I'm posting this to highlight an inconsistency - and knowing the scholars at AMJA i have no doubt this was not intentional or malicious by any stretch. However, it is important to highlight the inconsistency because these things are usually implicit and sometimes w/o us realizing

2020:

2019: Pay attention to point 3

What's the difference between Saudi/Yemen/UAE and Somalia/Kenya/Ethiopia?

The conclusion from this shouldn't be that the scholars are racist, but rather an understanding how we have implicit racial biases that may affect our decision making and also how we see the world.

The reality is, in desi/arab countries (and *shockingly* even America), African countries are seen as backwards, uncivilized, unsophisticated, uneducated, and those stereotypes carry over.

The same way we can trust Saudi (which I mean... come on... lets be real), why can we not trust actual Muslim countries with their own actual real Islamic scholars?