1999
IWDM Study Library
Islam Changed America 
Univ Texas Austin Tx

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
[applause]
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed: Praise be to Allah and I greet also always with the greetings of peace, as Muslims say, "Assalamu Alaikum," that is peace be on you. Let me first acknowledge the good efforts of those who sponsored this occasion, the Muslims Students Association represented here today by brother Jaffer, and all the other organizations, The African American Students Association and the Islamic community, Islamic Center here in this area, Imam Rashid and all of you. We are very much appreciative of your work that you have done to make it possible for us to have the honor and good opportunity to address you on this campus of University of Texas at Austin.
We have a big topic here and I hope that I can do justice by it. I have been lifted up so high just a few minutes ago and so I'm trying to find my feet. We are addressing Islam; its influence on the American people; past, present, and future. We know of Islam as influencing the black community, but we believe Islam has influenced indirectly more than directly the whole society of America.
There was a magazine caption in Reader's Digest during the lifetime of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad it was around fifty-- I believe that caption came out in the early '60s, pardon me. The magazine-- I can't recall the issue right now, I don't have it, I wasn't able to get that issue. That magazine identified the Honorable Elijah Muhammad amongst black leaders and called him the most influential black man in America.
I would like to believe myself that in spite of all of the negative things that come with our recollection of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam, as it was called, there were great positive influence in our lives and I believe also in the lives of the American people indirectly. Before I come back to the Nation of Islam, I want to kind of recall Islam proper, Islam proper as is understood and believed by Muslims all over the world. How that religion came into the world and some of the changes that it, I believe, had a role in changes for the better in the western hemisphere or for the western societies.
The coming of Islam was a coming into a world of darkness, a sleeping world. We had intelligent Christian leadership, Jewish Leadership, in the 5th Century AD but something was lost, and that that was lost was the destiny that G-d wants all of us are coming to. The destiny that the great religious movements were intended to assist had been lost. Arabia, the small peninsula of our Prophet, prayers and peace be on him, was in darkness. The time for that peninsula and the conditions there is called by Muslims since then and now, the time or the period of ignorance, Jahiliyyah. With the coming of Islam, all of that was changed. Very soon, in a relatively short period of time, all of that was changed.
The Muslims under the leadership of the last Prophet Muhammad became the leaders for a new awakening or revival of interest in man's humanity, man's destiny, and also education, and even science. We believe, as Muslims, because of the revelation that Prophet Muhammad received over 1400 years ago, we believe that humanity is one. The human family is one. We have common flesh though our flesh differs in color, features differ, we have one common flesh, we have one common life, one common humanity, one common nature, one common destiny. You will find that our beliefs are your beliefs.
I believe that Muslims when we share with an audience our values, our essential principles, our concepts that we have in our audience, people who believe in the same and who share the same. That speaks for the universality of truth, the common life of the man, and it speaks for the protection of continuity I would say, of divine revelation.
We have a very special democracy here in the United States, it has been called a peculiar democracy. I think our democracy, as some others have said and are saying, is a living democracy. By the way, Muslims see our Holy Quran, our Holy book, Quran, as a living book. By that, it's meant that it accommodates needs for growth and improvement as we ourselves realize that we have needs for more growth, for more improvement.
We believe that it is a timeless book; that whatever will happen in the future for man or society, the Quran will be on time to help us, to guide us. I believe of this democracy, this special democracy that we have, that it is a living organism too. That it accommodates needs as those needs develop. I believe that the people, Christian people, Christian West, that believed in Jesus Christ, peace be on him, and followed his teachings and came to know a democracy that we are all very proud of now. I believe that those Christians are also a developing people undergoing steady continuous growth or evolution.
We say that democracy is conceived and constructed upon man's common creation. Now, I don't know if my language will be accepted, but when I read the preamble or the introduction to the constitution, the language, I come to understand that this idea of freedom and justice and equality is nothing new. It wasn't conceived for the first time by the founding fathers, but it's something I find in our scriptures. Not just in Islamic scriptures or Muslim scriptures but in other scriptures. Scriptures of Christians and scriptures of Muslims and even Jews, although I'm not as acquainted with Judaism as I am with Christianity.
We believe also that, and G-d has given us this idea, that Christians were after the ideal society and they missed it. But I believe, and I don't know if Muslims are saying this now, Muslims teachers or leaders or spokesmen, I don't know if they're saying this now, but I believe that, yes, Christian leadership, Christian intellectuals, they missed the mark in the early years after passing away from this world of Christ Jesus; but after the Quran, the Christians turned their attention back to their wisdom. To their sacred scriptures and to their wisdom.
I believe that because they thought hitting the mark and not missing the mark, we have this good opportunity for life and liberty in America and in Western society. Now, maybe you might say, "You're giving Islam too much credit." Well, I think many western historians who studied history, I think they also have given Islam a lot of credit for at least initiating an intellectual interest in the Christian world and in the West for finding the truth, finding the corse for man on this earth, or the destiny that G-d wants for us.
We believe that Islam is what brought about that period of enlightenment we call the renaissance. We believe also that America benefits not only from a revival of interest in the knowledge of the Greeks' political system and legal system and all of that, but because Muslims took up that challenge first and then the Christian leadership got interested in knowing how did these people come from idolatry and ignorance to all of a sudden have this interest and produce scientists, mathematicians like Khwarizmi, and medical doctors like Al-?usayn and many others?
They were curious to know what had done this for the Muslims so they studied the Quran. They studied Arabic. They studied the Quran. They studied the life of our prophet and they came to have a direct contact with Islamic wisdom, Islamic guidance; and because of that, there was the renaissance.
Not that I'm interested so much in talking about the intellectual destiny of man, but addressing some of the real problems that we have and still have in spite of the great progress that the western world has made in education, in science, in technology, and even in, I would say, the field of humanity. I know some African-American who disagree with me right now. You don't think that the white man is making progress on the road of humanity; but believe me, the white man has made a whole lot of progress on the road of humanity. You'd agree too if you recall a few years ago-- See, I can recall a few years ago, 30 years ago. I can recall 50 years ago. Congratulations white man, you've made a lot of progress.
