Nothing on Asian Muslim prejudice about the transition from white minority rule to black majority rule?

Nothing on South Africa’s 30 indigenous cultures?

I have met a number of former Asian South Africans who immigrated here because they feel the country went to hell when Blacks assumed power in the 1990s.  Such sentiments were expressed by both Hindus and Muslims.

I told one fellow in the mosque, "At least South Africa didn’t do what Muslim dictator Idi Amin of Uganda did!" (In reference to Asian expulsion).

ugh, youre telling me, Gustavo. I am appalled how many South Asians are very racist toward Blacks. Even in India, many Northern Indians look down at Tamils and darker skinned Indians, and consider dark skin to be very inferior.

South Africa went to hell after Blacks took over it??? LMAO!!!! Omg… like apartheid is any better? I feel very ashamed to be South Asian.

Let’s put it this way:  Apartheid ended 13 years ago.  They sorta had the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement all at once a little over a decade ago.

South Asian racism against Blacks is right on the surface.  At the same time, South African Indians are working for legislation to end the racist legacy of Apartheid.  I think the most impressive thing I saw there was folks fighting for changes that were sometimes in direct conflict with their own social habits.  I would say the same for gender matters.  South African Indians are sexist in a way that still boggles my mind and yet, at the very same time, many of those same people are working for Gender Justice!   Don’t worry, I’ll be uncomfortably frank.  I am thinking through how to speak publicly about some very disturbing matters.  I want to say what I saw and experienced, but I also want to understand the contexts fairly.  Look, I am as American as your average Left Wing Constitution Loving Wrestling Fan.  My Americanness only gets stronger as I get older.  I need to take that into account if I am going to offer up any thoughtful responses here.  Hence the vague promise to write on "cultural dissonance."

I think South Africa is a lesson for Iraq when power switched from the Sunni minority to the Shia majority.

Mandela did a smart thing, he did not remove one white from power, especially those in the military and law enforcement agencies around the country.  To fire en masse white law enforcement officers and military personnel, the white Afrikaaner population would have engaged in a insurgency, which Mandela keenly avoided.

South Africa’s transition did lead to some uncertainty and led to capital flight from the country.  However, I guess as a Muslim, I’m more interested in the African Bantu experience and not the minority Muslim experience in that country.

A cross comparison with this faith-based group and groups of other Asians would be insightful in my opinion.

I guess I feel Muslims are too tribal, so sometimes I don’t care for Muslim minority experiences.  With South Africa, I’m more concerned about issues of affirmative action in that country and the emergence of a Black middle class and elite.  I’m also interested in the population movement of immigrants from troubled neighboring countries like Zimbabwe.  I guess I’m more concerned about Black folk there.

black folks rock.

Gustavo, I was in South Africa with the Indian Muslim community.  I cannot write about what I do not know or see. 

Sabina, you are a riot, as usual!  When will you post?????

Then you didn’t really see South Africa!

Don’t get me wrong, I met lots of different folks.  But the "community" of people I interacted with most were Indian.  One thing I loved about the Malays, Indians, and Blacks I met in Cape Town is that they insisted on being "South African" only.   It was an odd trip.  I have to sort through a lot still.

Okay, Nakia says I like to sneeze on people’s ice cream.

oh dear, oh dear. Y’all are forgetting the most important issue:

IS PENGUIN MEAT HALAL???? can we Muslims eat penguin curry ?!?!? Or how about penguin tikka masala, with sweet smelling basmati rice??! can we smash penguin meat into little pieces and stuff it into samosas?

Mmmm, penguin samosas. Masha Allah!

Sabina this is a good question.  Malikis argue that anything in the sea is halal.  They may have their babies on land, but they are sea creatures of a sort.  The analogy would be to the mermaid.  In the maliki school—in order to make the point that anything in the sea is halal, meaning anything—mermaids are halal to eat.  Given what we know about mermaids, they do seem to spend as much time on land as penguins.  So this would make Penguins halal without having to worry about zabihah.   (^: 

To be honest, I wonder are they considered birds or sea creatures?  If birds you simply say bismillah Allahu akbar when you shoot or when you slit its throat.  If sea creatures, you can just eat ‘em. 

I wonder!  Am I even right about this much????

Gustavo dude, I’ll remember not to let you near my ice cream when I visit you in the Fall!