The “Sub-Conscious” Prejudice Against
The Vicegerents of God and the Black Race by Laila Ali
For some time now I have been reading
various descriptions of the Prophets (pbuta)
and the Ahlul Bayt (a.s) and it has left me
somewhat perplexed.
I believe that certain artistic depictions I see
online of the 12 Imams (a.s) being portrayed
as fair skinned looking men is a lie.
I have seen prejudice amongst “religious”
people; however, I was somewhat surprised
and taken aback when I saw it also existing
within the “Shia” community.
There have been several incidents where I
have sat amongst certain people and have
heard them speak of “Sayyeds” in an
extremely superior fashion stating,
This is the same as the white Jesus (a.s)
paintings.
“Sayyed’s are so beautiful and fair skinned
because they share their lineage with
Muhammad (s.a.w)”.
Obviously this statement smacks of
colourism, however it did make me being
wondering and noticing that this is a
common misconception among many
Muslims. Yet whenever I have spoken about
it to other people I always get the response
of, “Well, what does it matter? It’s not
important! The message is what is
important!”
So, if it is so and it makes no difference then
why not just say that the Prophet (s.a.w) was
a black man? To me there is a clear ignorance
coupled with a sub conscious prejudice in
this attitude. Ok, ultimately the race of a
person is not important, HOWEVER that has
also been used by the white supremacist to
usurp and steal from various other races, be
they black, red or brown. So does it serve us
to follow them in such logic? I don’t think so.
Personally, yes, I do not recognise race as a
criteria for faith however it would be unjust
of me to ignore an evident bias and not
highlight it. I believe it is a deliberate
propaganda against the Prophets (pbuta),
the Ahlul Bayt (a.s) and the black race as a
whole to continuously highlight that the
Chosen of God as being fair skinned and not
being black as this has been done
deliberately to program us into waiting for a
pale, fair skinned Mahdi (a.s) as the saviour
and to not even consider the possibility that
he is a black man.
Therefore I will include several articles in this
edition of the “The Mahdi Times” that