Deeper Roots

As Salaam Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu,

Over the last couple of days, I have been thinking and questioning my stance on donating to Haiti, which has inspired me to take another look at a book that I’ve had on my shelf for a number of years. Written by Dr. Abdullah Hakim Quick, ‘Deeper Roots’ is a look at the Muslim presence in the Americas and the Caribbean from before Columbus to the present.

Deeper Roots is an attempt to right the wrong of Western academics who have sought to remove, diminish, and vilify Islamic history in the Caribbean and to highlight Muslim achievements there. Far from the supposed cultural supremacy of arrogant Europeans, this book shows a highly sophisticated Americas that stretched back thousands of years and an Islamic presence that pre-dates Columbus and his cohorts by 600 years.

The book begins by introducing the reader to the region, the people, and the lifestyle and beliefs of the indigenous people. The Americas was not an underdeveloped, empty land space partially populated by savage barbarians, it was teeming with sensitive peoples and their admirable achievements. These early Americans developed complex societies, governments and religions. They built pyramids, kept written records, lived harmoniously with nature and were accomplished seamen. Sadly, much of their achievements were lost to pillaging Europeans.

The second chapter pieces the puzzle of early Islamic contact in the Americas together by examining the capabilities of African Muslims to sail across the Atlantic, their desire to do so, and the historical, linguistic and archaeological evidence of it. We learn about the motivations of these Muslims to make the trip from a wealthy Africa to unknown lands and most intriguing their acceptance as part of the society once they arrived there. Over the six hundred years between the first Muslim contact and the arrival of Columbus, Muslims became part the indigenous population and the Islamic faith had made a big impression on the religious identity of the whole society. As a continuation of their crusade against Islam, the Spanish sought to undo this by destroying anything and subjugating anyone with the slightest connection to Islam.

Chapter three details the darkest period for the Muslims and the entire region, the slavery and cultural genocide of all non-Christians and especially Muslims in the name of Christ and profit. Millions of men, women and children were kidnapped, taken from Africa, transported to the West and force into a life of slavery. Among the Christian excesses were forced conversion to Christianity, forced baptism, Arabic was outlawed, any practicing of Islam was forbidden, forced name changes, forced eating of pork, families were separated, and marriage was disallowed but fornication was acceptable. While these things are terrible and they certainly had a horrific impact on the state of Islam amongst the slaves, we can take comfort in the fact that many Muslim slaves died resisting slavery in its early period and they were the vanguards of resisting it in its later stages. We may also take comfort in the fact that while all of the slaves were outwardly Christian many of them retained as much of the Islamic creed as possible and encouraged each other to remain steadfast to the deen of Allah. I ask Allah profusely to reward them again and again and give them so many pleasures in the afterlife that they will forget that they suffered at all. Equally, I ask Allah to punish those Christians again and again and torment them so much in the afterlife that they forget that they experience any pleasure at all.

The fourth chapter introduces us to the contracted worker from India, Indonesia and the economic emigrants from the Middle East. Little more than slaves these contracted workers suffered abuses from every angle. Even though these Muslims were mostly illiterate they managed to fend off the abuses and the missionaries and begin to develop an Islamic community, with mosques and madrasas. The high level of missionary activity highlights the underhandedness of missionary tactics and its failure is indicative of the failure of Christianity.

From the darkness of the last two chapters, the rest of the book shows a resurgent Islam and a promising future for the Muslims in the Caribbean. Organizations and schools began to appear. Daiees and money came to spread the deen of Allah and to guard against corrupted beliefs of black nationalism and Qadianism. The Muslims of the Caribbean are only now getting their voices back and beginning to show their strength. InshaAllah Islam will once again have the positive influence that it had before the darkness of Christianity shadowed those beautiful islands.

My only complaint about this book is that it is too short, only 80 pages including the bibliography and the appendices. I wanted to know more. I wanted more examples and more analysis. Perhaps the intention of the book is to give the reader a taste and hunger to research the matter further. The book did create that desire in me and the desire to visit the Caribbean and join the dawah there.

While reading this book I thought of a few things that I would like to share:

1. The Caribbean was well on its way to becoming Muslim, just like Indonesia, before the Christians came with their oppression and terrorism.
2. Christianity wouldn’t have so many followers if Christians weren’t so willing to force convert people and murder those that refused.
3. The hypocrisy of Christians in claiming that Islam spread through force conversions, when the reality is that’s how Christianity spread, not only in the Caribbean but around the world.
4. Generally, the descendants of the Romans are the harshest, most uncouth barbarians on this planet.
5. The West Indies was a major battleground in the war between Iman and Kufr and the trouble there was a continuation of the barbarism of Christians against Muslims in the Middle East, Africa and Europe.
6. Whenever a Christian occupies a land he causes untold suffering and corruption to the land, people and natural recourses as he seeks to strip the place of every type of wealth.
7. Whenever a Muslim conquered a nation or encountered another culture the outcome was always positive for the land, people and natural resources.

I would like to end this review by sharing a personal experience.

I visited West Africa 8 or 9 years ago and during that trip I took a ferry to an island off its coast. On that island there is a big house, which served the purpose of housing slaves before they were shipped to the West or to Europe.

When you walk in, there is a room that was used to medically examine and measure the slaves, who were then divided up according to age, gender and physical ability. They were then stuffed into small rooms by the hundreds. They were packed so tightly that they were not able to sit and had to urinate and defecate standing there pressed against so many others. The stench must have been something terrible. There was also a small cramped space for any ‘troublemakers’. Then there was the door of no return, which led to the sea and was the last door these Muslim slaves would pass through in Africa. The water just outside the door was constantly infested with sharks because if any slave died while in the house they would just toss their body out into the water. Some other characteristics of the house was very think walls, minuscule windows, a constant darkness and dampness.

The horrific conditions in which the slave suffered was contrasted heavily by the living quarters of the man who ran the slave house. His room was light, airy and very spacious. There was a comfortable bed, a desk, a chair and signs of his Christian faith everywhere. Quite clearly he had every comfort available to him and had no problems reconciling his faith with the torture of others that were different than him.

After the tour of the house we were given a tour of the church that was just down the road. It was the church which all the people involved in the slave trade would have gone to. I can’t say much about the church because I was thrown out for refusing to remove my kufi by an energetic African Christian.

Needless to say this has had a profound impact on my life. Allah there is no god except You, all praise and thanks belong to You.

I hope I have done this book justice and have encouraged you all to read more about the Islamic history of the Americans.

I want to read about your experiences, opinions and insight. Please share something personal about Islam in the Caribbean or Africa. If you don’t have any personal experience share some insight, give me and others something to think about. I will give one of the commenters a copy of the book ‘Deeper Roots’ as a thank you for sharing.