OPINION
Warriors Needed
Salaamu Aleykum ikhwaty,
I know I'm not anyone important here and I'm not trying to be
important, wa audhubillahi min dhalik. I only want to
share my opinion and urge myself as well as my brothers and sisters in
Islam to be firm, therefore I write the message here.
The word warrior in English means a person waging wars and harming
people even if it means their own people. In English the person is
still defined as a warrior regardless who he/she is waging a war
against for regardless what reason. I don't want to talk here about
that definition of a warrior.
In Native cultures a warrior is a person that stands between harmful
things and his people, be it an enemy or hunger or poverty or any
other harmful thing. In a calamity such as dangerous weather
conditions warriors lead their people to safety. Warriors always eat
after everyone last and warriors always sit after everyone last. In
indigenous terminology a warrior is not a person harming his people or
any other people. For example in Ojibway the word for warrior is
Ogichidaa and it means leader but as my friend Lurence Keeper -
Kola explained from what the elders taught him it also mean big heart.
Warriors, in indigenous terminology, are needed today. In today's
societies indigenous people need protection from harmful things such
as poverty, hunger, disease, not getting educated, assimilation, land
confiscation, loss of culture, loss of language.
There are many indigenous people who find it extremely difficult to
live on reserves in poverty and are forced by circumstances to work
and settle in cities outside the reserves. In cities they and their
children are exposed to all sorts of negative things. Indigenous
people have established centers for issues regarding the indigenous
people in cities away from the reserve. The nonNative governments
wants to see these centers established by the indigenous people fail
and wants to see the indigenous people assimilated. This is where
warriors are needed. Not by the English definition of the word
warrior, but by the indigenous definition of the word warrior.
People who work hard and feed the weak are indigenous term warriors.
Professors and teachers who teach and prevent ignorance are indigenous
term warriors. Artists who preserve the indigenous culture and
communicate good to the world through their art are indigenous term
warriors. People who care for the old and young and the ones in need
are indigenous term warriors. Councilors who advise the ones who lost
their way are indigenous term warriors. This is how one can be such a
warriors. These warriors are needed.
I strongly urge Muslims both Native and nonNative to be the indigenous
term warriors on Turtle Island, the ones that will protect the
indigenous people from all the harmful things, be it assimilation, be
it poverty, be it confiscation of land, be it loss of culture, be it
loss of language. If someone asks why, the answer to that is: Because
it is haram to kill people and steal their land. Also our planet is
being devastated by the invaders of Turtle Island and their followers,
while the people who know best how to preserve our environment and
life on our planet are the indigenous people that these invaders are
trying to wipe out.
We should all have the honor to be on Turtle Island as warriors in
indigenous terminology warriors, with a Turtle Island Muslims banner
standing with honor, not as Muslims living in shame for being part of
a society built on genocide and slavery that is endangering the whole
planet with pollution and destruction. We do not need leaders, not
organizations to telling us what to do in order for us to be honorable
warriors in indigenous terminology, the people that saved a child from
hunger, or a man from losing his way, or a sick person from dieing. We
can all be our own leaders and make a difference by ourselves on our
own and be able to hold the Turtle Island Muslims banner with honor
without feeling any shame.
I also strongly urge our Muslim brothers and sisters in lands far from
Turtle Island to participate as such warriors and in the least to tell
their people about Turtle Island Muslims.
I also urge our Muslim brothers and sisters from lands far from Turtle
Island to spread the word that Turtle Island indigenous people don't
need to be told what to do, nor to be taught about who they are.
I also urge our Muslim brothers and sisters from lands far from Turtle
Island to spread the word that Turtle Turtle Island indigenous people
don't need to be told stories with untruths, nor do they need to be
manipulated.
I strongly urge our Muslim brothers and sisters in lands far from
Turtle Island to address Turtle Turtle Island indigenous people as who
they are, sovereign indigenous Nations living in Turtle Island.