Race traitor?

Abubakr Ben Ishmael Salahuddin is an African-American writer. Apparently, he is currently a Bahai. “The Afrocentric Myth” was published when Salahuddin was a member of the “Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam”. The Ahmadis are a “heretical” Muslim group, or rather two groups. I assume Salahuddin supported the Lahore branch of the Ahmadiyya. The Ahmadis reject jihad, have a missionary outreach in the Western world, and are most known for the idea that Jesus survived the crucifixion and is buried in India.

The author is opposed to Black nationalism, and wants Black Americans to embrace Islam. In the process, he attempts to claim both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. He also quotes extensively from the website Race Traitor. The chief “race traitor”, Noel Ignatiev, has written a positive blurb to Salahuddin's book. I find this curious, since Ignatiev's main project is to “abolish the White race”, not combat Black nationalism. By contrast, Salahuddin is opposed to all racial thinking, and wants to abolish the concept of a Black “race” immediately. He seems insensitive to the fact that White racism breeds Black nationalism as a defensive counter-reaction, making it unlikely that its supporters will abandon it any time soon. Ignatiev is, of course, nuts, but on *this* particular issue he strikes me as more astute than the author.

A large part of this short book deals with purported arguments for Islam. Thus, Salahuddin claims that Muhammad is mentioned in old Zoroastrian, Jewish and Hindu prophecies. He also quotes the Koran, where a prophecy about a certain Ahmad is attributed to Jesus. Ahmad is apparently another name of Muhammad. Incidentally, this detail shows that Salahuddin was a Lahore Ahmadiyya. The more radical Qadiani branch claims that Jesus' prophecy refers to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the 19th century founder of the Ahmadiyya!

To be honest, I don't think “The Afrocentric Myth” is particularly interesting, so I will only give it two stars.