Cherokee Islam

Cherokee, nama yang digunakan sebagai label kenderaan, pernah juga menjadi tajuk lagu hit sebuah kumpulan rock bernama Europe pada satu masa dahulu (disamping Final Countdown).

Siapakah Cherokee ini? Penulis pernah terbaca dan pernah juga diajukan pertanyaan mengenainya. Sebagai jawapan kepada persoalan itu, disini penulis tempelkan artikel mengenai puak Cherokee untuk kita fikirkan bersama. Mereka juga mempunyai sejarah panjang berkait dengan Islam tetapi digelapkan oleh para penjajah Ingris dan Amirika.

Sila abaikan nama Indian itu kerana gelaran itu diberikan oleh Christopher Columbus semasa ingin mencari jalan ke Benua India melalui laluan Barat. Pada masa itu, jaringan laut menuju ke India dan Asia Tenggara melalui laluan Timur (rempah) telah pun diterokai dan dikuasai oleh pedagang-pedagang Islam, Arab, Portugis, Melayu?, Moor. China, melalui Laksamana Cheng Ho (Syed Ajjal) telah tiba lebih awal lagi sebelum itu.

Sangka Columbus, daratan yang pertama dijumpainya itulah India, lalu diberilah nama penduduk yang dijumpainya itu Indian. Kononnya, dialah orang pertama yang menjumpai benua India melalui laluan Barat. Apa yang cuba disembunyikan adalah jalan laut itu telah pun diterokai oleh pendakwah2 muslim lama sebelum Sepanyol menang perang ke atas Andalusia dan seterusnya menguasai semenanjung Iberia.

Oleh sebab itu tidak sepatutnya Native American digelar RED INDIAN, kerana mereka sudahpun mempunyai nama, awal lagi sebelum Columbus tiba. Maksudnya mereka (orang Sepanyol) memberi nama kepada kaum yang sudah bernama hanya melalui sangkaan mereka sahaja. Agaknya jika mereka tiba di kutub utara, maka eskimo pun boleh jadi digelar Indian juga (white Indian). Kalau mengikut kebiasaan orang Sepanyol, Red Indian atau Cherokee Islam ini sepatutnya digelar sebagai moor, seperti mana mereka menggelar Bangsa Moro di Filipina.

Columbus dikatakan menggunakan khidmat navigator muslim dalam eksplorasinya mencari 'the new world'. Ini sesungguhnya tidak menghairankan penulis. Berapa ramai saintis German tidak dibunuh tetapi diambil berkhidmat untuk memajukan teknologi Amirika selepas WW II? (The first American missiles and the entire Apollo program was built on Von Braun’s German technology).

"Two of Columbus’ captains on the first voyage, in actual fact, were Muslims: Martin Alonso Pinzon was in charge of the Pinta, while his brother Vicente Yanez Pinzon was the designated captain of Nina; both were from the Moroccan Marinid dynasty, descendants of Sultan Abu Zayan Muhammad III (r. 1362-1366). Formerly well-to-do ship riggers, they assisted Columbus in organizing his voyage of exploration, preparing the Santa Maria, the flagship, and covering all its expenses."

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Sila baca artikel dibawah berkenaan Cherokee.

Article Taken from: MESSAGE, July 1996.

My name is Mahir Abdal-Razzaaq El and I am a Cherokee Blackfoot American Indian who is Muslim. I am known as Eagle Sun Walker. I serve as a Pipe Carrier Warrior for the Northeastern Band of Cherokee Indians in New York City. There are other Muslims in our group. For the most part, not many people are aware of the Native American contact with Islam that began over one thousand years ago by some of the early Muslim travelers who visited us. Some of these Muslim travelers ended up living among our people. For most Muslims and non-Muslims of today, this type of information is unknown and has never been mentioned in any of the history books. There are many documents, treaties, legislation and resolutions that were passed between 1600s and 1800s that show that Muslims were in fact here and were very active in the comunities in which they lived. Treaties such as Peace and Friendship that was signed on the Delaware River in the year 1787 bear the signatures of Abdel-Khak and Muhammad Ibn Abdullah.

If you have access to records in the state of South Carolina, read the Moors Sundry Act of 1790. In a future article, Inshallah, I will go in to more details about the various tribes, their languages; in which some are influenced by Arabic, Persian, Hebrew words. Almost all of the tribes vocabulary include the word Allah. The traditional dress code for Indian women includes the kimah and long dresses. For men, standard fare is turbans and long tops that come down to the knees. If you were to look at any of the old books on Cherokee clothing up until the time of 1832, you will see the men wearing turbans and the women wearing long head coverings. The last Cherokee chief who had a Muslim name was Ramadhan Ibn Wati of the Cherokees in 1866.

Cities across the United States and Canada bear names that are of Indian and Islamic derivation. Have you ever wondered what the name Tallahassee means? It means that He Allah will deliver you sometime in the future.

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Sedutan berikutnya:
SEQUOYAH (look at picture above) AND CHEROKEE SYLLABARY

During the eighteenth century, the Cherokee people were primarily settled in more than forty thousand square miles area comprising the higher regions of the Southeast, the Appalachian (Apa-la-che) mountain ranges in the southwest Virginia, the western North and South Carolina, eastern Tennessee (Tenasuh), northern Georgia, and northeastern Alabama (Allah bamya) [ALLAH BUMINYA? @ BUMINYA ALLAH?] This is the same region where a group known as'Melungeons' had settled. By 1840 almost all eastern Native American tribes were forced to migrate to their territories west of the Mississippi.

