Why Islam is my choice — Page 128
128 their dignity, as far as knowledge, as far as their uplift, identity and things like that—there was nothing offered to them by Christianity. All of these things were offered to them by Isl ā m. And another point of interest, not only Afro- Americans—but the African continent itself is the only continent in the world where the inhabitants are predominantly Muslim—you look at Asia, you look at Europe, you look at South America, I’m just giving you an example. Africa has about a 70% population of Muslims and about a 30% populations of non-Muslims. It is the only continent in the world that has a plurality of Muslims. So, this alone points out to the fact that for African people, of all the people in the world, Isl ā m was made to order. And Afro- Americans are no exception to that rule. As a matter of fact, it is more applicable to them because their rights, their identity—everything—had been taken away and Isl ā m restored all of that back to them. And I think this is what Mr. Turner is trying to express. This is what I read from his statement. W: And also, it would not be amiss—when you say that Isl ā m gave all these rights to the Afro-Americans, it’s important to recognize that by so doing and by so assisting in the emancipation of the Afro-Americans, it removed from the American society one major cause of future lack of peace, of future disturbances, so it gave to the whole of society, not only to Afro-Americans, but also to the rest of the population, this mercy, that it enables them all to understand how important it is that everybody be given his and her due position in life regardless of color and race so they can live in peace. I feel also that the work that Ḥ a ḍ rat Muft ī Mu ḥ ammad Ṣā diq Ṣāḥ ib (may All ā h be pleased with him) did when he came was in fact propagation of Isl ā m in America proper. Prior to that, all the Muslims that were here were not able seriously, together even, to give any