11/04/1989
IWDM Study Library
Islam in America in the 21st Century

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Brother Mahmood: [Arabic language] I seek refuge with Allah against Satan, the rejected enemy. With the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. [Arabic language]. I ask Allah for His guidance, I ask Allah for His mercy and His forgiveness, I believe in Him. My complete trust is in Him. Mighty and Sublime is He. We are thankful to Allah for this opportunity to be here today at the first American Muslim conference. This gathering, it's diverse audience, the participation that has come from various Muslim communities throughout the Northern California area. It's a first time gathering with this such magnitude.
The cooperation that has grown among the Bay Area Muslim communities, in large part, is due to the far-reaching vision of the speaker that I'm about to introduce to you, who has been working diligently ever since he was thrust into the mantle of leadership- to work to strengthen the ties of Muslim communities all over the world. He has particularly worked with the African American community to get us to accept our legitimate place on this earth as Muslims who accept the Quran as our law and our guide; who accept Muhammad the prophet [Arabic language] as our Prophet.
He has encouraged us to embrace our Muslim brothers and sisters: no matter what country they're from; no matter what language they speak; no matter what their ethnicity is. He has encouraged us to go forward in this way. So we are here today, greatly due to the encouragement that Imam Warith Deen Mohammed has given to us to accept our place in the Muslim world. We are here also today at the American Muslim mission conference because Imam Warith Deen Mohammed has encouraged us to also accept our place in the American mainstream.
So we are happy to be here in such a prestigious hotel as the Marriott. This hotel is magnificent. Just being here makes you feel good, doesn't it? I feel good. I feel comfortable in this kind of setting. And hopefully, one day, the Muslims will own hotels like this- in this country.
Participants: Allahu Akbar.
[applause]
Brother Mahmood: And it'll be easier for us to have gatherings like this and we won't be worrying about where the money is going so much.
[laughter]
We are enjoying this, and it's not always so important where the little money that we spend is going. We're grateful to Allah that we could be here. I wasn't prepared to give excuse for why Muhammad Ali wasn't here; but because he's not here, I can tell you this: maybe he thought we were gon’ have to fight.
[laughter]
And I don't think he was ready to fight. But I'm ready to fight- not him. I'm ready to fight and struggle to advance Al-Islam in America. We need more men, women, and children who are ready to fight to carry Al-Islam forward here in America. We need men and women who will have the courage to go forward and carry this religion and not get tired with it. Carry this religion and stay energetic, stay enthused, stay vibrant, and stay on the case like Imam Warith Deen Mohammed has; and I give to you the most enthusiastic, energetic, hardworking Islamic worker in the world- Imam Warith Deen Mohammed.
[applause]
Takbeer.
Participants: Allahu Akbar.
Brother Mahmood: Takbeer.
Participants: Allahu Akbar
Brother Mahmood: Takbeer.
Participants: Allahu Akbar.
Brother Mahmood: Takbeer.
Participants: Allahu Akbar.
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed: As-salaamu-Alaykum.
Participants: Wa-alaikum As-salaam.
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed: [Arabic language]: “We pray the prayers, the Peace, be upon Muhammad, the last Prophet and Messenger of G-d- upon his descendants, upon his companions… all; and what follows of this most excellent salutation to the noble prophet, and his family. And… pray that G-d bless this occasion with results that its planners hoped for. From the looks of the setting here tonight, I would say that it is a great success, it is a great success.
[applause]
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed: We are grateful also, and we pray G-d reward the organizer, Brother Said [unintelligible] Mahmood, for his great efforts and obvious knowledge and skills in bringing this about- on helping this to be a success.
To distinguish persons here, and Imams and scholars that I see from around the United States and outside of the United States, we salute you for your excellence in this religion. I see you at all of these occasions. That tells me that we have great and strong brothers supporting our effort here in the United States, to present the religion in the right way, and to bring better opportunities for Islamic life to our Muslim brothers and sisters and families here in America.
I am to address you on the subject of the Muslims in the future of America, for the coming 21st century.
When I began to collect my thoughts for this address, a rush of thoughts slowed me down. Something is saying to me: the situation is not the same for native indigenous Muslims, as it is for nationalized Muslim Americans. I know many of you are not yet nationalize; but I look to the nationalized Muslims who have migrated to America from other parts of the world- we may say from other parts of the Islamic world- to America. I look to you who have become nationalized citizens of the United States of America for a working relationship in the future, in the coming century, the 21st century.
It's not that I don't value those Muslims who are living in America as students, on work assignments, or who are living here- maybe deciding whether they are going to be nationalized citizens or not. I value you also equally; but, I look forward for the best situation for us in this country, so we can progress and be accepted by the American people- and I'm speaking of the best of the American people. We never want to be accepted by the worst of the people. And I know that if we are nationalized citizens, we will sense the importance of working out a future for ourselves in America.
I wouldn't be fair to myself, and I wouldn't be fair to the African American brothers here tonight, if I wouldn't make it clear that our situation here in this country is the situation that needs the most attention- the African American Muslims. For the immigrant Muslims, your situation is made better than ours by contacts open to you overseas. We don't have any contacts overseas. You come from countries- whether rich or poor, industrialized or not, undeveloped, developing or industrialized- you come from countries that are living, existing, and you have relatives that you left back in your homelands that are living, and you can communicate with them.
If there are opportunities opening up in the United States, you perhaps can get the assistance of your relatives back home to maybe, if not, invest capital. They will be able to help you maybe export something, by giving an opportunity for it to be imported overseas. Or, they may have something that they can export and you have contact with them, and by that relationship, you benefit; and because we do not have that kind of contact for ourselves, the African Americans, you are in a better situation than we are in- much better situation than we are in- to prosper in this country.
