Assalamu alaikum, this kind of runs in the same vein as the “giving dawa” post, and that is the topic of discussing Islam in sub-Saharan Africa, or discussing Muslims in Africa, or talking about African countries that have significant, if not majority, Muslim populations. And that is, what I take to be, the complete dismissal of African Muslims, or how Islam is practiced/manifests itself in African countries. I’ll try to give an example of what I mean.
I had an experience a few weeks ago, when I was telling a sister about my husband’s home country, how upwards of 90% of the population is Muslim there, how I’ve traveled there before, etc. I’d probably spent about five minutes describing my husban’ds home country, etc., when the sister says to me “Have you ever been to the Holy Land” (I think she was Palestinian but can’t remember now). I told her that I hadn’t, to which she responded “well, you really should go”. Perhaps she meant nothing by it, perhaps she didn’t know what to say so that was the best she could think of to say, perhaps she had no idea that there were any Muslims in Africa, at least in Sub-Saharan Africa anyway.
However, the comment came across to me as dismissive, at the very least. Here, I’d just spent the past few minutes telling her about The Gambia and that’s all she could think of to say? I felt like she was saying “you shouldn’t have gone there, you should have went here”, which reminds me of another time I mentioned that I wanted to go back to The Gambia one day, and being asked “have you ever been to Hajj?” And when I said no, I got the “well you really need to go to Hajj first” treatment. Well of course! Which to me wasn’t even worth saying, because everyone should strive to go to Hajj, I mean, it’s not like it’s an either or thing, that if I go to The Gambia that I can’t go to Hajj.
But it’s the completely looking over, the complete dismissal of Muslim Africans that I detect in these sorts of expressions that really bothers me. The “why would you even want to go over there when you can go to Jordan or Palestine” sentiment, for example. And I know I shouldn’t or needn’t ask why, but why is this? Is it because you think African Muslims are so much lesser than you because they’re not Arab nor not white? I can definitely see why many African Muslims in this country are just starting their own masjids, because if a totally blind white Muslim woman like myself can detect the superiority complex that some Muslims have, then I’m sure many African Muslims can see it too. And who wants to be told that your Islam isn’t as real as someone else’s, or that you’re not a “true” Muslim?
Weird…
Posted by Ginny on August 18, 2008
Assalamu alaikum, I’ve received a strange comment, both in the comments section (which I deleted because I thought it was spam), and in my “Contact me” area. The message is purported to be from a “Raphael”, who is apparently asking for my help because he has been duped by what seems to be a 419 scam. I’m not sure if this, in and of itself, is a scam or not, as the person begins by addressing me as “Dear sir”. Now, I’m not sure if this man’s command of the English language is poor or not (it seems to be based on the writing style of the message), but anyone reading this blog for any length of time would, or seemingly should, get the impression that I am a “ma’am” and not a “sir”.
I post the message below, in its entirety, although I really hope that he’s not sent me sensitive account information, and also that he’s contacted the proper authorities, as I’m not sure why he’s asking me for help in finding whoever it is who supposedly cheated him out of his money. Why, though, he’d contact someone he didn’t know, on a blog he seemingly has never read, is beyond me, unless he, somehow is running a scam, whose premise is that he, himself has been scammed, though he’s not asked for money, etc. But anyway, here it is… He needs to contact the proper authorities in the country in which this “Raphael” is residing, and lodge a complaint with them. Sending this kind of info to an unknown person (me), after he’s supposedly been scammed, kind of shows me why he was probably scammed in the first place! This just doesn’t make sense to me, does he think I’m some kind of attorney or something. And btw, he submitted this to my comments box too (so much for caring about supplying sensitive account info.) I can tell you that these appear to be “real” addresses in Dakar, and the phone numbers seem to be cell phone numbers (which makes sense if you’re a scammer). And also from reading the messages, it looks like he’s been in contact with these people for a long time, but I’d suggest contacting the authorities in Raphael’s country of residence first, although this has such a stinch of scam that I’m surprised anyone would fall for it.
Posted in Africa, Comments, Senegal, West Africa | Tagged: 419 Scams, Africa, Senegal | 4 Comments »