Ga. Mayor Converts to Islam

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/02/AR2007020200813.html

MACON, Ga. -- Mayor Jack Ellis has converted to Islam and is working to change his legal name to Hakim Mansour Ellis.

Ellis, 61, a Macon native who was raised Christian, said he became a Sunni Muslim during a December ceremony in the west African nation of Senegal.

Ellis said he has studied the Quran for years and that his new religion was practiced by his ancestors before they were brought to North America as slaves.

his re-election campaign will bring out the best in america, i'd wager. :sarcasm:

can you say excretement hitting the whirling device?

Although, Jack Ellis rolls off the tongue a tad more easy. I hope it works
out for him. America is dedicated to freedom of religion and anybody
who "cracks wise" about Hakim seeking God in his own way is a bad
American.



And dat izzz da truth

I may need to ride down to Macon this weekend to watch the fireworks as the white, conservatives start exploding! hahaha

Good for him!

This won't hurt him among whites b/c they mostly all dislike him already. It may hurt him among the black Baptists and members of the AME Church, though. Not really sure.

Odd story, whatever the outcome.

I live in Ga. and other than Atlanta andparts of Athens,there are very few residents who would accept this conversion. I live in N. Ga. and I guarantee you only the few Dems I've met would say "as long as you do your job" to this Mayor. From what I've experienced, the farther south you go, the redder it gets,

Interesting though. I wonder what prompted him to change?

First, while there have been Muslims in Senegal for 1000 years, most of the population didn't convert from Animism to Islam until the 1800's. Since slaves were generally captured from the rural tribes away from the more developed coastal areas, the overwhelming odds are that his ancestors were Animists, not Muslims.

Second, Senegal today is overwhelmingly Muslim, but it is, and traditionally has been, a Sufi, not Sunni nation. Saudi funded Islamic schools have been converting a number of people in recent years, but Islam was brought to the region by the Sufi's during the Sufi Golden Age, and it's Muslim population was literally 100% Sufi until recent decades. Even if this guys ancestors were among the Muslim minority back then, they would not have been Sunni, they would have been Sufi.

To each his own, and I understand that to most this is a historical nitpick, but I always find it unfortunate when people make life-changing decisions like this based on a misunderstanding of history.

There are two movements in Islam: the sunni and the shia. Sufism is a tariqat, a religious path within sunniism.
As far as I know there are no tariqats within shiism. You cant be a sufi unless you are sunni. This is from a muslim!

I admit that I'm not a Muslim and don't want to argue your own religion with you, but a very old friend of mine is a Sufi and he's spent quite a bit of time trying to "educate" me in the religion so I'd convert. Hasn't worked yet, but I do have an appreciation for Islam and the fact that it's a far more diverse theology than Faux news would have America believe.

FWIW, I looked it up to confirm my belief. According to the Sufi Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sufism), there are both Shi'a and Sunni Sufi Tariqas. The Sunni variant is more common, but it isn't exclusive to that aspect of Islam.

Either way, it wasn't really germane to my argument. While Sufiism may be a subset of the other religions, it is a very distinct one. The religious practices of a traditional Sunni and a Sunni within a Sufi order are very different, as is their spiritual outlook and their belief structure about proper behavior and religious duties here on Earth. Senegal was converted by Sufi's, so if this gentlemans ancestors were genuinely Muslim, they would have been Sufi's as well.

The article simply indicates that he is Sunni, which conjured up a different religious image in my head. You may be right...I hadn't considered that he may simply be a Sunni Sufi, and that the dimbulb reporter didn't get the reference and left it out. When I read the "Sunni" by itself, I assumed he'd been converted by one of the Saudi funded Madrassas, all of which are decidedly anti-Sufi (a subject of many irritated rants by my friend).

they reject not only sufusm but many other practices within islam. Wahhabism is not very much liked by other muslims.

So it's "tariqah", though in standard spoken Arabic they'd be pronounced the same.

I had always heard of turuuq (that's the plural) being paths within Sufiism, not Sufiism being a tariqah of Sunnah. And individual Sufis may lean more towards Shi'ite or Sunni rituals and theology depending on their own beliefs; part of the goal of Sufism was to reach past those differences.

And as someone points out downthread, Sufis may mostly consider themselves Sunni but Salafi or Wahabbi Sunnis don't even think Sufis are Muslim.

I only mention this because it was interesting and somewhat relevant.

