c. 1996 Religion News Service

(UNDATED)-Basketball player Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf’s reluctance to stand for the national anthem says more about his experiences as an African-American than it does Islam, according to a leading scholar of the African-American Muslim scene.”There is an attitude that exists among African-American Muslims that uses Islam as a battering ram against the racism that exists in American society,”said Sulyman Nyang, a professor of African studies at Howard University in Washington, D.C.”I encounter it all the time. I suspect that is what we had in this case as well,”said Nyang, who was born in the West African nation of Gambia.

Abdul-Rauf’s dispute with the National Basketball Association was resolved Thursday (March 14), two days after the league suspended him for refusing on religious grounds to stand during the pre-game playing of the”Star-Spangled Banner.”Abdul-Rauf said he was now willing to stand-but would pray silently while doing so.

The NBA immediately lifted his suspension, allowing Abdul-Rauf to return to the basketball court, where the 6-foot 1-inch Denver Nuggets guard is earning $2.6 million this NBA season. Abdul-Rauf missed one game while under suspension, costing him $31,707.

Earlier, Abdul-Rauf had insisted he would give up basketball rather than follow the NBA regulation that requires all players to stand”in a dignified manner”while the anthem is played.

Abdul-Rauf, the Nuggets’ leading scorer, had argued that standing during the playing of the”Star Spangled Banner”contravened Islamic law because it constituted participation in a ritual that, for him, came uncomfortably close to religious worship.”I’m a Muslim first and a Muslim last,”Abdul-Rauf said.”My duty is to my creator, not to nationalistic ideology.” Islamic scholars who weighed in on the issue this week concluded overwhelmingly that there was nothing in Islamic law that supported Abdul-Rauf’s position. To the contrary, many said Islam taught respect for government and its symbols.”While Islamic scholars differ on this issue, the majority of (recognized Muslim scholars)) contacted agree that standing out of respect for a nation’s national anthem does not constitute an act of worship,”the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statement.”They also agree that there is no direct reference to this issue in Islamic law.” The council said Abdul-Nauf’s position”should be seen more as a political statement, rather than one dealing with religious ritual.” Nyang, one of the nation’s leading experts on African-American Islam, agreed.

While emphasizing that he does not know Abdul-Rauf personally, Nyang said Abdul-Rauf’s comment that the anthem and American flag are symbols of”oppression”and”tyranny”hinted strongly at the basketball player’s feelings about race relations in the United States.

Nyang said that many African-American converts to Islam are motivated as much by their”political rejection”of white Christian society-which they regard as overwhelmingly racist-as they are anything else.

Until recently, the Nation of Islam-the entry point to Islam for many African-Americans in years past-counseled its members not to vote. The Final Call, the Nation’s biweekly newspaper, still carries a statement of beliefs in each issue that says”righteous Muslims”should not serve in the U.S. armed forces during wartime because blacks”have nothing to gain from it.” Abdul-Rauf is an orthodox Sunni Muslim and not a member of the Nation of Islam, which advocates black separatism. Moreover, he has been critical of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

Last October, at the time of the Million Man March, the Denver Post quoted Abdul-Rauf as saying he was suspicious of Farrakhan’s motive for organizing the march because participants were asked to donate money.”I am not a Farrakhan supporter, not at all, whatsoever,”Abdul-Rauf told the newspaper.

However, Nyang said that even African-American Muslims who reject Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam still embrace the movement’s historically anti-government teachings.”It’s a residual NOI attitude because at one time the Nation was so instrumental in attracting African-Americans to Islam,”said Nyang.”These converts are so angry toward white society that they take Islam and use it as a shield.” At a news conference in Washington Thursday, Farrakhan said that he would stand during the national anthem, but would not salute the flag.”No government is the sovereign of my life,”Farrakhan said.”Only God is.” Farrakhan also noted that there are”many”Christians in the United States who also would not pledge allegiance, an apparent reference to Jehovah’s Witnesses, who refuse to serve in the armed forces and whose refusal to salute the flag was vindicated in 1943 U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Abdul-Rauf converted from Christianity to Islam in 1991 at a Denver mosque affiliated with the Colorado Muslim Society. Two years later, he changed his name from Chris Jackson to Abdul-Rauf.

The center follows mainstream Sunni Islam, the form of Islam practiced by the majority of the world’s more than 1 billion Muslims.

Mohamad Jodeh, president of the Colorado Muslim Society, said he disagreed with Abdul-Rauf’s objection to the national anthem. He also said Abdul-Rauf’s attendance at the Denver mosque’s prayer services has become sporadic in recent months.

JC END