[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 8]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 11974]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




IN RECOGNITION OF THE MURID ISLAMIC COMMUNITY IN AMERICA'S 23RD ANNUAL 
  CHEIKU AHMADOU BAMBA MBACKE ISLAMIC CULTURAL WEEK CELERATION IN NEW 
                               YORK CITY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 25, 2011

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor, recognize, and 
celebrate the Murid Islamic Community in America's 23rd Annual Cheikh 
Ahmadou Bamba Mbacke Islamic Cultural Week Celebration in New York 
City. On Thursday, July 21, the Murid Islamic Community in America 
(MICA) will host its annual welcome reception at Wadleigh Secondary 
School for the Performing & Visual Arts in Harlem, where they will 
officially launch the North American Tour of the Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba 
Mbacke Islamic Cultural Weeks.
  The Honorable Iman Ababacar Dabo, President of the Murid Islamic 
Community in America and The Honorable Serigne Mame Mor Mbacke, 
grandson to Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacke will pay special tribute to my 
brother, the Honorable David N. Dinkins, first African American and 
106th Mayor of the City of New York. David Dinkins was the first public 
official outside of Senegal, West Africa to proclaim ``Cheikh Ahmadou 
Bamba Day'' in celebration of his profound philosophies of Universal 
Peace and International Brotherhood.
  Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba was born in the year 1271 (A.H.), which is 1853 
in Mbacke Baol, a small village in Senegal. Cheikh Ahmadu Bamba Mbakke 
was born in the village of Mbacke Mbakke Bawol in Wolof in the Kingdom 
of Baol, the son of a Marabout from the Xaadir Qadriyya brotherhood, 
the oldest in Senegal. A religious prayer leader, poet and monk, 
Ahmadou Bamba founded the Mouride brotherhood in 1883 and the city of 
Touba. In one of his numerous writings, Matlabul Fawzeyni the quest for 
happiness in both worlds, Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba describes the purpose of 
the city, which he founded in 1887. In his concept, Touba should 
reconcile the spiritual and the temporal.
  Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba intended to have the spiritual capital of 
Brotherhood, by showing all the characteristics of a Muslim city. He is 
the son of Muhammad, and grandson of Abibul-allah, who was the son of 
Muhammad. His father Mohammad Ibn Habiballah was a famous Juriconsult 
and a well-respected Imam. The Cheikh's mother was known as 
Diaratoullah close to Allah, because of her renowned piety and 
chastity. Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba memorized the Holy Qu'ran very early. He 
was very educated in the different fields of Islamic sciences and the 
Arabic language. He wrote many books in the teaching of Islam, and 
great poems dedicated to the Prophet Muhammad.
  As his fame spread, the French colonial government worried about 
Bamba's growing power and potential to wage war against them. He had 
converted a number of traditional kings and their followers and no 
doubt could have raised a huge military force, as Muslim leaders like 
Umar Tall and Samory Toure had before him.
  The French sentenced him to exile in Gabon 1895-1902 and later in 
Mauritania 1903-1907. However, these exiles fired stories and folk 
tales of Bamba's miraculous survival of torture, deprivation, and 
attempted executions, and thousands more flocked to his organization. 
On the ship to Gabon, forbidden from praying, Bamba is said to have 
broken his leg irons, leapt overboard into the ocean and prayed on a 
prayer rug that appeared on the surface of the water or, when the 
French put him in a furnace, he simply sat down in it and drank tea 
with Muhammad. In a den of hungry lions, the lions slept beside him, 
etc.
  By 1910, the French realized that Bamba was not interested in waging 
war against them, and was in fact quite cooperative, eventually 
releasing him to return to his expanded community. In 1918, he won the 
French Legion of Honor for enlisting his followers into World War I. 
The French allowed him to establish his community in Touba, believing 
in part that his doctrine of hard work could be made to serve French 
economic interests. The French government allowed his movement to grow, 
and in 1926, he began work for the great Mosque at Touba, where he is 
buried. Upon his death in 1927, The Cheikh has been succeeded by his 
descendants as hereditary leaders of the Brotherhood with absolute 
authority over their followers.
  Murid Islamic Community in America MICA is a non-profit organization 
was founded in 1989 to spread the teachings of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba in 
accordance with the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad. I ask 
my colleagues and our nation to join me in this special Congressional 
Recognition in celebration of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacke Islamic 
Cultural Week in New York City.

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