06/22/2000
IWDM Study Library 
Revelation its Influences on Culture Norfolk VA

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
We thank G-d for our life in this time of the conclusion of things, and the world is becoming one again. We witness that G-d is one and cares about all of His creation and especially all of His human creation. And we witness that Muhammad of the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam is the last and seal of the prophets, one coming to promote freedom of religion and freedom from all forms of slavery; not just the physical slavery or slavery to physical things, but slavery to nonphysical things, slavery to falsehood, slavery to ignorance, slavery to corruption. People are often made a slave of those things that are not physical.
Islam wants a good life for us. And that's what we want to focus on for this time that has been given to me to address you here in this beautiful, lovely city, with a lot of possibility for us to develop and grow together, Muslim with our neighbors, the Christians. All the people of the great religion have been informed by their scriptures of a time coming that's going to require each of us to respect a relationship with our fellow man that enables us to work together for a world of peace and a world of prosperity. Islam promises us a good life. G-d says in our holy book that he will give us a good life and good establishments. A good life and good establishments.
The picture of the beginning of man in the Garden of Eden, a beautiful environment is really a picture of the world to come, more so than it is a picture of what the world was. It is a picture of the world to come. G-d is telling us how He began the creation of human beings so that we will focus on the future, and know that the multiplying of the people, the generations, the nations is going to burden governments, is going to burden families, is going to burden individuals. And relief will come for the government, families and individuals when we accept the conclusion of things as predicted in the scripture. The people of the book, we call them Jews and Christians, and also now Muslims. Our scriptures tell us of the conclusion of things, that we are going to have to accept the plan of G-d as it was in the beginning.
He made us one family. He created us as one human family. And one day we would have to be conscious of that oneness of the human family and work together for a beautiful life of peace and prosperity. When Prophet Muhammad of Arabia declared the worship of G-d, he used the term in Arabic language because that was his language. And G-d revealed to him the message and the language that he spoke, which is Arabic. When he declared the belief in G-d, he was saying to the Arab speaking people, G-d is one. And they were believing in that time, fourteen centuries ago, in many G-ds. The history on the beginning of Islam and the land of the alps, Arabia, tells us that those people before Islam, those alps before Islam believed in about three hundred sixty-nine different G-ds. And those G-ds were given physical shape. They were idols made into idols.
And then the Muhammad, the prophet told them, G-d is one. They had to change. They had to make a drastic change. They had to make a big change from seeing G-d in many shapes, many forms, and many figures, deities, little G-ds, medium size G-ds, big G-ds to believing in one G-d that they couldn't see with their physical eyes. But they had to see that G-d with their hearts, with their souls and with logic. It was a big change for them. But within twenty years, that whole countryside of the Arabs had changed from idol worshipers to worshipers of the one G-d. And that's the way Muhammad put it. He said the one G-d. And G-d revealed to Muhammad, told him this to say, because Muhammad had come to a world, this earth was already populated by Christian people, by Jews, by people mentioned in the Qur'an, our holy book as Sabian, it was already populated by people who believed in that kind of G-d, that G-d, that concept of G-d.
So, Muhammad was told by G-d, in the Revelation, to him, the Qur'an, the Holy Qur'an, called Qur'an in English by most of the English-speaking people. He was told to say to them, meaning, say to Christians and Jews and Sabians, those people who share this belief in the Creator, the one G-d, the invisible G-d, but nevertheless, the manifest G-d, the G-d that we do know. He said, say to them, "your G-d and my G-d, or our G-d is one and the same G-d". Muhammad was preparing the people who had worshiped three hundred sixty-nine or more G-ds; he were preparing them to join the effort of the People of the Book to make this world a world to accommodate all people as one family of mankind, or one human family. This is very important to know. And the Prophet Muhammad was told because they fought him.
