SYED YUSUF JAMATE-ISLAMI, 1353-CHITLI QABAR, DELHI-6.
The DV reproduction of an excerpt from Wayne B. Chandler’s The Moor : The Light of Europe’s Dark Age with an interrogation whether Prophet Mohammad was a Black or white is highly objectionable and mischievous, besides being a crude attempt on your part to discriminate the human race on the basis of colour (DV Oct. 16, 91 p.7).
Though himself -a white, the holy prophet of Islam emphatically denied claims of superiority over race or colour. “An Arab “is not superior to a non- Arab nor a white to a black”, he exhorted. Superiority in Islam is linked solely with piety and godliness. All human beings irrespective of ‘ race, sex, colour or language, are equals and constitute the progeny of a single parent — Adam and Eve.
Please spare Islam in your anxiety to establish the superiority of the Blacks over the whites or vice versa.
While announcing the different important books sent to us by our American Black brothers and sisters as part of their current Black revival movement, we had published excerpts from these books including the one about Prophet Mohammad. American Blacks, particularly the angry militant ones, take great pride in Prophet Mohammad for his colour, just like all Muslims of the world take pride for the Prophet’s exceptionally super-human and spiritual qualities. Muslim scholars ™ should read these books and point out the merits and demerits therein. That Islam is the. one and the only ~~ religion in the whole world that does not speak of race and colour discrimination is one of its highest points. – This should be pointed out for the Black activists and win them to the side of Islam. We have neither said that the Prophet was Black or white but it is our brother Syed Yusuf who is now asserting that the Prophet was White thereby alienating the sympathies of the Black— EDITOR.
