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IWDM Study Library 
Urban League News Report on IWDM

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Announcer:
From American Cable Vision Studios, here's Edwin Birch
TV Program Narrator:
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, one of the most prolific and influential leaders in African-American history. As leader of the Nation of Islam, he attracted thousands of followers while establishing a financial empire worth millions of dollars. Some describe the Nation of Islam's origin as one of the most unusual phenomena in African-American history. In 1930, a small mysterious man appears in Detroit, Michigan from the Holy City of Mecca, Arabia. According to stories, W Fard Muhammad claimed to be a Prophet sent by Allah to raise the consciousness of African-Americans. His message spread rapidly attracting blacks to a philosophy that provided hope.
Imam WD Mohammed:
It was a new form of religion actually to introduce eventually in the long run, the African-American people to Islam to the real Islam.
TV Program Narrator:
Fard's religious philosophy incorporated Black Nationalism with Islamic teachings. This varied significantly from traditional Islam. According to Fard, blacks were the original people of the earth, and his mission was to teach African-Americans the truth about whites while instilling racial pride and respect for their heritage. It wasn't long before Fard established an Islamic Temple. In 1930, Elijah Poole accepted the teachings of the Nation of Islam and became one of Fard's first converts. From that time on, he would be referred to as Elijah Muhammad.
TV Program Narrator:
When I first saw a picture of Fard Muhammad, I was shocked because I was expecting to see a black man.
Imam WD Mohammed:
I understand that.
TV Program Host:
During the years of segregation and intense racism, I wanted to know how was this Caucasian looking man able to grab the attention of African-Americans like your father, Elijah Poole at the time, to the teachings of the Nation of Islam.
Imam WD Mohammed:
I think it was only because he presented himself as a man coming in the spiritual concern, and as a man establishing or giving a people a religion. I think it was because he was speaking so I would say strongly in defense of black people who were mistreated by slavery and discrimination in this country, and that he was speaking so strongly against white supremacy, white supremacy, and advocating if not a black supremacy, he was advocating the superiority of the black race. And so, he found listeners mostly among blacks whose education perhaps didn't go beyond maybe the 10th grade. That was the caliber of people that he attracted. The mental level that he attracted only had formal education maybe from up to maybe the 10th grade. And that was the exception. Most of them were like high school and under, I mean, pardon me, elementary school and under, that's like eighth grade and under. So, he attracted, in that time we had a lot of uneducated African-Americans or blacks in the 1930s. So, he attracted a great number of them and they were not, I would say, informed enough to know the difference between fact and fiction. He could have said Asia or Mecca was anything he wanted to say it was.
TV Program Host:
They would've believed that at that time.
Imam WD Mohammed:
That's right. And that's what he did. He said anything he wanted to say. He said that what he thought would attract blacks to him, to himself and to believe in his package, which was really a package of, I would say what you call fiction or had a lot of fiction in it, or at least we have to say it had a lot of metaphorical language in it, a lot of picture language in it, metaphorical language or picture language in it where the picture represents an idea or represents an abstract or something else you see. And it takes educated people.....You have to have a certain level of education even to see the difference between metaphor and concrete.
TV Program Narrator:
The son of a sharecropper and Baptist minister, Elijah was born in 1897 in Sandersville, Georgia. He was sixth of 13 children, and like many children in the rural south, he attended school only when he was not needed on the farm.
Imam WD Mohammed:
My father only had three years elementary school education. That was the extent of his education. That is formal education. Three years in Georgia when he was a boy. You can imagine what three years of education in Georgia for a black person was worth in that time. But I think the Honorable Elijah Muhammad had a special kind of makeup himself. We was told this by, well, he would tell us sometimes, but my grandmother, his mother, my grandmother would also tell us. Marie was her name and William was my father's father, my grandfather, but they called him Wali. Later his name was changed to Wali. My grandfather Wali and my grandmother Marie. They would tell us about my father, right in his presence.
