Thursday 26 August 2010

Black Rappers and Islam

I don't know if there are others out there who think like me but here it goes. I, sometimes, think, feel or even tend to believe things which I don't want to be true. That is true about my feelings about relationship of black celebrities, primarily rappers, with Islam.

As a Muslim, I feel immense happiness and delight when I hear about a western's and specially a celebrity’s conversion to Islam. However, I feel extremely wary and sceptic of the intentions and motives behind the conversion of black rappers to Islam. This feeling is not racist but is based on the culture of these celebrities. Most rappers - most of whom are black and very few white - build their image as rebels and base their personas on a sort of aggressive machismo. My stress here, however, is on the word "rebels". The hip-hop culture sounds to me a culture that prides itself as the rebellious against the society and the norms which bind it together.

With all this in view to me it seems like that the conversion to Islam is not a leap of faith but an act of rebellion against a primarily Christian society which is supposedly dominated by white Christians. It sounds like they are endorsing Islam just to tick off general American society which is lately being seen as more Islamophobic than ever before.

Can someone prove me wrong with a strong argument? I strongly wish that I am wrong.

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