[laughter]
While I'm wanting to address some of these serious problems, one is the problem of racism. Racism is not something that suddenly came about. Racism too came from the past. Before we were brought to America, there was racism. The caste system in India is evidence, we would call that racism. If we would go to India and would be transformed suddenly into the image of the dark Indians of India and experience the class system, the caste, C-A-S-T-E, the caste system there, and I think they are making some progress to change all that, but it's slow.
I think we would see the Indian people as a racist people, especially those that enjoy the special class. The privilege of identifying as people of the light. Another way of saying white people. I think we would feel that we were in a racist society. Racism is an old thing, a very old thing. The proof that racism existed in the time of the prophet is from his own words, prayers and peace be on him. He had to reprimand some of his own followers for having racist attitudes towards certain persons of black skin, of dark skin.
They didn't only have racial arrogance but there are other arrogance. There's arrogance of wealth, arrogance of power, arrogance of intellect, and also arrogance of race. I think the worst one, and I'm sure most of us agree, is the arrogance of race, this racism. Because it tries to give a scientific basis or real basis for justifying the superiority of one race over another. It introduces pseudo-science and hope that the naive people would accept that pseudo-science in hopes of justifying the subjugation of one people, the exploitation of one people to the advantage of another. That is the evil that I think that makes possible evils of arrogance, arrogance of power, and arrogance of wealth.
I think racism give more food to those evils and make those evils much bigger than they would be if there wasn't the arrogance of race. That special peculiar kind of racism that we have had in America and can find even in medieval and ancient times. G-d says in our holy book that he created all of us from a single pair, that he created all of us from a male and a female, and that male and female were one person, one nation. G-d caused that one person or one nation to become male and female, and then from them G-d says he made many men and women all over the world.
We believed then that we have a common parent and that's not new to you, you Christians and others. We believe also that the excellence that we have is not restricted to one people but is given fairly and justly to all people, all colors, all nationalities. G-d says in our holy book, the Quran, [Arabic language]. That G-d has made excellent your design. Literally, surakum means your picture.
This is what we're given, pictures. In my boyhood days, we were given a picture of a black man, typical black man, as a nappy head, black skin, nappy headed man with blunt features, big wide nose, thick lips. That was supposed to be the typical, the original type for African people.
We know today that that's not true. In fact, that's not even the popular type. That type does not represent the majority in Africa. I was surprised and when I saw-- Is Mick Jagger, is that his name? I saw him singing, and it just came to my notice, the size of his lips. I said, "I thought we only had lips like that."
[laughter]
Those who study science, the science of the human race, the physical environment effect on a human being, the physical human being, we'd have answers for this differences. Scientific answers. [Arabic language], He made excellent your design. Now, I have to also realize that this is black history month too, and I want to share this with our African American brothers and sisters who are not Muslims. This language in the Quran has freed me from any burden of race. When G-d says He made excellent your picture or your design or your image, your figure or whatever, your term you want to use.
To me, He's saying, "When I look in the mirror, I shouldn't see something that I should be ashamed of. I should look in the mirror and see something that's excellent." The excellent picture that G-d is talking about is not the black skin or the white skin or the red or yellow skin. It's not the nappy hair or the straight hair or the blunt features or the sharp features. G-d is talking about this human symmetry. G-d is talking about this homo-erectus. G-d is talking about this iman that He has evolved above the animals, has made him human with a humanity and with a great destiny. That's what G-d is talking about.
G-d is saying that this is the description that He has given us. This is the design that He has given us, and we shouldn't look our colors and our features, because I'll tell you the truth. In my younger years, I was looking for a girl with big lips.
[laughter]
Now, it doesn't make much difference with me. I've been worn out. I like the nose wide and I liked it narrow. I guess that's the white blood in me.
[laughter]
G-d also says, [Arabic language]. G-d says that He-- He says, "We," which means G-d is speaking as absolute authority responsible for everything that happens of good. G-d says, "We certainly dignify every child of Adam." We certainly dignify, made with dignity, to have dignity, every child of Adam.
With that, I'm going to make another statement that maybe some will have some problem with. When we look at that great advancements that we have in the new world, as Americans, we should not see just the industrial revolution and the Renaissance or the age of enlightenment that preceded that industrial revolution. We shouldn't look at just the developments in the West as developments that have brought us more and better civilization. We should see Islam also as the civilizer that went even before the industrial revolution, even before the period of enlightenment or the age of enlightenment.
I have read by western historians, their reports of Muslims and Christians kind of getting acquainted with each other under the worst conditions. That what the crusades. There is one report that during the crusades, the leader of the Christian crusaders-- the crusaders are Christian-- and the Muslim side. When the leaders observed the Muslims on the battle field, clean in their appearance, shaven-- You know they wore beards, but we are supposed to trim this thing.
Some of them took note and they said, "How can they take shower, even put scent on them, fragrance on themselves, and look so nice in battle?" They took the information back to their other people, their headquarters. As a result of that, they started making their appearance better. That's not the only report of the influence of Islamic civilization on the western world. I'm not saying this to criticize, but even the records of the Christian crusaders were barbaric. They would fight with the mace, ball and chain, and a sword so heavy they had to go into Mike Tyson training just to handle it.
Salahudin, his sword was thin and light and so sharp. I learned this from Hollywood. That he could throw up a silk handkerchief and hold down his sword, and just the falling of the handkerchief on his sharp blade, split the handkerchief into two pieces. Now, I think that was very merciful killing. It was quick, painless almost.
[laughter]
I think we should see Islam as a civilizer. I'm still in the past time, I haven't come to the present yet. We also, I think, need to look at what is called the colonial period. When western powers believed in dominating, conquering, and dominating the world. I recall as a boy listening to the radio and it was during World War II, and I heard our president say, and I still can hear his words in my ears, "We can police the world."
That tells me that was the desire, to police the world. Muslims and others, the third world people and many others other than Muslims and other than blacks, suffered a setback because of colonial domination. We must remember that Muslims are-- Just recently, Pakistan got its independence in 1947. Egypt I think around the same time. Muslim nations, societies, just began to come to their independence. That's in my lifetime, that's in my lifetime.
The Muslims realized that they were not free to be responsible for their own life and their own future. They realized that they have to go back and study their religion, research the Quran, research the life of our prophet and the history of Muslims, and get a fresh perception of just what has transpired in the life of Muslims, so that we will have a better life and a better future and a more Islamic life and more respectable and respecting Muslims as citizens on this planet.