He didn't want to fight. They fought him. They tried to kill him. They tried to kill his disciples, his followers. They tried to stop the spread of the religion of Islam. And the prophet was told to fight them, in defense of the religion, until religion is free for G-d. So here is a prophet that's remembered in history as a prophet who had to go to war, and a prophet who took up arms. Many of the reports present him as a prophet who wanted to spread the religion by the sword, when the fact of history is that he only picked up the sword to defend the religion and the followers of that religion against idol worshipers, who wanted that religion to be put away and never seen again.
This is the truth of it. Now, if you listen to the language of Islam and speaking to a Muslim now, but for the benefit of us all, if you listen to the language of Islam, the language of Islam tells you what Al-Islam is all about. It tells you what we want. The first language of Islam is given to us in the call to worship. It is called the Adhan in Islamic term terminology. It is called Adhan. Adhan means that it's your ear. It is derived from the word [Arabic] is ear. [Arabic]. My ear in Arabic. [Arabic]. My ear. [Arabic]. Ear. Adhan means that that gets the ear or that that gets your attention - that that gets your attention. So we are giving a call to worship, and it's intended to get our attention. And the first words of the call to worship are "G-d is greater".
Many translations say, "G-d is the greatest". That's true. But that language says, "G-d is greater". I was watching a program of an evangelist on television once and they began to sing a beautiful song. And the song went like this, "G-d is greater, G-d is greater." And I said to myself, they say it, what do we say? Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar. They had me, I was fascinated, right there listening. And I found myself chanting with them. G-d is greater. G-d is greater. So, we have this in common. It begins with G-d is greater. Muhammad came to establish a belief in one G-d, so that mankind can have unity on this earth as a human family and work together for better conditions for all people. This is the main interest. But to accept that G-d is authority over my life, and that's what it means when it says G-d is greater. It means, nothing is more important or bigger or greater than G-d as an influence in your life.
That's what the call is to, for us to accept that, accept that nothing is greater, bigger, or more important as an influence in your life than G-d who created you and the world that you must live in and live upon. That's the first requirement. And it goes on to say, I witness that there is nothing worthy of my worship, except that G-d, the one G-d. That's to free us from slavery, slavery to other g-ds, false g-ds, so that we can have the unity of the human family under the one G-d. We believe as a logic, L-O-G-I-C, we believe as a logic that the belief of one G-d is necessary if f man is going to become one united family. And we have to become one united family. It doesn't mean we are going to lose our distinctions. It doesn't mean that my race is going to become less important.
It's going to become more important. When we all working together for the beauty and betterment of our lives, it is going to become more important. It doesn't mean that my own culture is going to be wiped away by this oneness. No, it means that my culture is going to be free. I'll be free to live my culture, develop my culture in an atmosphere of peace. An atmosphere of peace where we are accepting each other as brothers and sisters, and we are accepting each other's aspirations as inherent rights upon the idea that G-d created us all, and he made us different, and he made us the same.
He made us the same as a human creation, but he made us different in our regional life and in our national cultural aspirations. Muhammad, the prophet made it clear to his disciples, his followers, that they should not try to undermine, uproot, impose a culture upon people and take away their culture. But Muhammad says, "See that when you go to a people, you do not take away their culture." So, Islam came as Christianity did. Islam came to refine, to bring refinement, to bring beauty, more beauty and more purity and more refinement and more logic to the culture of the people, to a cultural life of the people. Now so much for that, let's continue with the [Arabic], because the [Arabic] tells us what Islam wants of us.
And I witness that Muhammad, who received the Qur'an, is the messenger of G-d. If we are going to make Muhammad a G-d, then we are going to cause big problems for the unity of mankind and for the good peace of the world, a condition that will allow us to work together for the common aspirations, the best common aspirations of all the people. That's going to be heard if we make Muhammad a G-d, because Muhammad is an Arab. The human family is not Arab. The human family are Arab and many, many others. So, the word came to Muhammad saying, "Let us not raise from among ourselves human beings and lift them up as a g-d, a lord, and lift them up as a g-d or as a lord. They let us come to common terms as to what we worship, that we worship only One G-d and the G-d is not any one of us."
