Moving closer to making MLK’s dream a reality

DawudWalid 2 Comments

http://blogs.detroitnews.com/politics/2013/08/20/moving-closer-to-the-reality-of-the-i-have-a-dream-speech/#comments

Aug 20, 2013, 9:30 am

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We are quickly approaching the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington in which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic, “I have a dream” speech that represents where most Americans would like to see our nation.

At the time of his speech Dr. King was beloved by masses of people, yet hated by many. His message of racial equality was not only met with resistance from southern state governments but was unwelcome by many whites in the north – including in Michigan. We have made significant progress since then, yet we have a ways to go.

The preamble of the U.S. Constitution speaks of our nation attempting to form “a more perfect union” in recognition that America in the era of the Founding Fathers was far from perfect. In fact, many of the Founders – including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison – owned slaves, advocated cleansing of natives (or “beasts of prey” as Washington referred to them) and did not respect the right for
women to vote.

The goal of many minorities continues to be an America where the societal manifestation of the beautiful words in the Declaration of Independence is realized, not how those words were understood by the document’s framers. We live in a country where women of color make 64 cents to the dollar of white men. WE also have the highest prison population on earth – largely due to the failed War on Drugs, which disproportionately incarcerates black men despite the fact that white men use and sell drugs at the same rate as their population demographics.

These and other issues are part of the legacy of racism in America that is both structural and institutional. Societal inequities are not haphazard occurrences.
In order to realize the lofty dream in Dr. King’s speech, we have to be real with each other and not live under myths. This means having honest discussions about our national history in order to see how we can facilitate righting wrongs without collectively blaming those who live in the present.

I hope that during this historic anniversary we can have candid, kind-hearted discussions to help move our country towards realizing that more perfect union. That’s what attendees of the March on Washington prayed for 50 years ago.

DawudWalid

Dawud Walid is currently the Executive Director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI), which is a chapter of America's largest advocacy and civil liberties organization for American Muslims and is a member of the Michigan Muslim Community Council (MMCC) Imams Committee. Walid has been interviewed and quoted in approximately 150 media outlets ranging from the New York Times, Wall St Journal, National Public Radio, CNN, BBC, FOX News and Al-Jazeera. Furthermore, Walid was a political blogger for the Detroit News from January 2014 to January 2016, has had essays published in the 2012 book All-American: 45 American Men on Being Muslim, the 2014 book Qur'an in Conversation and was quoted as an expert in 13 additional books and academic dissertations. He was also a featured character in the 2013 HBO documentary "The Education of Mohammad Hussein." Walid has lectured at over 50 institutions of higher learning about Islam, interfaith dialogue and social justice including at Harvard University, DePaul University and the University of the Virgin Islands - St. Thomas and St. Croix campuses as well as spoken at the 2008 and 2011 Congressional Black Caucus Conventions alongside prominent speakers such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Congressman Keith Ellison. In 2008, Walid delivered the closing benediction at the historic 52nd Michigan Electoral College in the Michigan State Senate chambers and gave the Baccalaureate speech for graduates of the prestigious Cranbrook-Kingswood Academy located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Walid was also a featured speaker at the 2009 and 2010 Malian Peace and Tolerance Conferences at the University of Bamako in Mali, West Africa. He has also given testimony at hearings and briefings in front of Michigan state legislators and U.S. congressional representatives, including speaking before members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in Washington, D.C. Walid has studied under qualified scholars the disciplines of Arabic grammar and morphology, foundations of Islamic jurisprudence, sciences of the exegesis of the Qur’an, and Islamic history during the era of Prophet Muhammad through the governments of the first 5 caliphs. He previously served as an imam at Masjid Wali Muhammad in Detroit and the Bosnian American Islamic Center in Hamtramck, Michigan, and continues to deliver sermons and lectures at Islamic centers across the United States and Canada. Walid was a 2011 - 2012 fellow of the University of Southern California (USC) American Muslim Civil Leadership Institute (AMCLI) and a 2014 - 2015 fellow of the Wayne State Law School Detroit Action Equity Lab (DEAL). Walid served in the United States Navy under honorable conditions earning two United States Navy & Marine Corp Achievement medals while deployed abroad. He has also received awards of recognition from the city councils of Detroit and Hamtramck and from the Mayor of Lansing as well as a number of other religious and community organizations.

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2 Comments

  1. You always challenge your Sunni opponents at your Twitter account that they are afraid of debating, so how come you constantly lie and engage in double standards? Are you willing to debate your hypocrisy and that of your shuyookh like the munafiq Hasan al-Maliki?

    • Is calling people names proper adab for debate?

      Calling your brother a mushrik,kafir or munafiq, and they are not one makes you one of those, correct?

      May Allah (SWT) guide us to to see truth as truth then follow it and to see falsehood as falsehood then leave it.

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