We realized that. Muslims leaders and scholars are realizing this throughout the Muslim world now. What we see in the news as the problem that terrorists are making is not what we should see. We have to see that because it's a problem.
What we should see is what's quietly being done and I'm sure the media is not interested in being in on that, and that is the sincere, diligent, scholarly work that's being done by our great Muslims in many countries, Muslim countries, to bring us back to the great beauty and the great civilization that Prophet Muhammad, by G-d's blessing on him and mercy on him, gave us.
In the days of Prophet Muhammad, there was no oppression of Christians or Jews because of their faith, because of their religion. There were no mistreatment of Christians and Jews because of their religion. Jews were welcomed in Medina. The Prophet mandated that they had the same rights to practice their religion under the Islamic government. They had the same rights to practice their religion under the Islamic government that they had before the Islamic government.
Problem developed, and we know that good situation didn't last but our position hasn't changed. We still want relations with Jews that are good. We still want not to persecute anybody because of their religion, but to recognize everybody and to give same rights to everybody. We believe in this idea of pluralism in America. We believe in welcoming the diversity of cultures and also diversity of religions. This is Islam and we are discovering in ourselves, some of us, for the first time.
Also, we have to understand that during colonial domination, they took over the education of the people that they dominated. When freedom came, they had left their habits behind, they had left their mentality behind. I have seen that and I don't want to point to any particular country. I have seen a Muslim country in Africa, but not only in Africa, in their pageantry, celebration and I didn't see-- I saw blacks imitating the pageantry of imperial white society. That's what I saw.
I didn't see Africans. To me, those weren't Africans. They were imitating the pageantry of the imperialist white nations of the past, and there might be one still around. We also have to realize that even our presentation, how we present Islam, has been hurt by that long period of domination.
Now, I want to come to the present time. We have come to know men like Malcolm X, and I think everyone in America respects Malcolm X. At least, his own intelligence, his own independence.
He was an independent African-American. Some of us also know of Elijah Muhammad who would influenced Malcolm and actually taught Malcolm and gave him his thinking. That's not to say that Malcolm didn't have his own intelligence, his own judgment, he did. But most of us, under the leadership of Elijah Muhammad, we were so much dominated by his image and by his magnifying, electrifying message that we were not even sober enough to use our own intelligence to make independent judgments.
Now, that's not criticizing either. I have great respect for him and for the positive things that were done and achieved under his leadership. I'm speaking of my father, the late leader, the Hon. Elijah Muhammad. We know of an organization or movement that came into the eyes of the American people as Black Muslims. We know of things good and bad. We know of the type that organization attracted. I don't say class but the type.
It attracted those who are most deprived culturally and who were poor and many of them out of job, unemployed. It attracted also others and this is a correction that I have to give right now. It attracted faithful, sincere Christians from the church. My mother was a faithful Christian before she became a Muslim. She sang in the choir. She had a very beautiful voice too, and I can recall her singing while cooking, cleaning up early in the morning before she ever got me up. If the song said, "Jesus," she would just change it and put Fard, her savior there.
She was singing the same spirituals. Just changing the name from Jesus Christ, peace be on him, to Fard. She told me herself that she was a spiritualist woman and she accepted Islam because she believe that Islam was the right religion. I know why she accepted Islam because Islam gave her what she was not getting in the church or in Christianity, and that was a comfortable feeling with her black skin; and she was black.
I take my color from my father's side not my mother side. She was black skin. It was her beautiful black skin and her features that Islam made her very comfortable with. Islam as taught by the person who introduced it in the wrong way. That's Fard. I'm going to tell you some about Fard as we go on. We also know of Marcus Garvey. A man who didn't preach Christianity but he was a Christian and his following was Christians.
He preached pride in being black, pride in being African, and a desire to identify with Africa as one people. All of us just one people, not Negros and African, all of us Africans. He tried to get us to accept that. I guess he had great difficulty, but he did get us to call ourselves African-Americans. Garvey, Marcus Garvey, in my opinion, was a man who influenced Fard, the teacher of my father.
Not only Marcus Garvey, but there was another who established himself as religious leader, that's Noble Drew Ali who founded and led the Moorish Science Temple or the Moorish American Movement. I believe also that Fard was influenced by Drew Ali, Noble Drew Ali. Drew Ali called his meeting places, his places of worship, temples. Fard called his temples. Marcus Garvey preached that the black man should be comfortable with what he is, his blackness, his nappy hair, et cetera. Garvey had done that before Fard did it, so I believe that he took from them. He took from them.
Not only these two but also I believe that he took from Booker T Washington. Booker T. Washington placed emphasis on practical things and building of institutions. We know of Tuskegee University now that he founded and built up and actually taught in it, he was the head of that University himself, that institution himself. He introduced a military drill in his school, Fard introduced a military drill in his organization but that drill was done on a school night for the FOI. Our school night was Monday night, every Monday night; and on that school night, we would have a military drill.
I have to say that we didn't depend on myself, W. Deen Mohammed, to come from Fard's idea of Islam into mainstream Islam or mainstream Muslim society. We got help, we were helped by hints from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and even hints from his teacher who is called Fard, W. F. Muhammad, Walli Fard Muhammad. He's called by many names, he's even called W. D. Fard. This man that I believe was a mystic, a religious mystic, I believe that he left many clear hints for the curious students. I will say also the suspicious student, so that the community will one day have new leadership that would reject Fard himself.
You might say, "Will a man do something and even plan for his own dismissal or rejection?" Yes, yes. This man, this mystic, thought of himself as a Christ, as one sacrificing himself. He didn't introduce himself even as he was, he introduced himself in disguise. By disguise, I mean the teachings, the knowledge, that he passed on to my father was not what he believed in, but it was what he believed would have a shock effect on the mind, the morals and sensitivities of blacks, Poor down and out on all blacks to eventually bring them out of a kind of endless battle or endless confrontation with the white race. It was a psychology that is very difficult to explain, but it was a psychology that worked for me and for several others in the following of the honorable Elijah Muhammad.
He said things that contradicted what he established as being most important, but most of us were so gravitated to the big fabrications, to the big stretching of truth, that we didn't see the small things that he was saying that were in contradiction to those big fabrications. I'm not trying to clear this person or to say that this person should be forgiven, not even that. But I do tell you, I will tell you pardon me that I pray for his forgiveness and I pray for my father's forgiveness for what they did that was un-Islamic, or for what they did to discredit, misrepresent and introduce a false concept of Islam in America. But knowing their sincerity, knowing the sincerity of their intentions, make me love them, appreciate all their good work and pray for their souls.