They do not raise up lords or g-ds from among yourselves. This is very necessary for us to have peace in the world, without me going further with that particular point, without driving it to its conclusion. I want to say to you that Islam wants for human family the best human conditions. And Islam sees human beings as the inheritors by the very fact of their own creation, by the very fact of their own creation. My nature, how I'm made, I am an inheritor of freedom, life, freedom to have the opportunity to establish my life in a beautiful, excellent shape. And no one should interfere with that, but everyone should welcome that. And everyone should cooperate, so that each of us as individuals, as nations, and also as cultures have the freedom, and the go-ahead from the others to do that in the name of one G-d, and for the betterment of one human family. This is what we want.
And I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of G-d, which is to say, I bear witness that Muhammad is not G-d. That's what we are saying. I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of G-d. That's to say, I bear witness that Muhammad is not G-d. And the call the [Arabic] that gets our attention, this is the ear, it goes on to repeat. Or to say, pardon me, first, come to worship. Come to worship. Now that the matter has been put straight, that this man is not here for you to worship him, Muhammad the prophet peace be upon him. He's not here for you to worship him, to make an Arab your G-d. No, he's here to call you to the worship of the Lord creator of all people, the G-d that all of us have as our G-d. And it says, come to worship and means come to worship that G-d. And then behind come to worship it says, come to success. Come to success.
And the word success, [Arabic] in Arabic, brings to mind the beautiful cultural life of the people. [Arabic] is derived from the word, which means to cultivate, to cultivate the land. Come to a land like a farmer, a land that has no beautiful growth, no food supporting life, maybe a little food supporting life. And the farmer comes there and he tills the land. He attends the needs of the plants, of the seeds that he sows He tends the garden. And in time, that land is made more beautiful by that farmer, that cultivator is made more beautiful and more rich, and its supply of food meets the needs of man in society. So, this is really the garden, isn't it? The garden of Eden. Man was made originally and put in the garden of Eden. We are told, the three great religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam gives us the same picture.
And the man was given the responsibility to take care of the garden, to keep the garden in good shape, and to cause multiplying of good things and beautiful things. And G-d says to us, with reference to the cultural life, G-d says to us, He has created you like a plant, a parable of human creation is a creation of a plant. And G-d says that He have made everything in beautiful pairs. The word [Arabic], in Quranic Arabic, this word, it is an intensified word. It's so beauty, but intensified. Great beauty, rich beauty, abundant beauty. G-d has created us for a beautiful life. So, reapply, the logic that we have established here, that we are establishing with this call to worship called the Adhan in Islam.
We would have to say that we are put here to better our environment. Man has been given a responsibility by G-d, by his Creator to take a beautiful environment and make it more beautiful, to take a rich environment and make it richer, to take an environment that is supplying the needs of life and make it supply in abundance. I read in script in the Bible where G-d promises the people of the gospel abundance. Recently, I passed by a church and the church was named, the tabernacle [...] of abundance. And I say, this is the same word that we have in our holy book. G-d says, "Surely, I have given you abundance." Abundance. And G-d promises us a life of abundance, that He shall increase life for us and the beauty of life for us, and the products of life for us.
He shall increase all that for us. So, Christians, they believe that the G-d who created everything wants them to have a beautiful life on this earth, and the promise of even a better life to come when all of this world is finished, the material existence has finished. We believe together with Christians, that we are going to have even a better life, a life with G-d, a life in a paradise, again, as it was in the beginning, when G-d created the first man and put him and his mate, the mother of all people in the garden and wanted that beautiful life for them. So again, I want to go back to the beginning of things to show you again, or to say again to you that G-d is telling us with this picture of the beginning of mankind in a garden with his wife, and they have children that he wants man to work for our society for a life on this earth that will be like a paradise, like a paradise that will be peaceful, that will have support for all of our needs, all of our appetites, all of our legitimate wholesome appetites.
