November 27, 2017
786
First of all, what is a 'farmstead'? Bing defines it as 'a farm and its buildings', which is exactly where we find ourselves living today, thanks be to God. One year ago we found ourselves in Dubai. That job and location was not meant to be, for a variety of reasons, so when a relative offered us to rent out their unoccupied farmhouse in a rural area of the State of Maine, we took them up on the offer, moving into the 1950s house in midwinter.
Second, what is the significance of titling the blog, 'Wilderness of North America'? Actually, it is a direct reference to the Nation of Islam, from a speech by Elijah Muhammad (see http://www.albany.edu/jmmh/vol1no1/elijahmuhammad.html) that refers to the unfortunate state of persons of African descent brought to this continent as slaves, and their struggles to reclaim their Black, Muslim identity in the spiritual 'desert' of a continent dominated by White, Christian, European culture.
As a White American convert to Islam, I appreciate the significance of calling this continent a 'wilderness' for Muslims, given the fact that the first mass immigration of Muslims to this country were bound and shackled on slave ships, bought and sold like animals and deprived of their most basic human rights, including the right to freedom of worship. Mosques in this country (in Arabic 'masjid', meaning literally, 'a place to make 'sujud', or prostration before God), were only built when Arab and other immigrants from Muslim countries began arriving in the 20th century, and when Nation of Islam turned to a more orthodox, less racially-based version of Sunni Islam under the leadership of Elijah's son, Warith Deen Muhammad. To this day, outside of major cities like Boston, Chicago and the Bay Area, mosques are few and far between. Anti-Muslim prejudice prevails among the less-educated multitudes of White Christians whose worldviews are largely shaped by conservative television, talk radio, and social media.
Hence in 2017, under the current regime, it seems more than ever that to be a believer in the Oneness of God and the Prophethood of Muhammad (sallalahu aleihi wassalam) in rural North America is to be in isolation, as a solitary traveler in the wilderness. I liken this reality to the image of the Hermit in the Rider-Waite Tarot deck, the cloaked figure on the cover of Led Zeppelin IV, or a tiny, solitary figure walking along a mountain path past waterfalls on the margins of a classical Chinese landscape painting. It also bears resemblance to the Muslim's Semitic cousin, the wandering Jew, the scapegoated and misunderstood worshipper of God in the spiritual wilderness of the unbelievers. It also recalls the early Christians, North African desert ascetics taken captive and then freed to the lions in the Roman colosseum.
Even relationship to other Muslims can be alienating, since I was not raised in their culture. Ironically, a lifelong quest for deeper spiritual meaning that has taken me through many lands has left me set apart from both my own Christian cultural heritage as well as that of 'cultural' Muslims, immigrants from Muslim lands whose relationship to Eid Al-Adha revolves around family and community in much the same way as Christmas does to me and my upbringing. It can be a lonely feeling. Even to the Black Muslim experience in this country, inspirational as it is, I find it hard to relate to since I am not, nor have ever been, a recipient of racism and prejudice at the hands of the White establishment. Despite my religious beliefs I remain an American White Man, the most privileged man in the history of the planet, yet with the most blood on his hands of any man in history. Call it ancestral karma.
On his 1996 collaboration album with singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco entitled 'The Past Didn't Go Anywhere', storyteller Utah Phillips quoted Catholic anarchist Amon Hennessy, "You came into the world armed to the teeth. With an arsenal of weapons, weapons of privilege, economic privilege, sexual privilege, racial privilege. You want to be a pacifist, you're not just going to have to give up guns, knives, clubs, hard, angry words, you are going to have lay down the weapons of privilege and go into the world completely disarmed..." That's where I've found most of my inspiration through the years, with others tired of complacency before an unjust system, be they Muslim, Christian, Jewish or non-religious. Yet most of my social and political views, particularly the need to question assumptions and continually strive to learn new things and adopt diverse viewpoints, is rooted in spiritual conviction.
