02/07/1998
IWDM Study Library
Press Conference 
Jackson MS

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
00:00 Imam W. Deen Mohammed: And we're open to other suggestions, too, for symbols or whatever so if you're creative in that area, we're open, you know? We're open. But hurry up because once we get, big we can't change anything. We're small now.
[laughter]
00:15 IWDM: But once we get big, it costs too much to change. Right now we can change. Thank you very much. As-salamu alaykum.
00:21 S?: As-salamu alaykum.
00:21 S?: Thank you, Brother Imam.
00:21 IWDM: As-Salaam-Alaikum.
[background conversation]
00:27 Speaker 2: We now present comments made by Imam W. Deen Mohammed at the Jackson, Mississippi airport, February the 7th, 1998.
00:34 Speaker 3: Imam Mohammed, we want to welcome you to Jackson. We're glad to have you. We feel very fortunate to have you here.
00:43 IWDM: Thank you very much, Brother Imam. We are always happy to visit the areas where we have good leadership and good work being done. We are interested in continuing the positive things that have been done by those before us. We want to follow in the best traditions of our African American leadership and I think Muslims can make a great contribution to the improvement of community life for our neighborhoods, whether they're black or mixed neighborhoods or white. If we are there and we make a contribution, I think our contribution will be worthwhile and very much appreciated. What my message is to areas where I visit is that we are good neighbors. Muslims are good neighbors of people of faith, good Christians, good Jews, whatever your religion is. If a Muslim is truly a Muslim, you have a good neighbor in a Muslim.
01:48 IWDM: And a Muslim is taught by our prophet Mohammed to care about his neighbor. And we care about our neighbors and we want to build on all good works. We don't want to wreck anything that's good. We wanna compliment and congratulate people for their good works and join them in an effort to better the life for all people in community. Our focus is on community. Muslims are to have community life, so wherever we are, we are obligated to build-up our neighborhoods and make contributions to the good works that other people are already doing or have already done.
02:23 S3: Well, again, we thank you for being here and we are following your advice, or attempting to follow your advice, in as much as we've recently purchased some property to start developing Muslim community life...
02:35 IWDM: Yes, I'm aware of that, yes. And we're happy to come here at this time. I think you just make the purchase?
02:41 S3: Yes, we did.
02:41 IWDM: We're very happy to be here at this time.
02:43 S3: Right. We look forward to being good neighbors to our Christian and Jews, and whoever... Right-minded people, we look forward to working with them. There's a lot of good going on here in Jackson and we hope to be able to show some of that to you while you're here.
03:00 IWDM: Thank you. I've been looking forward to it.
03:01 S3: Good city leadership. We have a new African American mayor whose concern is not just African-Americans. He has shown that he has been inclusive or is being inclusive. He wants the entire city to become a part of what is being done here and it really reflects what I've been hearing from you for the last 22, almost 23 years. I think you'll feel right at home here.
03:25 IWDM: I do, I do. I most certainly do.
03:30 S3: One other thing that we do want to mention that Sunday at 2:00 PM at Jackson State University at the Campus Union, that's the Student Union building, in the general purpose room, Imam Mohammed will be speaking a free public address. Free food, too, that's being catered there by Wings & Things.
03:50 IWDM: That's good, really looking forward to it. [chuckle]
03:52 S3: And the Imam will be speaking on the relevance of Islam in the 21st century, as we move into the new millennium and a more diverse situation, the world becoming a global village. Imam will be speaking in terms of how Islam... What the role of Islam in all of this, yeah.
04:10 IWDM: And the role of faith, you know? This is the day of faith and faith is coming back. Respect for religion, sacred things, are coming back now and I believe that the great prophets of scripture prophesized of this day that we are seeing right now. The world is becoming one and the faith is being appreciated again, and all faiths are going to be out front now.
04:31 S3: Praise G-d.
04:32 IWDM: Not gonna be hiding faith anymore.
04:34 S3: Yes, sir.
[laughter]
04:36 S3: Now we have some questions.
04:39 Speaker 4: For the record, can I get you to say your name and spell it for me, please?
04:46 IWDM: Yes, my name is Warith Deen Mohammed, but I'm usually referred to as W. Deen Mohammed. Imam means like minister or preacher. Imam W. Deen Mohammed.