G-d says He wants to fulfill all of your wholesome appetites. He wants to answer all of your wholesome appetite. He wants you to have a life that is rich, a life of abundance. And we can only have this if we respect each other as shareholders in this life, that our Creator gave us, for all of us, each of us to have. If we are shareholders, we know that really the true owner of everything is the G-d that made it in the beginning, and made it to yield, to give its fruits to us, to give its products to us, to give its service to us. G-d did that. And we should never as a race or as a religious group claim all of this for ourselves, but claim it only for humanity for the whole human family.
And then G-d loves us and G-d will help our efforts. G-d will send his angels to work with us and we'll have great help, supernatural help for human efforts on this earth, if we will accept that all of us belong to G-d, and the whole world belongs to G-d, and we are only temporary shareholders. We're going to die and leave it and others will have it. This is the message of Al-Islam. This is the message of the religion. This is the message from mankind. So, religion is not something that comes just to make us feel good in our souls. Religion is not something that is a narcotic, like the communist charge, like the Marxist charge, that religion is the opium of the people. Religion is more than that, not something just to make me feel good. Religion wants me to look good.
It wants me to look good in my family. It wants me to look good in my home life. It wants me to look good in my neighborhood life. It wants me to look good in my city life. It wants to me to look good in the human life, the human family. And that desire is burning inside, inside the soul of every individual to look good in the picture of mankind. Not to just look good in my own picture as a black man or a white man or yellow man, but to look good in the picture of mankind, that's a need in the soul. And in my own experience as a seeker of G-d to know what is my life, a seeker of G-d to know how I should live my life of G-d, seeking G-d to know what is my worth in this great plan, in this great scheme of matter, this universe, this earth and sky.
Why am I here? What is my place here? What am I to do? What is my value in this big picture? I sought G-d to find that out. And my personal experience, my personal experience was really to know my worth and my place and my value in the picture of mankind, not in the picture of one race. The world has become now one, we can't escape it. The powerful television media brings us together all around the world as one human family, having essentially or basically the same needs, the same aspirations. All of us want good families. All of us want our families to be protected. All of us want opportunities for our children to have a good future, a good education, to have an opportunity if they can qualify, to make a big income, a good income to even be one day the banker, the owner of the bank, the mayor, the governor, the president of our government, of our nation. All of us want, want these things for our children.
We don't want them to be cut off. We don't want anybody to tell us, "No, you can go so far, but not that far." No. We want to know that we have the right to go as far as any other citizen can go. We all want that. And this is what G-d wants for us. If we understand our religion, this is exactly what G-d want for us. G-d want us to recognize each other, respect each other and promote each other's interests, each other's good interests, salute each other, congratulate each other. Then we can have a beautiful life together on this earth with G-d and his angels with superpowers, working with us for that good life. This is what my message is to you today. And he has greeted us as a plant. And we know we don't like the inferior plants, even if you're not a gardener, if you're not a farmer. You don't want to bring the wife a bouquet of weeds. Dandelions are pretty, but you don't want bring her a bouquet with dandelions.
You want to bring her richer flowers, richer flowers and flowers that don't say, oh, this carries the message of torment too, because dandelions can torment somebody that wants a nice lawn. So, you don't want to bring her bouquet of dandelions. It's the wrong thing. It brings up the bad thoughts. You want to bring her bouquet of roses, other beautiful flowers. Life should be the same. We should want our cultural environment to be beautiful and not bring up bad thoughts, but good thoughts. We have an effort here in this city, this beautiful city on the way by our Imam here in this city, to join others who are working on the business strip, 35th Street, to renovate those buildings and bring fresh life there again, fresh business life, fresh commercial life. We must understand that cultural beauty cannot be had in the measure that enlightened, advanced societies like ours wanted without a respect and appreciation for higher education and the right of every citizen to education.
