1992 November 16th
Chicago Address
Imam WD Mohammed:

For Muslims, the name in our Holy Book is Allah in the Qur'an, the name is Allah, Highly glorified is He. And we pray the Peace and blessings be on the Messenger of Allah, that is the Messenger of G-d and what follows of that traditional salute to the last Prophet, Muhammad Ibn Abdullah, who was born better than 1400 years ago in what is known today as Saudi Arabia in the venerated city of Mecca where we visit yearly to perform Hajj or Pilgrimage. And I would also like to say that we always thank Allah for the opportunity to serve the good cause, this special, the highest graded High School in Chicago, Whitney Young. We are thankful for the opportunity to be here and to address you here. And we appreciate you here who are Non Muslim, who are concerned or interested with what we have to say today regarding the topic we have chosen.
We welcome and appreciate the Imams presence here. We have outstanding Imams in our leadership who are with us here today on the stage and outstanding workers for the good of humanity. Some of them do not wear the title Imam but are outstanding workers for the cause of Al Islam. I was telling Brother Muqtada who is representing the Muslim Student Association, I was telling him that I was once a card carrying member myself. I didn't say card carrying but I was once a card carrying member of the Muslim Students Association. And I met some very fine people there and they influenced me for the better. My association with them was good for my health. Not that I was in bad health but it was good for my health. Dr, Ahmad Sakr, who many of us know who has passed away, may G-d rest his soul, a wonderful brother. And Dr. Tujani who was from the Sudan. They were in the leadership when I met them. So I have very precious memories of the Muslim Student Association of the United States and Canada. We are associated now with an organization that really got it's start because of the Muslim Students Association and that is ISNA, the Islamic Society of North America. It's a very big organization, very prestigious organization now with some wonderful leaders and very, very impressive headquarters, facilities for producing and printing books and videos. I am associated with them and I know that there past too is tied to the MSA.
We have chosen to speak on Our Priorities for Sharing Life In Our Community. Not just Chicago, but the area, town, where you live. Most of us might not live right in Chicago so we have to give more explanation to that as most of these sections are separated by geography and name. We are still living in Chicago as a people in mainly two areas. That's the South Side and the West Side. But wherever we are, we want to understand that we have an obligation to responsible for that block or that area. And even the state. This also includes us being conscious of our citizenship and carrying that responsibility in the best way we can, the most dignified way. And it goes also beyond the United States. Muslims are people who believe in G-d, one G-d for all and human society also. And that G-d is the Cherisher for that whole society. And all the members of that Society are G-d's creation and have an obligation to that G-d whether they recognize it or not and G-d has an obligation to them as well. And that is to give them Mercy, to show them Mercy, to offer them guidance and to care for all equally. So we have to also extend that awareness and when I say awareness I mean that obligation to be responsible to all of mankind, the international community of nations.
But we are focusing on the community we are in. And for Muslims we are immediately in the community of Muslims. The Masjid, the Mosque, the community, the Ummah of Al Islam or Islam as it is commonly called. But since we are minority in this country, minority in these cities, it is no more than good sense, common human sense to be aware that we should also be conscious of the members of our community. Because as a minority, we are in many ways dependent on the decisions of the majority. And I choose not to ignore that reality. So if I can work, if I have a strategy, and I am not saying that I am all loving and sweet about everybody, I'm not. I don't like many of my own people. But we have to accept the reality. We are here to do G-d's will and we have to be intelligent and sensible. So to do that, pardon me, to recognize that, we have to not only embrace everybody but work hard at improving your relations between yourself and others. Between Muslim and Muslim, between Muslim and Non Muslim. And you know, I got a lot of opposition when I started calling myself the Muslim American Spokesman for Human Salvation. "The Muslim Spokesman for Human Salvation?" A lot of them don't even recognize it.
When they write me to come speak, when they write me they won't even put that. They'll say The Muslim Spokesman. The won't say For Human Salvation. I guess they feel we are so far from being saved as black people we can't be no spokesman. We can't be no Spokesman for Human Salvation. i want to reference with myself with something that Non Muslims can identify with. Because we are not interested with only seeing the life of Muslims improve. We are interested in seeing the life of human beings improve. Adn that's really being a Muslim. I was at the business meeting of the newly formed Muslim Business Association. And I was very impressed to see our new Congressman, a man who has come from outside of America. And now inside America as a Congressman. Sent to Washington by the voters of Chicago and Illinois. Bobby Rush. I was very happy to see him there. Bobby Rush, Senator Carol Mosley Braun, Attorney General Roland Barris, Superintendent Ken Burrows and many others. Their success owes a lot to an oppressed peoples courage. Courage to look white America in the face and identify what was unacceptable.
But that is only one part of the explanation. There success also owes a lot to the courage to look self in the face and identify what's unacceptable in ourselves. Not all African Americans have shown the courage to do both of those things. Some shied away from looking white America in the face. Some were held back from looking self in the face. Ane there were some who never mustered the courage to address the objectionable on the outside of themselves or from within. They didn't have the courage to see what was outside of themselves or what was within.