TV Program Narrator:
Due to the oppression and pain that so many southern blacks experienced, Elijah prayed for the day his people would experience the salvation his father so often preached about. But the years of discrimination took a toll on Elijah's faith and outlook on Christianity.
Imam WD Mohammed:
And they would say he never would accept just to be a Christian. He always had to question what the Bible says. And he would read the Bible on his own and then come and challenge his father. He would challenge his own father. So that's what he did even as a young man, young man, and I understand that as a boy, before he even became a man of 21, he was doing that. He was dissatisfied with the way the preachers were preaching the Bible. He was reading the Bible on his own. And I'm sure as a black man seeing suffering, registering the suffering of his people, he thought that they should have been addressing the suffering of their people more.
TV Program Host:
And especially down in the south during that particular time.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Right, exactly.
TV Program Host:
I'm sure he saw a lot of the things, the lynchings. And his brothers hanging in trees.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes, we have it from his own mouth. It's been recorded. But one of the things that affected him most was seeing what was a lynching. And the black man was still in the tree. He hadn't taken him down. And my father was a young boy. I imagine he might've been about 12 years old, and he said that he was just walking, walking the road and he saw this black man hanging in the tree. And he went there and it had such an effect on him or impact on his life that he never forgot it. And I'm sure that when he heard Fard, perhaps that scene stirred him to join Fard because Fard was against the white supremacy against white man's world, the whole world of white man. He was against the white man's world. And I believe that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad would've perhaps accepted Fard even had he not been the son of a preacher. But I think being the son of a preacher was additional influence for making him gravitate toward Fard.
TV Program Host:
During the peak of the Nation's influence, Fard disappeared just as mysteriously as he arrived, instructing Elijah to lead the Nation's followers to the Kingdom of G-d. When Fard Muhammad gradually faded out of the limelight, did your father have any idea that he would someday be the new leader of the Nation of Islam?
Imam W D Mohammed:
Oh, yes. It was clear. So, my father was made his top officer while he was alive among the Muslims or the blacks at that time, Black Muslims. I'm using the term that the people understand better, Black Muslims at that time. And my father, his position was Supreme Minister and his brother, his blood brother was the Supreme Captain. So, his two brothers, blood brothers came to the leadership of the Nation of Islam, even when Fard himself was here, was among them, he selected them. Collot was my uncle. Collot was a brother and a Supreme Captain back there in 34 and 35 till 36.
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Announcer:
Now back to Urban Scene.
TV Program Narrator:
Raising a family and leading the Nation of Islam was not an easy task. After Fard's departure, membership dwindled. Internal conflict endangered Elijah's life, and eventually split the organization into different fractions. As a result, Elijah had to leave Detroit and his family, visiting periodically over a seven month period. He traveled across the United States spreading the teachings of the Black Muslim movement. In time, Elijah's following continued to grow, surpassing the following Fard had before he left the Nation. But as Elijah's organization would grow, so would his son's questions about the Nation's teachings.
Imam WD Mohammed:
I wasn't aware of how different my world was because that's the world I was born in, raised in. I had to wait and get up and grow up and see outside and then understand, hear people, how they respond to us and to what we were before I knew how different our world was. For me, it was comfortable and very natural to believe that the black man was the superior and that the white race was the devil race. And to believe that we had a supreme knowledge, our knowledge was superior to the knowledge of the white world, and that this world is temporary. It's an evil world. G-d allowed it to exist, to test us, to try us, and it's end is coming very soon. So that's what we were taught. And I believed that.
TV Program Narrator:
Born in 1933, Wallace Deen Muhammad was the seventh of eight children born to Elijah and Clara Muhammad. He was a self-educated man who learned the practices and beliefs of Orthodox Islam. Take a look at this chart as it shows the difference in beliefs. Orthodox Islam members worship only one G-d called Allah, who was the Creator of all things. Nation of Islam followers believe in a secession of supreme beings such as Fard Muhammad, who is often referred to as G-d in person. Muhammad was the last Messenger of Allah according to Orthodox Islam followers, while the Nation of Islam believes that Elijah Muhammad was the last messenger. The Qur'an was the last scripture revealed by Allah to Prophet Muhammad. The Qur'an is not the last scripture, but will be revealed at a later date to Farrakhan. Orthodox Islam followers believe all people were created by G-d. Every human will be resurrected after physical death to face judgment.
