MOORISH AMERICAN SOVEREIGNTY: MYTH OR REALITY?

                      MOORISH AMERICAN SOVEREIGNTY: MYTH OR REALITY?

By Fahim A. Knight-El

 

 

I keep my Black’s Law Dictionary close by me at all times and it serves as my top legal reference book. So I wanted to start this discussion of Moors and Sovereignty with defining and looking at the term Sovereignty. Sovereignty: “is the quality of having an independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make laws that rests on a political fact for which no pure legal definition can be provided. James Bryce in the book “Studies in History and Jurisprudence” stated: It is well {distinguish} the senses in which the word Sovereignty is used. In the ordinary popular sense it means Supremacy, the right to demand obedience. Although the idea of actual power is not absent, the prominent idea is that of some sort of title to exercise control. An ordinary layman would call that person (or body of persons) Sovereign in a State who is obeyed because he is acknowledged to stand at the top, whose will must be expected to prevail, who can get his own way, and make others go his way, because such is the practice of the country. Etymologically the word of course means merely superiority, and familiar usage applies it in monarchies to the monarch, because he stands first in the State, be his real great or small.” (Black’s Law Dictionary 7^th Edition)

I was led to write this brief article because a long time personal friend named Minister Ray Muhammad who joined the Nation of Islam in Baltimore, Maryland as a member of Muhammad’s Mosque # 6 under the leadership of Minister Louis Farrakhan. Brother Ray Muhammad who I would consider for many years being a Farrakhan loyalist and had served as minister over Muhammad’s Mosque #34 in Durham and had also been a member and registered Muslim in the Nation of Islam since 1980. It was Minister Ray Muhammad’s early work in the Mid-Atlantic region and in the south that laid the present day groundwork in this region of the country for the Nation of Islam to be successful today; preaching and teaching Islam in small rural cities such as Greenville, South Carolina, Fayetteville, North Carolina, Kings Mountain, NC, Charlotte, North Carolina, Raleigh, NC, Dunn, North Carolina, Henderson, North Carolina, Greenville, North Carolina, Rocky Mount, North Carolina, etc. He called it pushing the program and given the people the life given teachings; this brother paid a price to assist Minister Louis Farrakhan in the early work of rebuilding Nation of Islam after Imam Warith Deen Mohammed destroyed the good work of his father, the Messenger of Allah. Perhaps a few years ago Minister Ray Muhammad and I, along with some other brothers was having dinner at Select Seafood (black owned restaurant) in Durham, North Carolina and he started talking about issues relating to Moorish/Aboriginal/ Native Americans Sovereignty.

I listened very tentatively because this was a new spin coming from Minister Ray Muhammad and somewhat a quasi departure from Farrakhan’s line. Although, Farrakhan’s teacher Elijah Muhammad taught separation and called for some territory or land that we can call our own inside the United States or outside country. Minister Farrakhan is fully aware of the Moorish arguments, but like most charismatic leaders his followers have to be nurtured and spoon fed—many will never be prepared to take the next step. The ideas that Minister Muhammad was conveying led him to be very excited and no doubt I saw it in his eyes that he believed in the validity of this new insight which he had come to embrace. However, me knowing him, it appeared to have been a new awaken and definitely a slightly different course in his political and social development—and he was testing these theories out amongst some of his closes comrades in Durham. The conversation was not necessarily the making of strange bed fellows i.e., the Nation of Islam and the Moorish Science Temple have historical roots and there are some theological intertwines between the two organizations (some historians maintain that the Moorish Science Temple of America, which was founded by Prophet Noble Drew Ali in 1913 in Newark, New Jersey was the forerunner organization to the Nation of Islam). Yet, I did not know, if Muhammad knew that I had personally evolved to another level and had made a mental paradigm shift long before this meeting and this is why I was open to these views because I had already expanded my Third Eye (Reference: Essien-Udom Black Nationalism: A Search for an Identity in America).  

