October 18th 2000
Clara Muhammad School Reception Milwaukee, MI
Imam W. Deen Mohammed
... With the name of G-d Bismillahir rahmanir rahim. With G-d's name the Merciful Benefactor, the Merciful Redeemer. Peace be on to you, we wish you peace, as-salaam-alaikum.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Yes , I was with [inaudible] first graduation and just so proud. We had our ribbons and everything. We had never had a ceremony like that. We had graduated from elementary school. There was no formal service, no formal graduation. We just passed from eighth grade to the ninth grade. We were told we were out of elementary school. That was it. I graduated with my friend, Leroy and his brother. He's the eldest in the family of children by Carl Hassan and Maggie, his wife is named Maggie and his brother is someone you know.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
I'm looking at many of you who know Imam Darnell Kareem. And we graduated together with Charles, another friend of mine at that time, Charles. And one girl, I remember, and about two other boys. It was a total of six of us, I believe who graduated. The school was very small. I just mentioned at the table there the boys in high school, they had to be responsible for the janitorial work, but they didn't call it janitorial work. I guess they wanted us to feel like we were doing something more special than that. We had to go pick up our mops and rags and sponges and all that.. and sponges for the toilet (unclear) and some little utility closet, but they had on it, maintenance department.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
But, I'm sure that made us feel closer to the school. We felt closer to the school. We felt more a part of the school. We kept it clean. We made it nice for the next day. And I remember that and feeling that closeness to our private school, as I'm telling you about it. Today, we are very proud our school system and we have fine schools, efforts, in Milwaukee here, and Atlanta, Georgia, and several other places. We have efforts that we are very proud of and we are really engaging in business right now, not for the sake of business, but in hopes of building a stronger business group in our community so that we grow in finances, we grow in the ability to finance our most precious needs. And certainly, education is right at the top of the list.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Along with our religious needs, along with our propagation needs, our service, our religious services, the Friday prayer, the Jummah prayer. Having qualified persons to lead the prayer, and that's education too. We hope that soon we will have a school to train our ministers, our Imams who want to serve the prison system and the armed forces, Navy, whatever, as in the position of Chaplin. We don't have that now, and that doesn't make us feel too well that we have to have our applicants for chaplaincy attend some schools outside. We should be able to give them two years training college level, where they'll be able to qualify for those jobs. Clara Muhammad school is dear to us, named for my mother. And believe me, I suggested that I was the first one to suggest we called the schools, Clara Mohammed schools after the passing of my father and our leader then the Hon. Elijah Muhammad.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And I never would have suggested that my mother's name be on the school or the school system. If I didn't love it very, very dearly. So that's an indication if you know me, that I love what has been established for us, by those who paid the big price with their time, - they weren't paid. When I was a boy, teachers weren't paid, all volunteers, principal. He wasn't paid. All volunteers and we are very much indebted to them for their service to education in the Muslim community and the Muslim association that we belong to. So thank you for giving me the opportunity to have a few words to say to you. I'm now ready to answer questions that I hope that G-d will bless me to give the answer that will make you feel comfortable, or at least that will be clear. And you won't have to wonder where to go for the answer to your question.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Is there any question anyone has to ask of me in regards to the Clara Muhammad schools and the Clara Muhammad school system? I see a member of the Focolare representative of the Focolare movement here. And I would like to greet her. Paula? [inaudible], that's right. Yes. Very good to see you always and looking forward to seeing you at the big occasion with joining the Focolare. We've been planning it for months, for a good while. And we're very excited about what we are expecting to witness in Washington DC, at a very huge facility. We are going to have a musical festival with some very great performers from Piano.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
From Piano?
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Yes. From Piano, Italy. And I've seen them twice. I would pay $500 for a fee. They're very great. We would also join the lovely, beautiful lady who founded the Focolare movement, that is now an international movement with many people all over the world, Africa and everywhere belonging to it. And Muslims and people, of other faiths belong to this. I met some Muslims who belong to it. And so we will be meeting Chiara Lubich too. And I always thank G-d for the opportunity to be in her presence. And yes, sorry to have digressed there.
Speaker 3:
[Inaudible]. Question
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Yes, the only problem is us getting the resources to train them. Once they're trained, the government accept them no matter what institution they come from. Well, I think maybe you have to ask the question.