TV Program Narrator:
Nation of Islam followers believe that Elijah Muhammad is on a mothership awaiting the day to save the chosen 144,000. As a result of immersing himself in the Qur'an, he came to realize that the Nation of Islam's teachings were different from the universal teachings of Islam. At one time, he was excommunicated because of his difference in theology.
TV Program Host:
It's interesting because when you were talking about how you began to have some questions about the teachings of the Nation of Islam, when you begin to see other things out in society. And how your father himself also has some questions about his father's Christianity. It kind of seems like a cycle there.
Imam WD Mohammed:
You're right.
TV Program Host:
How did he respond to you having the questions that you had about the Nation of Islam and his teaching?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Well, you really opened a door of light into our relationship that I didn't have before. My father, in my opinion, he was not only patient with me, but he was supportive. He didn't like that I break with the Nation of Islam, but I think he was pleased that I wasn't satisfied with everything, that I would question the Nation of Islam, that I would question even him. I think he was pleased with that, and maybe he was admiring really the person in me that was like him. I don't know. That's what you brought to my attention just now.
TV Program Host:
So overall, what was the relationship like between you and your father?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Good. Strong, very good, strong. A very strong spiritual affinity, spiritual bond.
TV Program Narrator:
More Urban Scene after these messages.
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TV Program Narrator:
Back to Urban Scene.
TV Program Host:
Wallace's strong desire to learn about Orthodox Islam also increased his curiosity about the mystique surrounding the Nation's founder.
Imam WD Mohammed:
They told me that first of all, that G-d named me before anybody knew whether it was a going to be a girl or boy. They said that G-d named you. G-d in the person of Fard. Gave me my name saying you were named after him. One of his names Wallace, he was called Wallace D Fard. And I was also told that this was some very special, very special incident. This was a very special incident in the life of the Nation of Islam, that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and my mother, his wife, Clara, had a child and that it was predicted by Fard that the child would be a boy. And they were told to name the child after him, after Fard, after the teacher or the savior. He was called the savior too. And that to take special care of the boy. That's what they were told.
My parents told me this, but my family, all of them know that. My brothers and sisters, we all know that we've heard that we're familiar to take special care of the boy and that he would do a great work for his father one day. For my father, I was supposed to do a great work for my father. Now I'm going to do a great work for my father and I'm named after G-d, savior Fard, and my birth was predicted. So, all of that mystifies me, well at least challenges my mind to understand what I'm to do, why me, what I'm to do. So, what it did, it emboldened me. It made me bolder than any of the other followers when it came to questioning things. I was bolder and I think I cab explain it now also as a student of general psychology or the field of psychology. When I look back at that, I said, I can understand that here is a child now who's put under tremendous burden by telling him these super things about himself. So he wants to understand it. He's not super, he's human. He's just human, just like everybody else. So that he wants to understand, what am I at to do, you see? So, to understand it, I go back to the one who started it, Fard. So, I want to understand him.
TV Program Host:
And at that time, did you not know much about him still? He was still that mysterious man?
TV Program Host:
Mostly a mystery. Mostly a mystery. But I didn't study him with a perception of him as a mystery. I studied him with a perception of him as a person who had put a great burden on me. And I wanted to know why or wanted to know how am I to see him. Am I to really see this man as G-d or am I to look for something else? Maybe he's not G-d. And maybe when the Honorable Elijah Muhammad says G-d came in the person of a man, maybe the Honorable Elijah Muhammad sees G-d as an eternal G-d, and also sees G-d as a mission, G-d, a G-d on a mission you see in a man, in the body of a man. So that's how I began to think. So, I had enough said about me as a special person to make me feel that I'm special enough and I myself am gifted enough not to fear to meet Fard man to man. And that's what I did. I began to address him man to man.
