07/20/1986
IWDM Study Library
Cobo Arena - Detroit, MI

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed: As-Salaam Alaikum
Audience: Alaikum Salaam.
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed: That is peace be unto you. Al-humdulilahir rabbil aa’lameen. Praise be to Allah, the G-d, Lord of all the world. We seek Him for assistance. We turn to Him asking His forgiveness and His mercy on us and we praise Him and pray the choices blessings upon His servant, the universal messenger the Prophet Muhammad to whom the Quran was revealed. Peace and blessing be on him and on his descendants and the companions of the prophet. All and upon us be peace.
I thank Allah for this day, for giving us an opportunity to meet here in Detroit Michigan, at this facility of Cobo Hall. I thank Allah for the efforts of Imam Dawood Alim and for the effort of the resident Imam here and also for the efforts of those who backed and supported them in direct corporation with them or otherwise. We are to be congratulated, those who have come here from distances far.
I met a very good brother and Muslim, who has long standing as Muslim among us, Brother Shamsiddeen businessman from Atlanta Georgia. I met the assistant to Imam KamaludDeen of Houston and who is also chaplain and prison assistant out there in Texas. I met him here. I've seen Muslims from the far west, from the south. We all ought to be congratulated.
Those who came from nearby places, Chicago, it's not far from here and even from the state of Michigan itself and even from Detroit itself. Those who walked 10 blocks to come here, they are to be congratulated, because it is clear to everybody that we don't have any quick worldly excitement to offer you. We are not inviting you here to get rich in the ways of the world. We are not inviting you here to have fun in the ways of the world. This is not the usual kind of gathering and the agenda what we will be talking about today is not the kind of concerns or topics that the masses of people come to hear or rally around. You ought to be congratulated.
It must be understood that people still believe in an authority, in a power above them. That people still believes in Allah. It must be understood that people still seek to know better what Allah wants for them. There are people still interested in religion. There are people still willing to pay money, to travel far, to separate from their attachments, to gather under the voice or call to faith.
Many times, I've been met upon coming to a city by the press and the question most often asked, "What brings you here, Imam Mohammed?" If I was a great singer or a great dancer or a great actor, no-one would ask me what brings me here.
At this point I want to read few words from our Holy Book. With the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. Alif Lam Ra. This is a book sent down to you, O Muhammad, that you may bring mankind out of the dark into the light with the permission of their Lord, to the path of the one who's mighty and dear and worthy of all praise. Allah that is. For Him is whatever that is in heavens and whatever is in earth.
I also would like to bring to you words of our prophet, peace and blessings be on him, who said, advising or answering the questions for one who would seeking to be advised or to be informed by Muhammad the Prophet as to what the prophet could give him that no-one else could give him and the Prophet in His reply to him said, “Qul amantu billahi thumasta kim” - “Say I have faith in Allah, and thereafter be upright."
In order that Muslims, be not victims of lie, it is necessary for us to meet in great numbers, from many places where we reside in America to hear, if not me, someone who is sincere and strong enough, to tell the truth about our religion. We have many claiming to be leaders in this religion, but we have very few with the courage to tell the truth about this religion.
Too many in the leadership that presents itself as Muslim leadership are really imposters working for enemies of this religion. If we who sincerely believe in the Quran, our holy book, which is a universal book. It's not just a book for us in America. It's a book for all of us throughout the world. It didn't come by our doing here in America; it was a 1,000-year-old when we brought it to America, this book that I'm talking about. If the sincere and the strong among the Muslims will not assert themselves to represent this religion, and it should be represented; then we have nothing, we have nothing.
It is enough to justify our time and money and efforts that we've made to be here today, if we are Muslim, it is enough that we clear the air as to what is truly Muslim, and what is not. If we accomplish no more than that, then it justifies the time, and the money, and the efforts we've made or spent. We must understand that we are a minority religious group in America, and a very small minority group in America. We must understand that we, belong to a religion that had enemies from the very first day of its pronouncement on this earth.