As the leader of Western Cherokee, Sequoyah was a peace-loving man who strived to make his people literate, and made substantial effort to unite them. He retained his customary turban and long clothing, typical of Muslims, while on official mission to Washington, D.C. for treaty negotiations. He was the subject of lectures by Samuel Lorenzo Knapp. His famous portrait was done in 1828 by Charles Bird King in Washington, D.C. Suquoyah was not alone in wearing Muslim dress. More than a dozen Native-American leaders of other tribes, including Chippewa, Creek, Iowa, Kansas, Miami, Potawatomi, Sauk & Fox, Seminole, Shawnee, Sioux, Winnebago, and Yuchi, wore the Muslim head dress. Some of them wore distinctly Arab head dress. Their famous portraits published between 1835 and 1870 confirm this fact.

Bukan SIAM sahaja yang difitnah sebagai kafir, Cherokee (Shar-kee) pun sama. Masalah 'serban' Sequoyah ini pun sebenarnya menjadi perdebatan hangat di Amirika sehingga ke hari ini. Ada puak yang menafikan keIslaman Sequoyah ini. Mana lagi datangnya serban ini, kalau tidak dari pengaruh Arab. Orang Melayu pun sama berserban untuk menunjuk alim, dan biasanya tok imam atau ketua masyarakatlah yang paling besar serbannya.

Jika berpandu pada tahun yang tercatit didalam dua artikel diatas, tarikh2nya adalah selari dengan tahun2 kemelesetan pengaruh empayar Islam sedunia, termasuklah Empayar Islam Benua Siam Kedah 1876.

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Lagi antara bukti ke Islaman penduduk asal benua Amirika dan kaitannya dengan Orang Melayu:

7th-century-rock-inscriptions-with-kalima-in-nevada-2.jpg

"Proof of Muslim presence in the America from authenticated Western sources:

1. Professor Barry Fell, retired lecturer from Harvard University and also a member of the American Academy of Science and Arts, the Royal Society, the Epigraphy Society and the Society of Scientific and Archeological Discoveries, is adamant about the arrival of Islam in America in the 650s, predicating this argument upon the Cufic calligraphy belonging to that era found in various diggings across America. If the words of Professor Fell have truth-value, then the Muslims had arrived in America during the era of Uthman, or at least that of Ali, the fourth caliph. Such information, however, is not found in Muslim sources.

Jika Islam dikatakan sudah tersebar luas ke Amirika seawal zaman Saidina Uthman dan Ali, apatah lagi kisah seorang lagi sahabat Rasullullah S.A.W, Saad Al Waqas pergi ke China mengislamkan Maharaja China. Perkara seperti ini tidak perlu membawak hairan kepada orang mukmin, kerana Nabi Muhammad S.A.W diturunkan sebagai rahmat ke seluruh alam, bukan untuk orang Arab sahaja.

Para pendakwah Islam sewaktu itu tentunya telah dibekalkan dengan kaedah pengisian rohani dan jasmani untuk menghadapi segala kemungkinan yang timbul ditanah asing. Berani itu sifat mukmin. Lihat sahaja contoh 'survival' seorang Arab Ibn Fadhlan, disamping Norsemen dalam filem 'the 13th Warrior @ Eaters of the Dead. Walaupun itu hanya cerita 'fiksyen', tetapi anggaplah ia sebagai contoh untuk mendekatkan kita kepada kenyataan dan realiti.

Picture 8 shows a piece of rock discovered in a cave in the region of Corinto in El Salvador, bearing the inscription Malaka Haji mi Malaya; this has been identified as belonging to the thirteenth century, suggesting a possible arrival of Muslims in South America, perhaps coming from somewhere near Indonesia.

[apa pulak near Indonesia, memang Melayu la tuh. 13th Century adalah zaman King Nara Suan - Sultan Muhammad Syah Yang Adil memerintah Ayuthia dan Semenanjung Siam-Melaka. Tapi Malaya itu merujuk pada siapa? Nama El Savador pun ada membawa pengaruh Arab. El atau Al?]

Walaupun bukti itu boleh disangkal (oleh puak yang berfikiran negatif), tetapi sekurang-kurangnya kita tahu yang Melayu bukan sahaja telah menerima syiar Islam di Nusantara, tetapi telah pun mengambil bahagian, berjuang menyebarkan syiar Islam ke seluruh dunia. LAGI AWAL DARIPADA PANGLIMA AWANG atau The ENRIQUE yang menjadi mentor Datuk Azhar Mansor.

Umpama mengangkat batang terendam...sejarah bangsa yang digelar 'SIMUW UL AMIR' perlu ditegakkan kembali. Peranannya menegakkan syiar Islam diperingkat global mesti diangkat buat tatapan dan pedoman generasi masa hadapan.

Jika ada yang tidak bersetuju dengan fakta ini, terserah. Mungkin ada orang lain yang mendapat manafaat darinya. Penulis hanya menyiasat dan mencari bukti sejarah bangsa yang telah digelap dan disempitkan disekitar pelabuhan Melaka. (puak ni boleh pulak pertahan cerita karut yang semacam ini)

Secara logiknya, macamlah orang Melayu dan sultan2 Islam zaman dahulu tidak pernah berkeinginan menunaikan rukun Islam, naik haji ke Baitullah Mekah. Jangan ditanya macamana caranya, naik unta, berakit, jalan kaki, jika sampai seru maka wajiblah ia bagi orang Islam yang berkemampuan, Cherokee ke Apachee ke sama sahaja hukumnya. Maka berkumpul umat Islam sedunia, di Baitullah, menghadap Kaabah.

1000 AD (10th century Arab map showing America as the Unknown land Ard a Majhoola)

Ada nampak tanah semenanjung? (sila rotate 180 darjah untuk melihat peta dunia versi moden)