TV Program Host:
And did he answer those questions that you had?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. Straightforward. Yes. When I addressed him man to man, I began to see in his language that he actually was hinting that he was not nothing but a man and hinting that this is only temporary. This is a scheme, a scheme, a kind of scheme. And that his package is not just plain talk. His package is his message. His message is also code language, and that he hints in his own teaching that prizes will be given to the ones who were most successful in breaking the codes. So, he wanted the codes broken.
TV Program Host:
Was this then, could you say was the beginning point of you to one day be the new leader of the Nation of Islam? That meeting with Fard Muhammad, that was probably the starting point there?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes, exactly. Yes.
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More Urban Scene after these messages.
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Now back to Urban Scene.
TV Program Host:
After your father's death in 1975, you became the new leader of the Nation of Islam. How old were you at that time?
Imam WD Mohammed:
40.
TV Program Host:
40 years old.
Imam WD Mohammed:
40 years old.
TV Program Host:
Were you prepared you felt to be the leader?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Actually, on the day I became the lead, I was nominated and introduced to the people as their new leader. That was 75, so I was actually 42. But when my father let me back and told me that I could now preach for him again, I was 40. I was exactly 40.
TV Program Host:
So, did your father actually choose you to be his successor or did the Nation as a whole choose?
Imam WD Mohammed:
No.
TV Program Host:
Choose you to be the successor?
Imam WD Mohammed:
No, I think when it came to certain things, Fard or Professor Fard, Prophet Fard....
TV Program Host:
He had all these names.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes, savior Fard. I think Mr. Fard and Mr. Elijah Muhammad, I think both of them were in some kind of agreement that they would not openly name the leader, the next leader. And my father didn't hint this, he said it very clearly. He said, I know, but if I would tell you who the next leader is going to be, then the enemy will start planning for him right now. So that's what he would say. But it was clear in the mind of many of the older members in his following and some of the younger ones who knew what the older ones knew, who had the advantage of being near the older ones and could hear it from the older ones. They knew that they should expect the son of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Wallace D Muhammad, and they called me WD and they would have a special look on their faces and they'd say, "WD." They thought that there was some special connection for me with Fard. Yeah, they would say they knew that Elijah Muhammad's son, Wallace D Muhammad should be the one that would come into the leadership. They knew that.
TV Program Narrator:
As he slowly introduced the universal teachings of Islam, Wallace brought a different and unique kind of leadership to the Nation. He began by welcoming whites and renouncing separatism and the mystical teachings of the founder. He renamed the Nation twice, once in 1976. It was called the World Community of Al Islam in the West. And in 1980, the American Muslim Mission. Wallace dismantled the rigid, strong armed military force known as the Fruit of Islam. He kept Ministers salaries and reassigned some of them to break up power bases that had formed over the years. Wallace relaxed dress codes and encouraged patriotism and voting. Savior's Day was eventually phased out while Arabic prayers were phased in. The move toward Orthodoxy had begun.
Imam WD Mohammed:
My vision of the Nation of Islam that should be, that we should work to establish not a Nation in the sense that we had understood nation, but a community of Muslims, appreciating the value and meaning of government in their lives. A community of people who could support African-American black leadership and administrations.
Material achievements, material assets, material assets, that those assets be in the charge of African-American people and that they would have a sense of themselves as a community that would make them a very special people. That they would not be called anymore nation of Islam, but they would still have a sense of government. And I believe that every great institution has a sense of its own government. And I think Fard wanted to separate us from white folks, separate us from dependency on white man's society. He wanted to free us from a dependency on white man's intellectual or mental leadership. So, he wanted us to identify even as a separate nation. Separate nation puts you in a situation, a mental situation to depend on yourself, your own members, your own society for everything and to judge everything that's coming from without you see. So, I envisioned community of people benefiting from that kind of independence, but now they're identifying with the Ummah. Ummah is translated nation sometimes, but for the Muslims of the world, this nation is an international nation.