Our prophet, peace and blessing be on him, was a native son of Mecca on a peninsula now called Saudi Arabia and was also a son of the most respected tribe of the Arabs, the tribe called Quraysh. But that did not prevent him from having enemies when he began to preach what Allah had revealed to him as the last message for all the world. He very soon found strong very avowed enemies from along his own relatives.
Two of his worst enemies were his uncles Abu Lahab and Abu Jahl. The people he found himself among, have known him to be honest and honorable. They called him the trustworthy one. That was the name that the people gave him. Al-Ameen, they called him, Al-Ameen, the trustworthy one.
However, the same people that had called him the trustworthy one, and who had really come to him as though he was the bank for their country, and deposited with him their valuables, so they could take a trip safely, and return knowing their valuables would be there when they got back. That same man that they so regarded, so highly regarded, became the greatest trouble for them, because they were not willing to say. They were not willing to say, "I have believed in G-d, and I choose to be upright."
If I have a problem with people today, it is because I follow in a tradition of that great man Muhammad the universal prophet. If there will be people today who won't like me because I say, "Believe first in G-d, and thereafter be upright." But that doesn't bother me. It doesn't bother me at all. In fact, it makes me happy to know that G-d has blessed me to be a trouble in the midst of disbelievers. It is a blessing to be a trouble in the midst of disbelievers. They should be troubled. I wish I was better in my life and conduct, so I could trouble them more.
We have to be aware that we are a small minority in America. The majority of the people belong to some other religion. And that the same foes, the same enemies of Al-Islam, the same enemies of the prophet are here on earth today and are as determined today as they were then to deny this religion a life and a presence on this earth. And we have to be then as committed to this mission, as strong in our position, as willing to sacrifice our time, our money, and even our life, if we must for this religion, if we are truly Muslim.
I thank Allah that the situation is not as difficult for us today as it was for our prophet and his companion. We live in a time and among a people who claim to be civilized, claim to be democratic. They claim to be liberal. They claim to accept even our religion as a legitimate religion that should not be persecuted but should be welcomed in this homeland of Man. A religion that President Madison and other presidents of the United States have given words of recognition for. Our religion Al-Islam. A religion that the late-- not the late but the president, once president, recent president, very recent president, Jimmy Carter, publicly paid tribute to. Our religion Al-Islam.
But you must understand that even though this country is committed to respect the great established religions, the situation for us as religious people as Muslims is no different than the situation for the American Indian or for many other minorities in this country who have their rights protected in Law but their rights taken away from them by the ungodly, not only in public but in government quarters. They are working hard to deny this religion, life, presence, and a future on this earth.
If I had a wife that men were jealous of me because of her, a wife that other men wanted, it would make me appreciate her even more as long as she wasn't being affected. If I had a wife that people were attacking, are working secretly to discredit, and I knew myself that she was a fine wife a good wife a treasure to be valued, it would make me all the much more committed to that wife. It would make me stronger in my love for her and stronger in my determination to stick by her. I think I have such wife in Shirley.
Also, I truly believe that this religious community life is of that value to us and that there are devilish people working quietly and secretly all the time to hurt the Muslim community. To discredit the Muslim community. To weaken your admiration for the Muslim Community. To make you fear, to put your faith in the future of the Muslim Community. They are working so hard. They are working hard day and night. Our crowd would be much smaller here today if they weren't here. You're here but they're also here. They have to be here. Because they always want to be the closest ones. Closest to what's going on so they can be in the best position to hurt what we're all about.
But thank Allah again I say the times the situation not as bad for us as it was for our Prophet peace and the blessing be upon him and his companions may G-d be pleased with them. We are in a situation now in America where it is against the law the do the thing that those heathens did against Muhammad. It is against the law. They cannot openly come out against Al-Islam in America today as the enemies came out against Al-Islam in the day of our Prophet peace and the blessing be on him. They can't do it because it's against the law of this country.