Education is very, very essential, important if we want to have that choice environment, cultural environment, a richness in terms of a need or a desire for virtuous life and richness in terms of a desire for an enlightened life, and productivity, wealth. So, when I see an effort like this in Norfolk, Virginia, to bring business life back to that strip, I can't help, but also see developing along with that effort, a desire to provide that strip with wholesome entertainment. Culture and work should go together. Culture and community development has to go together. Culture and community development. We work better when we have a perception of beauty and appreciation for the beautiful things or for the beautiful things of life. We even work better. You have a better spirit to even want to work. The natives, the so-called primitive people, undeveloped societies in terms of industry, science, et cetera, many of them, we see them in history going to work with a song.
They wake up in the morning and go out to work singing and even continuing the song as they work. Singing. One of our entertainers, he was known for writing and making popular a work song. I can't recall his name right now, but I knew that work song. And I'm sure that many of you in the audience, you are aware of how the working people often sing to make the burden of work lighter. My mother, when she would cook in the kitchen and clean the house, she'd get up in the morning and she would clean the house up. And then she'd go in the kitchen and start to prepare a meal. She would be singing beautiful songs, spiritual songs. She'd come from a Christian background, Christian family. She would be singing beautiful Christian songs as she would go on about doing her work in the house. An appreciation for beauty, an appreciation for the beauty of language, for the beauty of sound, appreciation for the beauty of the human soul. All of this is culture and it manifests, it produces what a beautiful environment of art, cultural richness.
But this culture should not just say beauty to us. It should say also help for our life. And in my conclusion, I want to say to you, that I know the Muslim community here in Norfolk, under the leadership of Imam Vernon Fareed, can take charge of that building and do for that building, what Christians and others have already done for other builders on that strip, bring it to life again. Does G-d want that for us? Yes. The greatest resurrection, our greatest gift of life is the gift of the human life, the soul, the human soul, the human spirit and the human soul. But G-d wants us also to look at our material environment. And in our holy book, G-d says, "Observe a town abandoned, neglected, how its roofs are caving in and then how it is developed again. And it has another life, a new life. A new life."
So, then we want to give 35th Street a new life, another life, another chance, another life. And we have support in our scripture for that, that we are to look at our environment and come up with a plan to make the dead environment live again, to make the ugly environment beautiful again, and to even increase that beauty and increase in richness and growth and in everything wonderful. We have a time in this history of mankind on this earth that men, women, life and families have never seen before in the history of man on this earth. We have a time now to really live almost in a virtual paradise on this earth, on this planet.
Yes, we have that chance now. For the first time in the history of religions, the leaders of Islam are meeting with leaders of Christianity in the holy city around Mecca, in Mecca and in that area. Meeting with them in Jeddah, not in the Haram, in the sanctuary, but in the surrounding area. They're meeting with them to discuss how we can get to know each other better so that we can work better together for a world that supports the life that each of us want, and best of the life that we want. They're getting together for that for the first time in the history of religions. The Jews, Christians, Buddhists, and others coming together, and many places of the world, in America, in Israel, in Jordan, in the countries of Asia. All over the world, leaders are coming together to see how can we have dialogue, discussion and a friendly atmosphere so that we can get to know each other better with the purpose, having the purpose of working together.
You can't work together if you don't know each other. I'll be running into you and your purposes and your aims. But when I know your life and your aspirations, I can then work with you better because I can steer my life on the highway with your life in a way that won't cause accidents for our lives. This is what Islam wants for us and this is a time for it. And I believe that strip on 35th Street, that gives us an opportunity to make a physical contribution, and a cultural contribution to that strip and to the city of Norfolk. It gives us an opportunity to work together with Christians, with our Christian neighbors who are in the majority, to work together with them, to make that strip beautiful, and to make it productive and to keep it. We can't keep it alone. We have to keep it together. So, we need stronger ties with the Christian neighbors to keep our neighborhoods, and our investments in the city, for the future of children who are going to be wiser than we were when we were their age.
And they're going to be more productive than we were. And they're going to be more prepared to live under one G-d as one human family. Thank you. Peace. [Arabic].
Speaker 2:
She wants to know, Imam, what is the meaning of Sheba? When she was walking and lifted up her skirt, she thought she saw water. She lifted up her skirt. What is the meaning of it?
