african american

Imam Khalid Fattah Griggs accepted Islam in 1972. He is the Imam of The Community Mosque of Winston-Salem in North Carolina. This is a position he has held since 1984. He is also co-chairman of the North Carolina-based Black Leadership Roundtable of Winston-Salem-Forsyth County.

I used to be asked this question in Pakistan as well: are you Pakistani first or Muslim first? Yet, it has always made me uncomfortable, it forces you to feel that the two: religious and national identity, are somehow mutually exclusive.

Muslims must remember that most of us or our parents could not have been allowed to even enter this country due to racist immigration laws that were lifted largely due to the Civil Rights movement.

Black History Month is not simply a time for African-Americans to take pride in and to educate others about their history and achievements. It is also a time for Muslims to educate themselves.

The organized struggle of North American Muslims begins over seven centuries ago, with the civil rights movement led by multitudes of enslaved Muslim Africans. The spirit and movement continues today.

While this holiday holds historical importance as a commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s sacrifices and role as a premiere civil rights leader, this year it is even more significant. Here are a couple of easy ways to make the most of it.

Rosa Parks was a woman of quiet strength and dignity who displayed incredible courage in the bastion of racial hatred in segregated America in the 1950s---Montgomery, Alabama---to spark a movement for change that liberated both the oppressed and the oppressors.