations He gave to the Prophets. What we have been talking about from the beginning is just one part of the message that the last prophet, Prophet Muhammad, brought to all humanity. Just one of the 6000 plus verses of the Qu'ran.
Just one of the dozens of issues that the Qu'ran solves so wisely. If even that just one solution is so uniquely powerful, isn't it clear that this book is the ultimate guidance that humanity desperately needs?