Dear people, I see that inability in us as a poverty of courage. And it is our peoples biggest holdback today. Both developments in courage are required. Neither one works by itself. Our humanity is not just held back by conditions outside of ourselves or conditions outside of us. Our humanity is also held back by conditions inside of us. For Muslims who are familiar with Qur'an or this reading from Qur'an, G-d Most High, Highly Glorified is He, "There does not occur a change of a person until they change or address what is in themselves." The excellence of our inherent aim, in our human creation, in the soul, in the human soul pressures a people to reject what is offensive to it, whether the problem stems from others or from self. The inherent power in our souls is a well spring behind all of our good courageous advances and takes form in the undefeatable spirit. Now I call this the healthy spirit of our people. The spirit of the freedom movement going back to the most earliest days, the spirit that shows all of us together, whether we were called Black Muslims, Christians, Civil Rights Advocates or Nation Of Islam advocates, separatists or integrationists, Black Nationalists or other. That is the spirit that shows all of us together. That freedom spirit, that spirit to live one day to see the best in us established.
That spirit bearing us up, vital, vitalizing, invigorating, showing two movements. The one, the movement which has the courage to challenge, to disavow what offends and what burdens the soul. The other, the movement against what offends and what burdens community life. We see these two movements when we see those leaders addressing the internal condition and the external condition. The internal condition of our people, our level of conscious, our aspirations, our fears of getting involved and trying to progress. The fear of getting involved and trying to challenge the opposition. The tendency to be vulgar, the tendency to be lazy, the tendency to be ignorant, to live with ignorance. The tendency to neglect our hygiene, the tendency to neglect our clothing, to walk around with our heads hung, the tendency to not have respect for ourselves or the value that is within ourselves. Understanding that our human creation is equal to any and all human creation in it's originality.
So we find on one side those who address that, they represent one movement in the soul. Then we find those on the other side who move legislation, who ask that laws be changed, who are political. Dr King was a Minister, may G-d forgive him his sins and grant him the paradise. We don't just ask that G-d forgive the sins of terrible people, we ask that G-d forgive the sins of all people that pass away. We agree with that saying in Christianity and in the Bible "Are there any without sin? No, not one." So we don't know of any human beings that haven't had some sin. We pray for all peoples sin. I'm afraid that might have rubbed someone the wrong way when I said I pray for his sins, the sins of Dr Martin Luther King. No, everybody has sin. No human being can be an angel. We can only be a human being. Now, we are motivated to be angelic, to be perfect. But we will err, we will make mistakes, we will sin. And G-d forgives all sin, isn't that wonderful? And that's not Chrisitan, that's Muslim. And what I mean by that is Christians can't only claim that. Muslims claim that too. That G-d's mercy is too big to not include all sinners. He says His anger is limited, but His mercy opens up to all. That's Allah in Qur'an.
When we muster the courage to come to our senses and unite upon that which must serve us well in the past, we can locate the focus for our unity ethnically speaking, that is our unity as a distinct ethnic group, or a group distinguished by our ethnic life in America. And also we can locate the focus for our unity when identifying in the life of America. Now don't we need to focus both unities? Our unity as African American people with our own history, the history of our taste, our moral taste, our cultural taste or whatever. That's what I mean by ethnic. Our people as a history moved by spirit. All joined together in one spirit. We need a focus for our unity. Because all of us are not Muslims. I know that is what some of you would like for me to say, all of us are going to be Muslim. Allah doesn't say that in the Qur'an, that all of you are going to be Muslim.
New Speaker:
He accommodates those who follow the Prophets that were sent by Him before the last Prophet. He accommodates them. Not only on this earth, He accommodates them in the hereafter. How do I know that? I know that by many things said by G-d in the Qur'an. But not only that, but also I want to give you something that is very clear. Their is an authentic Hadith saying of the Prophet, the Prayers and the Peace be on him he said that he saw the paradise, the life after. He saw the souls of those going into paradise. And he saw the followers of Moses and he saw his followers going into the paradise. And he saw the followers of Jesus. And he said his followers were in the biggest number. And it was a surprise to Moses because Moses thought his followers were going to be in the biggest number. Well I think that blessing or that vision that G-d blessed Muhammad to see the hereafter, to see the world after the judgement, the people, the souls going into the Jannah, the paradise, it's meant to help us understand what is in the Qur'an when Allah says that He has revealed this religion so that it will prevail over all other religion though the idolaters detest it. That's how we are to understand that. But many who come here from overseas to do Islamic work, they try to convince us that no other religion is accepted, no other religious community will be accepted, if the people don't become Muslims believing in the Qur'an, believing in Muhammad the Prophet, Christians, Jews, all of them, that they have no hope for the hereafter, no hope for paradise. They say that was ok up to a point in the life of Muhammad the Prophet. But now that the Qur'an has come and all the revelation is here, that's no more true for them. Well if they insist on believing that way I feel sorry for them. And I love them still. But that will explain the condition of the Islamic world. That will be a big factor in explaining the present state and the past state of the Islamic world. Attitudes like that will not be blessed by G-d. Allah will not bless anyone with an attitude that says just because I'm Muslim and I say La Ilaha Il Allah and accept the Qur'an I'm going to paradise. And the person that says no. Jesus is the Savior and the Gospel is G-d's word, and the Jew that says the Torah is G-d's book, none of them are going to the paradise. That attitude is bad. That attitude is wrong, that attitude is bad. And some of those people you are talking about are better than you in character, better than you in behavior. They have a better record than you at home and abroad than you have. So how can you say that? We follow Muhammad the Prophet, not people that have been so hurt because they have been dominated by the West and been made so bitter because being dominated so long by the West that they can't see straight in their senses, can't think straight in their senses. No, we don't follow them. We follow the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet. And if they think we don't have the intelligence as long as we been free in this country. Fredrick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, they were born slaves. And even while slavery was still in affect here in these United States, those men proved to be intellectually superior to most people. Now if they think in this late day that we are so stupid mentally or so out of it intellectually that we have to have them come over here and tell us everything and how we are to perceive everything that G-d says and how to apply it, they've got to be out of time with human history. I'm not attacking them, I'm extending them the hand of love. And they need it badly, those who think that way and have that attitude.