I'm sure that you want to understand what made us change, not just the hints or the small influences that have real power when you see them in the teachings of Fard and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. But a climate had become in America for us to make the change we made, and a climate did come. The progress for civil rights in America after the ugly confrontations with the white bigots. We began to see a new white image for white people in this country. We began to think of them no more as being a race intended upon keeping us down or oppressing us, but we began to see that there was an element among them that had really victimized most of them while it was victimizing us.
We have come to see the white man and not feel as we used to feel, not fear him and not hate him. I repeat it's not only because of the hints that guided us to Islam proper, the correct Islam, but it was also because of that change in climate for racial sobriety in America. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. met with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad at his home and you will be surprised to know that the two men liked each other, they were smiling with each other. That's crazy, isn't it? We were separatists attacking the civil rights integrationists, but the two leaders met in the home of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and there they found warmth and a friendship.
This is well known now. This is not something that I know only, the FBI knew it when it happened. That tells me something, how can the Honorable Elijah Muhammad be so much against the movement for integration and sit down with the one who was firing that movement to go forward? Like him, shake hands with him, and part as friends. It's because circumstances require us to use means and methods sometimes that do not really represent you, but circumstances demand that you use such means and methods. Sometimes a person like Dr. King, he was true to his principles, I believe. A person like Dr. King, he would just show one side of himself.
I had this experience. I personally experienced this when I started calling the followers of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad away from the incorrect idea of Islam to the correct idea of Islam. I experienced the same thing. I had to show only a facet of myself to his followers until his followers became comfortable with me, and then I began to show more of myself. As I began to show more of myself, I lost the national leaders. They were all about me, working with me, they didn't like what they saw as I began to show more of myself. They couldn't live with the whole Wallace D. Mohammed, most of you could and you're with me now.
Most of the followers of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the elders, women and men, females and males they have stuck with me. Don't think they're somewhere else, they're with us in this association. Yes, and they stuck with me because they believed in my sincerity. I stuck with them because I believed in their sincerity and I believed in their innocence. I believe right now in the innocence of most of the followers of Farrakhan. I believe in their innocence. I even believed in Farrakhan's innocence and I do appreciate him recently separating himself from the language that was used by his assistant, Dr. Khalid. I also have to congratulate Dr. Khalid for saying that he won't be separated from Farrakhan.
That's a good thing, those are good signs. I do believe that one day more and more of them are going to see what we are seeing and we are going to be all together in the end. That's what I believe. The Muslims that follow Farrakhan, and the Nation of Islam under Farrakhan, and the Muslims that are associated with us. I believe that one day we are going to a merge. The same things that happen in our experience, in our life to change us, already affecting them and have affected them in the past.
Inshallah, G-d willing, we all will be together one day, sooner than we may think. At the same time, we can't hold our tongue when wrong is done against another people. Or a whole people, or whole religious group, singled out, for slander, or for other ugly. We can't hold our tongue. Muslims have to be courageous, bold as moral people, as believers in G-d, and come out and make it known that they do not speak for Muslims. They speak for themselves.
Because of the pressure being put on Dr. Khalid, Farrakhan came out and he said that for us. Congratulations Nation of Islam under Farrakhan. I believe that just like a seed from a tree, or any other living thing, has to have its proper environment in order for it to realize its maturity, its destiny. So does the human soul, the human mind, the human being.
We have to have proper environment. We would like to look back on slavery and think that when emancipation came, the freedom of the slaves came, that we had everybody wanting to be what the best of us want to be now. No, we have many slaves that didn't want to do nothing but get a break from work. That seriousness of the problem is not existing among us now, but we still have many of us-- It is true of all people.
Many of us that may join a movement for achieving more human excellence or more excellence for our society, but they are really just thinking of and looking for relief from misery, from hardship, from poverty, et cetera. You can't ever depend on the majority of the people for the future of the people. It is the case down thru history, it is a minority of the people that always bring about better conditions for the majority.
Some of us play down the need for leadership but if there was not a strong-fisted leader like Elijah Muhammad, what would have happened to the Nation of Islam? It would have been destroyed a long time ago, because we would have made trouble and the white man would have been justified to come in and kill all of us. Islam has, I believe, that it influenced America to get the white race and also the black race to look at ourselves, to question our thinking and become better people. Islam; racism may be still here but racist laws are not here and anytime we discover one, we can get rid of it very easy.
Racism may be still here but the pressure and power that punitive presence of racism is not here like it was when I was a boy. We are living in new times. It didn't come about because America said, "It's time out for that." It came about because Christians took the best of their Christian ideas and questioned their leaders. Questioned their government and their government officials, questioned the leaders of America.
Shamed the leaders of America, and shamed the morally sensitive white people of America to the extent that they decided that this thing has to change. Remember that while the good people like Dr. King and many others, women among them joined by white Christians, also by some Jews. While they were pressing for that, that awakening of the moral conscience of the American people, the white people. The Nation of Islam was challenging the white man too by calling him the devil.
Sometimes you can get a man to clean up his act by showing his defects quicker than you can by pointing to his excellence that he's neglecting. What Dr. King and the civil rights movement was about, even Frederick Douglass before that time, the freedom movement under Frederick Douglass was the same.
It was trying to get the white man to see that he was not conscious of his own image in light of what Christ life is, peace be upon Christ, and in light of what that democracy and this democracy as it lives today promises all man. We behold these truths, we self evidence that all men are created equal, and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. Among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
My professor, Jamal Diab, who taught us Arabic in Chicago, in the school established by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. That's strange too, that Honorable Elijah Muhammad who is teaching something very strange to what Islam is in the international world would invite a Muslim, an Arab, from that world to come into his private school and teach Arabic and some other courses. Not religious courses but he taught Arabic, and he taught math and general science.
