some Christians described 2000 as Jubilee year-- an opportunity to cancel the cronic debts of world's poorest people. an era of grace:  

•  Christ of justice: Luke 4: the spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, to set the oppressed free, and to proclaim a year of Jubilee the debts of the poor are forgiven

o   Leviticus 25:35 If your brother becomes poor and can no maintain himself you must maintain him without interest. 

God is with the poor and oppressed. The Vulnerable. If we are with them he is also with us. 

1. There is only one God and Muhammad is is profhet

o   It accepts the prophets of Judaism and Christianity before the life of Muhammad

o   Jesus is Messiah but not GOD- they have a higher view of Jesus than Judaism

  2. Final Judgment: heaven and hell

o   action based. Based on your way of life or -deen: way of life

o   “keep your deen true” your capacity of love and justice and compassion especially for the needy.

 3. Quran is viewed as the literal word of god spoken to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel---ONLY ONE VERSION

The Quran: the word means recitation. 

• Quran is viewed as the literal word of god spoken to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel---ONLY ONE VERSION
• o   Christianity: 4 gospels- the witnesses to the word of god. Technically speaking, the word of god is Jesus the person
• o   In Islam, the Quran is on the same level as Jesus in Christianity. In Christianity there is more room for interpretation because they are accounts.
• o   THE Quran was DICTATED 

1. THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD AND MUHAMMED IS IS PROPHET

2. ALMS GIVING

3. RITUAL PRAYER- 5 TIMES A DAY. From the “night journey” when the prophet, Muhammed is taken on a journey on a horse to jersalem; he’s taken up into the heavens and sees god. He is told by god to pray 5 times a day

4. Hajj- pilgrimage to mecca

5. fasting during Ramadan. To commemorate the time in which the Muhammad began to receive the Quran

•   1. Blacks in America were being called to return to their middle eastern and African roots---this meant, for him, the religion of Islam. Blacks had an “Asiatic ancestry
• It became popular to dress and imitate aspects of Arabic culture.
•  2. It had roots in many world religions, including the religions of India (Hinduism, Buddhism). It was a syncretistic blend of various religions.
• o   The various names of God “Your Brahmins call him Parbraham (India), In Egypt he is called Thoth, Greece- Zeus, Israel—Jehovah, ” Holy Quran of the Moorish Science temple.
• 3. The view of the human person: The human soul was innately divine. This tradition comes from India
• o   This belief is completely at ODDS with Islam.

Noble Drew Ali: 1913, New Jersey

·      Wallace Fard and Elija Muhammed, former members of the Moorish Science Temple: They established the Nation of Islam, 1930s, Detroit: They were addressing many of the social problems that affected blacks in America—poverty, violence, racism

Two major conversion experiences for malcom X, prison and the haj.

• ·      Prison he met a member of the nation of islam: learned the value and danger of learning- it became a weapon for him
• ·      Haj- pilgrimage to mecca. He realizes everyone is brothers. Gave up his quams with white people and became more inclusive. 

• Five Percenters was founded in 1964 in the Harlem section of the borough ofManhattan in New York City by Clarence Smith, known most commonly to the public at large as Clarence 13X, but referred to by his contemporaries and students as Allah (the Arabic word for God) or the Father.
• The Nation of Gods and Earths teaches that the Original Blackman is God, the Original Blackwoman is the planet Earth, and through the inner esoteric powers of the Gods and Earths, people can transform and possess their true potential.

• Santeria: syncretism, fusion of Catholicism with Yoruba religions of Africa (nigeria)
• Chango and elewa, who were the counterparts      
• chango: st Barbara
• elegua: santo nino de atocha--- young jesus, jesus as a child

1. Cultures of syncretism- a fusion of various elements and cultures-

• Spain: strong roman element, greek, Phoenician (middle east, near Israel and seria), celtic (Galicia--gaelic), Jewish, Arabs, Germanic Tribes (Goths), Egyptian, North afriacan, India (gypsies)
• Therefore, No such thing as a Spanish identity that’s “pure” not affected by so many others
• “Latin America”- a term invented by the French in mexico, 1800s: Spanish, Indians (large diversity), African,

2. Catholic Influence:

• ·      Religious syncretism: fusion of Christian saints with non European gods and spirits
• ·      Catholicism: is criticized for its saints, incorporating gods of other religions
• ·      Experience if god through beauty: beauty of nature, art, architecture

 3. Awaremenss of Death:

• ·      festivles, celebrations, rituals that remind us of the place of death in life.
• ·      Not despairing, not cynicism, living life to the fullest

Afeni shakur influenced the ideas of Tupac's music by his usage of her and her painful past in his music. He sang of her addiction, and their relationship (eviction), and her place in society as a poor black mother. 

"you never kept a secret/ always kept it real"

“thug life” is an acronym: The hate you give little infants fucks everybody 

"I think that we got so caught up in school being a tradition that we stopped using it as a learning too, which it should be...I'm learning about the basics, but they're not basic for me...To get us ready for today's world [the present curriculum] is not helping."

seeking an escape from the unimaginative trasmission of information "thats why the streets have taught me"

• o   There should be a class on: drugs, sex, religious cults, police brutality, apartheid, racism in US, why people are hungry.
• o   he believes schools should address pressing social issues of the day

She was a manager and teacher. 

She was his literary soulmate, they were reading partners. THey would discuss, respond to, reflect on, and argue the written word. He was very well read even as a teenager. 

Indian roots, a term used to describe robbers and liars in india.

came to the US from a british author.

 may have reached black audiences through colored american news papers, interested in india

or it could have came through the caribeen as a lot of inidian people came to the area in 1840s. 

good word, so you dont have to use ganster and be associated with the mob. 

Tupac was obbsessed with god. his lyrics drip with a sense of the divine. in "so many tears" he asks god to intervene in his suffering- 'god can you feel me?/take me away from all the pressure and all the pain.'

ponders heaven, salvation, death, existence of god in leu of suffering, 

• in "so many tears" he asks god to intervene in his suffering- 'god can you feel me?/take me away from all the pressure and all the pain.'
• only god can judge me
• I wonder if Heaven got a ghetto
• Are you still down?

proclamation on “black jesus”: in times of war we need someboday raw, rally the troops like a saint that we can trust…like a saint that we pray to in the ghetto” both by rejecting suffering and embracing suffering

theodicy: conflict and struggle between belief in God’s goodness and the existence of evil 

26. What are some of the Key themes and perspectives in the following songs: 

Tupac's: "I aint mad at cha"

Wu-Tang: CREAM

Jay-Z: "Moment of Clarity"

Oso Matli: "Cumbia de los Muertos"

Tupac's: "I aint mad at cha"--

Wu-Tang: CREAM--

Jay-Z: "Moment of Clarity"---

Oso Matli: "Cumbia de los Muertos"--Death

orishas- "canto elewa y chango"--