It's 'The A-Word': Group Works To Stop Arabic Slurs Against Black People
DEARBORN (WWJ) - A newly formed metro Detroit Muslim American group is taking aim at "the A-word."
Maged Moughani, of the Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative, says they're taking to social media to urge local Muslims to stop using the word "abeed" to describe African Americans.
It means slave in Arabic.
"It's being used in a derogatory manner," Moughani told WWJ Newsradio 950's Sandra McNeil. "You know, many of the people ... on our community members page, agree that this should end. It should be buried with history."
Moughani, a Dearborn attorney, said the conversation started with a social media about a murder in Detroit.
"Many of the comments that came in, you know, 'Let's kick all these abeed out of Dearborn; they don't belong here.' And they were using the word in a derogatory sense," he said.
Moughani said the slur has been around since the time of the prophet Mohammed, and it's time for it to die out.
"He tried to send a message to end this type of discrimination," Moughani said, "and, unfortunately, it survived fourteen hundred years; and here we are in the twenty-first century, and people are still using the A-word."
"When people of African decent hear that word, many what it is; they know what they're being referred to," he added.
The group's message? Just don't say it.