Your situation is also made better by the fact that you have more practical spending habits. Your spending habits are more practical than the spending habits of most African Americans. Your situation is made better than ours, again, by the fact that you have a more practical family concept and more practical family commitments than we have; and this puts you in a much better situation than we are in to benefit from the invitation that is extended to all of us in this land of opportunity, as it is called.
Immigrant Muslims situation is made better by your stronger ethnic identity. We, as African Americans, we carry a burden of identity. We seem to be stressing our identity more so than, perhaps, any other group in the United States; and I think that's coming from our desperation, our awareness that we don't have a real identity.
We don't yet have a real identity. That identity has to come by people living together, and sharing life together, and working together; and having a lot in common with each other, having a group identity that has been developed out of their experiences together and their working together- their having some attachment to a lifestyle, to a life form, or a lifestyle for the whole group. We don't find ourselves, as African Americans, having a strong attachment to any particular lifestyle or particular group behavior.
Our group behavior is not decided by choice. Our group behavior is influenced by: whatever is popular in America and in what we call the popular culture of America; and by whatever is happening in politics; by whatever is happening in the church; by whatever is happening, most importantly, in the streets of America. The ‘streets’ of America- the behavior of people in the [urban] streets of America- decides our group character, our group behavior, and et cetera.
We have a very weak ethnic identity, a very weak racial identity, if we want to call it racial, and you have a very strong one when we look at you- maybe you don't think that of yourself- but when I look at you, I see you with a very strong ethnicity. I see you with a very strong group identity. I see you with a cohesive life as a people, and we don't have that. So, your situation in America, in my opinion, is much better than ours, to take advantage of whatever is acceptable for Muslims in this land of opportunity… and move forward- politically, financially and in every other way.
I'm not speaking tonight on the need for cooperation. That's admitted. I have said on other occasions that we stand to gain the most from a relationship with you, whether it's supporting the growth of Halal products in this country or some other interest. We stand to gain the most.
Now I turn my attention directly to my African brothers, my African American brothers. African Americans, let us be informed and not enraged. We are so sensitive. We are so quick to be irritated, so quick to take offense, so quick to think that someone is looking down on us or, someone wants to take advantage of us, or someone is not giving due recognition to our suffering in the past- our plight of yesterday and today. Let us try our best to come out of that oversensitivity, and not let ourselves be enraged while we're looking at the realities for ourselves in America.
We should be aware that our Statue of Liberty- and I say our Statue of Liberty- that our Statue of Liberty becoming American, by way of France, extends her arms out to foreigners. If you've seen the Statue of Liberty in New York, there with arms stretched out to the ocean. Americans understand that symbol to be our invitation- the invitation of this country to people and lands overseas that can't find the freedom that they want- to come here and find that freedom and take advantage of freedom and opportunity in America, and grow with equal respect, equal invitation to you, equal respect and equal recognition with all of America. I think that's true for America.
I don't see any group coming to this country and being denied the opportunity to grow with America. No matter where they come from or how foreign they may look in the eyes of some of us Americans. So I think America is true when she extends her arms symbolically to the people overseas, in distant lands and nearby lands, that are desiring more freedom than they can receive abroad, to come to America and find that freedom in the measure… in full measure.
In fact, I would say in an inflated measure, ‘cause I'm sure most of you, if you were not able to turn down a lot of the freedom that America offers you, you would be in the same shape, collectively, that the African Americans are in collectively. You have the good sense and the good discipline to know how much of this freedom to take, and how much of this freedom to leave for somebody else. Nevertheless, the freedom is here, and I do believe America's invitation is real and it is true.
Immigrant Muslim Americans situation is made better than the African American situation by their foreign origin. Now, this takes some thought. For some of us… we have to think on this a little bit; but the fact that you have a foreign origin, against our NO origin connection, puts you in a better situation. In America, those of foreign origin have the charm of being foreigners: a charm that melts ordinary Americans.
I've seen myself Americans observing a foreigner, and being fascinated and charmed by their foreign dialect, or foreign speech and their language, and how excited they are over a foreigner. The English can come here. The English performer can come to America and right away captivate the American audience, whereas the American has to work very hard to captivate the same audience. Americans are weak for foreigners. I know that would be a strange one for you, but that's true. Americans are weak for foreigners. And the one people in this country that are not foreigners is [sic] the African American… are African Americans.
The one people that are not foreigners: African Americans. All the rest are foreigners; all the rest came from somewhere else. [In response, some people] say, ‘Well, you all came from Africa’. No, we didn't. We didn't come from Africa, we were brought from Africa. That's a great difference. If we had come from Africa, the arm would be out there. The symbolic arms would be right out there for us too; because we have Africans coming over here, and Africans come over here and they have a better situation than we have. They have Africa back home. Like ET [referencing the movie ’ET’], they can call home when they get lonely, but we can't.
So our situation is quite different, and the African American brother should understand that; and we should take advantage of our religion- our Islamic teachings- take advantage of the Sunnah of the Prophet. Let us develop by hard study and hard emulation of the Prophet's way of life, let us develop. It's going to take us time, but we will develop a strong group identity, a strong family life, a strong family structure.
We will develop a strong cultural identity- influenced by Islamic teachings, Quran, the Prophet's life- and in time, we will have too a strong ethnicity, and we won't have to call outside of the borders of America. Because I do believe that if we ever structure our own lives and gain a strong identity, Americans- whites and all other colors- will respect us and appreciate us and won't be afraid of us, and will congratulate us and be well-wishers. Thank you very much. As-salaamu-Alaykum.
[00:22:58] [END OF AUDIO]

