Clearing Up Myths About Muslim Skin Color - As-Salamu Alaikum

As-Salamu Alaikum - I see a lot of people assume Muslims are all brown, or that Islam is a "brown" religion. That's not accurate, and here's why in a simple way. First, Islam is not an ethnic faith like some others. Saying early Muslims were Arabs and therefore had one skin tone is a shaky point. Arabs historically were quite varied in appearance. For example, the Prophet Muhammad (peace and mercy be upon him) is described in early sources with a pinkish complexion - this isn’t surprising given his lineage back to Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him) from Mesopotamia. Traits like darker skin can be dominant, so lighter tones may appear less often in some families, but that doesn't mean Arabs were a single color. There are accounts that ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab had a reddish complexion and a bit of blond at the beard’s tip, and Imam Malik of Medina is reported to have had lighter hair and blue eyes. Also, after the early expansions, people moved to the Arabian Peninsula because of Mecca and Yathrib (Medina), so there was mixing from many regions. I'm not saying all Arabs were light; many had olive or darker skin too. Second, many early Muslims weren't Arab at all - think of Salman al-Farsi (from Persia) and Bilal (from Abyssinia) as clear examples. To finish, there's a reminder from the Prophet’s words at the conquest of Makkah: pride of lineage was removed, and people are valued by righteousness, not color or ancestry. The Qur'an also says the most honored before Allah is the most righteous (al-Hujuraat 49:13).