My teacher, he was one day teaching our class and we caused some disturbance in the class. It caused him to digress and start talking to us about America. He said, "For Muslims, there is no problem with the constitution in its spirit and in its intent." He reminded us that the American constitution recognizes not a race, not a special race, but it recognizes a special creation and that is the common human creation that G-d made. He pointed it out, that stuck in my mind and never left and I believe that has been one of the germs, healthy germs, in my makeup that have walked me closer and closer to what G-d wants me to be on this earth. I do believe that and I have come to have appreciation for the intent of our founding fathers and appreciation for the essence of the preamble to our constitution. So much so that I believe it is a blessing from G-d to the American people and I believe this is going to survive as it has survived. But I am not pleased with America and at this point I would like to start talking a little bit about the future.
Muslims we should get into the competition and we are I see it happening. Within the last five years or so I have seen nationalized Muslims from overseas get into politics now running for government office, for political office, I have seen that. Before that I saw followers that were once the Honorable Elijah Muhammad followers getting involved in America's politics, United States politics. Aspiring for government positions and winning positions, getting positions, I have seen that. We do have the work started, we are making progress, we do realize now that we're in America and our children are going to be born here and their children and their children, children are going to be born here.
We have to identify with this country, with this land and see it as ours and take full advantage of that right and compete with other Americans. Not to only establish our life, the Muslim life and that's a big task, to establish Muslim life Muslim community in America is a big task. But also to contribute to the better future of Christians, Jews, Buddhists whoever lives in America whites, blacks, red, brown whoever lives in America. We have to get in to this competition if we are along with the Christians and Jews believing that we are G-d's creation. That he created us for the human destiny and not the animal destiny for the human end and not the savage end then we have to get into this competition, for ourselves, for our future life and for the good of all Americans.
Getting back now to the Nation of Islam, Malcolm and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, I myself have never since believing and knowing the direction of the Quran for Muslims. I have never been comfortable with everything the Honorable Elijah Muhammad gave us and never will, but at the same time I love him and I think I love him more now than I did before. I appreciate him and I appreciate him more now than I did before, I pray for his soul harder now than I ever did and I will say that for Malcolm too. Some of us think that Malcolm is the perfect black man, Malcolm is the perfect Muslim, Malcolm was a striving struggling man just as I was trying to find the light in the dark.
Malcolm unfortunately became a Muslim and was assassinated before he could really come into the mind that I knew he would have come into if he had lived. The real Malcolm, the great Malcolm, the Muslim man regretfully you didn't see him and you never will. We have to get away from being drawn into personalities. I don't like any of you drawn to me as a person, don't be drawn to me as a person, I don't follow myself that you're looking at, I follow myself that's obeying G-d. There's one part of me that wants to have pleasure and fun and wants to sometimes do the wrong thing I don't follow that Wallace, but there's another Wallace in me that wants to obey G-d.
You don't see that Wallace when you look at me in the [unintelligible 01:10:45] , I have to tell you about that Wallace, you have to find that Wallace in my behavior and in my talk, that's the Wallace I follow. I'm not asking you to follow that Wallace, that Wallace follows Muhammad the last prophet, follow the last prophet and if you follow me follow me because I qualify to be your leader in the following of the last prophet. That's the understanding I want you to have and please don't flatter me too much I don't like it, it doesn't make me comfortable. It makes me have to strain hard, I have to strain to shut out the praise, - so don't put me through a great discomfort like that.
Just say this is the son of Elijah Muhammad who got all of his education from the private school of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. He has only about three hours credit for college. He says he's going to go back when he reaches the age 80, he's going back and try to finish college and get a degree. Talk like that about me you know and say that he is a poor man and he doesn't have many credits at all not among intellectuals and not any among the wealthy people. This makes me very comfortable and I thank G-d, an attitude like that will make us all be very comfortable.
For the future we want to be in the competition to advance the best for all people on this earth, we want to be in that competition. When Muslims study the community of our prophet that he led about 1,400 years ago. We have an inspiration to push us and move us forward into the forefront of all civilized respectable efforts by human beings on this earth. We should be in the forefront of the movement for dignifying people on this earth and for bringing justice to people on this earth. I'm proud to say that I know of a few great organizations I'm not going to name any of them by name because I will be leaving out others and I don't want to do that. But we do have Muslim organizations, international organizations that's making great contribution to the improvement of the lot of man on this earth.
They're giving funds in the millions to help alleviate misery and help get people to come into their excellence all over this world. You'll be surprised to know that one Muslim country gave 50 million dollars recently for the suffering people of Bosnia. They'd bring foodstuff and medicine into the area for them. We are proud of what is being done but we are not yet accepting the commitment that we should accept. We have fallen very short of accepting the commitment that we should accept and publishing ourselves as people put on this earth not only to work for the good of Muslims but to work for the good of all people. G-d says that the prophet is a witness for us and we are a witness for all people.
A witness for all people means that we should do what the prophet said and the prophet said the best of you is the one who is best in his service to humanity. Our religion is not a religion about race, our religion is a religion about humanity. Our religion is not a religion about an exclusiveness on heaven. Our religion is a religion of fairness, justice and appreciation for whatever good anybody does and your good will get you into heaven and we'll find Muslims and Christians and others there. The prophet said that he saw in a vision the followers of Moses and Jesus and his followers too in heaven in the paradise, peace be on you and I have hope I've made some contribution Assalamu alaikum.
Participants: Walaikum salam.
[applause]
Participant 1: Assalamu alaikum.
Crowd: Wa-alaikum salaam
Participant 1: I'd like to take this opportunity on behalf of the MSA and the AACC, the African American Culture Committee to sincerely thank [unintelligible 01:16:08] for introducing Imam Mohammed and to sincerely thank Imam Mohammed for educating us about the significant part of African-American history and the contributions that Islam made to it. We also sincerely thank our co-sponsors, you'll see them listed in the program. The Texas Union Co-Sponsorship Review Board, the department of African and African-American studies of the university, the Students Association and within the Students Association the Multicultural Affairs Committee and Omega Sci-fi Fraternity.
We also give special thanks to the South Austin Islamic Center, the university call-op, the Austin Sun and the Embassy Suites Hotel. The Texas Union Graphics Lab, Taj Cuisine and Dobie Mall, Austin Momey and finally the Office of the Vice President for student affairs. One general announcement, there will be an Iftar or breaking in the fast dinner at the Islamic Center of Greater Austin which is just south of the corner of 21st in Oasis. It will be inshallah G-d willing at 6:23 PM this evening. Everyone Muslim and non-Muslim is welcomed.
