The Problem
Since there has been a lot of discussion and emails on the topic of my bringing to light (along with other blogs) the problems with the Keller Cult and Nu Ha Mim Keller himself I would like to address several issues in this post knowing that between now and Sunday I will be working almost non-stop with only breaks for salat, food, and gas which usually all 3 coincide.
Commenter’s should note that I do not have a desk job where I sit at a computer all day and sometimes it takes me hours and even days to get to comments so be patient ( I do check me email and facebook on my phone). Also, if you do comment, please do not cut and past large articles and please refrain from racial or family attacks.
Now, first let me diagnose the problem. The problem, as I and many others see it, is a cult has emerged around the personality of Nu Ha Mim Keller that is leading people astray and damaging families and individual lives.
Like other cults the Keller Cult preys on weak minded individuals looking for a father figure who is only too eager to mange their lives for his personal benefit. The loyalty of the Cult Member is first and foremost with the cult and the leader stands between them and Allah. The goodness of fellow Muslims and humans is not based on anything other than the question of how does this person relate to the cult? A Muslim is judged by members of the cult according to their relationship with the cult leader. Sects and party-sprit are things which the scholars of Islam have spoken against for precisely this reason.
Another crucial fact in examining Muslim cults is why do people feel compelled to follow them? Has Islam not been perfected? Was not the Message of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) not complete? What can your sheikh bring that will be better than what the Prophet ( PBUH) brought? And when we look for answers we come to the conclusion that these groups such as the Keller Cult see the message of Islam as insufficient and the Prophethood of Muhammad Ibn Abdullah (PBUH) as incomplete and their Islam is in need of their sheikh to complete the deen for the and he stands between them and Allah and His Messenger (PBUH). Gyrate and dance in dhikh if you like and raise your voice in praise of the Prophet ( PBUH); but if you loved him you would not be talking about his urine and taking the words of another man above his.
Tauheed , Shirk and a Warning to Muslims
The fundamentals of Islam are in the kalimah and the first part of that creed is la ilahah ilullah. One could spend a lifetime just studying what la ilaha ilullah means and the one who tells you that there is no need to study la ilaha ilullah and tauheed is precisely the one who needs to study.
What are the implications of tauheed? What invalidates it? These are questions the Muslim needs to study. If we understood the Names and Attributes of Allah and know He is ar-Razaq would we make idols out of the food and clothes of sheikhs and think it is these idols and not Allah who will bless us?
If we understood tauheed would we go to the graves of men, no matter how pious, and not just merely give salaams, but pray to these men as if they can hear you and they can give you something in this life?
If people truly wanted to get closer to Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger (PBIH) shouldn’t their focus be on that and not sitting in their bedrooms at night and waiting for their sheikh to appear? Or if we want to perfect our salat should we pray as the Messenger of Allah ( PBUH) prayed? Does placing a photo of your sheikh on the wall in the direction of the qiblah to look at as you go into sajud fit into this?
What the Muslims need to realize is that in elevating your sheikh to be the focus of your life you can very easily fall into the trap of associating a partner with Allah and committing shirk.
Culture of the Cult and Attacks on Me
In the debate which has occurred we have seen at the SB site followers of Keller defending praying to graves, idol-worship, attack converts to Islam, and make racially motivated attacks against me.
We must understand the nature of the Keller Cult to understand these attacks. First of all, the defense of praying to graves and the blessings in idols is one in which they believe they have religious justification and I believe they do not as I believe Islam came to smash idols and not create new ones. On these issues you do not need to hear from me. Read the works of the scholars on these topics.
I can only look at the social make-up of this group. We know that the bulk of this group is made up of second-generation Desis, then a large segment of white converts, and a smattering of other ethnicities and a handful of blacks.
From all I have spoken to, and have known to be involved with this group, there is somewhat of a smug elitism to this crew ( sort as if a bunch of Bill Maher and Dinesh D’Souza types all became Muslim together).
The Desis coming from a culture of caste systems and societies that brutalize the poor and working people and come to America as a product of privilege and joining the upper-class while keeping the arrogance of Muslim Brahmans status-seekers. It should be noted, that this is not the case for all Desi Muslims, I now of several teaching right now in inner-city schools and others actively involved in community work and others have used their experience in America to question old backwards mentalities; but it is the case for many and a common trait of Keller followers who embrace his “anti-egalitarian” stance.
The white converts are disproportionately coming from the liberal middle and upper-class which has a disdain for the working-class and the poor which I am a part of (political correctness prohibits them from saying what they feel about poor people of color but they spew their venom towards the white working-class and poor on a regular basis).
Both the white and brown upper-class, Muslim or non-Muslim, are for the most part ignorant of the social dynamics of the working-class and how it intertwines with race. That is why you have seen Keller Cult members make racially-based attacks on me; it is out of their ignorance.
I do not conform to their ill-informed notion of what a white man should be and do not act like the sons of doctors and lawyers they went to school with so they poke fun at me as if that would negate the deviance of their cult.
A rational person would know that a white man raised in a bi-racial family in North St. Louis (and later Brooklyn and DC) and who has been a Muslim his entire adult life surrounded by non-white Muslims and having very little interaction with White America from say the age of 12 until he started driving a cab is just not going to be capable of acting, talking, or thinking like a white man with a more orthodox upbringing and life just as a Desi kid in Queens working at his dads gas station from a young age is not going to be like the son of a Desi doctor in the Bay Area.