    

I have over the years received a lot of emails from various Moors and/or Moorish sympathizers who identified with some aspect of the Moorish Science doctrine. Many of them often baffled me because they have this faint idea about proclaiming a declaration of Sovereignty in which a number of legal issues ranging from citizenship to reinterpreting the United States Constitution is on the table for discussion. Many also believe that United States Courts have no jurisprudence over them and pursuant to their sovereign status courts have a legal obligation to exempt those of Moorish ancestral from standing trial in U.S. criminal and civil courts. Some have even invoked diplomatic immunity status (and believe that the U.S. Courts have no jurisdiction to adjudicate over them as a sovereign Moorish Individual and their cases should be handled no different than an international diplomat). These arguments are too complicated for me to decipher and I do not want to appear judgmental because their arguments are rooted in a legitimate historical paradigm that qualifies Africans (or Asiatics, Moors, so-called American Negroes, etc.) for rightly due repatriation which should involve the rights to African descendents (Moors) to determine whether or not they wanted be an American citizen, reparations (blacks never received their 40 acres and mule promised after slavery)—their sense of entitlement is rooted in the devastation, brutality and dehumanization carried out by the evil system of Chattel Slavery which systematically cut off their heritage and culture linkages to Africa.

The Sovereign Moors justify their legal position based on the wording of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1857 Dred Scott ruling, which described black people as “beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” And it is this impetus that drives Africans in the Western Hemisphere and their pursuit of attempting to finding a nationality. I as a so-called black man who is one of the descendents of slavery, and as I stated above, I find myself very sympathetic to this cause. But here is the problem that Chattel Slavery left us with and the insurmountable damage heaped on those who now are left to bear this burden; there were very few official records kept on slaves and even the first U.S. Census in 1790, which was implemented some two hundred and thirty-five (235) years after the advent of slavery. They only listed African slaves as property under the slave masters’ family heading and often only by first names and by gender, which most details relating to the slaves were scarce —this tragedy still haunts even the possibility of people of the African descendents who have been scattered throughout Diaspora to truly find their lost ancestors. (Reference: Paul Finkelman; “Slavery in the Courtroom: An Annotated Bibliography of American Cases”).

It has been this tragedy that has led to many Black Nationalist and Pan-Africanist organizations (and Race Leaders) and black leaders for over the last four centuries putting forth various racial philosophies pertaining to a people who were totally stripped of every conceivable thread that linked them to their original lands, culture, religions, language, tribal origins, etc. This left a historical void and various Moorish organizations have always sort to connect the so-called American Negro to the biblical history of the ancient Canaanites and Moabites and has proclaimed that black people were the lost and original descendents of the ancient Moors. Some of their critics would view this contention as nothing, but a romanticized and an exaggerated view of history that lacks real evidence or proof that African Americans are descendents of ancient Moabites.

Many Moors have been falsely accused of  trying to find ways to exploit this history by so-called unjustly denouncing the legitimacy of the United States Government and all of its legal and political entities (they see the U.S. Government as a corporation and Moors have the right not to enter into contractual agreements with the government unless you give up your sovereign individual rights) of being in violation to act as the legitimate governing body over their rights as members of the historical sovereign aborigines (they have treaties signed between Morocco and the United states as documentation proclaim themselves as Free Moors). They further believe that by law they should be exempted and exonerated from the Internal Revenue Service (taxation without representation is tyranny and the establishment of the Federal Reserve and the IRS is bogus as well as being unconstitutional) and challenges the U.S. Government’s ability to legally enforce the 16^th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and/or even having the authority to mandate that Moorish citizens pay Federal and State income taxes to an outlaw government.  They also view how home mortgages are notlegally binding and question civil law versus martial law; they fall outside of the avoidance and evasion laws in which they share this view with white Sovereign advocates (Patriot Movement) in the United States of America. Yet, by me knowing the history of Cointelpro—I know that the U.S. Government has sent agent provocateurs to infiltrate, disrupt, spy and eavesdrop on all facets of the Moorish Science Temple leadership, in particular the Moors who advocates sovereignty.  