Imam WD Mohammed:
It's an International nation and it is a nation of a special character. It is not nation of this world's character or nature. The International nation is a religious nation, an Islamic nation, a nation under G-d, a nation that doesn't need the kind of governmental structure that other nations have. Its top authority is G-d, and the next is the Qur'an that any Muslim can take in his private possession. G-d too is in the private quarters of every Muslim, in his life with him, with him wherever he goes. And the Prophet, we take him not as a physical entity. We take him as a teacher and his teachings can be taken with any of us. So actually, that's what I saw, that Muslims really should have their own sense of government. And our sense of government comes from our understanding or our correct perception of what is the Islamic life. And when we understand the rules of Islamic life and our demand on us to obey the rules of the Islamic life, we have a sense of Islamic government.
TV Program Host:
Iman Mohammed, after years of those teachings under Fard Muhammad and your father, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, how were you able to change those mindsets of those people who have been taught those teachings for years?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah....
TV Program Host:
Mean it seems like that.....
Imam WD Mohammed:
That's an excellent question. That's an excellent question.
TV Program Host:
Would have been a difficult task.
Imam WD Mohammed:
And I've been asked it before and the answer that I give all the time, I don't see the indication in the people that ask me the question after I answer. I don't see the indication that they accepted it the way I would expect them to accept it. But the answer is simply this. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad didn't only hint direction, but he made changes himself in his own language, if not in his people. And I'm sure that he's responsible in making changes in many of his people that gave at least a staff of approval to my leadership and said, you should have faith in a leader who will come up and lead you out of this, out of this that you were in before. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad in 1972, I believe it was, and 73, but I believe it was 72, where he spoke very, very almost with a plea.
His language was almost like a plea, like he was pleading to his people. He said, from the bottom of my heart, he never talked that way to his followers before. He wanted them, he was inviting his followers who were present on Saviors Day at the National Convention. He was inviting them to change the way they looked at white people. And he said, if white people can treat you with respect, then you respect them. And he pointed to his guest, special guest that was on the platform, and he said, this person here is a scientist in Islam. These people are supposed to be very special people in Islam. They represent those that we would think would have the Supreme Wisdom. That's a term from the Nation of Islam, Supreme Wisdom. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is pointing to one of them who looks like a white man. And he's saying he's identifying him as a white man and he's identifying him as a scientist in Islam. Yes, it's obvious, right? And it was obvious, believe me, to the great majority of his staff, national staff and local people, local staff. It was very obvious to them. And that's how come they could support me on Saviors Day 75 after his passing.
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TV Program Host:
Wallace's changes created dissension among some of his followers, one of them being Minister Louis Farrakhan. In 1978, Farrakhan broke away from Muhammad's doctrine and revived the Nation of Islam, it's teachings and practices. What is your relationship with him today?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Well, there's, there's no real bitter air between us. We respect each other. We love each other, I believe, and we are watching each other. And I'm watching him with hopes that he will conform more and more to what is real Islam because he's doing a lot of good things. And I just hope that he'll make more progress for decoding, for the decoding of the old Nation of Islams mystical language, mystical language, so that he will put away the shroud, the religious shroud that Fard gave us and accept to just, will carry the simple, easy to understand image or dress that all Muslims carry in the world. I hope that he will come to that point. In fact, I expect him to come to that point and I'll never be satisfied with him not coming to that point. And he's a man that still follows the motto, our old way of the Nation of Islam, get it done at any cost. And I don't think when we accept Islamic morality, what is Islamic morality. I don't think we can support a statement like that. Get it done at any cost. At any cost means at the cost of your moral nature or the cost of your moral principles. Get it done at any cost, even if you have to lie, even if you have to use tricks or deceive people. Get it done. Now, the average believer that follows the Nation of Islam today, I'm sure that if they were here now, they would try to defend themselves. They'd say, "Brother Imam, you know that's not what it means, get it done at any cost." But I do know that's exactly what it meant. Get it done at any cost, that even if you have to deceive, even if you have to trick, even if you have to exaggerate and fake the truth until it's a big lie.
TV Program Host:
According to reports, Elijah Muhammad, many of his Ministers and officials were aware that Wallace rejected the Nation of Islam's teachings and embraced the universal religion of Al Islam or Orthodox Islam. But yet he was still chosen to be his father's successor. Some say, because Elijah Muhammad wanted the Nation of Islam to embrace the true religion of Orthodox Islam like his son Wallace and Malcolm. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was also aware of Malcolm's and Wallace's friendship. Reports say Wallace confirmed one of the rumors Malcolm heard circulating about the Nation's leader. He remained a friend of Malcolm's long after Malcolm had left the Nation up until his death. In the Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm was quoted as saying, "I went to Chicago to see Mr. Muhammad's second youngest son, Wallace Muhammad. I felt that Wallace was Mr. Muhammad's most strongly spiritual son, the son with the most objective outlook. Always Wallace and I had shared an exceptional closeness and trust. I had always had a high opinion of Wallace Muhammad's opinion." Malcolm was assassinated in February of 1965. After he left the Nation of Islam, were the bad feelings that accompanied the breakup between your father and Malcolm, were those ever resolved?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Those bad feelings? No. No, not completely. But I think sentiments, feelings of regret was very obvious when I sat at the table with other personalities in the leadership of the Nation of Islam or in the focus of the leadership at that time. I was just a Minister. I don't think I was in that focus at that time. When I sat at the table with them and heard the Honorable Elijah Muhammad say this, "I regret that that ever happened to the boy." Now, the boy was an expression that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad made when he was feeling love and closeness with Malcolm. He thought of him as his child, as his own son. He called me the boy affectionately. When he used that expression as affectionately, he said, I regret that that ever happened to the boy. And he put his head on his hand like this here, and he looked very sad and his eyes was like this. And he just looked there for a while. Then he changed his subject.
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Jimmy "Jam" Lewis:
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Malcolm X:
Our desire, our prayer is that we can have a peaceful gathering here today.
TV Program Narrator:
Despite Elijah Muhammad's denials, many believe the Nation of Islam, FBI and CIA, were involved in Malcolm's death. Reports say even Malcolm himself believed there were strong forces out to kill him.
Imam WD Mohammed:
I thank G-d that I lived to see my father show regret and hurt that Malcolm had been killed. While at the same time I'm aware that my father was an influence behind the drive to marshal the FOI, the men against Malcolm. So, his subordinates or his assistants in the ministry, or in the Fruit of Islam, they didn't act without first knowing that the leader was very hurt by Malcolm's attacks upon his personal life and very angry with Malcolm and wanted Malcolm to stop talking, you see. You don't have to say kill somebody, but if you love a leader enough and you know he wants to man to stop talking, there are leaders that are zealous enough and high spirited enough and devoted enough to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad to see Malcolm as a terrible traitor deserving of death. And I think when we hear Farrakhan say, speak language, that doesn't set too well with most of us now, not even with myself. When he speaks of what happened, it's with coldness. I think to me it's with coldness.
When he says he was a Judas, what would any Nation do to a traitor? But he says these things, I don't like it. I don't like to hear it. I'm not liking Farrakhan when he's saying that. But then I have second thoughts. Why? How can Farrakhan speak like that? And I understand then that as serious as his followers were about protecting him, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. By protecting the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And as much as indebted as most of them saw themselves being. Most of them saw themselves being very indebted. We are talking about people who were nobodies before. Even Malcolm. A lot of us don't want to say that, but he was a nobody before he met with the teaching of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And these people now have become Captains, they now get an audience on national television and they invited to speak at Harvard or Yale, you see.
