Despite the "progress" in culture, science and technology, racism, tribalism, nationalism, colonialism and the caste system have been mainly responsible for the death of over 62 million human beings in the last 100 years.
Sound Vision interviewed Sipes about his former racism, what brought about his change and why he ultimately chose Islam. This is an edited version of that interview.
The Muslims who had left Makkah were called Muhajirs, migrants who had left their homes for the sake of Allah. They were now homeless and more or less penniless in Madinah. They needed help. Enter the Muslims of Madinah. They became the Ansars (helpers) of their Muhajir brothers and sisters in faith.
Alhamdu lillah, all masjids in America pray for Muslims everywhere. Muslims from America, of all backgrounds, have donated millions of dollars each year for their brothers and sisters throughout the world. In a way, the pains of our brothers and sisters in the Ummah unite Muslims.
‘I never considered a non-Arab equal to me,' a sister once remarked. ‘I know it's wrong, but in the place I grew up in, that was how we grew up thinking.' She had grown up in a country considered "Islamic".
"O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for God, as witnesses to fair dealing, and let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just: that is next to Piety: and fear God. For God is well-acquainted with all that ye do." (Quran 5:8)
The climate for Muslims today is very much as it was for Americans of Japanese descent during World War II. Japanese-Americans in the Western states were rounded up and moved to internment camps so they wouldn't aid and abet the enemy. Similarly, Muslims are treated like the enemy and are living in virtual internment camps.