IWDM:
It says Solomon kingdom.
Speaker 2:
Yes, sir.
IWDM:
Yes. This is a story, it's in the Qur'an. And the story of Solomon and Sheba is also in the Bible. And it begins with Sheba having a great throne. She was a ruler over a great society. And her throne was a very beautiful and attractive throne. And the prophet Solomon, Sulaiman in Qur'anic Arabic, desired to have that throne, that beautiful throne. And she comes to visit him. And when she came to visit him, she walked on floors that were marble, marble floors, beautiful marble floors. Marble is like a hot glass, beautiful hot glass. And the floors were so beautiful and so clear, she thought the floors were water. And when she stepped onto the floors, she lifted her skirt, her long skirt to keep it from getting wet in the water. The revelation later on says that it was paved with marble. Now, what is the meaning for us there?
IWDM:
It's deep. And for most of us, just a beautiful story is enough. Now, the sister has asked a question that's really for the people who think very deep, who think very deep. Well, and I have to respond to her. Let's say this much, let's leave it and say this all of it this much. She was a very civilized woman with refined taste. And she was thinking that Solomon's throne, that his leaders there representing his throne, were not of that degree of refinement from society that she was accustomed to. And lifting her skirt means that she didn't want the common people to affect her garments with their sensitivities.
Speaker 2:
Oh, my G-d.
IWDM:
But she made a mistake-
Speaker 2:
Really?
IWDM:
... because what she thought was feelings was not their feelings, but they had convictions that made liquid solid. Now, that's deep. They had convictions that made liquid solid. Their spiritual convictions made their life solid, firm. And when she was convinced of that, then she was comfortable.
Speaker 2:
[Arabic].
IWDM:
Is that enough sister? I thought it was. That's enough for a deep thinker. Are there any other questions? Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 3:
[...].
IWDM:
Yeah. Okay. Summarize it.
Speaker 2:
Yes. First of all, she wanted to thank you for your talk and the opportunity to meet you.
IWDM:
Thank you.
Speaker 2:
She had one disappointment and that disappointment was that she wanted to be able to shake your hand because she has a high spirit. She believes. And from the same G-d that created you and that she wanted her spirit to connect with your spirit. And she also wanted to know what should she be able to tell the people in her church, her friends, et cetera, about serving, coming out of the church, coming away from the raising of the money and coming out into the field, to the prisons, et cetera, and trying to serve G-d by helping the people. What should she tell? Is that summarizing in essence? I guess you don't mind. Yep.
Speaker 3:
[...].
IWDM:
I can hear you. Just go ahead. I can hear you very good.
Speaker 3:
[...].
IWDM:
Okay, yes.
Speaker 3:
[...].
IWDM:
Well, you put me in a difficult situation because you have a spirit to influence thinking and action in your own Christian environment, in your church, and in the society, that you think is needed and should be forthcoming. So, I'm in a difficult position to answer your question, because I'm a Muslim. If you were a Muslim and you had the same question, it would be easier for me. I'm not authorized to direct Christian life. I'm authorized to direct Muslim life, Islamic life, human life, but not to come into your Christian environment or into your life and tell you how you are to deal with situations or problems.
IWDM:
I'm not authorized to do that. I would simply say that as long as the church members and Christians like yourself, who have a spirit to see more done and to see the church with a more meaningful role in the life of the society, then there is hope. There is great hope. So, we just welcome you here today. And that we honor that you are in the audience and we do like to work all together, to make each of our homes more beautiful so that this beautiful society of Christian, Jews and Muslims and others will work steadily in beauty and richness, and we all going to work together. You and your house and us and our house, we'll work altogether. Yes, sir. You still have that mic right there? The brother. Maybe you talk loud enough. I probably can hear you.
Speaker 4:
[...].
IWDM:
Yes, I know.
Speaker 4:
What I'm trying to say is, [...].
