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IWDM Study Library 
IWDM TV Interview

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
I would like to welcome Imam W. Deen Mohammed to this program.
Thank you.
And coming from the United States and being a person who actually propagates Islam there and serving Islam in various means. Before we actually start talking about your role in promoting Islam in the United States, can we have a general idea about your function in the Muslim American Community. What actually do you do there?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. I have an office. It's called the Ministry of W. Deen Mohammed, and that's where all of my activities are done. From that office. My activities involve me in Dawah and also in meeting distinguished personalities in America and outside. And it also involves me with the Shura of my community and with the Shura of the general Muslim Community in America. That's a good view of my activities, my office. However, I also have what I call the production, book production and cassette audio tape production program that I'm responsible for also, which is my private effort, my private effort to contribute to the Dawah.
Speaker 1:
Now, you said that you also cooperate with the Shura. Is there any type of high Muslim authority that the Muslim community in the United States, for example, do refer to in matters of Sharia or Fiqh or any other legislative matters of Islam?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes, in America, as you know, Muslims are coming from different countries, different nationalities and different cultures, ethnic backgrounds. So, we feel we need a Shura Council for all Muslims in America. We made an effort. We have my community also joined with, well, it's, I would say the general community. But if you know of an organization by the name of Islamic Society of North America, that's a big effort in America. I'm also a member with them. So, with that big organization representation and my representation from my community, and also there's an Imam called Jamil Al Amin in Atlanta, Georgia. We also have him, and then there's ICNA. ICNA is the Islamic Circle of North America. So we all joined to form a Shura. The Shura is a representative Shura really. Really, we hope that the real business or the real work will be done by people, by Masjids and Imams in the general community of America. And we hope that they will send up to us their message, their concerns, and their feelings so we can discuss them and then put them back out to the community. Yes.
Speaker 1:
Well, it seems that the knowledge of Islam, there's a tremendous improvement in the United States.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. Over the last 10 years, particularly over the last 10 especially. Yeah.
Speaker 1:
After all these years, and after having so many groups and communities, Islamic communities in the States, were there any effort to have a one big community and then representative from this community will be, for example, in Chicago, Illinois or in New York or Washington, whatever. Have you ever thought of such an idea?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. Actually, my past is just that situation. We were in the community under the old incorrect ideas, and it had one leader representing everybody. And when we joined the Ummah of the Muslims, there was some who thought, we still should have one leader speaking for everybody. But in my opinion, this is not good for us in America yet. I think we should have a select group of the best leaders represent the leadership in America.
Speaker 1:
Well, that's quite interesting. Now, let's come and talk about your activities. Is it directed to a certain group of people? I mean, for example, to Christians, Jewish, or is it just to correct the understanding of some of the Muslims in the States?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes, because of the circumstances for us in the States, our residents, our residents, we live very much separate from each other. The blacks will be separate from the others you see. And even cultural lines of delineation exists, and they're very rigid, so you won't find the Pakistani Muslims living except to themselves in Chicago and Illinois. So, because of that, and we think this is good, it's not bad because people need to have some privacy, you see, for their private life, for their more private life. So, because of that, we find ourselves having near access, the better access to the blacks. So, most of our Dawah is to the blacks who are in the same area with us, you see. However TV permits us to talk to everybody, permits us to reach everybody. So, our TV programs, we want to design them so that they have appeal to everybody. Whites, blacks, everybody. Pakistani Muslims, Palestinian Muslims, Muslims from Lebanon, Muslims from Senegal. Wherever they're from, we want our programs to communicate to them very clearly. So, Insha Allah, we are developing that and we hope to realize a lot of progress for that soon.
