FATHER FRANK’S RANTS - AS AFRO-AMERICANS RIOT IN FERGUSON SOME MOOT THE IDEA OF A SEPARATE BLACK STATE. IS IT FEASIBLE?

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Rant Number 610         26 September 2014

NATION OF ISLAM

In Ferguson, Missouri, angry black people are rioting, looting and burning. After a white cop’s acquittal of shooting dead Michael Brown, an unarmed Afro-American teenager. The nation’s black President Obama calls for calm – no one gives a damn.

‘Stop killing us!’ a poster says. Eloquent plea. So, what is to be done? ‘There is only one solution, separation’, I heard black school kids mutter aloud near Ealing Station this afternoon. ‘Excuse me, separation? You mean…what?’ I inquired, pretty surprised. ‘An independent state for us blacks in America. Like Minister Louis Farrakhan wants’, the astonishing answer came.

Louis Farrakhan is the leader of Nation of Islam. An American fringe Islamic movement, with branches in Britain. In a 1997 outspoken interview to NBC Farrakhan stated his demands. Although his primary objective was real justice and equality for his people, he affirmed that if whites persisted in victimising blacks then the solution was to be apart. That meant a separate, territorial black state in the US. Like the Ealing school boys advocated.

First, the problem is that a racial state gravely offends against the radiant notion of a multi-ethnic society. Maybe the most sacred benchmark of Western politics. It is impossible to see how any US government would ever consent to that. Indeed, the example of the Civil War suggests that Washington would resist any attempt to quit the Union with all military might. That is not to say that, deep down, many American whites may not fancy the thought…

Racial separatism makes odd bedfellows. George Lincoln Rockwell, Fuhrer of the National Socialist Party of America, once officially attended, wearing full Nazi regalia, a Black Power conference that espoused similar aims. Rockwell warmly supported the project – obviously for rather different reasons. Had he not been gunned down in 1967, no doubt Rockwell today would applaud the suggestion of blacks going off to form their own polity.

Second, a tiny difficulty arises concerning any proposed territory. Where could that be? Mr Farrakhan was not thinking of anything like Liberia – a rather lame attempt to return ex-slaves to West Africa. He had in mind, presumably, a state carved out of present-day America. Pity that fairy land would already have people – millions of them - living there. Would they leap with joy at being told: ‘Sorry, guys, you must vacate your homes and your properties in order to make room for new inhabitants’? You can imagine the reactions. Rioting – and worse – would break out on a scale to make Ferguson look like a Vicarage tea party.

Third, how many Afro-Americans would actually welcome the idea? What proportion of blacks would want to live in an exclusively racial state? It is hardly conceivable that anyone could be forced to go there. And Nation of Islam only commands the allegiance of a small minority. I cannot imagine that many, if not most, blacks would wish to uproot themselves to live in piece of land elsewhere, even one officially theirs.

The example of Israel is instructive. It is a state for Jews. The Israeli cabinet indeed has just endorsed a controversial bill to declare the country a Jewish state. However, millions of Jews worldwide do not live in Israel and, pace Zionists, have no intention to move there. That being so, would the US black community really benefit from Mr Farrakhan’s project? Might it not entail a replication of the current divide?

Fourth, Farrakhan apparently does not favour intermarriage between whites and blacks but the reality is that mixed-race children exist and their number is growing apace every day. Who would qualify as rightful candidate for life in the black state then? Would President Obama, for example? Academic question, of course, as the President has done jolly well in race-torn America as it is.

No, I am afraid this idea of a separate black state in America is complete nonsense.  Gobbledygook. Pie in the sky. Forget it.

However, in other ways Mr Farrakhan interests me. I kind of like him. I have to say it: his thoughts on sexual mores are impeccable and indistinguishable from the tenets of traditional Christianity. The family is a top value. Sex is for the procreation of children. No pre-marital or recreational sex. (Hurrah!) Abortion is discouraged, except in rare cases when the mother’s life is in danger. Members are urged to cultivate self-reliance, hard work and self-respect. Smoking and drugs are forbidden. Practices like farming and healthy cooking are recommended. All rather excellent. Should he perhaps be nominated as the next Archbishop of Canterbury? Nah! A bit too much of a stick-in-the mud, I fear.

Still, there are odd bits, here and there. For example, Nation of Islam is said to sanction and cultivate a peculiar therapy called ‘dianetics’. Something invented by the founder of Scientology, Ron L. Hubbard. La samaha Allah! God forbid!

I am a bit puzzled as to the precise doctrinal and theological standing of Nation of Islam vis-à-vis mainstream Muslim teaching. Certainly Farrakhan’s public image – he is clean-shaven and wears smart suits and a bow tie - does not match conventional notions of a Muslim leader. Maybe harmless eccentricity? Or Sufism? I leave it to my Muslim friends to judge.

Years ago Barack Obama piously declared that there is no black or white America. Only America, period.

Ferguson shows that, like in lots of other matters, the President was dead wrong.

Revd Frank Julian Gelli


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