I was instructed to listen to Brother Yahudah (LD Belton-El Bey)—this Brother articulates better than some well trained attorneys that have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to attend and be educated at Yale or Harvard University Law Schools and I must say his level of breaking down U.S. Federal Statues and redefining legal terms under Moorish legal Codes was astounding and convincing—if his message was truly reaching the black masses, it would without a doubt jolt the thinking of African Americans and perhaps lead them to draw the conclusion that there is some thing much more sinister and complex in which the U.S. Government desire to keep us ignorant by constantly feeding us propaganda and disinformation by using the mass media to negatively taint this issue and systematically derailing our efforts to tie ourselves to a legitimate nationality as being the true descendents of the ancient Moors (Muur—Moroccans and Mauritians—lets be clear I am not referring to the present day light skinned imposter Arabs and Berbers who occupies these African lands today).  The original Moors were very dark skinned aboriginal people in which they reigned from the Maghreb region deep down into what is deemed Sub-Sahara Africa. (Reference: Bandele Yobachi El-Amin; “Moor's, Moabite and Man: Reflection and Redemption”).

But I am not totally convinced that the Sovereign argument will ever hold up in United States Federal Courts and this is why you have seen petitions, writs and legal motions denied relative to Moors seeking to use this status as a defense. There was a lot the Sovereign Moors could have learned from the experiences of Minister Silis Muhammad CEO of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam headquartered out of Atlanta, Georgia and Attorney Harriett AbuBakr who started in 1998 doing yeoman’s work in the United Nations. Minister Silis Muhammad and his legal team eventually received audiences from the United Nations Human Rights Commission in particular, dealing with the question of reparations for so-called African Americans who he claimed were victims of ethnocide, genocide, forced assimilation and institutionalized racism for over 400 years. (Reference: Silis Muhammad; “Reparations petition for United Nations assistance under Resolution 1503 (XLVIII) on behalf of African-Americans in the United States of America).

Chattel slavery left the so-called black man and woman of America with the historical inability to trace their family lineage beyond the 1800s (prior to this time large scale plantation slave records were not recorded on black slaves; although some of the early U.S. Census reports do list slaves in some detail described as property). These crimes has led us to being semi-vagabonds on the earth who are constantly in search of an identity and nationality—when you rob a people of their land, names, God, culture and heritage, etc., and declare it illegal to identify with our native tongue and tribes this has left us forever in search of a long lost heritage. Many of us find comfort under the banner of Islam, Moor, Hebrew Israelite, etc., these religious and nationality labels are a direct result of the affects of Chattel Slavery. Minister Silis Muhammad was doing some very interesting work on the level of the United Nations in the areas of human rights. But he initially was met with many legal obstacles because blacks, Negroes, Afro American, African Americans, Colored people, etc., had no legal or recognized identity in which would allow our grievances to be heard on the United Nations level. He had to declare us under the collective nationality/racial designation and classification of ‘Afro-descendants’ in order to be even heard by this august body which to move his human rights case forward. (Reference: Ida Hakim; Reparations: The Cure For America’s Race Problem”).

I personally see this as an uphill battle and I think that the history of Chattel Slavery (1555-1865) definitely left a scattered and somewhat landless people in dire need to reclaim their sovereignty and all other rights pertaining to the victims and lost descendents of the greatest crime ever committed against humanity. So this historical criminal act left over 100 million so-called Africans who were stolen and sold into the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Middle Passage—displaced from the continent of Africa (Nubian lands) as wandering and roaming nomads. But some scholars maintain that the Nubian people had settled on what is called the continent of North America may-be anywhere from 16,000 years to 30,000 years prior to Caucasian and European expeditions and the indigenous people were also in Central and South America and had established advance societies. Dr. Ivan Sertima wrote about this in his monumental book titled, “They Came Before Columbus: African Presences in Early America”, there is now plenty of historical evidence that substantiate this as being valid and credible. 