Back around the turn of the century WEB DuBois was trying to get funding and editorial staff for his Encyclopedia Africana. He went everywhere and was getting all kinds of stupid advice and long-winded patronizing exhortations from white scholars. Eventually he asked Charles William Eliot, legendary president of Harvard, if he would help. Eliot had only two pieces of advice:

1. Don't start the encyclopedia unless you have the funding
2. Do not underestimate the importance of Islam in subsaharan Africa, nor its relevance to blacks in America

I'm frankly astounded that an archetypal 19th-century figure like Eliot was that prescient, and I feel better that Gates was astounded when he learned that too.

At any rate the African American "return" to Islam gives me the same reaction you seem to have, much like the drive to learn Swahili: it was the coastal Muslims who were capturing and enslaving the interior animists; those too are languages and cultures of oppression. But, as they say, I have not skin in that fight, so it's not my place to judge too much.

:nuke: :nuke: :nuke:

to show how "they are taking over the country". And we all know who "they" are, don't we?

Beck and his ilk make me sick. Good for the mayor. I wish him nothing but the best.

Soon we'll simply be overrun by Georgia Mayors.

Virgin Births to Winged Horses...why don't we have any Atheist mayors?

Seems extra stupid from a political perspective though.

I am not a Muslim, but I respect this man for having the courage to express his beliefs even if it may cause him some serious difficulties with the public. It saddens me that even some of the comments here on this thread on a progressive site are less than supportive. We have the freedom to practice the religion of our choice in this country, he is not forcing his religion on anyone else so we should applaud him for refusing to remain in the closet about the person he really is.

:evilgrin:
rocknation

...when I showed him the passages in the Qur'an saying Jesus was the messiah, was born of a virgin, and will come again on the last day. Given an earlier definition he gave to me, he had to admit all Muslims are by his definition Christians too. It was delicious...

It's amazing that people who consider Islam "the enemy" don't even bother to learn the basics about it -- you'd think they would most want to know, right?

They think that Muslims are worshiping a different deity instead of worshiping the same one a different way.

in a three person God and that in Jesus, God became man. For Muslims this conception of God is blasphemy.

Allah is God is Yahweh is Jehova. Same deity, just different ways of worshipping him.

Just because some Christians believe in the Trinity doesn't change the fact that it's the same deity.

Also, you said "For Muslims this conception of God is blasphemy." Some Christians believe the way other Christians worship God is blasphemy.

All Allah means is "God" in Arabic. Christians who speak Arabic, call the Christian God "Allah," as well.

The remark sparked criticism from some Christians, who thought Bush was being politically correct but theologically inaccurate.

"Do Muslims and Christians worship the same God? ... We asked several scholars to consider the question. S. Wesley Ariarajah’s article is the fourth in a series.)

<<SNIP>>


This has little to do with Abraham or Abrahamic faiths (as George Bush’s theology of political necessity would have it) but with the deeper issues of what it means to affirm the oneness of God and what consequences we draw from it for our attitudes and actions.

The Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions insist that there is one God and that God is the creator, provider and protector of all. ... The dilemma here is an obvious one. Members of the Jewish community either had to worship Yahweh as their tribal god,. allowing for the possibility of other gods who listen to the prayers of other nations, or they, as strict monotheists, had to draw the logical conclusion that God, whom they worshiped as Yahweh, is also the God of all nations.

<<SNIP>>

The problem is that most Christians, despite their lip service to monotheism, in fact are unconscious polytheists. They allow for other gods to listen to the prayers of their neighbors. They draw boundaries for "their" God and decide where and when their God is allowed to listen, act and bring about wholeness.

<<SNIP>>

Judaism, Christianity and Islam originated in the same geographical area and were in close relationship with each other. It is little wonder that Jews, Christians and Muslims share some parts of their scriptures, some common ancestors like Abraham and some common beliefs about God. But a closer look would also show remarkable differences in their concepts of God and the consequences they draw from them. In fact, as one familiar with the many schools within Hinduism, I as a Christian find myself in closer affinity with some of the Hindu concepts of God than those of the Jewish and Islamic traditions. Happily no one has a monopoly on God.

It should come as no surprise that religions are different and that their concepts of God, despite many commonalities, are quite different from one another. It is in this sense that the answer to the question can also be a qualified no. No, we are not praying to the "same" God as far as our images of God are concerned. In fact, this is why we need interfaith dialogue. We have much to learn from one another about God and God’s ways with humankind.

<<SNIP>>

http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=3060

and no Muslims do. Yes, Muslims belive in the same God but they don't belive in Jesus as a divine figure but just a good man.

Rep. Goode was right! If we keep letting Moslems in, they'll take over our government! :sarcasm: