Islam is a Message for all humanity. It addresses all people, irrespective of color. Islam did not come for one race, tribe, or nation, or a particular people living at any particular time or place. Consequently, as Islam spread from Arabia to the other parts of the world, from China to Spain, it managed to melt the differences between people that existed before Islam. It brought people from all different backgrounds together as one nation. It created the brotherhood between the people in such a way, that in all aspects of life, from the worship to the marriage to the political activities, Muslims managed to cross the racist boundaries that the previous world order had established.

The means by which Islam lifted the oppressive hand of racism from the society is by addressing the issue through its doctrine as well as its legal texts. In regards to the Islamic Aqeedah (doctrine), the Creator is the Absolute Sovereign. Therefore, all human beings are bound by the standard revealed by the Creator, without any distinction made between them. This leads the one who adopts the Islamic Aqeedah to abandon his tendencies to establish himself, his race, or his nation as the sovereign over others. In addition to this, the Islamic legal texts never distinguished between the human beings on the basis of race or nationality. Protection of one’s life, property, honor, etc. are extended to all citizens of the Islamic State, Muslim or non-Muslim. Thus, the judicial system, since it never introduced the issue of race into its legal proceedings, prevents the emergence of institutionalized racism in the society. Islam is the first ideology to bring people from all different races together as equals under one nation. In fact, to this day, Islam is the only ideology that has accomplished such a feat. It is only recently with the cultural colonization of the Muslim world by the West that Muslims have started to develop racist and nationalistic tendencies.

The Western culture, on the other hand, has carried the concept of racism from its earliest history, such as at the time of the Greeks and Romans. When the West adopted the Capitalist ideology, it did not manage to eliminate this idea from the minds of its adherents. Rather, the Capitalist economic culture fueled the idea of racism by allowing it to be used as an excuse to exploit the labor of the foreigners, i.e. the plight of Africans in the Americas. Thus, it is not surprising that Racism is still rampant in the West, especially in the most capitalistic societies such as America and Britain. Even Thurgood Marshall, who managed to be appointed as Supreme Court Justice in America, was discriminated against and not accepted by the elite. His own testimony that “Clubs here in this town [Washington D.C.], they invite everybody else but me” (New York Times, 1/27/93), is a clear example of the deep roots of racism in the West.

In addition to the racist tendencies in the thinking of the West, Racism is also institutionalized in the West. The American Constitution established the legal basis of racism by its three-fifths clause, which considered colored people as 3/5 of a human being. Though this text was later amended, it established racism as a precedent in the American institution. Even after years of struggle, bloodshed, Civil Rights demonstrations and marches, assassinations, and racism task forces, the American society is still plagued by racism. Even when a black candidate, like Jesse Jackson, runs for the presidential election, we find that it happened only because the elite, Richard Nixon and his party, funded his campaign in order to split the black vote in favor of the Republicans.

The Rodney King and O.J. Simpson trials are recent examples of how well established racism is in the society. The most important issue in both of these cases become race, and the mistrust that exists between whites and blacks clearly came to the forefront.
The epidemic of racism that the West is facing clearly stems from its ideology and its institutions. Racism is not inherent in the nature of the human being rather it is cultivated in the individual’s personality by the culture he carries. Thus, to free ourselves from racism we have to re-evaluate the culture and the ideology that we carry. Islam is the only ideology that has addressed this issue in such a way that it builds personalities that melt the differences between people rather than construct barriers. It is the only alternative left for us.