For African-American Muslims, Ramadan Has Special Meaning

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By Mana Rabiee

As the month of Ramadan begins, many millions of Muslims around the world are joining in a collective fast intended to help purify their souls. But for the more than half a million African-American Muslims, many of whom descend from former slaves, Ramadan has a special meaning - a link between the African-American experience and the Islamic tradition of spiritual freedom.

More than 500 African-American Muslims worship at the Masjid Muhammad in Washington, home to the oldest African-American Muslim community in the United States.

Talib Shareef, a retired U.S. Air Force veteran, is the new Imam at Masjid Muhammad. He says the experience of black Muslims in the United States is different from that of most other Muslims.

"Most of the African Americans in America come from the church experience," Shareef said. "We became Muslims in America just a little differently here and because we are Muslim most of our family members are not aware of Islam, so we have to explain a lot of things. We have to share a lot of our life with those around us because it's a minority in terms of religion." CONTINUE....

Blacks Still Drawn to Islam Despite FBI Raids

By JESSE WASHINGTON (AP)

By now, Sekou Jackson is used to the questions: Why does he need to leave a work meeting to pray? Don't black Muslims convert to Islam in jail? Why would you even want to be Muslim?

"It's kind of a double whammy to be African-American and Muslim," said Jackson, who studies the Navy at the National Academy of Science in Washington. "You're going to be judged."

Blacks Still Drawn to Islam Despite FBI Raids....

President Obama Speaks to the Muslim World from Cairo, Egypt

"A New Beginning"
The President gives a speech in Cairo, Egypt, outlining his personal commitment to engagement with the Muslim world, based upon mutual interests and mutual respect, and discusses how the United States and Muslim communities around the world can bridge some of the differences that have divided them. June 4, 2009.

Mideast trip next step in Obama's Muslim outreach

By JENNIFER LOVEN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama began on Day One of his presidency to "reboot" America's damaged relationship with the world's 1.5 billion Muslims. With this week's Mideast trip and long-promised speech in Cairo, he takes a perilous leap into the effort.

Tensions fueled 30 years ago when Iranians overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran were stoked white-hot by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the creation of the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. Perceptions of President George W. Bush, as intent on imposing his views on the world and indifferent to the suffering of Muslims in the Palestinian territories and elsewhere, only widened the gap.

To Obama, who leaves Tuesday, the success of the struggle against Islamic extremists is at stake. This fight stretches throughout the Muslim world, from the Palestinian territories and Iraq to Afghanistan and Pakistan, where largely ungoverned border areas are a haven for al-Qaida, and beyond.

Mideast trip next step in Obama's Muslim outreach....