Returning to us and our situation. Today the solution for "The Black Man" is a solution for his troubled soul. We're not to go to politics anymore for a solution. The solution is not there. Carol Mosley Braun was sent to Washington DC without any fuss or problem except from her contender. And he lost and now he's quiet. Roland Barris is our State Attorney General. I'm talking about just here in Chicago. So what do we look like talking about we are politically oppressed. So what is the oppression now? i'll tell you what it is. It's the same oppression that's on all Americans. And America will always have problems. And people will always have problems. And I repeat the solution-the solution for the black man is no longer a political solution. The solution for the black man is a solution for his soul. S-O-U-L soul. In the Qur'an, the book for all Muslims, it was even the book for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. It was the book for his teacher, Wallace Fard. Or maybe you don't know him by that name. WD Fard. Maybe you don't know him by that name. WF Muhammad. Maybe you don't know him by that name. Well we're talking about the same person I hope. Or thinking of the same person. the one who gave me my name before I was born. He would send cards to my mother and sign them Wallace D. Why? Because he didn't want the people who were handling the mail or delivering the mail to see a Muslim name on it. He would just sign it Wallace D. I have seen it with my own eyes. In fact I gave one to my daughter for her to keep as a keepsake. I won't tell you which one you'll go right to her and start bothering her.
Not only that I have a facial picture of him, a frontal profile of Fard. Not just that side one that everyone has, when he's just giving you a side glimpse. I have the full picture. So he's much less a mystery to me then he is to most. In the Qur'an the soul is both the seed and the throne of spirituality and intellect. Hence, a people make a handicap of themselves by favoring invitations that invite them to be attractive but do not favor them being attracted to that which is intelligent. Our brother African American, our brother African American soldier. Because we were soldiers in the Nation Of Islam weren't we? And we're talking about militancy, we're talking about soldiers in the freedom struggle. So to our brother African American soldiers I want to say what we have as soldiers in victory in common is our dynamic soul, it's spirit, and it's intelligence. That is the champion that we have in common. Now if I point to an individual person you might not say that is your hero. And if you point to an individual person I and others might say that is not our hero. But we can point to that spirit, to that energy that has been moving forward and that has been insisting that we move forward. We can point to that and say that is our hero. The original spirit that rose upon the life that G-d created. Rose up out of that life and went forward for the good of that life. That is our life. That is our real life, that is our hero.
Adn that is an awareness that we need so we can have a sense of unity again. That spirit kept getting brighter while we were opening our soul to it's appetite for what is intelligent. Now I would like to stop here and let you in on something that many of you know about us but maybe some of you don't who weren't in the inner circle. WD Muhammad, Malcolm X, later came to be called Malcolm Shabazz, we loved the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. We love the Nation Of Islam. We loved our brothers and sisters in the Nation Of Islam. We loved the aspirations of the Nation Of Islam, we love the achievements of the Nation Of Islam, we loved the manners and the discipline of the Nation Of Islam, we loved the disciplines and the rules of the Nation Of Islam that were hard on us and caused us to be thrown out sometimes for violating or ignoring these disciplines. We loved that. We weren't boys, we were men. We weren't average men, we were extraordinary men when it came to asserting our manhood. Not only that, we loved the food of the Nation Of Islam. We loved our bean soup, we loved our brown rice more than we loved the Chinese fried rice. We love our carrot pies, our cheese pies, 100% cheese pies. We loved our bean pies. We loved them so much that we to tell others about our bean pies. We didn't want to break from that. We didn't want to separate from that. Twice or three times I was separated. The first time it was because it was told that I was saying things that were not approved of regarding G-d in the Nation of Islam. Because we were told that Fard was G-d in person. The man who taught my father, we were told that he was G-d in person. I was rejected after it was forced on my father. I said "forced on my father" because my father knew that my mind was developing differently.
He never bothered me until someone made a charge against me, and he was a lawgiver and an executor of that law. I'm telling you one thing that he was more serious about then you are about AIDS. And that was having his position weakened or having the Nation of Islam weakened. If somebody threatened that, wife, mama, daughter, son, you were in trouble. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad I tell you, this will give you an idea of what situation he was in when he put me out. He said, "Well, you know son, you know what I have to do."i said "Yes daddy, and he did it. And I stopped eating, stopped sleeping good. But I didn't stop being happy because I didn't care about those things. I was thinking about being right. And look here, you who love what we are all about. I know this. I know some of you all have the same history of obedience that I have. But I want you to know I never started smoking, I never started drinking. I've been told that some said they saw me drunk recently. He must have been drunk and hallucinating.