But that doesn't mean that they are not as decided and not as bent upon doing it. They're just as decided, they're just as bent upon hurting this religion as those enemies were back then but the time and the law is against them. They have to meet in secret and laugh behind closed doors and say, "We say all religious but we're not going to give that religion no chance. Make sure you got somebody to watch every true believer and let us know if anyone is getting serious about his religion so we can plan against them."
I recall the honorable Elijah Muhammad being supported by many that he called devils. Some of them were in government offices but they admired the honorable Elijah Muhammad. They wished him well. But I recall also that there were those who were quiet. They didn't come out against him, they didn't come out for him. They were very quiet, they were silent. But they would use their power and their influences to limit the effect of his work. To make sure that his positive good work will always be in a situation where they could end it at any time they chose.
I recall when he would have his big convincing yearly Savior's Day conventions that they would always put something in the news to hurt the spirit of his followers or to frighten them away from the meeting place. They use the threat of retaliation for Malcolm's death. “Somebody is going to get Elijah Muhammad”. Or if it wasn't that, they would associate the Nation of Islam with the KKK. The Ku Klux Klan, and give us such an ugly name and ugly image that they felt sure hardly any of the normal good citizens of the country would respond to his call and come to his meetings.
They would bring out their strongest influences at the time the honorable Elijah Muhammad getting ready for his great yearly mass meeting. It didn't stop people from coming to hear the honorable Elijah Muhammad. Many would stop, yes, but there were still enough numbers to fill most of the facilities that were secured for that purpose. Today they are surprised, they are amazed that we still have activities. They thought with the death of honorable Elijah Muhammad, we would be so taken that we wouldn't have an interest in meeting anymore.
They thought the few die-hard fanatics that would be left around would be easily manipulated and sent to their destruction, but instead of what they expect to happening. The son of the honorable Elijah Muhammad came up in his spirit of determination, in his spirit of faith and determination and haven't sat down a single day since the honorable Elijah Muhammad rested. They are amazed.
Someone has to keep standing up, someone has to keep coming before you, someone has to tell the truth about our religion. Because we are in a society, we're in a country that has many persecutors, who live just to persecute the righteous. Who live just to persecute Al-Islam, but again you have to remember that in this day and time, that in this situation under the law of the United States, of civilized law, a democratic law, they cannot come out openly against us. They have recruit the weak bastards among us and the weak bitches among us for their jobs, for their work.
They're always able to find weak ones among us, they were able to find the weak ones among us when Garvey was preaching his message of unity, of dignity, of self-determination for the African-American people. They were able to find weak ones to carry out their dirty work and they're able to find weak ones now. Don't think that we are not progressing because of our own situation. We are not progressing mainly because of the situation that the devil creates for us. It's amazing that we have the support that we do have today for the believers here, right here. It's amazing. They are so sophisticated now in fighting the influences of righteousness. They are so sophisticated in fighting the influence of Al-Islam. That we are being bombarded and are not even aware.
They always manage to stage some other event close by us around the time we meet to draw attention away from us to something else. They have made the people so dependent upon media leadership that people don't hardly respond to any call or anything of a public nature without the media, not only announcing it, but supporting it and promoting it.
We used to be a people that didn't depend upon so much outside help for what we were about. I'm talking about true freedom-fighters, I'm talking about nationalists. The African-American nationalist, I'm talking about people who wanted something for themselves and wanted to do something on their own to get it. In the past we were not without a spirit to move on our own as we are today. Today most of the American people don't have the spirit to move on their own. They don't move unless media moves them. It's the entertainment media, or it's news media, they need some media to move them, they don't move on their own anymore.
As powerful as some of these entertainment figures are, they cannot get big audiences without the media. They have to have the media to get big audience. Now we think that we going to get a big audience without the power of the media on our side. The only way we get big audience without the power of media on our side, we have to go back to the spirit that we had before big media became the slave master.
We have to go back depending upon ourselves to carry word to impress the brother, to impress the sister, to impress the neighbor, to alert the community that something great is happening here. But all of us waiting because we have been conditioned to depend upon big media to arrange our affairs and guarantee us an audience. The Imam knows the power of the media, he knows that the power of the media. He knows the importance of the media, Imam Dawood Alim. He made sure that we had some time on some station but look how small the influences of those stations is. Those stations are not popular. He couldn't get on prime time on a major network, no. In order to get on that, you have to kill somebody in a savage way or commit some horrible perverted act or represent something very gross and outrageous.
Then they'll flash you on, the spokesman for the blackman. Knowing what we have to deal with shouldn't make us weaker in our commitment to be Muslims and appropriate our life. It should make us stronger. There are some strong among us but they're so few. We have to bring the truth to the people and tell them that this religion is not an unpopular religion.
There's a quite work going on, been going on all the time, going on now, to make the American people think and all other citizens of the world think, that our religion is an unpopular religion. They tried hard until I pushed the truth to the forefront, in this country. With the help of G-d and my own effort that pushed the truth to the forefront here in this country. That this religion is not a religion of black nationalist of America, this is a religion of man all over the world. This is not a black religion, this is a religion for all color.
They have contained the productive good in the works of honorable Elijah Muhammad, so that wouldn't spread and reach the many lives of our people. But they had also published the Nation of Islam, so that the American people would think that, "Muslims ain't nothing but black people that recently were converted from crime life." You have to understand devilishment of the American people. Those hidden devils in the system or life we call America.
We have come here today spending our time and our money our energy separating ourselves from other attachments and other commitments. It's worth the price if we only make it clear that this is not a religion of a special race, or a special class, of black people, this is a religion for all people on this earth. And its appeal is not limited to ex-convict, or a poor black disappointed with Christianity. Its appeal has gone out to all people and all classes all ranks.
Doctors, lawyers, government leaders, statesmen, ruler, scientists embraced this religion hundreds of years ago, a thousand of years ago and they embraced it today. From the people of Asia, from the people of Africa, from the people of Island the Philippines, from the people of Europe, Spain, and now Germany and England. The membership of Muslims is growing fast in those quarters. In Japan our religion is spreading fast.
More than 50% of the people on the continent of Africa are Muslim. Most of the people from our native homeland are Muslim and it's now the most popular religion on the continent of Africa and they are not people from criminal backgrounds. They are the leading people, the highest people in the society of those countries. This is the truth. This is the truth that our enemies hate to hear. Our enemies, he's burning up now. What I am saying is like sunlight on his Dracula form.
He wishes badly that he could hurry up and get into his coffin and let the lid down. We have to come out our selves. We are citizens of this country. We are native citizens of this country. Our sacrifice and contribution and life here in this country goes back as far for us as it does for any other ethnic group or nationalist group here in this country. Whether they come from England or Spain or from Germany or from Yugoslavia or from Arabia or from Cuba or from Haiti, no matter where they came from, our roots go back as far as theirs or farther. We the native people of this country.
Our citizenship, didn’t needed any government legislation and it's embarrassing to know that we had a civil rights movement to get citizenship. It's embarrassing to know that. So, who is best qualified to tell the truth about our religion? It is us. We are the best qualified, to tell the truth about our religion. The immigrants may be in deportation they have cause to fear, greater than our cause.
We are in a better situation to defend our rights to this religion. It has this right in the law on the law book. We now have to tell the truth and make sure that this religion gets the right report. Gets the right presentation. We are Muslims. I speak for myself and the sincere Muslim. We have accepted this religion for eternity. We didn't accept this religion as a fad. It's not just some passing thing for us. I have had enough time in my life to seriously think about this religion. To seriously weigh the merits of this religion and I am not a fool.
I got a G.E.D diploma in the days when it was hard to get one. I graduated from the high school of the Nation of Islam as it was called under the honorable Elijah Muhammad. I am not a fool. I have not stopped seeking knowledge and searching for knowledge and I can read. I read in about three languages. I can read. I'm not a dumbbell. I have had plenty time to read books on other religions. I did a thorough study of the bible from Genesis to Revelation.