Speaker 1:
Do you mean that you'll have your own telecasting facility, or are you going to be using the normal channels?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Right now, the financial situation won't permit us to have our own. So, what we do is we find, we have cable television in the States, cable television. So, this cable television is kind of a relatively new thing in America, and they are anxious to get good programs. So, we are able to prepare videos for them, videotapes for them, and show them. And many times they say, we'd like to have this. So as a result, we have now our video program in about 14 cities or more. Soon we'll have about 20 cities in America, big cities.
Speaker 1:
That's quite nice, really to hear. And it's a good thing to know that there's something being done for Islam out in the world. Alhamduillah. Imam Warithdeen, when we talk now about your correction of the understanding of the Muslims in the States, which you have mentioned earlier, what did you do so far in this respect and how was the response of the people?
Imam WD Mohammed:
It was a long road. It was a long and difficult road because the idea of Islam we were given was really not Islam. It was just, I believe, a good intention to attract blacks to believe that they were Muslims, but gave them a different idea. A Nationalist, or a Black militant image.
Speaker 1:
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, you have mentioned earlier that you started to correct the understanding of Islam to some Muslims. Now that's a very long story, but we would like you in spite of that, to tell us exactly what did you do and how was the response of the Muslims to your activities?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. The first thing that had to be done was for us to agree that we wanted to be Muslims. And if we are going to be agreed on that, then the next thing we have to accept, what is the authority for Muslims? The authority for Muslims is the Qur'an first, Number one, and then the life of our Prophet Number two, as it's given to us and preserved in the history. So, the Muslims, at first, I had to get them to understand that the Qur'an has to be used to correct our ways and our teachings. Gradually, they appreciated that. There was no desire in their hearts to be against the Qur'an. They didn't know the Qur'an, hardly any one of them knew anything but Al-Fatiha and maybe the prayer Salatul Ibrahimi, that's all. That's all. But the Qur'an, no, we didn't know it. Over a period of 40 or 50 years, nobody was teaching that Qur'an.
They were teaching the Bible, Bible stories about the oppression of people you see. And their own brand of Nationalism, a kind of Nationalism. So, the next thing I did was say, "Now, since we accept Qur'an, then let's see, what is this idea we have of G-d? Is it correct? So, if it's not correct, we have to correct it. So, I gave it to them as it is in Islam. I said, "This is correct. The old way was not correct." Who is the Prophet of Islam? Let's look to the Qur'an. This is the way all Muslims see it. Why do we believe different? And then I have explained to them the history of how we came to get the wrong idea. I said, "Now, we have to grow up. We have to be bigger than that." So let us now accept this. It was a lot of hard work, but gradually they embraced it and they were happy with it. And it took us maybe 10 to 15 years, 15 years almost before I could really begin to teach them about the Prophet, the Hadiths, and get them to appreciate the real knowledge in Islam and the real leadership in Islam, our great Ulemas and et cetera. But now I feel very comfortable. After 20 years, I feel very comfortable with the community, that they're happy and relieved. The burden is taken off the mind, the burden is relieved. The heart is now happy that we are in Islam in the correct way.
Speaker 1:
Well, it's a very long time. I say, I mean 20 years, but during these 20 years, you probably needed support and you needed some sort of courage. Yes. Did you get that from anybody?
Imam WD Mohammed:
I did. I did. In the States from good Muslims of other nationalities, and also from Egypt. In fact, when I first became the leader in February, 1975, we were visited by representatives of Al-Azhar, the Minister there representing the education for Egypt. He came with someone representing and visited me and cheered me and gave me encouragement. And soon after, the Turkish nation also sent their people to me, their representatives to me, to congratulate me and let me know that they would be my brothers. They're standing by me. This was very good for the spirit of our community. Our community saw the visit in the paper. We took pictures. These very important visits meant a lot to our spirit, to encourage us in the first days of my leadership. Also soon, it wasn't long before we got visits from the Kingdom. From Rabitat, and also from the Embassy in time, from the Embassy in the States. The Royal Saudi Arabian Kingdom in the Embassy in the States, the Prince, his Highness Bandar, Prince Bandar Bin Sultan.
He has been a good friend of ours. And through that Embassy, the Religious Department of that Embassy, we were having regular contact with the Religious Department represented at that time by Prince Muhammad bin Faisal, Prince Mohamed bin Faisal. So gradually we received a lot of help. And now we have a big project in Los Angeles to build a big Mosque that will really, not only a Mosque, it'll be a mosque, housing, other activities. Yes, education, school and culture for Islamic influence on our culture, because the American culture is a big influence on everybody's life. So, we are trying to develop some knowledge of the Islamic culture so we can have protection for our own life you know, Insha Allah. So, we are doing a lot of things, and we are getting a lot of help and a lot of help, but still we need much more help,
Speaker 1:
That's for sure. It's not an easy job.
Imam WD Mohammed:
No. It's very difficult.
Speaker 1:
In promoting Islam in that part of the world. You have mentioned earlier that with your own private efforts, you're trying to do some sort of Dawah in different ways. Is there any type or have you ever had a chance, for example, to have some sort of collaboration with the King Fahd Holy Qur'an printing complex in Medina and get use of their facilities in helping you?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. We came here as a delegation in 1991, I believe. And we were blessed to actually visit that facility, and I saw the printing and operation and everything. We were so excited. It is a big job, a very big job that is being done there. We have received some Qur'ans now. This was years ago, but there is a big need now for Qur'ans in my community. We were promised, but we haven't yet received. It's been better than a year now. We were promised, but we haven't received, and I don't think it's because of the desire has been lost. I think there's still desire in the Kingdom to provide us with the Qur'ans, but maybe we have lost communication. Maybe a communication line has been broken, maybe.
Speaker 1:
Well, that was my next question. What other Muslim organizations do you have communication with in other parts of the world?
Imam WD Mohammed:
In other parts of the world? Well, I don't know of any particularly that I can recall presently, but Egypt. Egypt's Azhar. They have invited us to benefit from some scholarships. We can send students to Al Azhar or to other schools there in Egypt for Islamic studies. And also, they have the Minister of Religion there, the Minister over the Department of Religion. He gave us permission also to benefit from some books, a good number of books that they have printed in English. So soon we hope to, they permitted us also to duplicate these books. So soon we will have more literature because of this relationship with the Religious Department in Cairo, yes. Also in Sudan, which there are some problems, as you know. But there are some scholarships open to us. And also, the same kind of cooperation or communication lines have been open for us. So, we can discuss with high people in the religion, very learned people in the religion, our needs in the States. But their contribution will mainly be education. Education. They're not in a situation to give us much more in materials and things like that. It's costly. And also Pakistan, there's a good situation with Pakistan. We haven't made contact, but the interest has been expressed from Pakistan that they would like to see our religious efforts and to see if they can make some contributions. So soon, I hope we can visit Pakistan and look into the possibilities. Malaysia also is a country that has attracted us and wants us to come and to see how they can assist us. The environment there, the public environment there is very similar to ours. So, I think we can benefit from a relationship with the religious leaders of Malaysia, Insha Allah.
Speaker 1:
Well, education is a very important aspect.
Imam WD Mohammed:
It is most important,
Speaker 1:
Most. And when we talk about education, we take in consideration the youngsters. Of course, they need the proper type of school, proper type of courses, environment for them. And especially being in the United States. Of course, all facilities for losing the right path of Islam is there.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Especially for the young.
Speaker 1:
Especially for the young teenagers. In that case, what are you doing actually to guide them to the right path?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. Our resources, both financial resources and academic knowledge, the level of literacy and the level of education is low for a Muslim community in our community. And it's because the appeal, the message was to those discontented people and culturally deprived people. And so most of the people that were attracted to our community were from the neglected people. The neglected people don't have much education, don't have much cultural background, you see. So this makes it more difficult. So our effort is to concentrate on having higher educated people, better educated people, and better schools so that we can take the teenagers and put them in these better schools and have them have lodging there for them where they stay the school with the school all the time. You're familiar with that in the United States? Yeah. Yeah. In Atlanta, we have an excellent effort that's well on the way it's going well. We have education from primary grades up through last year of high school. They graduated from high school. We have a good record for sending students from our high school in Atlanta and a few other places too. But Atlanta is a more important place for us right now. To the best colleges and universities in the United States They offer full paid, full scholarships paid by the institution, the College, the non-Muslim Institution for our students' education, because they qualify. They qualify. So, we hope within maybe one or two years to have also a Junior College in Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 1:
That's quite interesting.
Imam WD Mohammed:
So, we need a lot of help from the Kingdom and from other sources.
Speaker 1:
Well, what's the role of the contacts now? You said you have good contacts with the Saudi Ambassador in the United States,
Imam WD Mohammed:
A very good friend of the Muslim community,
Speaker 1:
And of course there is the King Fahd Academy.
Imam WD Mohammed:
I've heard of it, but I don't have much knowledge of it.
Speaker 1:
The institution has been established there actually to teach the various school levels from the elementary to the high school graduation. Did you consider contacting them and having them assist you in this?
Imam WD Mohammed:
I didn't have knowledge of it. I'm recently getting knowledge of it. I just heard it as a word. I didn't know where it was located. I didn't know if it was in America or Malaysia. But now that I know, it's an obligation on me and on our leaders to go and visit the King Fahd facility there and see if we can benefit from it. Yes.
Speaker 1:
Well, I mean, talking about this topic is really interesting. And let's talk about other things. For example, in your experience now when we talk about the Muslim community in the United States, what impacts or what can we do actually to even correct the knowledge or the Islamic knowledge amongst Arab Muslims in the States? Have you try to enter that particular sector?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. Without even, I would say personal effort, the opportunity has been given me to me from Muslims in the Pakistani community, Indian community, and African community. I have been invited to sit among them and to discuss problems for the religion. And I think the situation is good. InshaAllah, in the future, you're going to see more corrections for the religion in the United States. Not just for my community, but for other communities too, because we are agreeing that ignorance has come into our communities and we need to reeducate ourselves.
Speaker 1:
Your contacts with the Muslim World League, and I don't know if you have any, also contacts with the I D V, the Islamic Development Venture. But let's take the Muslim World League, the type of cooperation and the support you're getting from them.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. Well, in the States, for some reason, the offices of the Muslim World League have not been able to get the results that they want. We are looking into the problem. We have been invited by the office in New York to come there and seek some assistance. So InshaAllah, we'll be, I don't know if you know Dr. Assad. Dr. Assad, he's been with the office in New York for a long time. Yes. So, I know him. He's my friend. He's Palestinian. Palestinian Muslim, and very strong for the faith. He has a strong heart and educated, well-educated. So InshaAllah , we will be discussing how we can get some benefit from the efforts of Raabitat in the United States, and also give some support ourselves to the efforts Raabitat in the United States, Insha Allah.
Speaker 1:
Let's go back to the American community in general. I mean, we're not talking about the Muslims, but we're talking about others. Of course, a lot of people, Non-Muslims do have a wrong idea about the acts of Islam, and they really know nothing. I mean, except what they hear or what they see with the information, which misleads them to the conclusion. But what is your role in rectifying such misunderstanding?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. One approach is, in my opinion, and to me it's the first approach. Is to present the best image of Islam myself in the media. Whenever there's an opportunity to be interviewed by the newspapers or the magazines, et cetera, and on television, on radio, to make a hard effort to present Islam and myself and my community in the correct way. That's one. To show the similarities for Islamic faith. Not Aqeeda, not the Arcane of Islam, but for the beliefs, the faith in G-d, belief in G-d, belief in G-d's angel, et cetera. These things, the Christians believe too, but they their perception is different maybe. But we want them to know that we share similar beliefs. And for that reason, we have similar sensitivities. We want to see humanity grow, and we want to check the beast in man. We want to check the vulgar nature and have the nature for G-d.
So, we tell them this so they'll know that we are kind of, I would say, partners on the battlefield for righteousness and humanity. I think that's the excellent approach in America, to open up the way for more Islamic Dawah. The other effort is to concentrate on making our own Islamic life and community strong by contributing firstly to our school educational efforts and secondly to the Dawah efforts. And at the same time, it is most necessary for us to recognize that G-d want us to be successful also in the world. G-d doesn't want us poor and dependent on non-Muslims. So, I encourage the Muslims to have this industry in them, this dignity in them, and the men are responsible for that. They should be helping our community get more dignity.
Speaker 1:
Yes. When we talk about the practices of Islam and the rituals of the Muslims, let's say fasting and praying five times and so on, how do they acquaint themselves with the working environment in the States. Do they face any problems with non-Muslims in order to practice their religion?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. Yes. And this is a problem that needs all of our cooperation in America. Blacks can't work by ourselves because it's the whole of America. So, we are working with other nationalities of Muslims in America to get the school system and the government, and pardon me. and the business establishment to recognize Islam and Islamic holidays and Islamic life, how it's regulated so that they will accommodate us InshaAllah, so we can make our prayers and have our holidays without being penalized. The job saying, "No, you can't be paid, you took off." Or losing the job because you took off. And so, this is a difficulty for us in America, but it's not a difficulty that I think should frighten us. We can overcome it. We can overcome it.
Speaker 1:
Well, as Muslims, I mean, in a non-Muslim country and in a non-Muslim environment, of course, people do face a lot of problems. And maybe this is what they call it, that Allah is examining the faith of this person, whether he is going to fulfill it or not.
Imam WD Mohammed:
It is a test.
Speaker 1:
It is a test. Okay. Generally, your impressions, I mean, you probably have been visiting a lot of areas, whether in the Islamic world or Europe. Your general impressions about Islam and the spread of the word of Allah in these communities. How do you see it and how do you foresee it in the future?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. Well, in America, we have the expression, the big picture. The big picture. So, we think that we shouldn't allow the small picture to make our life miserable. We should see the big picture. And when we look at the advances, the achievements for the Islamic life in the whole world, I think situations like we have in Kashmir and in the Middle East with Israel and Palestinians and some other places, we have problems. But these problems to me, are not enough to make my life miserable. I think the achievements for the Kingdom and for other Nations and for our efforts in America are so important to us that we can still have a happy spirit for carrying Islam forward.
Speaker 1:
This is with the support of Allah
Imam WD Mohammed:
Subhana Wa Ta Alah.
Speaker 1:
Yes. And it is known that Islam is the only religion of Earth. One more question. When you talk to a certain group of people, let's say Christians, Jews, and the non-religious people. Which one you will find easier to convince, and I'm not going to say convert, but revert back to Islam because every person is born as a Muslim. Yes.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
Which category or which group are easier to revert?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. The Protestant Christian. Yeah. And next I would say the Catholic Christian. But I think with good effort by our more learned people, higher educated, highly educated people, I think the Catholic area may, in the black community, may be just as attractive as the Protestant area.
Speaker 1:
Are there any particular reasons?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes, because most Protestants, the blacks, and not only blacks, but the other races, also Spanish, for example, they're different. Spanish are mostly Catholics. But except for the Spanish people, I think you'll find most of the poor people, most of the masses, what we call the masses, they're Protestant Christian, Protestant Christian. And so, these people don't have very, I would say, strong convictions. They identify with Christianity, but don't have much knowledge and don't have strong convictions. Now, this is the shortcomings of the Christian leadership. They should see that their people have better life. So, we take advantage of that.
Speaker 1:
Okay. Imam Warith Deen Mohammed. We thank you.