Never ate pork. Neve became profane, cursing and carrying on. Never got vulgar. Never lost my good standards, my good character that my mother and father instilled in me. Never. Alhamduillah, you're right. Praise be to G-d. And I have to recall what the Prophet said. Our Prophet, the Prophet of all Muslims on this earth. He said "Those of you who were of good character in the days of ignorance are of good character now." He was speaking of the very ones that were still with him, they were still there. "And those of bad character then are of bad character now." But never will the condition of a people change until they change what is bothering their souls.
You don't have to come to the path one way. You could come by anyway to G-d as long as you have that fear in you, that Taqwa in you, that consciousness in you to at least acknowledge that yo are not your own boss, that you have to answer to some authority one day, whether in this life or the next. As long as you have that in you, then you're going to try to be of good character. I would like to repeat that. In the Qur'an, the soul is both the seed and the throne of both spirituality and intellect. Hence a people may handicap themselves by their favoring invitations that invite them to look attractive, an outer show. But do not favor them being attracted to what is intelligent.
It wasn't a moral urge so much. At least I wasn't seeing a moral urge that caused me to differ with the theology of the Nation of Islam. I couldn't see a moral urge causing me to differ with that theology. "This is ridiculous that this man is saying that his own father conditioned him to undo what his father was so diligently trying to do." But that's the fact. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad conditioned me to question his theology. You who have been here a long time, you know the Honorable Elijah Muhammad told us, "Hey brother, sister. Don't just look at the surface, look under the surface. He said "Study it, there are answers that Allah wants us to get." That's what he said, study it. He told me to study it and look under the surface. If the surface didn't look good to me that didn't bother me. I just tried to look under it. And when I got up under it, I discovered all types of strange creatures. And it helped me deal with the surface. Again, I say the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, my father, conditioned me to be that way, to have those curiosities. Malcolm also came under the influence of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad's teachings. He was so close to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad would call him son, my son.
My mother would call him, "My son." She would call him son. Not only him. She would call a few other ministers son. When you showed that you were 100% faithful to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and to our cause as a people in the Nation of Islam, when my mother saw that you became close to her like a sister, a son, a daughter, depending on your age. So I say the same thing for Malcolm X, El Hajj Malik Shabazz. I say the same thing for him. I say that he was also wasn't moved by any awareness of any moral problem. But he was moved by a natural urge that was supported by the Honorable Elijah Muhammads treatment of our curiosity to follow his intelligence. I think I'm speaking for most of you who have come and have experienced a transition from what was then to what is now and what is real and true. I think I speak for most of you.
We didn't dislike the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. We had no jealousy, no bitterness, no. We loved it. The reason why it took me so long to break completely with that idea was because i was trying hard to make that idea agree with what's in the Qur'an, and trying hard to make the Qur'an support that idea. Some are still wrestling with that. I thank G-d that my father's and mother's influence in me made me more interested in being right than holding on to something that's proven to be wrong. That spirit that i pointed to that we all have in common. The spirit of our excellence, its potential moving us forward, moving us to try to separate ourselves from the things that are holding us back. Those things that are wrong for us, moving us to prove and establish and defend those things that we felt G-d intended to be in us and those aspirations that G-d sanctioned, according to the stirrings in our own souls.
That spirit kept getting brighter and brighter while we were opening our soul to what is intelligent. It has been dimming. It has been dimming because black consciousness has slipped and fell from itself, from its inherent aim, while experiencing a very disturbing time we call the 60's, the 1960's. I put Black in quote. "Black" fell from its excellence based spirituality. Our spirituality, our motivation, our aspirations were based in our G-d given excellence, human excellence. We fell from that to something I'm calling blackism in this particular address. Blackism. Now, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad put us on a path of blackism. But he conditioned us to stay on the path of Al Islam where all attempts to establish blackism failed. Blackism is also blind desperation in the spirit. Blackism is that contender for the heavyweight crown untrained for rules of decency. Too hyped up to experience, that is then but now. It is too hyped up to experience reflection, soul searching. And too desperate to address moral demands on us. Hence, the internal war we're suffering, self-destruction we are suffering, the violence we are suffering in our own hands., Crimes we are suffering in our own black community. Suicide we are suffering and social regression that is manifest now in our community.
When I say social regression, I mean we once cared about mama more than we care about mama now. We once cared about daddy and grandfather and grandmother more than we care about them now. We once cared about wife and children and sisters and brothers and cousins and nephews and uncles and nieces. We once cared about those people more than we care about them now. We once cared about the African American neighbor more than we care about the African American neighbor now. We once cared about our brother at a distance more than we care about them now. So we have suffered a great alarming degree of social regression, not progress. Blackisim is now punch drunk because of it's advocates, pardon me it advocates. I'm not naming any of them. I love every one of them just like the Prophet Jesus Christ in the Gospel, Peace be upon the Prophet loved all sinners. Now I haven't reached that stage yet. And to tell you the truth I am not trying to get to that stage.
