Racism: Tackling the Global Social Virus through Islamic Solutions

According to UNESCO, racism is deemed the ‘social cancer of our time’ as it invades society and can end in violence and death. Unfortunately, this is no exaggeration; prejudice against races and nationality based approach does not remain a thing of the past. Statistics and recent events around the world tell of an unjustifiable disparity between different people based on their skin colour, nationality, religion, country of origin.

Over the decades we have seen audits, reviews and legislation but the statistics tell us progress is very slow and in many ways little has changed.

As if this is not enough, we also have the challenges that are present by discrimination between social classes and in some communities clan based societal structures which not only undermine the way societies work, but also hold back progress and community development as people hark back to earlier times of social ways of organising and interaction.

Policy-makers, experts in society and psychology and human rights activists tend to agree that the systems in place worldwide perpetuate racism, and the citizens who continue the status quo reinforce the codes of a deeply racist society.

Hijaz Community recognises the need to deal with this growing social disease, and seeks to find solutions rooted in critical scientific thought and Islamic guidance. The Holy Prophet’s ﷺ Final Sermon, which took place over 1,400 years ago, directly addressed this important issue:

“There is no superiority of an Arab over a non-Arab, or of a non-Arab over an Arab, and no superiority of a white person over a black person or of a black person over a white person, except on the basis of personal piety and righteousness.”

The relevance of this key aspect of race is significant in the twenty-first century. The root-cause of the problems of racism need tackling head on. It is not only incumbent upon world leaders, industry leads and policy-makers to redress the imbalance of racial inequality, but also enable every citizen of the globe. Muslims make up almost one quarter of the worldwide population and therefore have a significant role to play in turning the tide away from oppressive systems and behaviour. Islamic principles and laws have already broken the shackles of oppression for culturally deep-seated prejudices and injustices.

This Blessed Summit explored current social interactions and discriminatory behaviour in the west, including in our global Muslim community, and will endeavour to provide insight and answers through the lens of Islam and the teachings of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). It will demonstrate that there is no place in Islam for discrimination based on skin colour, nationality, religion or country of origin. It will demonstrate that class and clan based discrimination and decision making is contrary to Islamic teaching and needs to be challenged so that we can break the shackles of former tribal thinking.

Hijaz Community invites young people, adults and families to the Blessed Summit Online to explore what 1.8 billion Muslim (rapidly growing) can do to better understand and help tackle Racism.