Speaker 4:
Brother Imam, I know that there is a desire to know what is it, what you see in future for education and for our association and how does Clara Muhammad play a role.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Yes, yes. My mother, as my father, also, my father was always mostly busy with the work of trying to reform African American people and organized them to take charge of their own life, to make it better. My mother, she was the one that was closer to schools and he wanted us to have the best, the best possible for ourselves and a education, a good education. And it being our responsibility or the responsibility of the Muslims in our community, he wanted to see them do the best they possibly could.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And not only the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, he was the first one himself, the Hon. Elijah Muhammad himself, was the first to hire non-Muslims to join the staff in Chicago to make improvements upon our schools. He hired a woman and the woman was very good too. Under her, we had the first textbooks produced, and I remember it, a very good job, hard back textbook with pictures of our community in it. And it was a reading book for certain levels in our school. And she did an excellent job. Christine, I can't think of her last name right now. Johnson, I believe it was Christine Johnson. She was a black nationalist.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Good Christian, I believe. I don't think I was no more than about 20 years old. I was out of high school, but I knew of her and I met her visiting the school, I didn't stop visiting the school after I graduated, I was coming for their ceremonies. And also for anything that... I come for things, like their sandwiches too. They had a terrific... A sister who's in Atlanta Georgia now working with the mosque and school there. And I believe she's 80 years old, she might be older. And her meatloaf sandwich was so terrific that the boys who left the school and became men, we were men. We knew what time they served. So we had to go to school and get one of her meatloaf sandwich.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Yes, so my mother wanted the best and that's what we want. My father wanted the best. We want the best for ourselves. And that's what it means to be a person of faith. Person of faith believes that G-d created us and G-d wants the best for us. G-d created us for the best and G-d wants us to have to work for the best. So this is what we want. We want the best. That means we want our curriculum to be accepted by the the local government proving the agencies or departments.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
We want to have our curriculum serve our needs as the citizens of America, and also our needs as Muslim, or citizens of Islam, the international community of Islam [inaudible]. And we want a unified curriculum. Most of our schools were started by volunteers. Who said, well, I think I can build a school, I can form a school here to serve the needs of the Muslim, the temple back then it was called temple or the Mosque or the masjid, we know the proper language now. and they would do it. And that effort was the sole responsibility of that volunteer individual.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
We don't want that anymore. We want a unified curriculum. Not the creation of an individual that would create problems when some of our families move from one city to another and they face a different situation for education. We have to have the same situation for education. The biggest job we have been facing for the last 15 years has been the job of trying to get agreement among the principals, persons, responsible for the curriculum to meet together and agree upon one curriculum for all our schools, for the school system, so we can have a school system. We've been making a little progress, but not near enough.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
As I was walking in, I was told by one of our good friends who have been giving support to the Milwaukee school, brother Imam Ronald Shaheed, I think, I don't know why but Judge Shaheed is in my mind right now. Ronald Shaheed was with me, and he said he has for us a curriculum that they have planned and worked out for the Clara Muhammad school system. I'm very anxious to see that curriculum. And it would have some of the answers that we are looking for. We have some good efforts, especially in Atlanta, been some very good efforts. And I'm sure here in Milwaukee also just to present to us a curriculum for the Clara Muhammad schools for all the Clara Muhammad schools.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And I don't think we have any other problems. Finance is always a problem. You know that, the big problem is trying to finance our projects and our needs. That's the big problem. And as I said, we have a business effort that's under way now. And we believe that it promises resources, money. We require all persons belonging to this business effort called Collective Purchasing Conference; a concept created to serve as a mother of independent, small businesses and assistance to good business effort already going on in the community. So we expect in the future, down the road, few years down the road, that this is going to bring us money and all of us have pledged voluntarily that we give at least 10% of our next profit for the year to education. So our Clara Muhammad school system and our distributorship under my leadership in Chicago area, we pledged 15%.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:

Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Speak more. Maybe a little closer to the mic.
Speaker 3:
Question [inaudible].
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Yeah that's much better. Keep your mouth close to the mic. And I can hear you clearly.
Speaker 3:
Question [inaudible 00:17:46].
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
No, no, it's not. That's the situation that we had to have. The school... When I was a boy, the earliest picture I can remember of us sitting in class and being taught was sitting in an open area like this. It was a small Masonic hall, and it was open like this. And what they did was they separated the grades. They would have so many in a corner here and in a corner here. And then in a corner far distance here. And some would put them as far apart as they possibly could so we wouldn't disturb each other, that's to reduce the disturbance that they would cause for each other. And that was not at all ... [inaudible], I felt so relieved when we got classroom. Finally, we did that. A building that we were renting. The community was renting that. As I say, our religious community was renting and it had classrooms, I felt so dignified. I felt so praised as a student. No, that's not a good situation.
Speaker 5:
Question [inaudible 00:19:13].
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:

Speaker 5:
Question [inaudible 00:19:30].
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Yes, yes. First, in order of importance is for the designers of the curriculum and builders of education for our schools, realize that we are American citizens and include in the statement of philosophy. We have a statement of philosophy for our schools. Most of them, including the statement of philosophy, this importance point us as... Not only Muslims, but also as Americans. So we have to be taught the life of American people and the constitution of the United States. High school should have civics and in the curriculum and I don't know if all our high schools have civics in the curriculum a while back, I found out we didn't have it in our curriculum.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Just mentioning of certain things that happened in the history of this country, but not a course called civics. And as for the neighborhood, when I was in charge of the school on Stoney Island, I insisted that we include in our curriculum, neighborhood environment so that we would know that we are part of a neighborhood community and our school should be aware of the needs of our neighborhoods and should be a contribution a conscious contribution to our neighborhood as well.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
When we moved a little higher from elementary school to high school... When I was over heading the school, we had a plan to address the problem like self destruction and destruction to properties, and also to address joblessness. So we suggested that we have vocational training as well as the regular curriculum, so that we would be doing something to reduce, though small, something to reduce the blight in the neighborhood, and also the joblessness in our neighborhood. The attack upon blight was to be done by volunteers. We were to go out certain times, weekly and demonstrate that we care about our neighborhood. And part of this city program, go out and pick up waste from the store that they get it away from around the businesses first. Go and pick up trash from around the businesses paper that they drop right in front of your store, that hurts your store, and pick up that paper, sweep the walks for them.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
If they ask who you are, tell them, "We're volunteers from Clara Muhammad school." We also organized men, we had adults organized for the same purpose too. And I told them for each other, you live in the same neighborhood. If you have a mother and a father working, one parent household, a mother trying to take care of things, you know her house needs, painting, organize and go and volunteer, paint her house for her. Charge her nothing. I'd say, what you give her helps her a lot. I said, believe me though, you are doing nothing but working for her. You're also helping yourself, you're painting make your soul feel better and you'll develop better painting skills. Maybe you'll become a good painter one day and earn money.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So we care about our neighborhood. We care about our neighbors. We care about our neighborhood and we think the school should have a role in enhancing the beautiful life of our neighborhood.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:

Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Question [inaudible ].
Speaker 5:

Imam W. Deen Mohammed:

Speaker 5:

Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And first of all, as volunteers to spend an hour a day, or just an hour a week will help. But, also if you can have a committee, if it's only a committee of two people; two person, have a committee that says we support Clara Muhammad school, and that committee communicate directly with the principal or head of the school and makes yourself available to her. And she will tell you exactly what you can do to support the school. But you said you're a journalist, you're in journalism? Yes, I'm sure you can offer some help. Yes. We'll take one more question now.
Speaker 6:
Question [inaudible ].
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
[inaudible ], how you stay so young? I saw you 12 years ago and you look the same now.
Speaker 6:
Question [inaudible ]
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
All right, okay.
Speaker 6:
Okay.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
I got it.
Speaker 6:
Okay.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
I just wanted to be sure. I've been attending high school graduation in Atlanta every year. I don't believe I've missed a year for maybe eight years or more now. And what they do that I know will help, they promote a sense of family for the school, parents and students. And this sense of family leaves out no one who has been a part of the school, the history of the school, old persons. They did know more than the janitorial worker, like I mentioned earlier, they invite them... Every graduation, they invite all of them back, all the students from the previous years, the graduations or previous graduations, they're invited to come back. And the students who graduated the year before, they have some of those students on the program. They're not just there observing. They include them in the program.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
They have something to say to encourage the new graduates and they share their experience that they've had since they graduated with the graduates. And it is a beautiful program, well thought out program, and it's keeping them together. I don't think they're losing... They're not losing touch with their students. And I can guess that... But also, we have family reunions, you also have reunion of graduates, don't you? Yeah, yeah. So that can have some entertainment and some nice food, snacks or something, that would help a lot.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And now that you ask the question, I'm sure the juices working in your brain and that you will have more to ask to that later or now, maybe already had it, but you just wanted me to bring the awareness of this situation to others. Whatever, I'm sure you're going do very well and keep your students in the family of Muslim students and teachers and parents.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Thank you very much-


