Friday, April 3, 2015

Oppressive View of Women Came with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s Islam Conversion



Oppressive View of Women Came with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s Islam Conversion
NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was born Lew Alcindor in New York City on April 16, 1947. In 1971, at the age of 24, while playing for the Milwaukee Bucks, he converted to Islam and changed his name to one that means “the noble one, servant of the Almighty.” There was, however, an ugly side to Jabbar’s conversion to Islam — a troubling and oppressive attitude towards women.

According to actress Pam Grier’s 2010 autobiography, “Foxy: My Life In Three Acts,” she and Jabbar shared a passionate and serious relationship during the process of his religious conversion. Marriage was on the table. She had already met his parents, and their mutual destinies had launched.

Both were both young. He was already a leading NBA scorer and had been named the NBA’s Rookie of the Year. She was 22, impossibly gorgeous, and on the cusp of launching an acting career that would eventually lead to her earning her own status as a legend.

The relationship abruptly changed when Lew asked her to start calling him Kareem. He had begun a conversion to what would become a lifelong commitment to Islam. Immediately, he demanded she stop working. “A conservative man at heart who was getting more so by the day,” Grier writes, “he didn’t want to see his girlfriend working.”

At the time Grier was working as a dancer in a nightclub. The type of work she was doing wasn’t the only issue. He did not want her working at all, and he also wanted her to convert to Islam. His faith told Jabbar he could date a non-Muslim, but not marry one. Her heart set on an education, she didn’t want to move to Milwaukee.

“If we get married, you don’t have to get an education,” was his reply according to Grier. “I’ll take care of you.”

Although she was a self-described feminist who believed education was the road to empowerment, Grier, who had been raised a Catholic but moved away from all religion, agreed to study the Koran. What she found she didn’t like. Jabbar tried to explain to her that the New Islam was different from what she was reading. To Grier it didn’t sound all that new.

“Then why is the woman, even in the ‘New Islam,’ supposed to walk behind the man. Why can’t we walk side by side?”

Jabbar’s answer to this and many other questions was, “That’s what Allah wants. The man is the leader.
That is how it is written.”

He also told her she would be required to be chaperoned and wear a headscarf.

“The truth is that Kareem didn’t want me to work or get an education,” Grier summarizes. “He really just wanted me to be a good Muslim wife, bear his children, walk behind him, and keep my hair covered up with a head scarf. … From what I could see, once a woman converted to Islam and got married, she gave up her individual rights.”

Grier was bugged especially by the fact that in the Middle East some Muslim woman were living in a more progressive society that gave them more freedoms and allowed them to get an education. She writes, “[B]ut Kareem never told me about them. Either he didn’t know or he didn’t want me to know.”

There is no question that although she was conflicted, Grier was madly in love with Jabbar (she says they remain friends to this day) and desperate to find a way to reconcile herself to his rigid view of a woman’s place in the world.

She wanted to make it work.

Then the humiliations came.

One Saturday, Jabbar invited a group of fellow Islamic converts over. Grier expected to spend the day enjoying everyone’s company. These were her friends too, but this was the first time she had seen them since their conversion.

They refused to hug her. They pulled away from her touch as though she were diseased. Then came the real humiliation.

“I wasn’t supposed to speak to them at all, unless I was answering a specific question. I stood there awkwardly, when Kareem said in a quiet voice, ‘You’re supposed to leave the room now, Pam.'”

“For how long?” She asked.

“Until I ask you come back or my friends leave,” was his reply.

Humiliated, she sat alone in the bedroom until Jabbar came in and asked her to make the group sandwiches. She obliged, and after serving the men, Jabbar said, “You have to go now. You can take a sandwich with you.”

