Racism and tribalism are useful political constructs
For centuries some have abused and killed others in the name of “ethnicity and tribe”. In South Africa people were so fanatical about ethnicity, they made it part of their religion, culture, politics and worldview etc.
Ironically, many historic figures had mixed but noble bloodlines. Some envoys of God were of mixed ethnicity.
Example, Abraham had three wives, Sara (Jewish), Hagar (Egyptian) and Keturah. All wives had offspring, Sarah had Isaac and Hagar had Ismail. Jews take their lineage from Isaac and Arabs take their lineage from Ismail. Some scholars suggest, Africans are the progeny of Keturah.
Prophet Joseph (Yusuf) married an Egyptian. Prophet Moses (Musa) married a Midian from northern Arabia. Solomon had many ethnically diverse wives. Example, the queen of Sheba ruled parts of Egypt and Ethiopia.
Prophet Muhammad also married several women to generate political and social alliances and thus regional stability, this included a Jewish wife etc. Historically, this type of marriage was common to avoid violence etc.
Alexander the Great had a Greek mother and a Macedonian father. Alexander married a Pashtun (Pathan) girl from the hinterlands of Afghanistan. Alexanders’ army commanders followed this example.
Today, many of the world leaders are not pure bloods. Example, President Donald Trump’s father was a German Lutheran hotel owner and his mother was a poverty stricken Scottish immigrant. The Prime Minister of Britain, Boris Johnson is the great-grandson of the Ottoman Empire’s last interior minister, Ali Kemal.
Years ago, media report deliberated if Britain’s Queen Elizabeth was a descendant of Prophet Muhammad. The research was originally published in a Moroccan newspaper in 1986 by Burke’s Peerage, a British authority on royal pedigree. The study claims Elizabeth II bloodline runs through the Earl of Cambridge in the 14th century, across medieval Muslim Spain, to a descendant of Fatima, the Prophet’s daughter. The genealogical records of medieval Spain supported the research. Ali Gomaa, former grand mufti of Egypt, also endorsed the research.
My point is simple. The Creator who created tribes and ethnicity did this, so that people could recognise each other in mutual diversity. Just imagine humans were all white or all black or all brown. Life would be dreary.
The Creator judges on the basis of “who is most beneficial” towards humanity. So racism really has no value.
Cllr Yagyah Adams
Cape Muslim Congress