Muslims have been here for over 400 years
Tennessee statesman Andrew Ogles-the-fourth posted on his X account March 9, that “Muslims don’t belong in American society. Pluralism is a lie.”
The representative from Tennessee’s fifth congressional district followed up the next day by posting, “Muslims are unable to assimilate; they all have to go back.”
Listen up Andy: Islam has been here for centuries. Muhammad Ali, who was the world’s greatest athlete, grew up in neighboring Kentucky.
Tens of thousands of Muslims were kidnapped from Africa and sold like cattle in what became the United States. If you and your boy Trump think “America is great,” enslaved Muslims helped make it so.
Muslim soldiers in the Union Army helped overthrow slavery.
Slavery wasn’t just a Southern thing. The slave trade to the United States ended only when the Yankee shipowner Nathaniel Gordon — who was born in Maine — was hanged in New York harbor in 1862.
While today New York City has 45 greenmarkets that sell veggies, the Big Apple once operated a municipal slave market on Wall Street that sold human beings.
Much of the profits made from enslaved Africans on plantations ended up in the pockets of New York banksters. The big man on Wall Street during the 1860s was August Belmont, Sr., who opposed the Emancipation Proclamation.
His son, August Belmont, Jr., headed up New York City’s first subway, the Interborough Rapid Transit. Next time you come to New York City, Mr. Ogles, you can take the original IRT line to visit the African Burial Ground National Monument in lower Manhattan.
Show some respect to the many Muslims who are buried there on Duane Street. Establishing this hallowed ground took a struggle.
The U.S. government sought to excavate the site. The late Sonny Abubadika Carson, the late Elombe Brath, and the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, National Presiding Minister of The House of the Lord Churches, put their bodies on the line to stop the bulldozers.
Another hatemonger is Florida congressperson Randy Fine, who posted on X in February that he preferred dogs to Muslims. This bigot also wants New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is a Muslim, deported.
Last year, Fine posted that “Gaza must be destroyed.” These statements are not only racist and genocidal. They’re also personally stupid since this bigot happens to be Jewish.
For centuries in Europe, there were bloody attacks against both Muslims and Jews. On their way to kill Muslims in Palestine and Lebanon, the Crusaders killed any Jewish people along the route.
Tattoos honoring serial killers
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth — a killer of Iranian school children — is a big fan of those medieval murderers and has Crusader tattoos covering his body. These symbols should be considered not only offensive to Muslims but also a threat to any Jews.
U.S. military commanders are telling their troops that the current conflict against Iran is a “holy war.” Christian holy wars have never ended very well for Jewish people.
Jews and Muslims were expelled from Spain in 1492. Both peoples were given refuge in Muslim lands.
The current Ku Klux Klan began with the lynching of the Atlanta Jewish businessman Leo Frank in 1915. Henry Ford wasn’t the only U.S. corporate leader who welcomed Hitler. Black voters led the mobilization in 1991 that stopped neo-Nazi David Duke from becoming Louisiana Governor.
The publicity being given to neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes, who wants all Black people imprisoned, is a dangerous sign. The hundreds of thousands of people, including many Jews, who protested against the genocide in Gaza are leading the fight against this fascist menace.
A history of struggle
Andy Ogles and his bigotry don’t represent the poor and working people of Tennessee. His congressional district has the highest median income of any in the state.
Its lines were deliberately drawn to avoid most of Nashville, home to the HBCUs Meharry Medical College and Fisk University.
The future can be seen in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where workers at a Volkswagen plant ratified their first UAW union contract in 2024.
The history of Tennessee’s working class includes striking coal miners in 1891, liberating prisoners forced to perform slave labor for the Knoxville Iron Company in Coal Creek. That’s inspiration for everybody to fight bigotry and Trump’s war for Big Oil.
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