Blackism is now punch drunk because it's advocates came in on some great counter punching by the Nation of Islam leaders in the fight with the white world or the devil world. Those that came in and looked in on the battle, they were electrified. And they rushed out to do it their way, but they waited until the Honorable Elijah Muhammad had passed. They waited till Malcolm had passed. And then they went out to do it their way. Now they've gotten caught up in a fixation to just counter the white man. And they've been in a fixation so long, they're seeing punches that the white man ain't even throwing, Punch drunk.
A punch drunk person will go out and throw punches in the air and think he's in the ring. He thinks the bell rung, he thinks the fight is on and he sees an opponent, and he thinks he's countering a blow. Dear people, counter punching the heavyweights and resistance facing us in American is making us punch drunk and weaker. Weaker in spirit, weaker in truth and weaker in the ability to benefit from practical common sense. Now I've just given us a prescription. A prescription not just for black Muslims or African American Muslims. Not just for those who associate in the community or the membership of Imam Warith Deen Mohammed associates, no.
No matter what leader or what Mosque or what Mahdhab or school of Islamic thought you identify with or come under. If you're African American, I've just given you a prescription. You don't have to be Muslim. If you're Christian, if you are an African American, I've just given you a prescription. Now if you take it and go out there and use it as I just described to you, I've given you also how to take the medicine. You just review everything I said. I've also indicated how that medicine is to be taken. If you do it, you're going to be healed and we are going to begin to enjoy a better sense of well being as a people.
Aren't we tired of going around here in the gloom, complaining, downhearted, being given all these statistics? The statistics on our failures, but no statistics on our successes. Being told of every ailment that we've gotten since coming to the shore of America but not being told of all the good things that happened in our health since we've been in America. That will make any man sick. You want to get sick quick? You can be healthy. Somebody tell you, "You know what happened yesterday?" Say, "No." Say, "Well, you know your own son said something about your character." They just keep on bringing you negative stuff like that. That's why you start to feel weak and sick.
Something will tell you in your nature right away, "I don't want to hear no more of that stuff. Look man, I'm just going to live my life. If that's the way they want to feel about me and then that's the way they are but man, please don't take up my time telling me what they're saying about me. I don't want to hear any more of that." We know in our nature to pull away from a lot of negativity because negativity will make you sick, weak, take away your ability. But we let these advocates of blackism just do nothing but talk to us about negative things. How much bad happened to us in our history in America. How much we've been held back. How much wrong has been done to us by whites.
Give us the statistics. How many were killed 50 years ago, 100 years ago, 200 years ago. Give us the statistics and just ask us to keep coming back for more. We used to have one main meeting. They meeting now every day some of them. And just do nothing but just pouring that stuff into the ears and into the soul, the sensitivities of the people who will listen to it. No wonder we can't sense or see opportunity that's here in America for us now and take advantage of it as Roland Barris, Ted Kimbrell and Carolyn Mosley Braun and the many others who are doing the same in business and the many who are doing the same in other professions. We can't take advantage of opportunity because these prophets of blackism, they're too busy killing our initiative.
Now we're not going to excuse that problem. We're not going to pretend that problem doesn't exist in the name of some kind of unity for all of us. Should we keep quiet while we're seeing something destroying our unity? Seeing something setting us back 100 years just because there is a black man or African American advocating that? No. I had to differ with my own father because something in me bigger than me, bigger than my father was urging me to do that. The good health, the good well being, the good future of our people. The health and well being of our future of our children now and to come, that's bigger than us just showing an artificial unity based in some kind of blackism. That's sick.
We need courage. I began this talk by pointing to courage. Courage that was in us. It was inherent in us. The courage to go forward with the best of our lives. The courage to go forward with the best of our motivations. The courage to go forward behind the best of our aspirations. The courage to stand up to the white world and look it in the eye and face white America. "You are not the man you claim to be. You claim to be a Christian following Jesus Christ, but your behavior says differently. Your most precious document of your government and your governmental way of life says thing about humanity and about human vision and human perception and human aspirations and human nature that we don't see reflected in your treatment of us." We were forced to rise and stand upon solid moral grounds and challenge the whole America that was saying that we were slaves or inferior by nature. Challenge them. And we ain't go up in the sky and get some invented idea about our origin. We didn't go in African and regress, go backwards go behind the history of Christianity, go behind the history of Al Islam.
We didn't go backwards into Paganism, into ancestor worship, into animism. We didn't go backwards into all of that, to get an argument to face White America. We went into what was present and what was evident. We went into his behavior and went into his claim and asked him to make your behavior compatible with your claim. We were on solid ground. We were supported by our inherent excellence. G-d created inherent excellence in us just like He did in all people. We were put in a bad condition, in a terrible position as slaves, real chattel slaves in this country, dehumanized and treated as we were treated. We didn't have nobody to turn to. We knew of no nation that would rescue us. No nation that would come here and argue with White America for us on our behalf. We had nothing to turn to but an urge inside coming from what G-d created that said, "This is wrong and I can' tolerate it."
And we succeeded. We have come a long way. We succeeded even in bringing the majority of white America to either be silent or be true. We don't have any problem now with the majority of the people in White America. The problem is with the minority of people in White America, not the majority.