Little by little, Jabbar’s oppressive view of women drove Grier away. He demanded she cover herself, even at the beach and “read me the riot act about disgracing him” when she didn’t. “This is how it is written in the Koran,” was his only justification.
The final blow was his desire to have more than one wife. He finally gave her an ultimatum, a date when he expected her to convert to Islam. It was, of all days, her birthday. “If you don’t commit to me today, I’m getting married at 2:00 this afternoon. She’s a converted Muslim and she’s been prepared for me.”

Grier was blindsided by the news. She had no idea Jabbar had been seeing or preparing to marry another woman. He left the door open to them still getting married, “Once you become a Muslim, you might appreciate another wife.”

According to Grier, Jabbar kept his promise and married that day. Because they were not Muslim, Jabbar barred his own mother and father from the ceremony

Jabbar and his “prepared” Muslim wife would have a troubled relationship until they finally divorced in 1977. He would later describe barring his parents from his wedding as “a mistake that took me more than a decade to rectify.”

If at all, Jabbar doesn’t talk much about his relationship with Grier. According to a Google books search, in his 1983 autobiography “Giant Steps,” she isn’t mentioned.

In “Giant Steps” Jabbar does talk about his marriage, its collapse, and Cheryl, an opinionated Buddhist  woman he never married but would have a child with and remain in a committed relationship with until 1984. He says nothing, though, about whether or not his views on Muslim women and wives had evolved since his relationship with Grier.

From what he does write (at age 36), it doesn’t appear as though they had:

I had never lived with a woman or anyone who could either put demands on me or even have her own different routine. Never a great compromiser, I was never the easiest guy to live with. … It’s not easy being a Muslim woman – her hair and arms and legs must be covered in public; she can’t be too aggressive; she must take care of the children.

Almost all of the demands Jabbar made on Grier, including the fact that she would have almost no financial or parental rights or recourse should the marriage end, fall under the definition of Sharia Law.

Grier described their frequent and bitter arguments about her role in Islam as being about “submission and slavery.”

In a column this week, Jabbar dove into the ongoing dispute over Indiana’s Religious Freedom laws. He described a law that gives legal standing to all faith’s and sides in a conflict over competing rights as “a step toward establishing an American version of Shari’a Law.”

If Jabbar has condemned Islamic Sharia as forcefully, a good faith search, including links to Jabbar’s columns over the years provided by his representative, resulted in nothing.

Through his representative, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar refused numerous requests for comment or an interview. Should that change we will update this post.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was a player for the Los Angeles Lakers, and is a performer in the Yes We Can video.