Some even claim that modern America is a geographical extension of the lost continent of Atlantis. It is also believed that the Moors were master cartographers and maritime voyagers who had been sailing across the Atlantic Ocean long before the Spanish and the Portuguese—Christopher Columbus (aka Christabul Colon) actually was using Moorish maps that were confiscated after Moors met their decline in Europe; some time after conquering and influencing European societies from the Mediterranean Sea up to the borders of Southern France (8th Century to 15th Century) these travel expedition routes which were established by the Moors were confiscated and stolen by European nations—later used to exploit and disrupt the harmony and Peace of the so-called ‘New World’. No doubt, Ferdinand and Isabella (Spain) and Jewish money changers used the Moors seafaring expertise to so-called venture into the 'New World'.  (Reference: Stanley Lane-Poole, “The Story of the Moors in Spain”) and (Reference: John Henrik Clarke: Christopher Columbus and the Afrikan Holocaust: Slavery and the Rise of European Capitalism).

The question of indigenous people sovereignty actually has a legal precedent (For example: Native Americans have won some quasi rights to sovereignty inside the U.S. and conduct custom and tribal affairs as an independent nation, although many of the set aside reservations are deplorable—however, their laws and courts are recognized by the United States Government). Now, why cannot this same legal standard be applied to people of African descent or Moorish descent; some social scientist would view this as a stretch because Africans who were enslaved came from every corner of Africa and was not considered one unified racial/ethnic homogenous society of people; unless you have sought to identify the entire continent of Africa as being of Moorish descendants. But the original inhabitants of those who settled in the Western Hemisphere are not without legal challenge because of how the United States jurisprudence system was set up, which was rooted in the legal terms of white supremacy and racism. (Reference: Bandele Yobachi El-Amin; “Moorish/Muurish Treaties: Guide to Treaties and Declarations”).

 The United States Constitution, itself wrote people of African descent (Moors) in as being 3/5 of a human being—subhuman (no rights that were bound to uphold or respected by the Caucasian); yet here is a nation of people under the Shaykamaxum Atlan Amexem Empire, Jabbar Gaines-El, Taji Tarik Bey and sister Queen Renita Bey of an organization called Great Seal Moors directing our attention to laws, statues and has even filed litigation and grievances to be recognized and viewed as a Sovereign nation based on nationality/racial/ethnic, etc., claiming to be descendants of people that had established original landlord rights and operated under a judicial system that predated the U.S. Constitution. Queen Renita Bey: argues that as descendants of “visiting” Europeans who were never granted citizenship by the Moors, white people can never be sovereign in this land. “If they want to be sovereign, they’ve got to go home. They cannot be sovereign here.”

The indigenous tribal people had also established a complex system of spirituality, culture, folkways, dispersed justice and functioned as a sovereign independent nation before the white robber barons arrived—through military force and diseases wiped out almost entire nations of North American Asiatics. However, the aboriginals (native Americans) did not have the challenges that the so-called African Americans (or Africans) have been faced with, which is legally trying to prove that they are direct blood lineages from the ancient Moors and this kinship ties us directly to U.S. territories that have been stolen, illegally confiscated and has been erroneously seized (initially by external colonialist and imperialist forces) under forfeiture laws established in federal courts and state courts by imposters who have established a shadow government (now in existence for over 250 years) sort of function under the false pretense of 'legitimacy'.

I am of the opinion that the Moorish fight for sovereignty and argument for a recognized nationality first needed to be fought in the United Nations—by bringing our case to the Human Rights Commission and having a seasoned legal team to establish a recognized nationality where by the those that were forcibly brought against their will and was enslaved for 310 years desire to make a legal petition in which this people who now represents 40-60 million would first move this body to declare the right for these people to once again to be recognized as a sovereign nation classified as indigenous Moors. Therefore, once the legal question of nationality is resolved then we make another legal motion to make these victims whole via reparations and repatriating these indigenous Moors back on land and property that had been illegally stolen. Also, allow the case to be presented in the legal framework and codes of the Shaykamaxum Atlan Amexem Empire and/or other indigenous sovereign entities existing inside the United States of America. The challenge is huge.  

         

I have watched Youtube clips of Taj Tarik Bey and he to put forth some convincing arguments as well, relative to the question of Moorish Sovereignty. There is brother named Dr. Ali Muhammad (I stopped taking him and the likes of Brother Sara Suten Seti and Brother Polight serious—well read brothers who are using knowledge as a showboat to create an intellectual brand for themselves—their various debates and techniques are sicken) who has done a two part lecture titled, "The Science of Law and Commerce" in which historically they believe that we are part indigenous people as Moors (African Americans) and we share a legal/ethnic lineage with the Native Americans (who the United States recognize them as a sovereignty entity inside of America) and in the 1700s Morocco was the first nation to formally recognize United States sovereignty from Great Britain. There were legal treaties signed between the Moors and the United States Government that granted the Moors citizenship within citizenship and they were granted rights and privileges as a sovereign and legal nationality within the United States of America.

President Woodrow Wilson officially recognized the Moorish Science Temple of America (MSTA) as a legal incorporated entity and accepted the Moorish Americans as a legitimate nationality bound by the rights and privileges bestowed to other independent people of the earth. The Moorish Science members were giving nationality cards and this ensured them that they were not just Negroes, Ethiopians, Colored men, Blacks, Africans, etc., but they had a nationality that the United States Government agreed to recognize. Lets me be clear the Moorish Science Temple Grand Sheik, Brother R. Jones Bey (leader within the Moorish Science Temple founded by Prophet Noble Drew Ali in 1913) has made it perfectly clear that his movement does not support the Moorish Sovereignty sects that exist inside America. Many sovereign Moors have opted out of getting state drivers licenses and there are universal documents that act like a passport, driver’s licenses and even appear to have some type of diplomatic immunity associated with this new set of identification which comes under certain legal positioning associated with the concept of sovereignty. I think you can have a dual citizenship (Jewish-Israelis often have both citizenship in United States and Israel) and based on states rights—license plates and drivers license are so-called unconstitutional under certain state laws according to Moorish jurisprudence, but this is rooted in their rejection of the 14^th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Let me stop here because I am not an expert on this matter, it is really outside of my realm and to complicated for me to explain.

However, I think the biggest challenge to the Moorish Sovereignty movements and ideas will be having to confront the various levels of reactionaries laws and policies that have been implemented by the office of Homeland Security, which many of the old and new agencies have unprecedented powers and authority to scrutinize the American people without due cause. The concept of Sovereignty threatens the very nature of how the three Branches of Government were intended to be established and quite sure the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Secret Service, Federal and State Prosecutors, State Police, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement etc., have been working overtime in order to determine if the Black Nationalist Moorish organizations are involved in any subversive activities that potentially undermines the United States Government. They have the United States Patriot Act, National Defense Authorization Act, Military Commission Act, Anti-Terrorism Bill, etc., legislation in place to combat even the perception of the Sovereign movement committing treason or sedition.

Fahim A. Knight-El Chief Researcher for KEEPING IT REAL THINK TANK located in Durham, NC; our mission is to inform African Americans and all people of goodwill, of the pending dangers that lie ahead; as well as decode the symbolism and reinterpreted the hidden meanings behind those who operate as invisible forces, but covertly rules the world. We are of the belief that an enlightened world will be better prepared to throw off the shackles of ignorance and not be willing participants for the slaughter. Our MOTTO is speaking truth to power. Fahim A. Knight-EL can be reached at fahimknight@ yahoo.com.

Stay Awake Until We Meet Again,

Fahim A. Knight-El