The great majority have supported legislation that has brought equal opportunity to be written as a law. Discrimination to be erased and abolished forever. I say forever, it will never come again. Now some of the advocated of blackism will tell you "Yes. It's on the way." They will tell you it's on the way and pretty soon all those laws, they're going to be changed." What's going to change them? Not only has American been awakened now and the best of her conscience has risen. They have taken the stand that "Yes, we were shaming ourselves with our behavior. Our claims were noble but we shamed those claims. We discredited those claims and shamed ourselves and our behavior." They will neve return to that behavior because people of conscience around the world are also looking at them. It's not much America can stand upon now when it wants to establish it's leadership in the world.
I hope you don't think that America is crazy enough, White American is crazy enough to lose the best she got going for her. And that is her strength and courage to repent her ugly, sinful diabolic, devilish ways. And say these things at least on the books, in the media and the open public. I don't know what they say in private, only G-d knows that. And G-d doesn't give us the right to say what is in their hearts. Only G-d knows that. Dear people they have gotten the strength to repent their ways and the world has seen what happened. If they start to go back like that, we won't be alone like we were before. There'd be nations on our side.
Don't even worry about that. It's not going to happen. I'll tell you right now, the Klan and all the other skin knuckles, whatever they call it, all of them together ain't no match for me and my associates. I'm telling you. I'm a sober minded man and I'm a man who don't make rash decisions. I'm not going to rush to make a statement. I think it over very carefully before I make it. Me and my associates, we don't need Chrisitan help. We don't need white man's help. We can take care of all the Klansmen that want to start that thing again and all the skinheads and the flint heads or whatever. See, there is something in an African American who has been liberated by Allah. There's something in him that makes him become unreal and behave unreal, artificial whenever he meets a real challenge. That ain't in us. We've gotten past that. That ain't in us, no, no. When we meet a real challenge the same thing that we did in Vietnam or in Korea, we are going to do in American if it's necessary.
Our priorities for sharing life and responsibility in the city or in the neighborhood and the community without pointing to the thing that's hindering us from even being sensitive or open to such an idea. And you know them. I don't want to name them. They don't want to be responsible citizens for Chicago. They're not ready to be responsible citizens of Chicago. They're going to do things in the name of their own idea of humanity. That cuts out the biggest section of humanity and it shows only them to be the real humanity. And we unfortunately, we have many innocent African Americans that are influenced by their idea of blackness, or their idea of what is blackism or black pride or the black idea. Many are confused because of them advocating their idea of what is the original black man. What is his original nature? How did he come here? Their myths of origin, their myths of life, of real content. Their myths of the real destiny of our people. They don't know the real life or the real person of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And that also goes for Malcolm. They don't know the real person. They only know his X. I hope that Spike Lee's film, in spite of it being put together to make money. It's not a documentary, but I hope that enough truth is told in that movie about Malcolm, about what he was, to influence our youth in the streets, our young men and young boys wearing X's. And others. Adults too. Influence them to see the whole or want to see the whole Malcolm and not just a little facet of him or a little small peephole on him. The real man was not the man that was addressing the evils.
When I say that, I mean the real consciousness was not the consciousness that was addressing the evils as much as it was the conscience that was trying to free itself from the evils. Why was he so angry with discrimination? Why was he so angry with the white man's dominance over us? Why was he so angry? He was angry with white man's dominance because something in him said "I am created by G-d to enjoy the same freedom that he enjoys. I'm created by G-d to have equality as a human being with him not to be dominated by him." So if he was angry and ready to do violence even with white America, we are to understand what was forcing him. What was demanding that courage of him? It was something that he held precious.
Now, if I hold my newborn baby to be precious and some evil come against that baby. Then I started fighting for that baby. Maybe it took me a week to deal with that evil, it might take me ten years to deal with that evil. It might take me twenty years to deal with that evil. Then later on they show me just dealing with that evil and got my baby out of sight. And then they say, "Oh, he just likes to fight this thing." And that's the way you look to me now. You look like people that just like to fight white people. Muslims, we're in a good situation. We are in an excellent situation. We're in as good a situation as any African American can have in this country. We are in a situation as good as any African American Christian can claim in this country. Our situation is excellent. I owe most of that to my past life and my past experience under the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, under the nourishing hands of my mother, Clara Muhammad. From them I got a conditioning to want to be satisfied and comfortable with my own ability to think. And there was a great African American intellectual, his name was Du Bois, WEB Dubois. An educator, a great man. In fact, the NAACP came about because of his creation and his leadership.
That great man said and it is in the history of his works, his words. He said to his people, "The coming generations will progress in the measure that we have the courage to teach them to think." Recently, a friend, a supporter of what we all about, called in while a person claiming to be Minister Farrakhan's assistant was receiving calls. He was on the show and they were receiving calls, questions. Dr Khalid I think his name is. Dr Khalid I think they called him or Khalif or something like that. I forget their pronunciation.
Anyway he looked good in the beginning of the questioning. He looked good, he sounded good. I listened to it on tape. He was cautioning the brother to remember we all brothers, we all Muslims. But as the brother kept insisting upon the rule of intelligence, that their conversation and their belief be intelligent. This person got so upset, he called him. "You used to be the white man's nigger. Now you're the Arabs nigger. Your leader went to the Pentagon and prayed for those bombs that were dropped on the Muslims of Iraq." Now how can you trust a man like that to be your leader? I'm not talking about Farrakhan. It wasn't Farrakhan, it was his assistant. But if he tolerates that man representing him as his assistant, that also goes to him.