I'd also like to announce that the Muslim Community of Austin has a project underway to establish an Islamic school here in Austin. For further information please contact the Islamic Center of Greater Austin. Also Muhammad Ali and his wife Lonnie will be coming to Krum, Texas on March 19th to lead a parade at 12:00 PM in the afternoon. [unintelligible 01:17:41] at seven o'clock PM that evening will be hosting a banquet to honor Muhammad Ali's wife Lonnie. For more information please contact the Krum's Texas City Hall.
Please remember to vote in the Students Association for students out there, elections March 1st to March 3rd. The MSA's official endorsement is on the back of the MSA special edition newsletter. You can pick one up on your way out along with information about the situation in Kashmir Islam in general and more information about Imam Mohammed. Once again, thank you all for the honorable attendance however, you don't get to leave so soon. Now is your opportunity to have a question and answer session with the Imam.
Please form a line in each of the two microphones to your right and your left. Please limit your questions, that means no comments please, to that 30 seconds or less. Thank you so much.
Moderator: People lined up, you can go and line up at the different microphones right here. We're going to take the first question, please limit it to one minute and no comments please.
Participant 1: You make an illusion to that caste system in India as maybe being based on color [unintelligible 01:19:06], how it's perceived. I wonder if you can elaborate exactly on that because I'm familiar-- I've been there a few times and I've seen people of all kinds, of all economic status, all interacting with each other. Recently the government has taken great measures to alleviate any of those things that you're talking about, the caste system that I know did get abolished with independence from the British in the late 1940s. I, myself is of high economic status I would be considered a Brahma hundred years ago was the highest caste not as dark as you can get.
Mohammed: I'm not seeing you too brother, a shadow is on you there. You say as dark as you can get, well, I'm happy to get this news from you because I have some friends and associates from there, they're Muslims but they have maybe-- Sometimes we misidentify the cause of our mistreatment. Maybe it's not because they're black. Maybe they had to treat it like the lower class, the untouchables because they're Muslim maybe and just happen to be black. I don't know but then that's what they have told me.
I'm aware of a kind of subtle, what I call racist arrogance in people from that part of the world, from India, who are not Hindus they're Muslims. The white skinned ones that look like Europeans, more like Europeans in their color, I have noticed that some of them even though they're Muslims they have a kind of superiority complex when it comes to socializing or accepting that dark skinned, the black skinned of their own people.
Now it's very rare but I have seen that, I have seen that. What I think, I want to believe, I do know that a lot of progress has been made in India but what I think is the same thing that has happened in India that happened in America. The law has changed, the position of the government has changed but you still have that in the people. It's going to take a few generations for that to get out of people
Participant 2: Assalamu alaikum, Imam Muhammad.
Mohammed: Walaikum salaam.
Participant 2: I've got two questions. I've heard you mention about your father Elijah Muhammad and in line with the hadith of the prophet he says, "To honor or to respect one who elevates in the Din you have to destroy him". Islamicly, how is it permissible to respect the Elijah Muhammad when actually he was the enemy of Islam?
Mohammed: All the Arabs were enemies of Islam until they became friends with Islam. Honorable Elijah Muhammad was not one that brought something new into Islam. He was uneducated, uninformed African-American or a black man in America who saw that the only Islam was the Islam that he was given. He was innocent when he brought that Islam. Now if he came to know better and didn't change then he was wrong.
Participant 2: I also heard you make the statement that you make Dua for him or you--
Mohammed: I certainly do.
Participant 2: -that you make supplications for him. One of the prophets of Islam Muhammad [unintelligible 01:23:15] was forbidden to pray for his mother who was a non-Muslim and also Prophet Abraham later on which is in the Quran. How can you [inaudible 01:23:31]
Mohammed: Peace be upon the prophet. His mother was not my father and her circumstances were not my father's circumstances.
Participant 2: Yes but how can you put yourself [crosstalk]
Mohammed: You're making comparisons here brother that are not really justified. You can't make comparisons like that. You're talking about persons, relatives that saw the prophet, was invited to the right Islam. I'm talking about ignorant blacks that knew nothing of Islam and thought that man wasn't introducing the right Islam.
Participant 2: That's right.
Mohammed: You're making the wrong kind of comparison, it won't hold up.
Moderator: I will take the question from the right please.
Participant 3: I was just going to say that mostly people know how strict Quran is. The American Muslims are they taught same way the Quran is taught all over the world? I know the Quran is very strict, you have to fast, you have to give charity, you have to obey a lot of rules like not drinking, no intoxication. Is it maybe taught here the same way that in the real Muslim nations or just the name of Islam.
Mohammed: There's only one way to teach it and that's to teach it as it is. To teach it correctly. There's only one way. It doesn't mean that everybody is going to stop drinking at the same time. I am around African-Americans Muslims all the time I hardly ever see them drink, I don't see them smoke. I think they're very disciplined Muslims, very disciplined Muslims. They're not praying as often as they should that I don't know but they're very disciplined when it comes to staying away from the major sins. Drinking and adultery and those things. Yes. Don't worry about us getting drunk, we've been drunk too long we don't want to drink.
[applause]
Participant 5: Salaam Aleikum
Moderator: Walaikum Salaam.
Participant 5: Brother Imam, I would like to know if Muslim should accept the constitution of America.
Mohammed: Yes, we should accept it as citizens of America. That doesn't mean we don't want to see improvements in that constitution. I spoke of it as a living organism. It's even in the constitution that if the citizens of this country decide that the constitution itself can't serve their future anymore, the constitution give them the rights to change it or abolish it. That's a good situation that's given in the constitution for the betterment of America and all the people.
Moderator: We'll take the question to the right and again please limit your question to one per person, thank you.
Participant 6: Concerning brotherhood and equality, I was wondering if the ideas of marriage are exempt from those beliefs. I've seen and witnessed a lot of reluctance as far as marriage goes in our society and I was thinking, if Islam practices brotherhood and equality so much, should it be looked down upon. I'm not saying it is, I'm asking is there anything that says that it shouldn't that should be?
Mohammed: What? Mixed marriages?
Participant 6: Yes.
Mohammed: No, we're not to look down on mixed marriages. If the intentions are-- I don't know. G-d says do take marry women out of lust. If the marriage is an honorable marriage, was not motivated by anything dishonorable we have to respect the marriage and we have no problem with it at all.
Moderator: We'll take the questions to the left again, one question per person, thank you.