Note: Magic Johnson was a player & part-owner for the Los Angeles Lakers, a franchise owner for the Starbucks Corporation, a supporter for the 2008 Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential campaign, and is the chairman & part owner for Vibe Holdings.
Vibe Holdings is an investor in the Yucaipa Companies.
Common is a performer in the Yes We Can video, and a parishioner at the Trinity United Church of Christ (Chicago).
Barack Obama is featured in the Yes We Can video, was a parishioner at the Trinity United Church of Christ (Chicago), and an intern at Sidley Austin LLP.
Trumpeter Newsmagazine is a publication for the Trinity United Church of Christ (Chicago).
Louis Farrakhan is awarded the 2007 Jeremiah Wright Jr. Trumpeter award, the organizer for the Million Man March, and the acting head for the Nation of Islam.
Michelle Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.
R. Eden Martin is counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, and the president of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Newton N. Minow is a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Mellody L. Hobson is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and a director at the Starbucks Corporation.
Starbucks Says 'Race Together' No More
Starbucks baristas will no longer write "Race Together" on customers' cups starting Sunday, ending a visible component of the company's diversity and racial inequality campaign that had sparked widespread criticism in the week since it took effect.
Valerie B. Jarrett is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, the senior adviser for the Barack Obama administration, and her great uncle is Vernon E. Jordan Jr.
Cyrus F. Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).  
Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution (think tank), Common Cause, and People for the American Way.
George Soros was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, is a co-chair, national finance council at Ready for Hillary, and the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations.
Open Society Foundations was a funder for the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
Gara LaMarche was a VP & director of U.S. programs for the Open Society Foundations, and a director at the White House Project.
Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), a senior counsel for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP is the lobby firm for the United Arab Emirates.
Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum is the prime minister & VP for the United Arab Emirates, and an investor in the Yucaipa Companies.
Vibe Holdings is an investor in the Yucaipa Companies.
William J. Clinton was an adviser for the Yucaipa Companies, is the founder of the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, and married to Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Hillary Rodham Clinton is married to William J. Clinton, a director at the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, the founding chair for the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, was the secretary of state for the Barack Obama administration, and Melanne Verveer was her  chief of staff.
Melanne Verveer is an executive director for the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, was Hillary Rodham Clinton’s chief of staff, a field manager for Common Cause, and an EVP for People for the American Way.
Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security is an institute at Georgetown University.
Alwaleed bin Talal is a benefactor for the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, the Saudi Arabia prince, and the founder of the Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation.
Saudi Arabia is a member of the League of Arab States, and was a funder for the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
League of Arab States is a member of the United Arab Emirates.
Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation was a funder for the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, the Islamic Development Bank, and the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow.
Cordoba Initiative is a sponsor for the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow, and a sister organization with the American Society for Muslim Advancement.
Feisal Abdul Rauf is the founder & chairman for the Cordoba Initiative, a co-founder for the American Society for Muslim Advancement, married to Daisy Khan, and a developer for Park51.
Park51
Controversy
Although the Park51 building would not be visible from the World Trade Center site,[33] opponents of the Park51 project have said that establishing a mosque so close to Ground Zero would be offensive since the hijackers in the September 11, 2001 attacks were Islamic terrorists. Supporters have pointed out that some victims and victims' families are in favor of the Park51 project and that some victims were also Muslims. Prominent supporters and opponents of the project can be found among the families of the 9/11 victims, the American and worldwide Muslim communities,[5][43][106][123][124][125] and local and national politicians,[43][126] making it a divisive political campaign issue in the 2010 midterm elections.[16][127] The controversy over the project has coincided with unexpected protests of mosque projects in other states, leading to concerns that relations between Muslims and non-Muslims within the US are deteriorating.
Daisy Khan is married to Feisal Abdul Rauf, an executive director for the American Society for Muslim Advancement, a developer for Park51, and was a director for the White House Project.
Gara LaMarche was a director for the White House Project, the VP & director of U.S. programs for the Open Society Foundations, an associate director for the Human Rights Watch, a director at ProPublica, is the president of the Democracy Alliance, and a director at the Roosevelt Institute.
Open Society Foundations was a funder for the Human Rights Watch, and the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
George Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, a co-chair, national finance council at Ready for Hillary, was a benefactor for the Human Rights Watch, a member of the Democracy Alliance, and the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Human Rights Watch, ProPublica, the Roosevelt Institute, the Common Cause, People for the American Way, and the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), a senior counsel for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP is the lobby firm for the United Arab Emirates.
Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum is the prime minister & VP for the United Arab Emirates, and an investor in the Yucaipa Companies.
Vibe Holdings is an investor in the Yucaipa Companies.
Magic Johnson is the chairman & part owner for Vibe Holdings, a franchise owner for the Starbucks Corporation, a supporter for the 2008 Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential campaign, and a player & part-owner for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was a player for the Los Angeles Lakers, and is a performer in the Yes We Can video.
Common is a performer in the Yes We Can video, and a parishioner at the Trinity United Church of Christ (Chicago).
Barack Obama is featured in the Yes We Can video, was a parishioner at the Trinity United Church of Christ (Chicago), and an intern at Sidley Austin LLP.
Trumpeter Newsmagazine is a publication for the Trinity United Church of Christ (Chicago).
Louis Farrakhan is awarded the 2007 Jeremiah Wright Jr. Trumpeter award, the organizer for the Million Man March, and the acting head for the Nation of Islam.


























No comments: