2005 September 3rd
CPC Workshop, Chicago, IL: Part 1
Imam W. Deen Mohammed

Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Ah, this is a good spirit here. And I'm right with you. Yes. We thank Allah. To all of you, we say peace be unto you, As-salamu alaykum. I am really impressed. We are impressed. This is the best CPC Graceline Fashion Show I've seen. And if we follow the religion that is the Qur'an, the word of G-d and Muhammad the prophet, we won't be satisfied unless each year is more impressive and better and more productive than the previous year. It hurts me when I see our efforts are getting weaker and that time is approaching. No. We must do better each year than we did the year before. We must do that. That's progress. If we don't do that, we're not progressing.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Now, let me get my glasses out. I forget. I always forget that I need glasses. Good to see you wonderful people, too. I know most of you by face. I can't remember all of your names, but I do know you by face, and you make my heart feel so good when I see you.
Speaker 2:
Brother.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
No, I got them. I got them. I just have to find them.
Speaker 2:
They might be over there.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
I know I brought them. Hold on one... Ask them to look in that cap. Are they there with that cap? Feel like I'm going to have to use my brother's glasses again. Nothing wrong with that. Okay. Now. I like to put my notes on paper. That way I don't leave out something, because if you're not speaking from notes you can forget something important. And it enables you to complete your presentation, what you're going to say sooner if you follow the notes. Because if you're not following notes, your mind is saying, "You might have forgotten something." So [inaudible 00:02:40] you kind of remember what you might have forgotten, you see?
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Now, I begin with Bismillahir rahmanir rahim and we thank Allah Alhamdulillahi rabbil alamin. We praise him and thank him [inaudible 00:02:54] for everything. And we witness that Muhammad to whom the Qur'an was revealed was a model human life for any who believes in G-d and the last day. And that is G-d's word in the Qur'an. Graceline fashions it gives us joy, pleasure, it adds to our good spirit. It increases our good spirit. It fires up our good spirit. And it also, I hope, is giving us a bigger appetite for important things. The people with no appetite, they'll be fed by others who will create for them the appetite or they will die off never having achieved anything of any importance. We don't want to be one of those. We don't want to be among those.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
CPC/Comtrust LLC. I had to give the full name now. We were once just called CPC, but we added the name Comtrust. So, CPC/Comtrust LLC was open for Muslims, Muslim Americans. That is in our association, in our association. It was open for individuals, it was open for also businessmen and women, who had their own business or their own companies, open for you, too. And it was open in hopes that it will influence us to have [inaudible 00:04:50] better businesses and more success as business people. And in hopes also that we would attract those that [inaudible 00:05:00] business [inaudible 00:05:03] as an interest or as a profession to go in and maybe make a decision or consider, "That this is good for me, too. And I think I'm... a business person. So, I'm going to go into business, too." I was hoping to see us grow in numbers and we should. I believe we are. We're not doing surveys and keeping account of what's happening all around in different cities and states.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
I am [inaudible 00:05:38]. I see and feel when I meet you from different areas. I believe that we are growing in numbers also. I believe we have more businesses now than before we started this CPC/Comtrust. And I believe that we have an impressive number of new individuals who are deciding and becoming a part of this business effort. So, what is the reason behind all of this? Is it just to have businesses? No. The reason behind it is that we have become a well known group of Muslims in America and outside of America. And we have good numbers that are writing me. Good numbers of you write me, and not only write me, you send contributions regularly to The Mosque Cares. And we want a community life... We want good homes for our members, affordable homes, and also homes for our professional people. And somebody going to sell our professional people their home. [inaudible 00:07:23]. And those who can qualify to have homes, they're going to get their homes, too, from somebody. So, we want to be providers. We want to provide for our own and provide for ourselves.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And the spirit of African American leaders going all the way back, almost to slavery, to the days of slavery, who wanted to see us come from being slaves, being property of others, to being property owners and business people. And we would never feel at peace in our souls until a sufficient number of us have property, manage property wealth and earn income, and produce for not only themselves or for their families and also for the race. Produced to our honor, to our future honor and dignity that's going to be much bigger than it is now. We've achieved a lot since slavery but we can achieve much, much more. And we all know that. And we're going to do it. It's not going to come from the professional people. It's not going to come from the wealthy African American people. They obviously, most of them obviously, more than 90% of them, they are people who are busy only to promote themselves and their own holdings. They're not interested. Most of them moved away from us anyway. And they go somewhere else and they make their money. And they establish their business operations, very few established in our community.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
If they did, we would be empowered by them. And the neighborhoods would not be in the bad financial conditions that our neighborhoods are in, I should say business condition that our neighborhoods are in. We having no business showing in our own neighborhoods. That's what I'm referring to. So, the company's main interest is better business life to support better community life. If we are blessed to prosper as business people, we are going to have our work and our prosperity seen in our neighborhoods is going to be... the evidence of it is going to be in our neighborhoods. It's going to change the scenery in our neighborhoods. We are going to make that scenery speak of our efforts and our progress, G-d willing. This is the reason. Community is what we have to focus on. G-d does not speak to us individually in the Qur'an, except for our need to support the collective, the big picture. That's the only reason G-d speaks to us individually to help us to be fit to support the whole community, the whole people, not just our individual self.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So, when we establish something, we hope that it will also result in us having better homes, better schools, cultural outlets for our teens, but also cultural outlets for all of us. We all need cultural outlets. We need places to go where we can feel comfortable and safe in a beautiful environment that will be conducive to happiness. That's what we need. And clean happiness. Not filthy happiness. Clean happiness. That's what we need. And we will have that... Allah is with us. We will have that if we stay conscious and stop looking for excuses to satisfy your weaknesses. [inaudible 00:11:32] I give you no excuse and your weaknesses will gradually go away from you.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
What is CPC/Comtrust LLC? LLC is limited liability company. And that is... We chose to register assets so that it saves us a lot of problems that we are not wealthy enough to face. A limited liability company is a simple concept. It's not for real complex multi-concept businesses. No. It's a simple concept. And if you hold it to that simplicity, your costs will not escalate so much. Your costs will stay reasonable. And you will be able to manage without extreme costs. Not necessarily, though, you have... Management requires intelligence, it requires responsibility on our part, and it requires, for a lot of us, for some reason, and I think the know the reason, is the climate. It's the spiritual climate of today's street public, our public. For some reason, we don't seem to have it and that is a genuine, a genuine interest in other people and especially those you are asking to support your business or to work with you or be your partners in business. You must have a genuine interest in their life and in their success just as you have for your own life and your success.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And you know how it's stated, love for your brother what you love for yourself. It's stated that way. But you can say that so long, you hear that from your father and mother, "love for your brother what you love for yourself" and after a while, you're not hearing anything. They're just talking but you, you're not really hearing anything. But what is CPC/Comtrust LLC achievement? What is our achievement? Our achievement is real property. We have real property. And we don't have any debts, no property debts. And as long as we keep the property free of debt, our property can also get us investment money. We can borrow money on our property to invest. And I'm kind of wondering did we make a mistake because we've been waiting for the property to go on up on a 159th for a long time. And it hasn't gone up yet. But I know one thing, the brother that brought the idea to me, how we could do it and still has faith that we're going to do it [inaudible 00:15:01]. We don't want to do it like the brothers did it, those so-called professionals did it under the Hon. Elijah Muhammad in Chicago, had a big office building put up. And it cost the community, Nation of Islam the Hon. Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam, almost a two time what is was worth. Almost twice what it was worth.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And he had problems that were very serious. Those are times when the enemy was working to make sure we wouldn't succeed. Enemy from without reaching us through people inside to make sure we wouldn't succeed. Now, we don't have the outside enemy anymore. He's inside. And he never was outside. He just doesn't want to do anything now. And he's busy trying to defeat all our efforts, so he won't look bad with us out streching him and going ahead of him. So, to make sure we don't show him up, he wants to make sure we don't succeed. And believe me, we got too many of us, among us, like that, who just hate to see us succeed. They want us to fail. When we succeed, it kills them. It burns up their hearts. When we fail, they are relieved. They are happy. So, our success is the purchase of property on a 167th Street in Markham, Illinois and Hazel Crest. It's so close together that the postal system tells us we in Hazel Crest. And the city, the township, tells us we are in Markham. And some of our property may be in Hazel Crest, but we always say Markham because we had to buy a Markham license to operate.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So, we had the property on a 167th Street. The minute it was purchased, I saw it, and I said, "This is convenient." And I felt that G-d wanted me to do it. I feel G-d's spirit and G-d's will sometimes. And I feel it so strong. I said, "I better do this." So, I kept seeing, it kept coming to my mind as I would pass this neighborhood right on my route. So, I kept seeing it, and I said, "Hey. I better go inquire before this property is gone." So, I went and inquired, and eventually we bought the property. And we bought it for a little less than $300,000. And the commercial attorney, who's the main attorney, the chief attorney for Century 21 in the southwest suburbs. His name is Anthony Catullo. He told me, he said, "You got it for a steal." And like I said, we still have it and we don't owe anything on it. Taxes are going up in that area right now. And that means our tax is going to go up. And taxes are heavy. It's almost... Only way I could survive is your manager for this interest.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
It is because you have such love and trust in me. That's the only reason why I have survived. If I was somebody else that didn't have that from you, we would have been closed down and gone out of business. And so, we would have to sell our property and split it up among us. I would never accept to do that. We can't do that. We're going to make this succeed. We have to. [inaudible 00:18:50]. And I'm not speaking... I don't take drugs. And I'm not on medication. I do believe with all my heart and soul that G-d wants us to do what we're trying to do. And as long as we are sincere, he's with us. Now, we're going to have failures and disappointment. Nobody or no people that G-d has worked with or left to do things the easy way, and never had any difficulties or face real opposition. It makes you stronger when you overcome big opposition. It makes you stronger for your future. It makes you strong so you can do much more than you would have done if your muscles hadn't been tested and strengthened by difficulty and big opposition.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So, we have to take that. Muhammad took plenty of it, peace be upon him. And all those servants before him, they took plenty of it. You're saying we are different? I said, "Why? If you're a Muslim... I didn't. I'm telling you what I'm hearing, what I've heard. If we are Muslims, how come we have to have all these problems?" It's because you're a Muslim. But G-d says, "Face the difficulty and you will get the ease." Stand up to the difficulty and the ease will come. Allahu Akbar. So, we have the property also on 159th Street. Now, the one on 167th Street is where we have the food processing, mostly meat processing. We've started to go into salads. Salad is a big business now. But we didn't because we were losing so much on the meat. Why were we losing? Why did we lose? We could have succeeded with that business very easily. Why did we lose? We lost because our own people didn't do anything but just wait and watch and listen, but didn't do anything to support it. Very few of our Muslims supported that business, very few.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
At the last moment, some came up with plans and started it. And then they had a pretty good showing. But not enough to support a business like that. The business is not a small business. That kind of business is a big business. You can't make money on small volumes like someone purchasing 10 lb of this and 5 lb of that. You can't make it like that. You have to have what the Nation of Islam had under the Hon. Elijah Muhammad with the help of the F.O.I. and Elijah kicking a.s.s. Yeah, he did. He did. But it was necessary sometimes. (unclear) and it hurt me sometimes looking at how the brothers were treated]. But the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, he knew I was hurting, too, in my heart. He said, "Son." He said, "I know these people." (unclear) He said, "Son." He said, "You have to ride them like you're riding a horse." He said, "You have to say, 'Giddy up! Giddy up!'." So, you have to be able to take that whip, "Pow!" So, then they move. That's what he told me.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And even though I disagreed with him. I didn't tell him, though. I knew better than to do that. I didn't tell him nothing. But I did (unclear) and got away with it, too, as Minister of Philadelphia. I wouldn't put all that pressure on the people. And I got away with it. For about three years I got away. I did until I went to prison for refusing to obey the selective service order to go to the hospital and do hospital work. So, they locked me up. Then I came back and things had changed, big change. Lord have mercy. [inaudible 00:23:20] and I said, "where are all of the good believers". Where did he get all of these pimps from? Wearing expensive jewelry, and long fur and leather coats. I said, "Wow. That was be too much for me." So, I'll started saying well, I got to get ready to help the Hon. Elijah Muhammad keep these people. That was my spirit. Keep these people. Save them for the life that we want and Allah blessed me to do that. But not miss out the Hon. Elijah Muhammad helping me get where I am. Yes. He told his staff, but they didn't come to tell you that.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
But he told his staff, "My son can go anywhere he want and preach," he said. He looked at me and he said, "Son, preach that gospel." I didn't have any gospel. The tape that they thought would get me in trouble the Hon. Elijah Muhammad liked it. He said, "And son, preach that gospel," referring to what he heard on the tape. So, Allah, that is to say, never think that Allah is not with us. Allah is with all of us as long as we hope. He's with us because we are a particular people. We've just not an ordinary people. Our circumstances, our history behind us, and our determination to deliver ourselves before G-d as a decent, dignified human people. We might have forgot that. But that sacrifice by our leaders behind us and the people supporting our leaders, G-d will never [inaudible 00:25:18]. He will never desert us. We have to desert ourselves. He will never desert us. So, we have those achievements. We have on 159th Street also land, that was bought later. We have a strip of land and we hoping to see that Richmond... we call it [inaudible 00:25:41]. That's the name of the street. Like I said, we should have put the name on the business in Richmond after the street.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And it has psychological benefit when you say your store is "Richmond". Yes. Graceline Richmond Shopping Center, you see? Yes. So, we had that strip and we are hoping to see the building go up. If you go by there before you go home, you will see that they have... they did the testing to make sure that the foundation can be put there, that there was no water problem. There's no high water level there or anything. They wouldn't support it. And they have also recently put a fence around there that says something is getting ready to happen. But I'm not impressed yet. I won't be impressed until I see machinery out there digging the earth, of filling where filling in is necessary, laying the foundation and going up with the structure. Then that will impress me. It doesn't impress me to throw some little cheap fence around the place. I didn't finish what I wanted to say about imam Pasha of New York City. Imam Pasha is determined, and I don't think it's his fault at all that we haven't gone faster with this.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
I think it's the persons that impressed him and they could do the job. And I really hate that he didn't consult more of our people who are in the business of building and constructing. I learned recently from Detroit that we have a very big, impressive company that does this work. And they are quietly assisting us by saying their thoughts and their concerns to be imam Pasha. So, we appreciate them so much and just wish that we had consulted with such persons before we actually started the project, or got someone to start up the project. I want to just keep moving through this but that's necessary that I tell you these things. So, our achievements are real estate that we have. Our achievement that's bigger than our real holdings is our investors that still have faith in us. And also our achievement is the business that we do have and have not lost it yet and that's shea butter business. Shea butter business is a good business. And I'm finding that now we should let others, let those who buy from us do the retail sales, and we concentrate on nothing but wholesale, volume sales. That way I think we can save ourselves money. I know we can save ourselves money.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Let them handle the customers, retail sales, and we handle the purchase. That's what we are, collective purchasing company. We handle the big purchases and make the products available to them at a cost better than they can get anywhere in these United States, better than they can get in Africa. And believe me, the brothers who are buying shea butter and they know what the prices are out there. They know the prices. They are happy. We just had a brother call up and said, "I got [inaudible 00:29:59]. He firstly said, "I got a $1,000. I want a $1,000 in shea butter." Then he called back and said, "No. I want to add $200." He said, "I want to [inaudible 00:30:10] I want to get $1,200 worth of shea butter." And we gave him a price, he was so happy, so happy. We sell shea butter wholesale now, like for $250. Because they're unlabeled bottles, you can get it for $2, $2 a dollars a bottle. And those are the little bottles that we want you to sell them for no more than $6.99 or $6.95 or $6.99. But we're not going to stop you. If you want to sell them for $9.99 or $10, we can't stop you.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And we are not going to make any trouble for you. But we hope that you will sell them for no more than $7, like $6.99. And where can you find items... That's what you call a hot item in business. Where you can find an item that you pay $2 for, or $2.50 for, and you sell it for $7. You're making 300% profit on the item. Now, if you've got overhead and all of that, that's another thing that I have to tell you all. You don't know I have volumes in my head of economics and business knowledge. Volumes. They're all thinking I'm this easy iman, "He doesn't know these things, that's what you think." You'll be deceiving yourself if you think that. If I knew somebody more, I'd have them in place. They'd be in my place. You think want all these jobs? I don't. No, I don't. If I had found somebody that can handle this like I can or handle this to our satisfaction, I'm going to give it up right now like that. And see how silent you are? Nobody coming forth to say, "I think I can do it."
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
We tried. I talked to some of these professionals. I don't have to hear them to talk for more than two minutes and I can tell , not you're not qualified. We got to recognize the realities in business and respect those realities. Yes. So, we have a property on (unclear). We don't owe anything on it. Taxes are just eating the money up, taxes. We had to hurry up. We had to hurry up and put something on the property, on the land, that would bring in income so we don't have to pay [inaudible 00:32:56] taxes. And we got one of the houses, brother's in the house, one of the house. We got two houses on the land that's on 167th Street. So, one is rented out. We got a purchaser for the other house, who wants also to purchase all the lots behind all the way to the back in the rear. And at first, we needed money so bad in our account's cash. We don't have cash. We have property not cash. We needed it so badly. And so, I was moved to say, "Yes," to him.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
But then, usually when you sleep on something, when you wake up, you might have a different idea, a different mind. So, I slept on it. So, I was to see him that next morning. And when I saw him, I said "I got disappointing news." And I didn't wait. I just put it right on him. I said, "We can't sell you the land. We can only lease or sell you the house." I said, "Now, if the law permits me to own the house on our land, we can work it out." So, he accepted that. So, he still is going to purchase the house but he knows he can't purchase the land. Because we purchases that land in this area where we are. It's an exciting area. When I moved in there, the very little businesses in that area and Allah blessed me to move very close to the main business center, it's called Canterbury Business Shopping Center. And they didn't have any big businesses in there when I moved there. But now, they've got big businesses in there. And the value of property has gone up. They're doing a lot of building of private homes, too, in the area.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
The value of property is going up. So, we shouldn't sell. We should desperately hold on to this property because it's value is going up. And on 159th Street, as I said, we got that property. We already have a brother's who's going to have barbershop. He has a barbershop, and he said he wants his barbershop there also. So, we got one part of it is already given or... waiting on the brother to start this and put his barbershop into the property. And we will be getting rent from him. We'll be getting rent from him. And I'm sure that if we devote most of the space... when this strip mall or whatever you want to call it goes up, if we devote most of the space there to suits to selling these suits and put a sign up, "Wholesale. Wholesale. Factory Discount Prices. Wholesale." Put it up big there. And promote it. Spread it. Spread the news. Advertise in Chicago and the suburb area. I believe we'll have more business than we can handle. We'd have to soon have another place. I do believe that. And we going to have it. Inshallah we're going to have that soon.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Much as I wanted to say, but I don't think time would allow. The big problem is now we come from what have we achieved. We have achieved much more than I've given you there. But I've just pointed to the main things, the real property and the faith and spirit of our investors, and that we have this property and we have not taken out any loans or borrowed money on it, so it's debt free. Now, let's look at our failure. What is our failure? Our failure has been unconscious employees. Payroll can take all your money if those employees are not producing. So, that's our failure. We trusted our own people, mostly Muslims, practically 100% Muslims almost. And they just don't have it. There is no conspiracy. There ain't no conspiracy. It's just bad genes. They just don't have it. And we lost big. We lost big. When you got people working for you and they're Muslims and everything and they looked impressive, you want to hold onto them. You want to work with them as long as you possibly can to see if you can get them to come around.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And I'm a very patient man. There are people who know me and close to me, they say, "You too patient." And they might be right. They might be right. I know one thing, my patience has worn out. And we won't go through that again. No indeed. Unconscious employees they don't really have a spirit to see the business grow, no spirit to see the business grow, only a spirit to impress you with some fancy papers, some fancy looking idea to impress you. Or sit at the computer and entertain themselves. No spirit really to make business. Calls come in, they don't know how to talk to people. They don't know how important those persons are. Yes, to the success of the business. So, they kill help. They kill money that's coming to them. They kill it by not knowing how to treat and talk to people. They put their personal interests before the business interests. If they're hungry, it comes out in the way they treat you. "Oh, I needed to get off and go get me Burger King. "You handle that", talking to somebody else. "You handle that". It's pitiful. And a big problem for us is that we are just fearful. If it ain't on TV, we don't trust it.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
If it's on TV, we'll [inaudible 00:39:43] lottery or whatever. Fearful. Very fearful. So, what happens is, a fearful... timid people are fearful, weak. Timid people got no muscles, can't stand up to opposition. They attract slicksters. And they move among you. Some of them hustle our pioneers, in my name. Take their money and promise them they'll give it back, don't give it back. It's a shame. Then I don't like to say it, you good leaders, you know yourselves. And you, followers, you know your good leaders. Most of those leaders of our community, they are what I call bond bosses. I was locked up, and I know what a bond boss is in the county jail of Chicago. But you don't understand bond bosses. But I'll tell you what it is. A bond boss is a person illegally authorized in prison to keep other prisoners in check. Illegally because the law doesn't allow that that a prisoner who himself is a convict, and perhaps a worse criminal, convicted for a worse crime, then those that they're keeping in check [inaudible 00:41:26] awful. But wasn't that black slavery? Take one slave and put him over the others?
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So, most of our imams that's what they are. They're bond bosses. And I decided long ago, as the song goes, I decided long ago not to worry about them, keep going ahead, not depend on them and not bother them. I don't bother them. No more than I'm bothering them right now. And this is not intentionally. I'm addressing our problems. This is just to solve problems and to let you know what we're facing, so we can beat it. We have to beat the opposition. No fighting. No arguing. We beat them by working. We beat them by sticking with our plan and supporting it and seeing it prosper or advance. That's the way we beat them. How is the plan progressing? It is progressing. The shea butter sales are picking up, Salaam Nutrition, picking up. Here I have to stop for just a moment here on Salam Nutrition. Some of us think that Salam Nutrition is my business or my daughter's business. Salam Nutrition is a company registered just as CPC/Comtrust is registered. And it's registered as CPC/Comtrust Investors.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
The only reason why it was established as a separate company is because our commercial attorney advised that we shouldn't have something that goes in to peoples mouths sold by the same company that's selling them meats, shea butter and clothing and different kinds of items. So, because if someone wants to sue you, they will also sue your whole company, sue everybody. So, if they say that our vitamins hurt them, they can't hurt our other company. It's independent. They say [inaudible 00:43:48] is independent but owned by the same. And legally they can't go at CPC/Comtrust LLC. They have to go at CPC/Comtrust Investors if they want to come at us. But Allah's our protector, I'm not worried about that but if the attorney advised you, you should respect the attorney's advice. That's what I did. So, we established it that way. My daughter works so hard, I guess people think she owns it. She works so hard. And she's so devoted to making it a success. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. She's so devoted to making it a success, I think that's what makes people think that maybe she and I own it. No. The investors own it.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
All of you, here, you own it. And it is showing progress. It is showing progress. So we are realizing some increase in sales. And employees we're making a lot whole of progress. We got rid of them. I'm working with volunteers. And we're doing much better. And we don't have payroll. I promised them, though, if it pays off, we'll remember your contribution to our success. Yes.
Speaker 2:
Allahu Akbar.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Allahu Akbar. We're doing very well. My son knows that. He's 15. He was 15 in July. I said, "I'm going to try him out." That little guy is going to be a good business man. He's doing the work. He's progressing [inaudible 00:45:43]. No special salary or anything. I take care of him myself a little bit. And he's doing great. And that young wife over there. See her sitting near him over there with her head down taking notes for me? She is doing a great job.