It is also the case that a man who knew the pain of hunger as a child and the sneers a child with shabby clothes gets in the schoolyard and the roughness of life in the underclass of America and has worked as a cabbie, street vendor, and laborer for most of his adult life and has a passion for boxing, wrestling and combat sports is not going to write or speak like a child of comfort who now works in comfort. I am combative and that is my nature and maybe at times I go a little too far ( such as with my Ecuadorian brother from New Jersey); but there is also a negative in holding your tongue and being too polite when you know it is best to speak up. Who I am is also why I have always been attracted to strong assertive Muslims and have always been sickened by brown-nosing Muslims always seeking to please a foe that cannot be pleased without surrender.
Recommendations
People have asked me in the last few days; you attacked the Salafis and now the Sufis, so do you like anyone? The answer is yes; but before I say that I want to say that it makes no sense to attack someone because they are Salafi or because they are Sufi, that is not the point.
To avoid being trapped in a cult and to learn this deen and practice it in a community and keep your children out of danger I will personally recommend these imams and groups (and May Allah forgive me if I am in error);
These are all groups in America; because as my brother Abu Usamah al-Aswad stated there will be no sheikh coming from another land who does not know the culture here saving us-that is a fantasy!
Imam Suhaib Webb
It has been a blessing to know this brother for the past 14 years or so and having known him before he was known and seeing that the brother has stayed humble and true to his roots. Insha’Allah I believe, and pray that I am right, Suhaib will complete his studies and come back to America and be a great force in creating a Muslim community that stays upon the Sunnah, does not avoid politics and social engagement with an Islamic message, has a love for the Islamic Revival in the ummah, is non-sectarian, is balanced, and is finely tuned for American-Muslims.
MAS
Love MAS or hate MAS they get the job done and build communities. Where there is MAS there are well-ran masjids, a school, a youth center, and programs for children, youth, men and women. If a Muslim lives in America in an area with MAS they are far better off than those living in areas without MAS. Like every organization, it has its shortcomings (an over-emphasis on Palestine and politics and too Arab-oriented); but on-balance they have been a tremendous blessing for Muslims in America and without these brothers we wouldn’t have ISNA, the MSA, CAIR and any number of other organizations.
ICNA
ICNA is basically the South Asian equivalent to MAS and is a Mawdudiite organization embracing the Sunnah, the religious life and education of families, and political engagement from an Islamic perspective.
Imam Siraj Wahhaj
Imam Siraj is the Sheikh of dawah in the West. He created a blueprint that others, such as the Oklahoma-based Sheikh Abdul-Rahman, have followed. The Imam Siraj model is an Islam with a message to the ghettos in America creating strong brothers and families who are aggressively Muslim and a force in the neighborhood. In some areas this has worked better than others; but in this day of weak-kneed Muslims it is good to see those who are not “moderate” Muslims but assertive Muslims.
Imam Johari Abdul-Malik
Imam Johari, though a little more media and tech savvy, is the evolution of the dawah of Imam Siraj (we just need him to take a stance on marriage in DC, but you know I love you brother).
Jamaat at-Taabliq
I will give you what Sheikh Ali al-Timimi told me;
“There is no benefit for any of my students to go 40 days or be involved with this group. But, for the Muslims who have been away from the deen, new Muslims, or those who may be lost, there is a benefit”
I will also add that in this day and time these brothers are holding firm to the Sunnah even if they may not have a lot of knowledge and I would be comfortable sending a child of mine to a Dar Uloom school.
Salafi Remnants
Most will think of almaghrib when I say this and in a way I do mean that because there is much benefit in that organization. However, almaghrib has its demographic and it leaves out most of the community and I do not have a problem with that, I just know it is not for me and a lot of other people. There are others such as Kemal Mekki, Yusuf Estes, and Jamal Zarabozo who are good to take knowledge from but do not have any community-based programs. In the African-American community I know of a lot of individual brothers who have knowledge I would like to see step to the plate and move the ball forward (such as Imam Muhammad Witten in Maryland and a very special white scholar on the DL named Joey); but at this time the only brother I know of who is really engaging in positive work that comes from the Salafi dawah in the black community is Abu Muslima in East Orange, NJ and there could be others.
Of course there are hundreds of other masjids doing good work all over the country we do not know about and there are others, such as Imam Zaid Shakir, who I may take from on certain topics and not on others.
Threats and Boxing Question
It seems that I get threats from everywhere. Jihadis made threats against me, Salafis made threats, and now people who are either members of or admirers of the Keller Cult. I do not have time to go back and forth making threats and arguing with people who are so cowardly they do not share their real name, their photo, or where they live while I have let all three be known. Anyone can talk tough from an anonymous location on a keyboard using a made-up name. If you are that mad at me and wanna do what you say you know what I look like and where I am. I have been warned by a brother who knows many members “cult members are known to get violent” but I only fear Allah.
Regarding boxing, I have talked to a number of sheikhs about this as I am aware of the hadith about hitting in the face. I have got different opinions; but those who have said it is acceptable have said that Muslims should be trained to fight at the highest level and fight the kufar in the way they fight us as the ayah says and that by not hitting the foe back in the face would be to put the Muslim in the weak position.