As American Muslims, should we stand with the Pilgrims or the Indians?
Since Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation in 1863 in the midst of the Civil War, Americans have celebrated a November Thursday as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise. Since 1970, a Native American group in New England has observed this same day as a National Day of Mourning. They are descendents of the indigenous Wampanoag Indians who encountered the Pilgrims that landed at Plymouth Rock. Each year at Plymouth Rock itself, the group - along with hundreds of allies - mourn the theft of their lands and food by the Pilgrims, and the enslavement and subjugation of their ancestors. At the same time, they also look forward to an America filled with justice and freed of brutality.
So, should American Muslims give thanks and praise the Creator, or should we mourn on this day? We should both give thanks and remember the past. We should stand in earnest compassion with the Pilgrims and in genuine solidarity with the Indians, helping each in their needs. As the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "A person should help his brother whether he is the oppressor or the oppressed. If he is the oppressor he should prevent him from doing so, for that is his help; and if he is the oppressed he should be helped against oppression."
As Muslims, we should always be thankful and truly grateful for all that we have. Although things could be better, things could also always be much, much worse. We should be mindful of the distance we need to go — as individuals, as a community and as a country. As America marks a Day of Thanksgiving, let American Muslims also commit ourselves to both an unfailing gratitude and to the struggles for racial and economic justice and peace.
Let's make this a day of thanksgiving and remembrance of our heritage as American Muslims. Let's recount the good and the bad, so we can better understand our role in America in these remarkable times.
This Thanksgiving, let's remember the Muslims who arrived in America in the hulls of slave ships after crossing the Middle Passage. After all, Malcolm X did say, "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock; Plymouth Rock landed on us!" Historians estimate that a quarter of African slaves brought to America were Muslim. When Alex Haley traced his Roots, he traced them through Kunte Kinte to a Muslim village in West Africa. Historian Sylviane Diouf has eloquently described this experience in her book "African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas". Let's give thanks for those lifted out of slavery, and for the dignity in struggle of the late Rosa Parks and her generation.
Let's remember the vision of religious pluralism of our Founding Fathers. According to James Hutson, chief of the Library of Congress' Manuscript division, the Founding Fathers - especially Thomas Jefferson & George Washington - "explicitly included Islam in their vision of the future of the republic". Thomas Jefferson was more proud of his effort to pass Virginia's landmark Statute for Establishing Religious Freedom in 1786 than he was of his presidency. (Some say a future president would be similarly more proud of his stint as the manager of baseball team in Texas.) In his Autobiography, Jefferson praised the Virginia Statute's "mantle of protection," which included "the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo and the Infidel." Let's give thanks for the religious freedoms we enjoy.
Let's remember the hand of friendship extended by the Sultan of Morocco, who made Morocco the first country to recognize the independence of the United States. Isn't it amazing that it is a Muslim land that has that honor? The 1787 Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Morocco and the United States stands as the basis for the longest unbroken treaty relationship between the US and any foreign country in the history of the Republic. Let's give thanks for those sincere efforts at peacemaking and bridge building in our time.
Let's remember the great American landmark, the Washington Monument on the Capitol Mall in Washington, DC. It was completed in the 1880s in part with the gift of funds from the Ottoman sultan in Istanbul, who as Caliph was also the figurehead leader of all Muslims. The Sultan's subjects included the populations of today's Middle East hotspots: Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. If you go to the Washington Monument, you can see the Sultan's commemorative plaque inside the Monument, which features a specially commissioned calligraphed poem in the Arabic script for the American people. Let's give thanks for wisdom, foresight, and small kindnesses in our leaders, communities, and families.
Let's remember the first American colonial conquest and occupation in the Muslim world which occurred during the Philippines-American War in the early 20th century, a war in which about 1.4 million Filipinos died. General Pershing accomplished in 10 or so years what the Spanish couldn't in 400 years. Fresh from fighting the Sioux at Wounded Knee, Pershing helped conquer the Muslim Moro peoples of the southern Philippines. The Colt .45 Gun, which was the standard issue handgun of the US Armed Forces until 1985, was invented specifically for the conquest of the Muslim Moro peoples. In one fateful siege, the Battle of Bud Bagsak, American troops killed 2000-3000 Muslim men, women, and children. Let's give thanks for those Muslims and Christians in the Philippines and around the world who are today breaking barriers and working for a new dawn free of oppression, exploitation and hate.
Let's all remember our own shortcomings, and give thanks for the infinite mercy, forgiveness, and love of our Creator.
Let's give thanks. Let's pray and work for a future of peace, justice, and nonviolence.
Mas'ood Cajee, a board member of the Muslim Peace Fellowship, lives in San Joaquin County, California. He is currently researching the stories of Muslim rescuers during the Nazi genocide. He welcomes comments at mcajee@yahoo.com.
