I am writing this as a short treatise on the machinations of the enemy of all mankind and the way he manipulates truth and history to lead many, (particularly in this case, Black Americans) astray. Before I begin, a little about my own background.
My name is Hassan Ibn Nurullah, I have written under the Name Digital Publius for some 18 years now. Digital Publius of course being a modern allusion to Publius, the pseudonym used by John Jay, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton when writing what became known as the Federalist Papers.
I was born a Muslim, and remained so for the first thirty years of my life. My father Shahid Abdul Nurullah, though he raised me a Muslim, impressed upon me the importance of seeking the truth. He taught me faith was the most important decision I would make in life. This lead to a life long interest in comparative theology.
Thus, I studied at least a bit of everything from Animism to Zoroastrianism—At the age of thirty, the Biblical precept stating: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17 Became manifest in my life. I chose Christ based solely on logic. If everything written about the advent of Christ as prophesied in the Old Testament were one hundred percent fulfilled—It was logical to assume the Holy Bible would be equally accurate in what it taught about His return. It was time to look more closely at Jesus.
Yielding to the logic as substantiated by history, seeking His face in spirit and truth lead to my coming to love the Lord with all of my heart—just as He displayed His love for us all by His finished work on the cross. Though I was born into an Islamic family, my name at birth was Edward Finley Robinson III. My father changed our names shortly after.
I’ve been asked many times, why, after coming to Christ, I did not return to my birth name? Especially after the events of September 11th, 2001 and the subsequent challenges my Arabic name heaped upon me. It’s always been my belief having an Arabic name has afforded many opportunities to share my faith in Christ I may otherwise have not been granted.
As a Muslim boy, one of my heroes was heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali—Like my father, he was persuaded to adopt a form of Islam as his chosen faith, and he too changed what he called his “Slave Name,” Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.
The original Cassius Marcellus Clay, was a white Kentucky planter—Clay freed 44 of the personal slaves he inherited, paying them wages to stay on and work. Some he could not immediately free due to complicated probate laws endemic to the antebellum South.
Clay became an abolitionist while a student at Yale in the 1830s. He established an abolitionist newspaper, “The True American” which had to be fortified with iron doors to keep out violent and vengeful pro slavery factions. The Paper was armed with two cannon, but was still eventually sacked, his printer stolen. He was undeterred and soon opened another paper in the free state of Ohio.
He suffered several assassination attempts, yet still became a founder of the Republican Party and was influential in his friend President Lincoln’s signing of the “Emancipation Proclamation.’
Lincoln named him the U.S. Ambassador to Russia. Clay donated 10 acres of his land to John G. Fee, an abolitionist who founded the town of Berea. In 1855 Fee founded Berea College, open to all races.
One of Clay’s manumitted slaves named his grandson Cassius Marcellus Clay, in honor of the man who fought so ardently to end the bestial practice of chattel slavery in the United Staes. That grandson went on to bestow the name to his son Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., the same who went on to become Muhammad Ali.
Ironically, Ali exchanged what he considered a slave name, though given to him as a remembrance of the man who risked all to end slavery—Choosing instead to adopt a name connected to a man, faith and culture who has arguably done more to advance slavery, in the past and contemporaneously, than any culture in history. Especially Black slavery.
The Prophet Muhammad was himself a slaveowner. The first man to perform the call to prayer, Bilal ibn Rabah, was an African slave who was manumitted only after his conversion to islam. It is forbidden in the Qu’ran to enslave a fellow believer—Every none Muslim is up for grabs.
This was still the case during the early years of the founding of the United States. The Marine Corps. Hymn features the line, “From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli…”
The Shores of Tripoli refers to the American war fought against the Barbary Pirates.
These corsairs where sponsored by Islamic states and ravaged the Barbary Coast, (Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and Morocco) capturing over a million slaves from Europe and other non-Islamic nations from the 16th to 19th centuries.
In 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams met with Sidi Haji Abdrahaman, the ambassador of Tripoli. When Jefferson asked why the Islamic corsairs were seizing American merchant ships and enslaving American crews despite peaceful relations, the ambassador stated that it was authorized by the Qu’ran as a religious duty to make war upon and enslave non-Muslim nations.
It is interesting to note, while some of the most zealous advocates of the so-called “Palestinian” cause are Black Americans—the Black neighborhood in Gaza City is called by the local Arabs, Haret al-Abeed, the (“neighborhood of the slaves").
Ignorance is the driving factor perpetuated by Satan—If Muhammad had not been ignorant of the Holy Bible, he would never have been deceived by the entity calling himself Gabriel in that Arabian cave—He would have remembered this dire warning explicitly repeated in Galatians 1:
8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
9 As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
Awareness of these verses would have saved Christian and non-Christian nations throughout Asia Minor and Northern Africa like Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Turkey, Damascus and Jerusalem and so many others in Europe and elsewhere, from conquest, conversion, or slavery at the hand of the sword of Islam.
Likewise, we in America are ignorant of true history and susceptible to Marxist reinterpretations and the doctrines of devils. So many of us worship our skin above all else, racial identity has become an idol. We are blind to anything not serving the narratives fed to us daily—We forget to whom we belong.
They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Romans 1:25
We focus on silly things like what name we are called as if it is even remotely important and are then trapped by lies, false hope, bitterness and misguided goals, and we wonder why we are so divided. Slavery was ended in our nation by people who sought first the face of God. We, are obsessed with focussing on the evil, while completely missing the national testimony.
This is a nation which has always strived to correct our past evils. Slavery was the default setting of the whole world. The remarkable thing about our history is not we had a brutal form of chattel slavery—But rather, without outside pressure, we ended it, and have worked over the intervening ages to end it wherever it is.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. Hosea 4:6
Digital Publius