I wasn't satisfied with one complete reading, I did another. Ain't nothing you can tell me new about the bible if you are an African-American Christian. I doubt the Pope could tell me something new about it. I doubt it very seriously because I have studied it thoroughly. Not only that, I have books on Judaism. Some of the best put out by the best scholars of Judaism. I have read them and studied them. I wanted to be in the position, to know the strength of my religion.
I wanted to be in the position to really be confident in promoting my product; Al-Islam. I'm the kind of man that if I find a better product, I'll put down the weaker product and pick up the better product. But in my search to find which was the better product, I never thought not once to put down the Quran, to put down Al-Islam, to put down Muhammad the Universal prophet. All that happened to me was the more faith and more determination to hold on to that and to promote that because it's the best product. And if anyone with normal intelligent mind would study our religion and study the other religion, his choice would be Al- Islam.
Our G-d says in our holy book, who would make a free choice and choose a religion other than Al-Islam but he who wants to make himself foolish. Don't expect the national network to help us. They are praying. They are in constant meditation, uninterrupted meditation that we don't be successful. We have to understand that our religion made a kind gesture towards Christianity and even towards Judaism and the hand of friendship was knocked back very rudely.
Our prophet peace and blessing be upon him in establishing the first independent Muslim community or society in Medina wrote into the charter protection of the rights of Christians, Jews, Sabeans that was another legitimate religious group existing in those days, to practice their religions without persecution, without anyone troubling them. It is written in the Charter and has lasted and been preserved to this day, that no church will be harmed. No church will be harmed, and that the Muslims would be obligated to defend the sacred houses, the holy houses of the people of Christianity, and the Jews against any heathen, or any low-life person that would come against their religious establishment.
Even before the independence of the Muslim community in Medina the prophet looked toward the Christian government of Ethiopia. He sent his persecuted followers, on a mission to go there and find a haven or asylum for themselves from the persecutors of Mecca the heathens, people who didn't believe in the established religion of the book, the scripture. He told them that you'll find there a country and a leader, a ruler of that country, who is decent, G-d fearing and a defender of the rights of the oppressed.
His followers went there and they spoke to the leader, the Negus of Ethiopia, called the Habashi in those days. He granted them permission to live there, under his protection, and was so impressed with the story of the advents of their religion and the mission of Muhammad and their, the Muslims' version of the story of Jesus Christ, peace be on him and his mother. He was so impressed with it, that the Muslims were endeared to him. He took the Muslims to his heart.
They lived there in peace protected, the heathens pursued them, but they were not permitted to take back to Mecca the citizens of Arabia that had fled there. They were not permitted to annoy those Muslims, that the prophet had sent to that Christian country, because of his knowledge of its sincerity, and its commitment to justice.
No historian, no student of history can read that and know that and say that Muhammad came up to wipe out Christianity and Judaism. He came up to wipe out those people who threaten the life that G-d intend for man on this earth. G-d missioned him to rise up and deal with those people, and those forces, that threaten to wipe out the life that G-d intended for man on this earth.
And they became jealous of his works. As his work grew, they became more and more jealous of his work. The jealous ones in the empire of the nation, Christians, Jews, and heathens all got together, conspired secretly and attacked him openly and tried to stamp out his work as quick as they possibly could. But as Allah says in our holy book, it is useless that they desire to put out the light of Al-Islam. G-d will protect His light, though they hate it. Instead of them stamping out his followers grew, his followers grew, his mission grew faster than any similar mission in the history of man.
Despite the presence of communism and foreign ideology, despite the power of Western world to fascinate and capture the mind of citizens of country, the Muslim citizenship, the Muslim citizenry is still Muslim. We are not losing our citizens to communism and other ideologies, particularly communism. On the contrary, some of the bravest foes of communism are the Muslims.
The Muslims of Afghanistan, fighting with outdated, antiquated weapons. Weapons that hardly work. Many of them rusty. So old, you can hardly use them, but they have been able to hold their own against Russia, against Russia's army. Correction, not against Russia, I believe Russians are good people, against Russia's army. They have been able to hold their own until now. They have been fighting now for years. Muslims freedom fighters, fighting communist occupation of their land, Afghanistan.