So, these people are very much indebted to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And even those who don't feel nothing, they feel a different kind of debt. Their children now are safer. The wife now doesn't smoke, she doesn't drink, you see? And for the wife, it's the husband. He doesn't smoke, he doesn't drink. I don't have to worry about him on the weekend. So, these people feel so much indebted to him as I do. I feel indebted to him too. Though I was raised from birth, I was raised in that. But I'm thankful that I was raised and protected from the world. I never know. Maybe G-d would've blessed me to get in good Christian or good religious environment and I would've been as well off or better, but I don't know that. All I know is that that Nation did shelter us and protect us from a lot of harm and gave many of us opportunities that we never would've had to rise to the top. And I'm one of them.
TV Program Narrator:
Elijah Muhammad attracted thousands of African-Americans while establishing a movement that has been recognized as one of the most organized institutions in African-American history. Although Elijah's empire has since crumbled, Minister Louis Farrakhan and Wallace Deen Muhammad represent two of Elijah's disciples who are the most visible African-American Muslims today. According to studies, an estimated 6 million Muslims are presently residing in the United States, African-Americans representing about 40%. After Elijah's death, Wallace converted an estimated 200,000 Nation of Islam members to Orthodox Islam.
Hanif Khalil:
I think one of the things that really made it easy for me is the fact that his sincerity in terms of the approach, his commitment to seeing that the community followed through in terms of our mission, our aim, our goal. His unwavering courage. If you understand the mentality at that particular time, and for somebody to come in and go against the teaching of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, that took a tremendous amount of courage. So, looking at that, and probably more than anything else, was his piercing insight of the Qur'an, how you could take from the Qur'an and extract those gems and articulate it into everyday layman talk, where African-Americans could really understand what he was talking about in terms of the Qur'an. Because the Honorable Elijah Muhammad always had high regard for the Qur'an. Every time you saw him, he had a Qur'an with him, but he never really talked from the Qur'an. But he said that the one would come after him would really take us into the purity and the essence of the religion.
Speaker 2:
Wallace's ministry is known internationally and is financed by a diverse group of supporters. In 1976, thanks to the financial support of three-time Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, Wallace led over 300 Nation of Islam members on a Pilgrimage to Mecca, a journey that has helped many of his followers like to Tabit Murrara to mature in the Islamic faith.
Tabit Murrara:
It was a great experience, it was a very trying experience, and I think Almighty G-d for blessing us with a leader who would see or have the wisdom to take us there so that we can make the transition and become true Muslims and begin to practice true Islam.
TV Program Host:
Imam Mohammed, if there is one thing that you would like to change in America, what would you change and how would you change it?
Imam WD Mohammed:
One thing. Just one thing?
TV Program Host:
Well, maybe you have a couple of things.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Well, I would just stick with that one. I would like if I had the power to change one thing, only one thing in America, I would change the perception, the selfishness on the part of religious organizations, on the part of religious communities. When we really understand our G-d, our G-d is the same G-d. And understand revelation to man. And it's the same for all of us. Our Prophets are no different than the Prophets of other people. If anybody really received a communication from G-d, then it's the same for everybody, for every race, for every religion.
Imam WD Mohammed:
If I had the power to change anything, I would change the selfishness that is in religious organizations. If we could look at each other and not be so critical or so selfish to go to the extent that we don't even recognize the validity of these groups, of certain religious groups. There are a lot of Christians, right today, they don't accept the validity of Islam. I know they don't. Yeah. But we do accept the validity of the Christian people. We believe that Jesus is a Prophet of G-d and also Christ, but not G-d. We don't believe he's G-d, but we believe he's a Prophet of G-d and also Christ, Peace be Upon him. And we believe that a sincere Christian earns the favor of G-d just like a sincere Muslim. And I hope if anything that I could change that it would be to change the way people look at other people who don't belong to their religion.
TV Program Host:
Well, I want to thank you for giving your time to talk with you today and hopefully clear up some of those things and learn about the history of your father and the things that you're doing now. And I wish you lots of success on what you're doing. Thanks a lot.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Thank you very much.
TV Program Host:
Imam Mohammed, I really appreciate it.