How can you tolerate a man like that who'll outright lie in order to look good on radio to his audience of blackism burdened people? How can you accept people like that? It's an outright lie and he knew it was an outright lie. I never went to the Pentagon to pray for any blessings on any bombs. I didn't go there to meet the staff. I didn't go there to meet any big shots, the big high brass. I went there in the interest of Muslim brother having an opportunity to be chaplains in the Army the same way we are now in the prison system. That is why I went there. Now how come he couldnt be truthful? How come some of you all can't be truthful? You like me but you are too artificially in love with American patriotism and I'm soberly in love with truth. That is the difference between me and you. Not all of you, just a couple up here. How come you want to say my trip to the Pentagon is all about going there with the high brass? No, that visit was to support their interests in getting us to have the same opportunity that Christians and Jews and other have, which is the opportunity to be chaplains on the Army bases. Now that is not the only issue I addressed, but that's the issue I went to address. When I went there, I addressed also the need to clarify what is Al-Islam, what is not Al-Islam. What are our desire in America? We don't desire to oppress any American people. We don't desire to dominate Christians, to take your churches away from you. That's un-Islamic. So I had to clarify the matter. I did that also, but I told you what my interest was.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Now, if we want to be in a good situation to shoulder our responsibility as citizens of Chicago, members in a community of Muslims or mixed community, we have to get rid of those ideas that are making us artificial and anti-humanin our thinking. What do we want as our priorities? We want first of all good relationship with all people. America is a country of many people, E Pluribus Unum, many in one. Not only many in one people, the American people, many people from different nations in one people called the American people. We're also many ethnic groups in one big culture called America. We're also many, many ethnic aspirations in one big aspiration called America. Believe me, don't ever let anybody make you think. I say, believe me, I don't see my permanence in America. I see my permanence with Allah. No Chrisitan should see their permanence with America. You should see your permanence with G-d. No Jew, no anybody should see their permanence in America, their permanence should be with G-d.
What am I saying, what am I getting at? I depend on my Islamic life more than I depend on my American life. You should depend on your Christian life more than you depend on your American life. A Jew should depend on his Jewish life more than he depends on his American life because our religious life is protected by G-d if we are sincere. America will not always be protected by G-d if we leave that that G-d loves, that that G-d cherishes. G-d loves our obedience to Him. G-d loves our recognition of Him. G-d loves our fear of Him. G-d loves that we want to follow the path that He has set for us. If we leave that, we won't exist around here very long, comfortable and secure as American citizens.
That's what makes this country so great. It invites the people from various backgrounds, from various religions to come here and live their religion without fearing persecution. We were persecuted before, but just like the Civil Rights Movement, our great African minds, our great African men and women that you know, Sojourner Truth and many others. Just like they were able to press forth, press forward. A slave that is almost insignificant and in our history, Julia the slave. She said a powerful thing. It was so powerful white men recorded it. She said "You look like G-d in the face and act like the devil in your hearts."
Well, we owe a lot to people like that courageous woman. While a slave, she told the white man that. So, it's not just us here now. It's us in the past too. It's just not us Muslims, it is us Muslim, Christian, all of us together. And if we want a better life for ourselves separately, Muslim, Christian, whatever we are in America, we better as a people be able to identify what is the basis, where is the ground for our real unity? Where do we find the beginning of our real history? Where do we find the force that has been driving us towards more and more real excellence, to more and more courage to defend what is right and to condemn what is wrong, to go into the open door of opportunity even if someone says we going to be killed when you step in there. Something in us saying, Die for your human dignity. Die for your G-d given humanity." We have to identify that again as our common base, as our common origin and go forward and then look at Chicago, look at America and tell Chicago, "You are no challenge to me."
You know, when I was faced with thugs, some of you think I had it easy. When I became the leader of the Nation of Islam, I was faced with thugs, bullies, criminals. I told them, "I believe in Allah. Crime ain't never been stronger than righteousness. A criminal ain't never been braver than a G-d fearing man. If you want get it on, let's get it on and see what happens." And those that were killers, when they heard me, something just pulled the fangs out of them and they started looking like human beings again. And right now, some of my strongest supporters are those that were beast, brute beast when I came into office. But now they're some of my strongest supporters and they will kill a brick for me. But I'm the same man now as I was then. I'm a man of peace. My nature was that and Al Islam took me in its arms from the cradle. And though it was confused, the best of Islamic influences kept me until I could be put on the straight path of Al-Islam. The path walked by all upright Muslims of this earth whether they belong to one race or another, one nation to another. Oh yes.
We don't want anything small. I began by telling you that we love the Nation of Islam. We love all of it's good points, all of its excellence. We love it and still do. That's how I began with you. Because I am not in the theology that I was in before shouldnt make anybody come to the conclusion that I don't like doing for self or that I don't like seeing us working for business establishment or work for business holdings, or work for economic strength, or work for economic empowerment. What would make you think that I'm not for that?
