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In an interview, Ensahbanor of Mujahideen Team (M-team), described the band's latest album: "It's like Malcolm mixed with The Young Lords lyrically revolutionary." Though there are lots of references to both of those revolutionary legacies throughout the album, we wouldn't rate M-team as high as them. Somewhat reminiscent of Fundamentals, M-team samples heavily from Malcolm X and gives props to Maoists in their propagation of Islam through hip hop. Their recent album has a very complete feel to it with lots of nice beats, incorporating Latin, Middle Eastern, rock and synthesized music. Politically, M-team brings a progressive message from the perspective of the oppressed that MIM can ally with.
The most obvious difference we have with M-team is in our overall world-view based on dialectical materialism as opposed to Islam. A thorough review of their lyrics reveals more religious motivation than the scientific analysis that many of their political influences had. This is the biggest weakness of their work. While they consistently stand on the sides of the oppressed in their lyrics, they provide little in terms of real solutions for the oppression and poverty that they rap about. They get into this the most towards the end, in "Action Speak." They describe their dreams, "i wanna catch a fresh air/watch a sunset/spend one night with no fights and no death/ where no one' s hopeless, stressed or depressed" and "Imagine walking the streets without having beef/ Not having to deal with the pigs and police/ a day we could free our people from prison." They start to look for solutions, "who would you die for?/ who would you kill for?/ who do you destroy for?/ who do you build for?" And then conclude, "we can make it happen if we stop the division" and go on to say, "we want change/but we don't make sense." They're right to recognize that we need to make sense of the world around us in order to unite around our desire for change, but that understanding comes thru the application of scientific materialism.
One thing M-team is clear on is that they are down to fight for freedom and self-determination, "revolution hasta mi muerte." They seem to be challenging others to join in their militancy in the high-energy "Dead Have Risen" by sampling Malcolm: "you haven't got a revolution that doesn't involve bloodshed... and you're afraid to bleed." Constantly welcoming martyrdom, M-team takes a militant stance against "Kuffars", which they define as, "any person, being or system that attempt to cover the Light and Mercy of the all encompassing Divine Reality... Those who wish to subject humanity to the tyranny of their greed and thirst for worldly power... Those who wish to frustrate the unfolding of a global unity that binds together all humans under the banner of peace through submission to the Creator of all things." Clearly, imperialism falls into this category, but M-team is never so clear, often leaving the identity of the enemy muddled in religious terminology. Lyrics like, "today is the day of retribution/ today is the day of jihad/ today is the day of martyrdom or victory," put martyrdom and militancy above the needs of the people. We don't need revolutionary martyrs or sacrificial lambs: we need revolutionaries who can put in the hard day to day work for the long haul.
When it comes to art, and particularly music, there is often a focus on the militant side in order to rally the troops ( or just to get the crowd jumping). We can give more leeway to song lyrics and fictional stories where taking things to the extremes is expressing the feelings and impulses of the oppressed whether or not those impulses are actually going to accomplish anything. In contrast, we would expect political polemics to be consistent in promoting effective strategies. That said, M-team has a continuous stress on militancy and martyrdom that is never really balanced out with any mention of the more time consuming aspects of revolutionary organizing.
If we could drop one track from this album it would be "Blue Nile." MIM agrees that the so-called "sexual liberation" in the Western world is an example of imperialist decadence. But we say so with the understanding that those behind it can afford to prioritize their right to sleep around above their right to eat since the latter is not threatened. Unlike M-Team, we do not have any religious belief that wearing a mini-skirt demonstrates a lack of self-respect, nor that wimmin are obliged to stay true to their man. Under the patriarchy we can recommend certain practices in relation to gender and sex, but these are merely attempts to adapt to an oppressive situation. Hopefully some day, if for some reason a persyn desired to wear a mini-skirt they could do so without being subject to calls to cover up from conservative gender oppressors and take it all off from the "sexually liberated" ones.
Currently, the principal contradiction that we face in trying to move towards a better world is that between imperialism and the oppressed. In that respect we can ally with anti-imperialist forces that hold religious beliefs, even if those beliefs serve to prop up other power structures such as the patriarchy. We can ally against imperialism, while struggling over gender. And when dealing with the masses, religion only becomes an issue when it is negatively affecting a group of people. Therefore, we can ally with M-team now against imperialism, but must struggle against their paternalistic views of gender in hopes of resolving that issue through comradely struggle. If it is not resolved, at some point the question will become antagonistic, and no religious ideas that support hierarchy between groups of people will be tolerated by the people.
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