On Friday, February 17, KARAMAH screened the critically acclaimed film Prince Among Slaves at America’s Islamic Heritage Museum.
The movie artistically depicts the story of Abdul Rahman, a prince of Timbo turned slave in 1788 in Mississippi. The story weaves in and out of Abdul Rahman’s life, peppered with dialogue from various leaders and scholars who have studied his life’s history. This prince’s story imparts the struggle, brutality, and labor of slavery in America’s past, in addition to depicting the incredible injustice of not recognizing the intellectual capacity of African slaves. Abdul Rahman was an educated man, learned in Arabic, English and his native tongue. His knowledge was later discovered, and this incited fear in the pre-Civil War South, for knowledge was power—a power that was threatening to slave owners and thus was brutally taken away from slaves. An unfortunate side effect of this is that many historians focus on the physical contributions of slaves but often do not recognize that slaves left an intellectual legacy as well.
Following the movie, Dr. Azizah al-Hibri, founder and Chair of KARAMAH, and Amir Muhammad, curator of America’s Islamic Heritage Museum, led a compelling discussion of the movie, as well as on the imprint of African Americans on American history, particularly on the formation of the Muslim American identity incepted by African slaves.
Dr. al-Hibri also recounted her personal connection to this history. While a student at the American University in Beirut, she was the president of the debating society, which hosted a speech by Malcolm X. In the 1960’s, most Americans shied away from the controversy of Malcolm X, and so did the university’s administration. When Dr. al-Hibri pressed the administration about inviting Malcolm X, referencing free speech, she was told, “We [Americans] don’t want to air our dirty laundry abroad.” Determined to host him, Dr. al-Hibri pressed on and asked her fellow club members to prepare outreach materials for the event in case of last minute reversal of the administration’s decision . On the day of Malcolm X’s arrival, she was told by a senior administrator, “You may bring him, but I guess it is too late now.” She relayed that the fliers would be up within the hour and two hours later, Malcolm X spoke at the university about oil and geopolitics—a last minute event and topic, with standing room only. From then on, the two began corresponding, ending with a promise from Malcolm to show her Harlem when she traveled to the U.S. It was with sadness that Dr. al-Hibri relayed that Malcolm X (may God have mercy on his soul) passed away a month prior to her arrival in New York. She asked her cab driver to take her to Harlem, and she visited on her own.
The conversation then turned to the fact that unbeknownst to many, our country’s founding fathers may have been influenced by Islam, the Qur’an, and the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad. Dr. al-Hibri spoke of Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an. When she went to the Library of Congress and asked to see it, they asked her, “which volume?”, and she discovered that Jefferson’s Qur’an has* two volumes– the first, a cultural history of Islam and Arabs, and the second, the text of the Qur’an itself. The audience was enlightened by the fact that the United States Supreme Court Room has a frieze which contains images of historical figures, both religious and political. Religious figures are depicted as carrying a book or a message. Political leaders are depicted as carrying a sword. Among these images is one of the Prophet Muhammad, who is depicted as carrying both a sword and a book, signifying his dual role as a Prophet and head of state.**
Dr. al-Hibri left the crowd with a parting challenge: that students take up the cause of researching the roots of Islam in this country, as she has come upon some threads that need to be investigated further and woven together.
For more information on this event and others, feel free to contact KARAMAH at ehummel@karamah.org.
*It is currently housed at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
**While many Muslims may be concerned with the idea of an image of the Prophet Muhammad, KARAMAH has received a fatwa that this image is does not violate Islamic principles against idolatry. The fatwa by Dr. Taha Jaber Alwani is published on our website.
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