Cheikh Anta Diop on Islam

One Zero Seven · (#1 (**permalink**))

Salaam (Peace) to all.

FYI...

Cheikh Anta Diop

Cheikh Anta Diop was one of the premier and most respected and knowledgeable Afrocentric scholars, he was also a physicist and director of the Radiocarbon Laboratory in Dakar, Senegal, and a noted Egyptologist. His most famous work is, The African Origin of Civilization and his view differs totally from those promulgated by minority Afrocentric scholars:

The primary reason for the success of Islam in Black Africa, with one exception, consequently stems from the fact that it was promulgated peacefully, at first by solitary Arabo-Berber Travelers to certain Black kings and notables, who then spread it about them to those under their jurisdiction... What is to be emphasized here is the peaceful nature of this conversion, regardless of the legend surrounding it. (Precolonial Black Africa, page 163.)

Additionally, in view of what some Afrocentric scholars claim that African peoples should 'return' to 'their own indigenous African religions', such as Yoruba, it is interesting to note what Cheikh Anta Diop had to say about this:

African religions, more or less forgotten, were in the process of atrophying [dying] and being emptied of their spiritual content, their former deep metaphysics. The jumble of empty forms they had left behind could not compete with Islam on the moral or rational level. And it was on that latter level of rationality that the victory of Islam was most striking. That was the fourth cause of its success. (Ibid, page 166)

Cheik Anta Diop, an African himself, cannot be accused of making a racist or anti-African statement. He was giving his opinion as an African man and as a scholar of high repute. In further dispelling the charge that Islam was forced on African peoples, Cheikh Anta Diop said the following:

During the period of our study, from the third to the seventeenth centuries, not one conquest was ever launched by way of the Nile...Nor was there ever an Arab conquest of Mozambique or any other East African country. (Ibid, page 101)

He went on to explain precisely why Africans fell in love with the religion of Islam:

The Arabs in these areas, who became great religious leaders, arrived as everywhere else individually and settled in peacefully, they owe their influence and latter acceptance to spiritual and religious virtues. (Ibid, page 102)

Africans, as the above shows, were attracted to the spiritual and religious virtues of their Arab brothers. But wasn't Islam forced onto them by the conquering and sword-wielding Arabs? Cheikh Anta Diop said:

The Arab conquests dear to sociologists are necessary to their theories but did not exist in reality. To this day no reliable historical documents substantiate such theories. (Ibid, page 102)

Shemsi en Tehuti · (#2 (**permalink**))

Was Diop not a Muslim? What else do you expect him to say? It is like expecting a Christian to say their religion is anything other than authentic when it was haphazardly borrowed from the Nile Valley. How do you expect Diop to speak on how Islam tormented Africa when it is contrary to his religious convictions?

blksnore

DtotheJ · (#3 (**permalink**))

So Is cheik anta diop a respected valid scholar or NOT?

we can't have it both ways.....

Shemsi en Tehuti · (#4 (**permalink**))

DtotheJ wrote:

Quote:

So Is cheik anta diop a respected valid scholar or NOT?

we can't have it both ways.....

Of course Diop is a respect valid scholar, and I study and revere his work. However, when it comes to religion, it means someone will go with these convictions no matter what factual evidences are at hand. You find the same with devout Christian and Jewish scholars. They can accurately and scientifically break down many things until it is contrary with the purported 400-year Egyptian slavery, the inconsistencies in time of birth for Jesus, the 6-day Earth creation, amongst other things.

Aside from religion, not even the most brilliantscholarsare right 100% of the time intheir research. Diop is no different. This is why I never use only one source to validate my claims. I cross-reference from different scholarlyperspectives (if possible).

DtotheJ · (#5 (**permalink**))

Great response Shemsi.. I respect it.

Read Diop book recently and he said that "sherifisim"...that propensity for peopel to LIE and claim to be from from Muhammad's blood lineage ran and runs rampant especially in Islamic Africa......by leaders.

Knowing full well that their claims will go unchallenged.....

============================================

the commerce and educational aspectsthat accompanied Islam...written language....etc.had more to do with spread of Islam than any sword or conquest.......in africa.....even the jewish funded (and controlled) black intellectuals of US will write at length about this.

Shemsi en Tehuti · (#6 (**permalink**))

DtotheJ wrote:

Quote:

the commerce and educational aspectsthat accompanied Islam...written language....etc.had more to do with spread of Islam than any sword or conquest.......in africa.....even the jewish funded (and controlled) black intellectuals of US will write at length about this.