04:54 S4: Okay, and one question. How important do you think it is for the voices of Muslims to be heard here in Jackson? Well, actually not only Jackson but throughout the United States and the world as a whole?
05:05 IWDM: Given that we are still misrepresented, Muslim people are misrepresented by Muslims and also by the media, who is ignorant of just what Muslim life is supposed to be, and I think that's partly our fault, too, that the media has the wrong image of us. If we didn't demonstrate ourselves in the wrong way, I don't think the media would be seeing us in the wrong light. Muslims are not terrorists, Muslims are people who believe in the humanity going where G-d wants humanity to go, and that's to excellence, more and more human excellence, more and more human works in society.
05:41 IWDM: If you look at the history of Islam, the history of Islam is the history of the progress for education and the progress for improvement in community life. We believe that the great renaissance that took place for the West was sparked by the movement of civilization that was brought on because of the beginning of Islam and community life 14 centuries ago. This is what I think is most important for Jackson and any good city and big city like Jackson in the south or anywhere else. It's important for our Christian brothers and sisters to see us in the right light. We're not terrorists.
06:25 IWDM: Christians are peace-loving people. We expect Christians to try to be like Christ Jesus, peace be upon Christ Jesus, but we find many Christians misrepresent what Christians are. And I think that our Christian brothers and sisters should understand that we have Muslims also misrepresenting what Muslims are.
06:46 Speaker 5: Jackson has a pretty high crime rate and a lot of the youth are being involved in these type of crimes. What is something that you would like to... A message you would like to sprinkle on some of these youth who are...
06:58 IWDM: I believe very much like Christians believe, sin is death and crime is sin. And it hurts the doer and those that suffer what the doer is doing. And what we like to do is reach people who are giving their lives to crime and try to get them to see that they have a better life that G-d intended for them and they are neglecting to build upon the good life that G-d intended for them. You can do much more with your intellect if you obey G-d than you can when you disobey G-d. And crime is against the way of G-d. We believe that we sometimes give too much attention to the bad fellas and not enough attention to the good fellas, too.
07:52 IWDM: We have young people who are not giving their life to crime and their circumstances are bad, too. They've been deprived too, but they kept their moral life and they kept their respect for their parents or for things that should be respected. And we would like to say that because the media focus too much on the bad guys and not enough on the good guys, it's a kind of a quiet encouragement to the bad guys, "If you wanna be popular, be bad."
08:21 S5: One final question. What are the motions of getting prepared?
08:22 IWDM: Well what we are doing is organizing our best resources and that's the people. We are concentrating on bringing people together of like minds so that we can address the needs and community. We believe the answer is that we strengthen our leadership and work all together, work in our diverse fields, but work all together for the betterment of the community life, that means neighborhoods.
08:54 Speaker 6: Those now in public, you can say, well, "Naturally, this comes in legislatures, locally", and all those people... Sometimes it seem like their priorities are in the wrong place. It's like you said, black-on-black crime and stuff like that. What would be your best statements for some of those people to get their priorities in the right place as far as looking at some of those issues?
09:19 IWDM: Well, there is an old expression, "Honesty is the best policy." And I believe when we had a stronger sense of what is morally right, I believe we were accomplishing more. If you look at the years of the freedom struggle, from Frederick Douglass to Dr. Martin Luther King, that was a moral movement, not just a political movement. It was a moral movement. We were addressing the injuries to us from a people who were neglecting their own moral commitment to be like Christ, this Christian America. And we were encouraging our own people to be patient. G-d is a G-d of justice. I think if our leaders will remember that and come back to that, put the emphasis there again, we could do much more to better our lives.
10:10 Speaker 7: What are some of the ideas that you'll help bring to the people locally here in Jackson, that you'll be talking mostly about at the talk... Supposed to be talking about [10:25] ____ to get here in Jackson?
10:28 IWDM: I believe, like Dr. Schuller, he's an evangelist and has a television ministry that reaches about 22 million people inside and outside of America, and I believe very much like he believes. I would like to tell the people that we have to believe in G-d and we are also to believe in man. Have faith in G-d and have faith in man. And I mean a black man too, have faith in all men.
[laughter]
10:53 S3: Well, we thank you, Brother Iman, for being with us here in Jackson and we look forward to the...