Participant 7: Alhamdulillahi, Alaikum Salaam [unintelligible 01:27:59]. All praise to G-d and may the peace [unintelligible 01:28:03] Muhammad and his rightly followers. I am referring to some mentions of the brotherhood here to come [unintelligible 01:28:11]. The Quran says that-
Moderator: Excuse me, please limit it to a question, thank you.
Participant 7: - the Quran says that biggest liar is the one who lies against G-d. As I know that Elijah Muhammad-
Moderator: Could you please raise it up, if it's a question.
Participant 7: -claimed to be a prophet. That he got revelation, which is a big lie against G-d. He knew that he is lying or he wasn't lying, he was getting a revelation or he wasn't getting a revelation. I don't think we should honor someone who lies against G-d, that's all [unintelligible 01:28:58].
Mohammed: I understand the question. He gave a statement but it is a question. Whatever we do in ignorance can be forgiven no matter how big the sin is, that's Islam. Whatever we do can be forgiven.
Moderator: We'll go to the right now.
Participant 8: Salaam Alaikum.
Mohammed: Alaikum Salaam.
Participant 8: The circumstances under which master [unintelligible 01:29:41] Muhammad, came to America and raising up the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, do you not think that we should thank the Almighty G-d, Allah for bringing us such people to raise us up to the point of Islam that we are today.
Mohammed: I'll say this, we should thank Allah for saving us with the Quran. That's what we should thank Allah for. For saving us with the Quran because without the influence of the Quran, we would be lost until doom day. We would have been lost till doomsday. The influence of the Quran is what have made all of us come to a better line, a better position and a better life.
Participant 8: Thank you.
Mohammed: You're welcome.
Moderator: Question to the left.
Participant 9: What do you know about the situation-- can you tell to us about the situation in Sudan? Also the problem within the indigenous people in the Mauritania and the Arabs because I've read some article about there. The problem the blacks are having in Mauritania with the Arabs in Mauritania.
Mohammed: Yes, there are problems in many places. We regret those situations and we have to condemn bad behavior of Muslims. If they're Arab Muslims we have to condemn the bad behavior. We have to be fair and just to condemn bad behavior wherever we find it. You also mentioned Sudan. I'm aware, I'm more in touch with what is going on for some years. I've been intouch with what's going on in Sudan and I know that Sudan has a lot of outside agitation instigating things, instigating trouble. I'm sure that the Sudanese government is a good government. The persons are well-meaning, they represent some of the best government people we have on this planet.
If they didn't have so much conniving going on and intrigue going on, instigating going on, from outside nations to undermine the presidency of the Sudanese government and to keep bitterness between the South and the North or the Christians and others that are not Muslim and the Sudanese Muslims I'm sure that Sudan could bring all the people of Sudan-- The Sudanese government and its people could bring all the people of Sudan into a good life and a good future.
Participant 9: One thing I want to say is that people don't talk about Mauritania. We have a caste system in Mauritania, slave system in Mauritania and apartheid in Mauritania but people don't like to say about it. Say anything.
Mohammed: The ruling party there. What religion is the ruling party?
Participant 9: No, I'm talking about in Mauritania.
Mohammed: In Mauritania?
Participant 9: Yes, the indigenous people in Mauritania. Let it out, please, going on in Mauritania that is-
Mohammed: What is the religion there?
Participant 9: It's Islam.
Mohammed: That's what I thought, that's what I'm saying, so we should put pressure.
Participant 9: Yes, but most indigenous people in Mauritania is Muslim still but they are practically given slavery, caste system. They're even trying to throw so many indigenous people out of Mauritania [unintelligible 01:33:38]
Mohammed: Yes, we have to do the same thing in Mauritania that was done to America. Fredrick Douglas, others, shamed America. You're not living up to what you saying you believe in. The same thing has to be done in Mauritania. If they claim they are Muslim we have to shame them until they stop behaving that way and bring pressure to bear on them. [unintelligible 01:33:59]. The good people of conscience.
Participant 9: This is not good [crosstalk]
Mohammed: What I'm saying is that the people you talking about are not Muslims or either they're unconscious Muslims. Something has to be done to wake them up or to remove them.
Moderator: Excuse me, okay. Thank you very much, now let's go to the right and we will only take the questions of the people that are standing up so please do not come and file anymore. The people who are standing up are going to be the people who will ask the questions. Thank you, we're going to the right now. Please limit to one question and that's it, please.
Participant 10: Salaam Alaikum.
Participant 2: Alaikum Salaam.
Participant 8: During the Persian Gulf War, the Islamic world as well as the Western world came to the aid of Kuwait but now in Bosnia we have Muslims being slaughtered and it seems that there is a lack of zeal in alleviating the oppression of the Bosnian Muslims. I'd like to hear your opinion on that.
Mohammed: There is a lot of progress being made for Bosnian Muslims. Those who are being mistreated in Bosnia but the situations are different. Arabia was treated differently because America's interests and investments for Arabia is different than America's interest in investments for Bosnia. There are a lot of reasons for that but that still doesn't make me to give up having faith and the good intentions of our government. Especially, the good intentions of president Clinton, Bill Clinton. I do believe that we have a real role in putting pressure on the serbs and the thing is going to be solved. It's going to be solved. I don't think it's going too long before the problem will be solved then and justice will prevail for the Bosnia people or for the Bosnia Muslims and for others. It's not just about the Muslims. If something like that happens, it's not only one party or a party of a single out that suffer, others suffer too.
Moderator: Okay. Please, again limit your questions to one and keep them pertinent to the topic which was discussed today and if the question has been asked previously, do not reiterate it. Please ask new questions and pertinent to the topic today. Thank you. We'll go to the left now.
Participant 11: Assalamu alaikum.
Mohammed: Walaikum-Salaam.
Participant 11: I want to know when you start your fast?
Mohammed: When did I start my fast.
Participant 11: No. When I start the fast or at what age?
Mohammed: All right. What age? At what age? Well, we think once a boy or a girl show his signs of adult physiology, adult physical maturity that the parents should start and let them know that they are obligated to fast. Obligated by their conscience as Muslims to fast but if the child younger than that and wants to fast, that's wonderful. We have a child, Wallace II, he started fasting when he was about seven years old on his own, we didn't force him to do it. I don't think we should force the children, we should just encourage them and have the good influences around. To encourage them to join the fast but not to force young children to take the fast and then excuse them if they get very hungry and can't fast to the end of the day, we shouldn't feel bad about it. We should congratulate them for their four-hour victory, six-hour victory. We have to be human and intelligent and compassionate.
