Abdul Alim Musa

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Imam Abdul Alim Musa is a Muslim activist and director of Masjid Al-Islam in Washington, D.C.. He is a member of the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought (ICIT) and a well-known speaker around the world. He is also founder and director of the As-Sabiqun movement, dedicated to providing social and spiritual services to urban America. The Sabiqun movement has served diverse communities across the US and has established masjid based communities in East Oakland (led by popular speaker and activist Amir Abdul-Malik Ali), south-east Washington, D.C., Philidelphia, San Diego, Sacramento and Los Angeles. Over the last two decades Imam Musa has dedicated his efforts to bridging the gap between American Muslims, non-Muslims, and the immigrant Muslim community.

Contents 1 Background 2 The Global Islamic Movement 3 Recent Activities 4 Notes

[edit] Background

Imam Musa, whose name was previously Clarence Reams, was born in Arkansas but grew up in Oakland, California during the 1960s - a time of intense social upheaval which produced groups like the Black Panthers and offshoots of the Nation of Islam. While being a supporter of the community's revolutionary sentiment, Imam Musa became an active and successful drug-dealer, who was widely known throughout Oakland as "Big Hank". His "street" background helps explain part of his appeal to inner city youths and ex-convicts, with whom he can identify with through personal experiences. It was during this period that he also came to know H. Rap Brown (Imam Jamil Al-Amin), who also later converted to Islam. After evading the authorities for several years, Imam Musa was forced to leave the US for Algeria, where he came in contact with several exiled Black Panther leaders such as Eldridge Cleaver. After returning to the US, he turned himself in as a wanted fugitive and was sent to prison. While incarcerated Imam Musa accepted orthodox Islam before his release.

[edit] The Global Islamic Movement

For many years after his release the Imam continued his studies of Islam and was a keen observer of the political and social events taking place in the Muslim world. Following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, in a move that was rare for Sunni Muslims, Imam Musa publicly expressed his support for the Islamic Republic and its leader Ayatollah Khomeini. Since the early 1980s he made several visits to Iran as a representative of Muslims in the United States and a supporter of the Islamic revival. He made connections with a wide array of Muslim leaders during the decade - both Sunni and Shia - and stressed that unity was a primary objective for the Islamic movements success. After searching for leadership for several years without success, he took it upon himself to create an organization - the As-Sabiqun - that was capable of supporting the unique needs of Muslims living in the US while simultaneously incorporating an international outlook and agenda. His methodology draws heavily on the writings of Malcolm X, Ayatollah Khomeini, Sayyid Qutb, Maulana Maududi, and Kalim Siddiqui. New members of the group are encouraged to individually familiarize themselves with the works of these political Islamic thinkers in addition to daily classes and lectures on classical Islamic studies, Arabic, hadith and Quran. Special emphasis is placed on personal development and growth based on the Quran and Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as incorporating tightly knit family units within the overall community structure. The movement has spread across the US and is extremely popular among college students, and African American youth.

[edit] Recent Activities

Imam Musa has been regularly invited to speak at college campuses and Islamic events around the world. Critics have suggested that he promotes anti-Semitism in his speeches, which he claims are directed at Zionist supporters of Israel and not at Jewish people in general. During a rally in July 1999 Imam Musa displayed a cashier's check made out to "Hamas, Palestine," to protest the 1996 U.S. law which declared Hamas a terrorist organization.^[1]

At the January 21, 2001 event titled Shaping Our Perspective: Our Role in a Changing World, sponsored by Muslim Students Association at UCLA, Imam Musa is quoted as stating: "If you were to say that the Soviet Union was wiped off the face of the earth . . . people would have thought you were crazy, right? The people of Afghanistan didn’t have the intellect or historical knowledge to know that they wasn’t supposed to wipe out the Soviet Union, is that right? . . . We saw the fall of one so-called superpower, Old Sam (the United States) is next." On September 9, 2001 UCLA’s Al-Talib magazine co-sponsored a benefit dinner titled Justice for Imam Jamil Al-Amin at UC Irvine. Imam Jamil Al-Amin was convicted of murdering an Atlanta police officer while being arrested. Imam Musa voiced some remarks about America, such as:

"You think Zionism and Palestine is the only dictatorial power in the world. We’re telling you about apartheid right here in America. Not an apartheid of the 1960s, but an apartheid right now today...When you fight Old Sam, you are fighting someone that is superior in criminality and Nazism. ‘Cause everyone knew the Nazis are criminals. Isn’t that right? They’re murderers. Superior to British colonialism. Out and out groups, huh? But the American criminalizer is the most skillful oppressor that the world has ever known...I don’t mean to give you a bad picture of America, I’m only giving you a realistic picture of America. I’m giving you the America that we know. Don’t say you know more about America . . ."^[2]

On October 6, 2002 he spoke on the Prophet Muhammad's model of leadership and its modern applications at the ICIT Seerah Conference in Sri Lanka.^[3] On July 7, 2000 Imam Musa was arrested for assaulting the police and spent two nights in jail before appearing before a judge on July 10. In court, the police reduced the charge against him to a misdemeanor.^[4]

[edit] Notes

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