I would think that the requirement to read and write a foreign language would retard, or slow, the spread of a religion. The reason Christianity spread so rampantly is because it didn't matter what background you came from. They have made so many Bible translations in so many languages that the religion is an open door to virtually everyone. Islam on the other hand, I cannot seea religion like this spreading as it did without the sword.

One Zero Seven · (#7 (**permalink**))

Shemsi en Tehuti wrote:

Quote:

Islam on the other hand, I cannot seea religion like this spreading as it did without the sword.

Well, Islam is widely regarded as the fastest growing (spreading) religion in the world today, and it is not being spread by any swords that I can see.

Particularly in Black America.

My two.

RM

Shemsi en Tehuti · (#8 (**permalink**))

One Zero Seven wrote:

Quote:

Well, Islam is widely regarded as the fastest growing (spreading) religion in the world today, and it is not being spread by any swords that I can see.

Particularly in Black America.

My two.

Quote:

I wasn't talking about in the West (or Westernized nations)where the very culture of its society is to be cultureless (culture vultures). In precolonial Africa, are you really that vain about your religion to believe that the African leaders would forfeit their ancestral spirituality dating back almost to the beginning of timejust because Allah came along?

One Zero Seven · (#9 (**permalink**))

Shemsi en Tehuti wrote:

Quote:

are you really that vain about your religion to believe that the African leaders would forfeit their ancestral spirituality dating back almost to the beginning of timejust because Allah came along?

Your bias against that which you do not understand is puzzling.

However, that is irrelevant. Do you have any reputable scholars of the caliber of Mr. Diop who can refute his claim/scholarship in this area?

RM

Shemsi en Tehuti · (#10 (**permalink**))

One Zero Seven wrote:

Quote:

Your bias against that which you do not understand is puzzling.

However, that is irrelevant. Do you have any reputable scholars of the caliber of Mr. Diop who can refute his claim/scholarship in this area?

RM

You don't seem to understand. Given Diop was a Muslim himself, his claims are irrelevant on the subject due to his enormous bias of religion. Given part of the very salutations in Islam is "peace", slm, or salaam, he would not even be able to bring himself to tell the truth.

Lastly, the writing ofIbn Battuta, one of the very Muslims who raided Africans to enslave them, "beat them like animals" (his words), and forced them to trek to Arabia, throws your peaceful Islam horse-feathers out the window.

One Zero Seven · (#11 (**permalink**))

Shemsi en Tehuti wrote:

Quote:

You don't seem to understand. Given Diop was a Muslim himself, his claims are irrelevant on the subject due to his enormous bias of religion. Given part of the very salutations in Islam is "peace", slm, or salaam, he would not even be able to bring himself to tell the truth.

Lastly, the writing ofIbn Battuta, one of the very Muslims who raided Africans to enslave them, "beat them like animals" (his words), and forced them to trek to Arabia, throws your peaceful Islam horse-feathers out the window.

My Question remains, Sir...

Do you have any reputable black historians of the caliber of Mr. Diop who refute his claim/scholarship in this area?

I am not interested in trading insults with you, Sir. I only want an answer to my question.

RM

HatHaruhotep · (#12 (**permalink**))

Black muslims are more brainwashed than the arabs...geesh.

And wasn't he married to a cracka? He lost all credibility with me when I found out about that. All that Afrika stuff goes right out the window when you love a European with all your heart and soul and prefer their women to your own.

There is no evidence that Islam has EVER settled peacefully ANYWHERE. Even if it had, what difference does it make now when muslims everywhere (except europe and the US where they are kept in check) do nothing but shed blood, rape women, and destroy everything they can get their hands on?

Tell the Sudanese about how peaceful Islam makes their country. Tell the Somalis. Tell the Dogon about how wonderful the religion of a 45 year old arab child molester AKA Mohammed is. Diop, like all Black muslims, turns a blind eye to the thousand years of misery that Islam brought to Afrika and every cruel and racist thing that it CONTINUES to do to our people.Black muslims are some of the biggest hypocrites in the world. They talk all thatIslam nonsense but not one of them would give up their English, American, or Jamaicancitizenship and go live under shariah law in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, or even Nigeria.They need to quit lying and wake up. Then again, I suppose it would be hard to see what's going on in the world when your head is up an arab's butt.