Moderator: Okay. We'll go to the right and again, please limit your questions to one and keep them pertinent to the topic and if the question has been asked, please do not reiterate that question.
Participant 12: Assalamu alaikum, Imam Muhammad.
Mohammed: Waalaikum Salaam.
Participant 12: As we all very well know, practically everywhere I've gone here in the continent of US, I have seen the majority of the grocery retail business getting owned by Muslims of various ethnic groups and I was wanting to know what we could possibly do collectively, indigenous and immigrant Muslim alike to do the best we could to admonish our brother in cleaning up. A lot of the things that go on in the African-American community, the exploitation and a lot of the other selling of products that are haram.
Mohammed: Yes. Yes. The two ways to live the Muslim life, with your mouth and by action, so I suggest action. Open up a Muslim store, and show him that you are a better example of what a Muslim should be than he is. Open up right next to him, if you can.
[applause]
Moderator: Question to the left and again, one question and please do not reiterate any other questions that was said previously.
Participant 13: Assalamu alaikum.
Mohammed: Walaikum Salaam.
Participant 13: What do you see as the role of an important public role for a Muslims mother in America other than of course, the role of mother which is everyone knows is the most important role on earth. What is the public role of a Muslim woman should take?
Mohammed: The days of the prophet prayers and peace be on him. We had women on the battlefield with the men, encouraging the men. We had women who could formally write, compose powerful verses, encouraging the men and spiriting them to give support and we had women who questioned their rulers in the public. During the time of the prophet and after prophet, question their rulers in the public who had a public voice, that's what I'm saying. So women should have a public voice. Muslim women should have a public voice and should be free to aspire for any public office they want to aspire for, as long as it can't be proven that is un-Islamic for them to do so. I don't know of anything that would make it un-Islamic for them to do so.
We talk about the backwardness of this Islamic world when it comes to the treatment of women. I'm not responding just to the sister's question. If you look and see, Muslims, Muslim nations are headed by the women. The ruler of Pakistan right now is a woman and we have, I believe if not three, we have two rulers over Muslim nations. Women, rulers over Muslim nations. If you can rise to the top of the government, be the head of state, in Islam I don't see where we should worry about this going on and press forward for more equality. Just keep pressing forward for more equality. I'm kind of jealous of you females, you're getting more equality than we black men are getting now.
Moderator: Okay. We'll go to the question to the right. Again, one question and please do not say a question that has already been said and keep the question to the topic. Thank you.
Participant 14: Assalamu alaikum.
Mohammed: Waalaikum-Salaam.
Participant 14: [foreign language] Actually, you have talked about competition in America for better American. About the internal competition between you and Farrakhan, do you think -- does it [unintelligible 01:42:25] having a dispute like what happened between your father and Malcolm and if this is expected, can you really work this out with Farrakhan and try to come into common terms under Islam in general as guided by the holy Quran and the sunnah. Are there some steps to really have unity as you hoped to have?
Mohammed: Thank you. Yes. We don't really have any serious problem with Farrakhan and his group, not that it comes to physical threats on us or physical threats on him. No. That hasn't happened, that hasn't occurred at all during the whole time of our separation from each other. That hasn't happened and I don't believe it will ever have. I don't see anything that is developing that would make that happen. To the contrary, I see developments in his group and I think he sees developments also on our side that's encouraging us to believe that the day will come soon when we will sit down and discuss problems and work out differences and be one Muslim with all the Muslims in the world.
Participant 14: Thank you. That's good to hear. Thank you.
Moderator: Okay. We'll go to question to the left and again, limit your questions to one and please do not say a question that's been said before and the people that are standing will be the final people for the questions.
Participant 15: Assalamu alaikum, brother.
Mohammed: Waalaikum Salaam.
Participant 15: Brother Imam, do you think it's important that as Muslims, African-American Muslims in America to understand Arabic and the translation of the Quran or should we go take those English translations like a lot of Muslims today staying here in America.
Mohammed: Yes. We should benefit from the excellent English translations that we have but we shouldn't be satisfied. We should have to encourage at least one or two members of our family that are Muslims and encourage the younger ones even better to learn, study Arabic so that they can read the Quran in its pure and original text. We should encourage that but that doesn't mean we should wait before we pick up the Quran or until we get to read Arabic. No. We have good English translations.
Moderator: We go to I think our final question to the right and again, one question and thank you very much.
Participant 16: As to the future of Islam in America, we're all very involved in dollar projects. As an example today, I think we need not only to deal with indigenous people but also with immigrant people because I think there's a major misunderstanding and I know, this is a statement about what American Muslims believe is to foreign or immigrant Muslims, what suggestions do you have for indigenous Americans to assist in the education of immigrant Muslims to the fact that we all do believe the same?
Mohammed: I would encourage any of our scholars, our Imams to meet with representatives of the immigrant Muslims or the naturalized citizen who come from abroad to address the problem of all Muslims, largest African-American Muslims, not Muslims of one particular ethnic group but all Muslims and work together for the good of all Muslims here in this country. We do have some imams doing that. In fact, we have one here in Texas now from Houston. He's Imam Qasim Ahmed and we have one in Midwest a little south of Chicago Imam Darnell Karim.
They work with representatives of the ethnic groups, the Muslim ethnic groups, to help them-- They are invited to go to talk. They are invited to address classes. That I think Darnell himself he conducts the class for immigrant Muslims but this are just isolated cases on the whole we don't have it at all. In fact, we don't have the acceptance of each other that we should have. That's the real serious problem. I encourage doing what Imam Qasim Ahmed and Imam Darnell Karim do.
Moderator: Again we would like to thank all of you for coming out to see Imam Mohammed at the Black History Month keynote address. We would like to thank Imam Mohammed for taking time out of his busy schedule to come give us a speech today. I'd like to thank all the people who have helped make this event a success. Again we have the newsletters out at the-- when you leave please take one. [unintelligible 01:47:29] to all that have attended this lecture and to make it a great success. Inshallah, all information will be available at site. Thank you very much and we close off with Assalaam alaikum.
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[01:49:02] [END OF AUDIO]