That is what the enemy don't want you to know, too. That this religion has people in it that have taken up the heavy mission to promote civilization and justice, the will of G-d on this earth. They want us to think that only Western people have come into such a great mission. Before the Western man could wear a civilized pair of pants, or a civilized dress, Prophet Muhammad had already preached civilization, and brought civilization to the most uncivilized and darkest quarter of the old world or of the whole world then, in the dark ages, the peninsula of Arabia.
Where people celebrated their religion by going around naked. Went nude in their religious celebrations. Where girls were not wanted when men were needed to plough the land or defend the tribe. Too many girls were an embarrassment to the man and to the family so they would take the new girl, that child out, and bury the child alive. G-d sent the revelation to Muhammad saying, “For what crimes was she killed, and buried alive. Praise be to Allah. They don't want us to know that our religion has as its purpose, and as its aim on this earth, the highest and noblest mission possible for a human being. Freedom, civilization, education, the highest standards for society. That's our religion.
They would want us to believe that only the West has come into such a mission. When Europe was in the dark and was given to superstition and oppression of the human intellect, the suppression of the human intellect. Denying their females opportunity to get an education. Enslaving their females. Treating their females as property, and as slaves. When Europe was doing that. Don't think that the white man’s woman has always been emancipated. Her emancipation, I think, came just a little behind ours. When their situation was existing in white Western world society. The teaching that higher education is the inheritance of every citizen of the Muslim society, had already been given. The teaching that is an obligation of the Muslim state to see that every male and female born in a Muslim society is educated was already preached. The right of a woman to go into business, to speak out in public, to protest the behavior of her government or the behavior of her government leaders in the public, had already been established. Richard Allan in his book, Imperialism and Nationalism in the Fertile Crescent, he tells of a higher civilization demonstrated in the life of the Muslim when they met the Crusaders in battle.
He said, "It was noticed that the Muslim soldier who carried the same heavy burden of war that the Christian soldier carried, yet found time to bathe and wear clean clothes, and to shave. He said, "While they was-- Well, looking back, we're ashamed of our Christian soldier who's unshaven, filthy, bodies unclean and looking like dirty wild stinking savages." You want to make a comparison? Let's make a comparison. Look at us today. Look at us today. America has great material wealth, frightening military power but look at the shameful state of the American family life.
Look how low America's family life has fallen. Just as the Muslim towered above the western people. In those days, in morals, in decency, in self-respect, in obedience to a moral code. Likewise, today, the Muslims tower above most of the people in western society. This is the truth they don't want you to know. They say, “O that religion, it impressed the criminals, it impressed the convicts. They were able to convert more convicts in prison than the preachers were able to convert of Christianity”. But that's not the merit of Al-Islam, that it appeals to some man locked up behind bars.
No, the merit of Al-Islam is that it brought civilization to the world. When Europe was asleep, when the white west man of the west was asleep, when he was sleeping in savagery, it was our religion that woke the world up and said, "You were not created to be dead in ignorance and immorality. Rise to your mission man. You were made Khalifa of the earth." It was our religion that did that. The only reasons why the west succeeded and gained global dominance over our religion is that the west was willing to stoop lower than the Muslim to accomplished that.
Muslims will not sell out their person, they will not sell out their morals, they will not sell out faith in G-d to accomplish world dominance. They will hold on to G-d, they will hold on to their morals, they will hold on to their virtue. They will not sacrifice everything just to dominate the world. The great advances made by Europe and America in conquering the world have been advances that only a devil could stomach. Like it or not, I'm not here to make you like me, baby. Nothing but a vile devil can stomach what was done to advance the global dominance of the western man on this earth.
We only have to look at what was done to us to keep us down and what is being done now. At the time, when America wanted to fulfill her promise of gesture to all men, gestures to all people, the burden got too heavy. The moral obligation got to heavy on this country. So, what did they do? They folded up their hands and let the criminals take over. We can't go any further with this. We won't do it ourselves but let us fold our arms and turn our heads, while the criminals take over. They have given the community of the American citizens over into the hand of criminals. We live in a prison situation, right in our own homes, and in our own neighborhoods.
