RIYADH:A Black Imam Breaks Ground in Mecca
TWO years ago, Sheik Adil Kalbani dreamed that he had become an
imam at the Grand Mosque
in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city. Waking up, he dismissed the dream as a
temptation to vanity. Although he is known for his fine voice, Sheik
Adil is black, and the son of a poor immigrant from the Persian Gulf.
Leading prayers at the Grand Mosque is an extraordinary honor, usually
reserved for pure-blooded Arabs from the Saudi heartland. So he was
taken aback when the phone rang last September and a voice told him
that King Abdullah had chosen him as
the first black man to lead prayers in Mecca.
Days later Sheik Adil’s unmistakably African features and his deep
baritone voice, echoing musically through the Grand Mosque, were
broadcast by satellite TV to hundreds of millions of Muslims around the
world.
Since then,
Sheik Adil has been half-jokingly dubbed the “Saudi Obama.” Prominent
imams are celebrities in this deeply religious country, and many have
hailed his selection as more evidence of King Abdullah’s cautious
efforts to move Saudi Arabia toward greater openness and tolerance in
the past few years. “The king is trying to tell everybody that he wants
to rule this land as one nation, with no racism and no segregation,”
said Sheik Adil, a heavyset and long-bearded man of 49 who has been an
imam at a Riyadh mosque for 20 years. “Any qualified individual, no
matter what his color, no matter where from, will have a chance to be a
leader, for his good and his country’s good.”
Officially, it was his skill at reciting the Koran
that won him the position, which he carries out — like the Grand
Mosque’s eight other prayer leaders — only during the holy month of
Ramadan. But the racial significance of the king’s gesture was
unmistakable. Sheik Adil, like most Saudis, is quick to caution that
any racism here is not the fault of Islam, which preaches
egalitarianism. The Prophet Muhammad himself, who founded the religion
here 1,400 years ago, had black companions. “Our Islamic history has so
many famous black people,” said the imam, as he sat leaning his arm on
a cushion in the reception room of his home. “It is not like the
West.” It is also true that Saudi Arabia is far more ethnically diverse
than most Westerners realize. Saudis with Malaysian or African features
are a common sight along the kingdom’s west coast, the descendants of
pilgrims who came here over the centuries and ended up staying. Many
have prospered and even attained high positions through links to the
royal family. Bandar bin Sultan, the former Saudi ambassador to the
United States, is the son of Prince Sultan and a dark-skinned concubine
from southern Saudi Arabia.
But slavery was
practiced here too, and was abolished only in 1962. Many traditional
Arabs from Nejd, the central Saudi heartland, used to refer to all
outsiders as “tarsh al bahr” — vomit from the sea. People of African
descent still face some discrimination, as do most immigrants, even
from other Arab countries. Many Saudis complain that the kingdom is
still far too dominated by Nejd, the homeland of the royal family.
There are nonracial forms of discrimination too, and many Shiite
Muslims, a substantial minority, say they are not treated fairly. “The
prophet told us that social classes will remain, because of human
nature,” Sheik Adil said gravely. “These are part of the pre-Islamic
practices that persist.”
BLACK skin is
not the only social obstacle Sheik Adil has overcome. His father came
to Saudi Arabia in the 1950s from Ras al Khaima, in what is now the
United Arab Emirates, and obtained a job as a low-level government
clerk. The family had little money, and after finishing high school,
Adil took a job with Saudi Arabian Airlines while attending night
classes at King Saud University.
Only later did he study religion, laboriously memorizing the Koran and
studying Islamic jurisprudence. In 1984 he passed the government exam
to become an imam, and worked briefly at the mosque in the Riyadh
airport. Four years later he won a more prominent position as the imam
of the King Khalid mosque, a tall white building that is not far from
one of the Intelligence Ministry’s offices.
Theologically,
Sheik Adil reflects the general evolution of Saudi thinking over the
last two decades. During the 1980s he met Osama bin Laden
and Abdullah Azzam, a leader of the jihad against the Soviets in
Afghanistan. He initially sympathized with their radical position and
anger toward the West. Later, he said, he began to find their views
narrow, especially after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Now
he speaks warmly of King Abdullah’s new initiatives, which include
efforts to moderate the power of the hard-line religious establishment
and to modernize Saudi Arabia’s judiciary and educational
establishment. He reads Al Watan, a liberal newspaper. “Some people in
this country want everyone to be a carbon copy,” Sheik Adil said. “This
is not my way of thinking. You can learn from the person who is willing
to criticize, to give a different point of view.”His life, like that of
most imams, follows a rigid routine: he leads prayers five times a day
at the mosque, then walks across the parking lot to his home, which he
shares with two wives and 12 children. On Fridays, he gives a sermon as
well.
HE expected it
to continue that way for the rest of his life. Then in early September
he woke up to hear his cellphone and land line, both ringing
continuously. Stirring from bed, he heard the administrator of the
Grand Mosque leaving a message. He picked up one of the phones, and
heard the news that the king had selected him.Two days later he walked
into a grand reception room where he was greeted by Prince Khalid
al-Faisal, the governor of Mecca Province. Sheik Adil tried to
introduce himself, but the prince cut him off with a smile: “You are
known,” he said. Next, Sheik Adil was led to a table where he sat with
King Abdullah and other ministers. He was too shy to address the king
directly, but as he left the room he thanked him and kissed him on the
nose, a traditional sign of deference.
Remembering the
moment, Sheik Adil smiled and went silent. Then he pulled out his
laptop and showed a visitor a YouTube clip of him reciting the Koran at
the Grand Mosque in Mecca.“To recite before thousands of people, this
is no problem for me,” he said. “But the place, its holiness, is so
different from praying anywhere else. In that shrine, there are kings,
presidents and ordinary people, all being led in prayer by you as imam.
It gives you a feeling of honor, and a fear of almighty God.”
Muhammad al-Milfy contributed reporting.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/