IWDM:
Yes. Yes. No matter what our leaders represent, all leaders are not going to be doing the same thing. We are individuals. So, one leader will have a vision of how to make life better. So, he's a Muslim like I am, and another will have another vision of how to make life better. And this difference of opinion is respected in Islam. Our prophet, peace be upon him, Muhammad of Arabia. He stressed respect for differences of opinion. As long as we agree on basics, of what is basic in Islam, as long as we agree on the most important things for Muslim life, then we can have our differences of opinion. So, one will have one flavor, another will have another flavor. One will tend to spend most of his time in a political vein, and another one spends most of his time in a spiritual vein.
IWDM:
Another will spend most of his time in a rational vein, another in the industrial vein. So, we have all these different flavors and all these different personalities. And we should not want to see us all thinking the same and having same opinion, having the same vision of how we should make life better for us. G-d have made us rich. And we want to use this richness, this diversity of thought and persuasion in religion to have a better and richer world for Muslims, society for Muslim. And if we keep the focus, G-d want us to have community life. He says, "You are a community, one community and I'm your Lord, you should worship only me." So as long as we all accept the worship of G-d, that G-d is with us and that the community is one under G-d, then we can make our separate contributions.
IWDM:
I'm not minister Farrakhan in my thinking, and he's not the W D Mohammed in his thinking. There's nothing wrong with that. As long as we agree on what's essential for this life. So, we have come together physically on Saviors Day for the Nation of Islam under minister Louis Farrakhan. I was there. I attended the meeting, and joined with them. So that distance is not there anymore. We have removed the distance between us
Speaker 2:
I like that.
IWDM:
Allahu Akbar. And we hope that other Muslim leaders, not African Americans, that Arab imams and leaders and Pakistani, and Indians and others, we hope that they will all see the importance of us identifying with the Muslims and supporting the most essential things of the Islamic... of the life, of the religious life, but having our own opinions, our own separate aspirations, our own separate plans for making this life better, that we call the Islamic community life. That's what I accept. And I thank G-d that G-d has opened the way from our old friend who will always be my friend, minister Louis Farrakhan to come together and I'm to see him next week.
Speaker 2:
We'll take one more question.
IWDM:
We'll take this last question. Yes, sir.
Speaker 5:
[..].
Speaker 2:
Oh, the crucifix. He wants to understand about the crucifix.
IWDM:
[...].
Speaker 2:
Yes, sir. He said he wants a little understanding of the crucifix.
IWDM:
You put me on a difficult position right there. If we had an audience of all Muslims, it wouldn't be difficult because I'd be given Islamic my opinion as a student of Islam, as a student of our scripture, I'd be giving them my opinion to Muslim, but it's not right to give my opinion of Muslim to a Christian in the audience, to Christians that's in there.
Speaker 2:
Okay. Okay. I think there's last one, let them serve as the last one.
IWDM:
All right.
Speaker 2:
Unless you want to take one more.
IWDM:
Okay. Okay. We'll take one more. Who is that? It's a sister.
Speaker 6:
[...]. What's your opinion on it? What do you think about it? The position that the government took and the position that the Cubans are taking on.
IWDM:
Yes, yes. Let me say first, my first thought is that I regret and it hurts my heart that family, and especially the child has to be subjected to this. Just imagine yourself being a child and you being put in that situation and fighting over you, fighting to send you back with your father to this country, to keep you here. So, it hurts me that that child has to be subjected to that and the family. But the decision that our government has taken, the decision that I think is very honorable on the part of our government, and that is to respect the right of a father to take his child back to his country.
IWDM:
And the only question would be in my mind, if a child more comfortable with the father, going back to his country, then he is with those who want to keep them in here in the United States. And what I read says that the child was comfortable with his father. So, I support that the government has the position that the government has taken.
Speaker 2:
So again, we would like to thank Imam Mohammed for his response. That was the last question. So, Imam has a schedule. We'd like to thank Imam Mohammed for his response to the questions. And again, we'd like to thank him for his address. And Brother Imam we very much appreciate you.
IWDM:
Thank you.