Zakah (Community Wealth Tax). The Muslim contribution to life is open, without limits: he gives of his effort, his mind, his knowledge, his status and his money. The Prophet (peace be on him) said, "Every Muslim must perform a charity." They asked, "Messenger of God, what if a person cannot find anything to give?" He answered, "He should work with his hands to benefit himself and give in charity." "And what if he could not find that?" they asked again. "He should assist an aggrieved person in need." "And what if he could not do that?" "Then he should do good and refrain from evil - that would be his charity." (related by al-Bukhari)
Zakah regulates the wealth contribution in its minimum, making it a religious obligation from which the individual cannot free himself or take concessions, since it is the right of society to be devoted to the benefit of the needy and disabled individuals and classes.
In its proper sense, zakah is a practical manifestation of the brotherhood between the faithful and establishes mutual solidarity between them by the firm bond it creates between rich and poor, in a way that strengthens the individual's sense of relation to the community and the community's awareness of the value of the individual, and that it is strengthened by his strength and weakened by his weakness.
An analysis of zakah in the Islamic system reveals its various functions in a Muslim society:
(a) a religious function: In this respect zakah is a manifestation of the faith that affirms that God is the sole owner of everything in the universe, and what men hold is a trust in their hand over which God made them trustees to discharge it as He has laid down: "Believe in Allah and His Messenger and spend of that over which He made you trustees" (Quran 57:7). It is also an expression of gratitude towards the Bestower Who said: "If you give thanks, I will give you more." (Quran 14:7) In this respect zakah is an act of devotion which, like prayer, brings the believer nearer to his Lord, and being one of the pillars of religion, avoidance of payment is a manifestation of shirk (serving other gods besides God).
(b) an economic function: Its economic function is revealed in many ways: firstly, zakah gives a strong incentive for investing wealth for the benefit of society and makes us refrain from hoarding it. When the amount reaches the taxable minimum and has been possessed for a whole year, zakah falls due on it whether it has been invested or not. Those who do not invest their wealth expose it to continuous reduction of at least 2.5% annually. Gradually it will be removed from their possession to be used for the benefit of society.
Apart from this, zakah is a means of compulsory redistribution of wealth in a way that reduces differences between classes and groups, thus preventing the many social disorders from which Communist and Western societies alike suffer, no less than contemporary Muslim societies that have neglected zakah. Moreover, zakah is a means of establishing justice indirectly. It rectifies whatever wrongs, injustices or means of exploitation in trading and industrial relations that have arisen. This may explain the fact that it is called a "right" rather than "charity", or an act of beneficence. Zakah also facilitates the proper direction of purchasing power in society. It transfers part of the power of consumption, which may be used extravagantly to fulfill a proper function in the lives of those who need it.
(c) a social function: Zakah makes a fair contribution to social stability. By purging the soul of the rich of selfishness and the soul of the poor of envy and resentment against society, it stops up the channels leading to class hatred and makes it possible for the springs of brotherhood and solidarity to gush forth. Such stability is not merely based on the personal feelings of the rich: it stands on a firmly established right, which, if the rich denied it, would be exacted by force if necessary.
Zakah is not used merely to meet the present needs of the poor and needy, but serves other functions that deeply affect social life. As the Quran laid down, it solves the following problems:
(i) The problem of freedom, by assisting slaves seeking their freedom to attain it (slavery was an established system in the world at the time the Quran was revealed).
(ii) The problem of indebtedness which threatens an individual with bankruptcy, hardship, stress, humiliation or loss of good name, whether caused by the necessities of life or fluctuation in the market resulting in hardship to a good producer or an honest merchant. The Quran allots a portion of the zakah fund to solving such problems of indebtedness - a better solution than any contemporary system of insurance, as it is more positive and more in line with true cooperation and social solidarity.
(iii) The problem of defense and security of Muslim land against external threat and such matters as may be related to struggle in the cause of God.
(iv) The need of those who are away from their home seeking knowledge or a lawful livelihood and have not attained a settled life yet - the Quran devotes a portion of the zakah fund to meeting their need.
All this is contained in the Quranic verse that specifies the items upon which zakah should be expended, and recipients of the fund: "The alms are only for the poor and the needy, and those employed in collecting them, and those whose hearts are to be reconciled, and to free the slaves and the debtors, and for the cause of Allah, and (for) the wayfarer, a duty enjoined by Allah; Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise." (Quran 9:60)
In its lexical definition zakah means "purity" and "growth", in both of which we can perceive its religious connotations: it purges society of destructive afflictions and causes human and social virtues to grow, leading to sound social relations, peace and stability.
In this light we can understand the position taken by Abu Bakr, the first Khalifa (may God be pleased with him) in the face of the first attempt to suspend payment of zakah by those who refused to pay it. He used the Muslim army to uphold this social right and compelled the recalcitrant faction to pay the community wealth tax, asserting a principle in which he was following the Prophet, 
"I swear by God, if they refuse to pay to me even a small piece of robe which they used to pay to the Messenger of God, I would fight them for it." (related by al-Bukhari).
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