The Talking Tree: A Look into Race

by Shama Farag, Khaled Mohammed (Illustrator)

This book is mainly to honor the untold story of the first Muslim immigrants in the West and in the US, specifically, the Black enslaved Africans.Inspired by the teachings of my honorable African American teachers, scholars, and historians and the knowledge I was blessed to have access to, I wrote this story of an African American boy who had a talking tree in his garden. The talking tree shared many untold stories of African American history that are worth sharing.Among all the enslaved people who were forcefully shipped to America, the masters preferred the Muslim enslaved folks. The enslaved Muslims were multilingual, they didn't drink, they were good at math, and above all, they were clean because they washed five times a day before praying, called "ablution." Those enslaved Muslims were Black, BTW.15-30% of enslaved African Americans were Muslims.28% of Muslim Americans are Black, and only 14% of American Muslims are Arabs.The Muslim population in West Africa is as large as the Muslim population in the Middle East.If you want to learn about people, hear their stories. It will be the truest version of the story.Black Muslim History should be included in Black History Month in public schools to remove the public ignorance and shift the negative public narrative regarding Islam and Muslims. Islam has always been in the very fabric of American history.Black Muslim History should be the Islamic history in America. It should be taught to immigrant Muslims who live in the Western world, where the Islamic culture was deliberately erased, and Islam is negatively portrayed. It's the most relevant type of history every Muslim, and non-Muslim living in the West should learn for a better inclusive future.

Paperback

Published June 13, 2022

About the author

Shama Farag is a bilingual author who studied creative writing at Wesleyan University, Studied digital storytelling techniques at the University of Houston System, also Writing for young readers at Commonwealth Trust. Shama is a web content manager at Many Cultures One Community (MAPS-MCOC). Also, she is the chief editor of Little Farah Magazine form kids, and she also blogs for Arabic-post dot com.

Shama has many self-published books in both Arabic and English languages. She is the author of Egyptian Food Made Easy, I'm Different...I'm Special!, Hi, I'm Syrian, Kermalak Novel, Arabic Practice Guide for Non-Arabic Native Speakers Level one and Level two.

Check out her English blog here,
https://shamafarag55.blogspot.com/201...

Her Arabic blog here,
https://shamafarag.blogspot.com/2020/...

Little Farah Magazine,

https://issuu.com/thefarahsaeedtrust6...

Podcasts and TV interviews,

https://www.mosibyl.com/podcast/shama...

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/corona...

https://www.king5.com/article/news/lo...

Articles here,

https://arabicpost.net/opinions/2019/...
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Reviews

[Shama Farag · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is mainly to honor the untold story of the first Muslim immigrants in the West and in the US, specifically, the Black enslaved Africans.
Inspired by the teachings of my honorable African American teachers, scholars, and historians and the knowledge I was blessed to have access to, I wrote this story of an African American boy who had a talking tree in his garden. The talking tree shared many untold stories of African American history that are worth sharing.

Among all the enslaved people who were forcefully shipped to America, the masters preferred the Muslim enslaved folks. The enslaved Muslims were multilingual, they didn't drink, they were good at math, and above all, they were clean because they washed five times a day before praying, called "ablution." Those enslaved Muslims were Black, BTW.
15-30% of enslaved African Americans were Muslims.
28% of Muslim Americans are Black, and only 14% of American Muslims are Arabs.
The Muslim population in West Africa is as large as the Muslim population in the Middle East.
If you want to learn about people, hear their stories. It will be the truest version of the story.
Black Muslim History should be included in Black History Month in public schools to remove the public ignorance and shift the negative public narrative regarding Islam and Muslims. Islam has always been in the very fabric of American history.
Black Muslim History should be the Islamic history in America. It should be taught to immigrant Muslims who live in the Western world, where the Islamic culture was deliberately erased, and Islam is negatively portrayed. It's the most relevant type of history every Muslim, and non-Muslim living in the West should learn for a better inclusive future.