When as busy as I am with Salat, with Shahada, Salat, Zakat, Sawm and Hajj. Adn the principles of faith, belief in G-d, belief in His angels, belief in His Messengers, and belief in His books, belief in the Judgement Day, belief in the life hereafter. Belief in the ordinance, the law of G-d that rewards and punishes. I believe in all the essential principles of Al-Islam and I'm busy with those things. But what in my behavior makes some of you think that I don't want money anymore and I don't want business anymore or that I'm not for our people coming out of the poor showing in business into a better showing in business? What makes you think that crazy stuff? I don't know.
For a long time I said, "These people are infiltrators." I said, Theyre among us to just be up close to me so they can report on me and be taken as the authentic, true and credible reporters and give the wrong image of me to the outsiders and the insiders. Many of you Muslims have been given the wrong image of Imam Warith Deen Mohammed. Many of you. By people that are talking to you about me that claim to be in the inner circle of my close associates. They make you think that I don't want money. What fools! I've never met one that didn't want some money. Even those that lie and say they don't want money, I'll catch them. I look back and there he is working to get some money.
So, we want establishment in Chicago. We want establishment in America. Establishments that we don't have to be ashamed of and we are getting it. I feel proud. Yes, I do. I feel proud of African Americans in the media, in business, and in the corporate world who are making such big money now, not near enough of them. We can't compare ourselves with the big boys in white establishment. But we are traveling fast out of inferiority into excellence, into strength. I feel very good when I hear they're giving 20 million, 30 million to all black African American Institutions. The United Negro College Fund or to a specific college. I feel so good. This is what we wanted. We wanted to get in a situation where we could use our resources, improve our skills and become resourceful enough to produce for ourselves so that the white man wouldnt have to carry all the weight for us. We can carry some of the weight for ourselves.
Now we got African American men and women who have risen up into the political life of America, government life of America, in the educational system of America. Also, in the business system of America. They have risen up here and now they're able to do a lot for their people that was done before only by white folks. I feel good about that. I want to see us do more of that. I want to see us become more responsible for education in our own community and in our own city. I mean with an independent, separate effort.
You know I support us doing it with the system, working as teachers in the system, aspiring to be principals in the system, aspiring for the position of Ted Kimbrell, Superintendent. He's African American. I have to repeat that because some of you might not know I want to see that. But I would also like to see the separate independent effort. I'm a supporter of the Negro College Fund. I hate to use that language but that's the language they use so I have to use it. I'm a supporter of the United Negro College Fund and what it's all about. I'm a supporter of that. I donate to that out of my money. Not your money. When you give me your money, it's my money. It ain't your money no more.
You can say the same thing to me when I give you my money. Once I give it to you it's your money, it's not mine anymore. And I do give you some of my money. All of my money hasn't come from you. Big, big part of it has come from overseas from friends that like what I am doing. I just did a courageous thing that sometimes make a tear come here. I told the Saudis to take their money back to Saudi Arabia. But I had to do it. I didn't break my relationship with Saudi Arabia or with the embassy in Washington. I broke my relationship with the person who was in charge there. So, if they want to approach me again in a different way, they can. And I'm waiting impatiently.
But I will not be disrespected. No, no. I will not have my humanity and my intelligence disrespected. And I will not have yours disrespected if I can do something about it. Yes, we plan to have excellent schools. We have to do this independently and separate too. While we want to move up in the system we also want to establish that we can be responsible for systems within the system. We want to be responsible for and educational system within the system of America. Within the educational system of America or within the laws of America. Respected by system of America, respecting the laws of this system, but nevertheless independently operating. And can give it form and character by our Islamic perception and sensitivity as well as by our inherent genius.
And don't think we ain't got it. Yes, that's what we want to see. We want to see us established in all quarters of life independently, as well as working all together with people. And to me, that's what makes America so special, so unique in terms of it's democracy, of what it's democracy is. It allows for that. It allows for that. Look how long that Americans tolerated the existence of the Klan. Now we're talking about noble aspirations. We ain't talking about the aspirations of Dracula, Wolfman or somebody.
We're talking about the aspirations of a human being and a noble human being in his excellence. Yes. Now if we identify with the whole beauty of America, in the beauty of America. If we identify with the excellence of America. If we identify with the best dreams and best aspirations of the American people, beginning with the founding fathers. If we identify in that. If we believe our G-d who says to us in our Holy Book, "Seek with the means that G-d has made possible for you. The hereafter, the afterlife, the destiny, which is better than anything that we can have now, but it's out of our sight. G-d doesn't allow us to even see it.
So you know if G-d doesn't allow us to see it, G-d won't tell us to get on the road, I-90 or I-30, or something and try to find it. You've got to find it with your heart, with your spirit, with your soul. And what He wants you t find on this earth is kosher. That's the Jewish term. I said that for our non-Muslim audience. Now I'm going to give you our Muslim term, halal. He wants us to find halal establishment on this earth. I repeat, we want to be established in all of the good, vital constructs of society. Not just one, all of them. And we want to prove our qualification that we can be responsible for systems within the system.
We can be responsible for independent vision within the vision. Responsible for independent destiny within the destiny, within the destiny. Our destiny is to have a thriving Islamic community that Christians and all will be proud of. Thank you very much. Asalaam Alaikum.


