Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking Toward the Third Resuurrection by Sherman Jackson

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Introduction
In his book, Sherman Jackson vividly explains about the career line of Islam among the American blacks. Among all the western civilization, only America is home to the largest group of indigenous Muslim converts. However, most of the explanations that are floated around, none of them fit. Sherman Jackson notes that there lack substantial evidence into why Islam spread among the black in America much faster than to the other races such as American or the Hispanics (Jackson 28). The main question that the author addresses in this book is with regard to the connection of black Islam and the black movements of the early 20th century.
In his answer Sherman, explains that, there is an assumption, in which most of the people feel that there must be some kind of connection between the black Americans and the Islamic religion. According to Sherman, there are no distinctive features that can link African Islam to proto-Islamic and the movements of the black movement that dated back in the early 20th century. In his argument, the momentum that Islam has enjoyed is as a result of black religion, a phenomenon that is distinctively American. Black religion is a movement that was god centred and rose up in the attempt to curb the anti-black racism that was going on at the time. It was a tool that the blacks in America communally sort after in a bid to combat this racism and redefine how the blacks were treated, hence reconstructing the face of American blackness (Jackson 109).
Soon after the 1965 repeal of the national origins quota system, there was a great influx of Muslim immigrants. This group overshadowed the black Muslims who at the time were practising indigenous Islam. The new group’s nemesis was not supremacy of the white nor did they see them from a racial angle but as a threat to civilization and to their religion. Soon enough the blacks note that it is not possible to synonymously be against the west and the whites. Instead, the two g hand in hand, and thus being against the west also meant that one was also against the black Americanism. Just like the black Christians struggled during the early days to get in tune with western Christianity, the black Islam now found themselves trying to find their voice in the historical Islam context that was super-traditional. According to Sherman, the answer to reconcile black-ness and American-ness lies with the traditional Muslim practices.
In his book, Sherman discusses how the blackamerican Muslims held the ownership of the interpretation that was Islam in the native America. However, in the year 1965 a law referred to as Immigration And Nationality Act was passed, that effect led to lifting of the ban on immigration of Asians and the Africans. The Immigration Act of 1924 that came before this only allowed the Europeans of northern origins to migrate into the America. As a result, very few of the ‘Sunni’ Muslims had migrated into the USA up until the intervening Act became a law in 1965. During this time, the blackamerican were free and had the sole representation of Muslim in the US. With it came the rise of very strong movements, one of them being the Nation of Islam. After sometime, however, the nation of Islam was redefined and forced to conform to the realities of America at the time, which was separate from the Sunni traditional Islam (Jackson 33).
During this time, there were discussion as to which religion the blackamericans should belong to, and Christianity was one of them. However, there was a problem to that suggestion, this is because even when the blacks joined the American Christianity, they were still being regarded as a second-class citizen and even if they became believers, they were not accorded the ultimate authority. According to Dr. Sherman, for a community to feel in touch and become successful in any given religion and ultimately in its faith, they have to be given the authority. In an example, the people who came from the subcontinent did embrace Islam, and overtime their scholars mastered their tradition and as a result, are now considered as an authority within the given religion of Islam. According to Sherman, what the blackamericans needed was a large unifying religion that had the world-class status. In his opinion, they should have opted to continue with their.
African religions, however, this brought with it the challenge of the fact that they had not all come from the same village, but diverse backgrounds that were complex as they were left alone merging them. It becomes even more complex as this was the time of slavery and most if not all of the African heritage was lost during the oppressive period. Islam to the blackamericans provided some sort of strength and spiritual meaning with a good mixture of hope to live through the difficult times. This is the core reason as to why the blackamerican fought so hard through the movements so as to have the ability to control the definition of Islam and what it means to be a Muslim. This was a problem already, so when Muslim immigrants came into the picture with their new definition this doubled the problem two fold. Now there were new teachings that were from the tradition of Islam, different from the Nation of Islam was teaching at the time.
Overtime, the immigrants started to discredit the blackamerican Muslims. Sunni Islam, which the immigrants practised, was the true Islam religion practising the right teachings (Jackson 31). The hold that the blackamerican had amassed onto themselves was now fading away, and to add insult to injury the immigrants discredited them as Muslims. According Sherman, most of the blacks later turned to Sunni Islam in their study, and this way became proficient masters in the religion, which gave them the authority in it. This way they gained the influence in America that they were looking for all this time. In this case, the blackamericans were best suited in defining the Islam religion. In his argument with regard to this issue, the blacks were very proficient in the American history as well, which the immigrant knew very little about.
It would have then been fair to give the blacks the mantle of defining Islam in America since they would easily connect with the whites as they were conversant with their background. With that combination in play, they uniquely held the best edge of representing Islam to the white Americans. Once the blackamericans take the stand, they will now become the producers of the Islamic religion other than the consumers, prompting a full cycle of the growth of Islam. Had Malcom X been alive today, he would be part of the revolution that would see Islam being transferred from the hands of the immigrant Muslims to those of the blackamerican who are indeed native.