Ask Goebbels
Usefull?? Yes
Idiots?? Yes again.
Posted on 06/25/2005 11:40:09 AM PDT by Lorianne
The sound is the familiar street rap so popular with American teenagers. But the message is decidedly more upbeat than the dark themes of drugs and violence that permeate most rap. Consider the words from a song called "Intentions:"
"My intentions cannot bring the reward, when they're out of line. So I pray to Allah to help me, to do everything for him only."
Known as Muslim rap, this new musical phenomenon strikes a chord especially with African-Americans who make up about a third of all Muslims in the United States. The group behind the sound is Native Deen, three black men in the Washington, D.C., area who grew up as devout Muslims and want to use their talents to inspire other young people to keep the faith amid the pressures and temptations of modern life.
All three -- Joshua Salaam, 28, Naeem Muhammad, and Abdul-Malik Ahmad, both 26 -- are married and fathers of young children. When not making music, Salaam manages the civil rights division of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Muhammad works for an information technology company, and Ahmad designs web sites and teaches martial arts.
As Native Deen, they perform at Islamic conferences, fundraisers, weddings, and holiday gatherings - any place, they say, "where wholesome Islamic entertainment is needed." They shun clubs, bars, and discos, or any venue where Islamic prohibitions against alcohol, dancing, and many forms of music are violated. Most of their songs deal with growing up Muslim in America, remembering to make morning prayers and practice the faith without getting too caught up in material possessions and "the TV shows and the music videos." A few numbers simply exhort listeners to avoid drugs, or sex, or cheating in school with no specific mention of religion.
The group is careful to craft lyrics acceptable even to the most sensitive parental ear. "We make sure we don't put stuff in our songs that we don't want a four-year-old to repeat," says group leader Salaam. "Our music is something that parents and children can enjoy together. In fact, the parents encourage the kids to listen."
Because many Muslims believe that the teachings of the prophet Muhammad forbid the playing of most musical instruments, Native Deen uses only traditional drums in its live performances. Their tapes and CDs include a wider variety of percussion instruments, but a message at the beginning assures listeners that they will hear no wind or string instruments, which are considered especially taboo.
The three musicians formed Native Deen in 2000 after years of performing together and separately at Muslim Youth of North America (MYNA) camps and other Islamic events. They and other artists recorded a series of tapes, called MYNA-RAPS, sales of which help support Muslim youth activities. "When we started traveling and performing together regularly, we decided, Let's call ourselves something," Salaam says. "Deen means religion or way of life in Arabic, so we picked the name Native Deen to signify the religion that's naturally in you."
Combining rap with Muslim themes wasn't a conscious decision, Salaam says. "Growing up Muslim and black in America, those were our experiences. That's naturally what came off our lips."
Word of mouth has been sufficient to land the young musicians gigs at Islamic events in California, Texas, and Illinois -- even an invitation to the United Kingdom, which they had to turn down because of a previous commitment. They attracted a following in Malaysia after a Malaysian television crew visiting the United States did a feature on them.
In the past few months, they've achieved a new measure of fame thanks to a radio show, "On The Scene with Native Deen," that airs every Friday evening on a local Islamic radio station and is broadcast worldwide via the Islamic Broadcasting Network (IBN) Web site. The program, a combination of music, patter, and live discussion, has been "very successful in attracting the younger crowd," mainly high school and college students, says IBN's acting program director Sohaib Elsayed. The performers "convey personality, they're engaging," he says. "They take the day-to-day issues of growing up Muslim in America and put them in a more humorous light."
The feedback the group gets from young fans is especially gratifying," Salaam says. "People come up and tell us how a song helped them get through ninth grade or inspired them to do different things by reminding them of their faith and that God is there -- and in a hip way."
With Native Deen, Muslims in the United States also "feel like they have something of their own," he adds. "They say now we can have entertainment at our events, and it doesn't have to be in Arabic. Our music is American, it's hip, and it's something everybody can be comfortable with."
I learn something new about Islam nearly every day.
Well, there it is. I guess Islamic fascists have figured out how to subvert America through rap music.
I wonder when NPR stations will stop playing that "religiously offensive" music they play on their classical stations.
Blacks converting to Islam proves once again that a sucker is born every minute.
Sorry.
I thought this was about Howard Muhajadeen, the Democratic National Chairman.
"I never understood why blacks would convert to Islam considering that the Muslims are the ones who buy and large sold them into slavery and are still keeping them in slavery in Africa even TODAY. The Arabs look down on black people in general - it's really bizarre to me that they would convert to this nonsense"
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I recently flipped through that new book that's been getting raves, "Saudi Arabia: A Kingdom in Crisis". The author worked for a year at ArabNews, the english-language Saudi newspaper, he goes into some detail about the plight of the downtrodden black Saudi's. Betcha didn't even know they existed.
I still remember flipping through a century-old first edition of Sir Richard Francis Burton's "Thousand and one Nights." Gads! Whitey ain't got nuthin' on those A-rabs when it comes to racism. "Slobbering hideous blackamoor" anyone?
Ping.
Over the past 30 years I've had close acquaintances with followers of of Elijah Muhammad, Wallace Deen Muhammad and Farrakhan. Although I've disagreed with them all, being a Christian, I've found most of the followers of Wallace Deen and even some of the others to be honorable in a way that Arab muslims have not been. Exception being the Malik Shabazzes out there, who are outright freaks.
Maybe it's because many of them have Christian roots that I have hope that some will turn back. The Church is still extremely strong in the black community, and its influence won't be diminished a few muslims. Still, vigilance is always critical.
Regretably, back in the 60s American blacks were sold a bill of goods.
Leftists persuaded them that Christianity was a "plantation religion," the religion of the slave masters. Also, that they had might as well invent new names for themselves, because their Christian family names were the names of slave owners. This was a brilliant propaganda move on the part of the leftist Christian haters, because there was a kernel of truth in it.
What they didn't say, and never have taught in public schools, is that the major slave religion of all time is Islam. Muhammed was a slave master, and Muslims have always been slavers. It's a central aspect of their religion and culture. Christian slave masters were an anomaly, which lasted for a relatively short time. Jesus does not demand immediate freedom for slaves, but he teaches that all persons, Jew or Greek, slave or free, man or woman, are equal in the sight of God, so the logical conclusion was a gradual ending of slavery in Christian countries.
Muslims are equal opportunity slavers. They raided Europe for centuries and took Christian slaves, and the Barbary pirates were still doing it in the 19th century when America put an end to them.
Unfortunately, Europeans caught the slavery bug, which had disappeared during the middle ages, in the Renaissance age of exploration, when they went out and met guess who, the Arab slavers in Africa.
Slavery is alive right now in most Muslim countries. They just keep it in the closet and don't talk about it, and of course the leftist media are only too happy to help them cover it up. Christian Philipino maids in Saudi Arabia, Indonesian servants, black slaves in Sudan, there's nothing Muslims like better than to sit back and drives slaves to do their work, or beat them if they complain.
Ask Goebbels
Usefull?? Yes
Idiots?? Yes again.
Hey! Good point.
William Wilberforce never bowed to Mecca, that's for sure!
This is a pants load.
I have been listening to Middle Eastern music for many years prior to 9/11. There are plenty of musical instruments in it.
http://www.sfusd.k12.ca.us/schwww/sch618/Music/Islam_Music_%26_Dance.html
House slave/master describes the relationship between blacks who vote dem. and the dem party. Blacks believe they're getting something for nothing, bribes, freebies. They should know better. They're selling their souls and should be ashamed of themselves.
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