First of all, what is a 'farmstead'? Bing defines it as 'a farm and its buildings', which is exactly where we find ourselves living today, thanks be to God. One year ago we found ourselves in Dubai. That job and location was not meant to be, for a variety of reasons, so when a relative offered us to rent out their unoccupied farmhouse in a rural area of the State of Maine, we took them up on the offer, moving into the 1950s house in midwinter.
Second, what is the significance of titling the blog, 'Wilderness of North America'? Actually, it is a direct reference to the Nation of Islam, from a speech by Elijah Muhammad (see http://www.albany.edu/jmmh/vol1no1/elijahmuhammad.html) that refers to the unfortunate state of persons of African descent brought to this continent as slaves, and their struggles to reclaim their Black, Muslim identity in the spiritual 'desert' of a continent dominated by White, Christian, European culture.
As a White American convert to Islam, I appreciate the significance of calling this continent a 'wilderness' for Muslims, given the fact that the first mass immigration of Muslims to this country were bound and shackled on slave ships, bought and sold like animals and deprived of their most basic human rights, including the right to freedom of worship. Mosques in this country (in Arabic 'masjid', meaning literally, 'a place to make 'sujud', or prostration before God), were only built when Arab and other immigrants from Muslim countries began arriving in the 20th century, and when Nation of Islam turned to a more orthodox, less racially-based version of Sunni Islam under the leadership of Elijah's son, Warith Deen Muhammad. To this day, outside of major cities like Boston, Chicago and the Bay Area, mosques are few and far between. Anti-Muslim prejudice prevails among the less-educated multitudes of White Christians whose worldviews are largely shaped by conservative television, talk radio, and social media.
Hence in 2017, under the current regime, it seems more than ever that to be a believer in the Oneness of God and the Prophethood of Muhammad (sallalahu aleihi wassalam) in rural North America is to be in isolation, as a solitary traveler in the wilderness. I liken this reality to the image of the Hermit in the Rider-Waite Tarot deck, the cloaked figure on the cover of Led Zeppelin IV, or a tiny, solitary figure walking along a mountain path past waterfalls on the margins of a classical Chinese landscape painting. It also bears resemblance to the Muslim's Semitic cousin, the wandering Jew, the scapegoated and misunderstood worshipper of God in the spiritual wilderness of the unbelievers. It also recalls the early Christians, North African desert ascetics taken captive and then freed to the lions in the Roman colosseum.
Even relationship to other Muslims can be alienating, since I was not raised in their culture. Ironically, a lifelong quest for deeper spiritual meaning that has taken me through many lands has left me set apart from both my own Christian cultural heritage as well as that of 'cultural' Muslims, immigrants from Muslim lands whose relationship to Eid Al-Adha revolves around family and community in much the same way as Christmas does to me and my upbringing. It can be a lonely feeling. Even to the Black Muslim experience in this country, inspirational as it is, I find it hard to relate to since I am not, nor have ever been, a recipient of racism and prejudice at the hands of the White establishment. Despite my religious beliefs I remain an American White Man, the most privileged man in the history of the planet, yet with the most blood on his hands of any man in history. Call it ancestral karma.
On his 1996 collaboration album with singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco entitled 'The Past Didn't Go Anywhere', storyteller Utah Phillips quoted Catholic anarchist Amon Hennessy, "You came into the world armed to the teeth. With an arsenal of weapons, weapons of privilege, economic privilege, sexual privilege, racial privilege. You want to be a pacifist, you're not just going to have to give up guns, knives, clubs, hard, angry words, you are going to have lay down the weapons of privilege and go into the world completely disarmed..." That's where I've found most of my inspiration through the years, with others tired of complacency before an unjust system, be they Muslim, Christian, Jewish or non-religious. Yet most of my social and political views, particularly the need to question assumptions and continually strive to learn new things and adopt diverse viewpoints, is rooted in spiritual conviction.
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