Americans of African descent are being terrorized in the United States at alarming rates and in alarming ways concludes the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent in its preliminary statement, following an investigation which included an 11-day tour in the United States. The final report is due in September of 2016, but the abstract’s initial findings and aggressive recommendations call for reparations to African Americans and the establishment of commissions to push for expansive policy change.
“The first human rights charter was established by the Holy Last Messenger Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him) in his Last Sermon, which remains a Divinely-inspired and thus, perfect solution for human relations. When those very basic human rights are violated, society suffers as we bear witness now,” Muhammad Sulaiman G. Hatch told the Islamic Post. Mr. Hatch is president of the United Alliance of African Americans (UAAA), a civil rights group borne in response to the increase of racial injustices such as police brutality and the massacre of the nine worshippers in Charleston, South Carolina, the country experienced last year. He added, “The Obama administration is trying to correct some of those breaches, however, it is evidenced by the Working Group that the persecution of Americans of African descent is widespread and will take a monumental push from voters and commitment from government to correct.”
The Working Group review of the state of the millions of U.S. citizens of African descent in today’s America was scathing. The Working Group went back to the beginning, stating, “The colonial history, the legacy of enslavement, racial subordination and segregation, racial terrorism and racial inequality in the United States remains a serious challenge and there has been no real commitment to reparations and to truth and reconciliation for people [Americans]of African descent.”
The report cites attitudes of white supremacy, mass incarceration of African American men, as well as the upward trend of mass incarceration of women, the blatant police brutality of African Americans and the impunity for the law enforcement offender. The deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray and Laquan McDonald were cited. Ten additional names were mentioned as police brutality victims. Another infraction is the ‘school to prison pipeline’, which all but guarantees the incarceration of thirty percent of the African American population by criminalizing school infractions, which result in harsh criminal penalties for juveniles.
The report comes at a pivotal time in the presidential election and at the close of the second term of the nation’s first African American president. “Elected officials are aware that it was the vote of Americans of African descent that elected and re-elected Mr. Obama. African American voters are loyal, but candidates have to pledge to protect the rights of minorities. Politicians who do so will have the support the American voter of African descent,” said Mr. Hatch, adding, “We have asked the Working Group to study the double victimization of Americans of African descent who are also Muslim. The Islamophobia crisis facing the country on top of racial persecution makes life very challenging for African American Muslims and is a direct safety threat for us.”
Civil rights groups like those of Mr. Hatch were credited as helpful by the Working Group. “The U.S. has a growing number of human rights movements which have successfully advocated for social change. Following the epidemic of racial violence by the police [human rights groups] are strongly advocating for legal and policy reforms…over areas which directly affect African Americans,” stated the report.
Durdana Hallums of South Carolina, who studies abroad, told the Islamic Post, “As an American of African descent living and studying in Egypt for many years, I’ve arrived at a bittersweet observation – I am more at home in this foreign land, than I am in my own country. The color of my skin is not a factor because everyone here is some shade of brown,” she stated.
The UN Working Group of Peoples of African Descent leads a highly commendable, arbitrary and timely effort to finally and officially expose the brutal and inhumane nature of systemic racism in the United States. While rapidly increasing numbers join the ranks of those individuals and organizations who have long advocated for the reformation of thought about the rights of all human beings, it is hoped that this international study and its conclusions will undoubtedly have a major impact on the movement to reconfigure the deep structural and political warp that has institutionalized racism, and replace it with a universally equitable system that will insure and restore the full human rights of all people of African descent (and all oppressed minorities) in this country and around the world.
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a two part series on the conclusions of United Nation’s Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent. Part two will address in greater detail the Human Rights Charter of the Holy Last Messenger (SAW) and how these basic rights afforded by it are being violated as told by the Working Group’s report. The entire Report can be found here: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=17000&LangID=E