Our children have been taken away from us by the criminals. The criminals have lured them away from respect from us. They have lured them away from obedience to us. They have lured them away from obeying G-d and from obeying parents. So, the great ones in the west have folded their hands and just as well said to the criminals “now you take over”. President Regan and his wife, they have many fine principles and I believe their theories about fighting evils in this country but they haven't lived with the family of man long enough to be able to do any real good for us. I hate to put it that way but that's the truth.
In the president of the united states of America we need being a man like Muhammad the prophet peace be on you to fulfill the promise of America. America has made a very fine and a very great promise. The promise of justice, freedom and justice and equal opportunity to all citizens, that's a great promise. And how to do that, you have to look at wrong in South Africa the same way you look at wrong in any other part of the world. To do that, you have to look at the wrong in the black community just as you look at in the white community and vice versa.
You have to be just as sensitive to the need of one citizen as to another. Not only in the domestic quarters but also in the international quarters. Then you will be right in your heart. Then you will be able to defend the great idea of American democracy. Most of the American citizens are not even aware that our country has not defended what it believes in, not even at home until it was forced to do so. And even then, it did it deceitfully in the greater parts, small measure was sincere. And even now the international world is waiting on our country to defend its idea of democracy in the international world.
Our country will quickly become the partner of people committed to the idea that is directly in opposition to that great idea of American democracy. Will quickly do it for more material gain. For more material acquisition. For more material dominance. For sway or power over the mind or spirit man, globally. They would do every kind of devilish thing. Now you may feel too small and too weak to join the opposition and fight these evil influences at home and abroad but I'm not. And I'm not alone. There are men of my color and outside my color of my religion and outside of my religion that have been fighting this fight long before I was born. Men and women, they are still here. I'm with them, and they are with me. We are one in our fight against the evil that seeks to globalize itself and take over man's spirit and deny him the great future that G-d intended for him.
Don't think we alone. We are not alone. If I would be killed and buried tomorrow there would be more non-Muslims at my funeral than Muslims. Because they know my position is bigger than the small Muslim community of America. Most of my difficulties with you is because I was to big. I had to grow outside of your confines. If you really understand the Quran, the Quran makes you universal. It makes you a defender of the highest and most precious ideas and principles of man. Therefore, you can't be pushed aside in one little narrow quarter. Say, “Oh those are black muslims”. "Oh, he's a black Muslim. Or, he's a Muslim only." I'm not a Muslim only. I'm a Muslim and I'm a brother and a defender of justice. A brother to every man and a defender of justice. And that's what makes this religion so dangerous. So dangerous.
Because the African American man has to hypnotize himself to stay in the church. And they know that if the African American man ever believe that Al-Islam is really a universally dignified religion. He would readily take off his Christian robe and jump right into Al-Islam, Quran, the Sunnah of the Prophet all the way. They know that. They have behind them what happened in Africa. In Ethiopia are not only, Christians. Ethiopia was the strongest Christians stronghold or footing on that continent, Ethiopia. But the people of Ethiopia now, are not only Christians. We have a large number of Muslims in Ethiopia.
Where Christianity has been in Africa, today Muslims are there. It didn’t spread among animist who have these so-called primitive religion, worship ancestors. It didn’t spread as among such people as much as it did the Christians of Africa. Al-Islam was accepted by the Christians of Africa. And they have to distort this religion, misrepresent this religion, keep monkey stogies among us. To shame the life of the Muslims with their life that is supposedly Muslim to turn you off to the religion. Because they know, as I said, that we have to hypnotize ourselves to stay in the Church.
And if the truth is brought to us of Al-Islam that spell will be broken. And we will walk away from Christianity so fast. When I was a young boy Christians feared so much. And they didn’t only fear, they would express it. They feared so much the presence of Islam, called Al-Islam in the Quran. They feared it so much. I had a young Christian girlfriend, I invited her to go to the temple with me. She told me “I have to first ask my pastor”. I told her, “Ok do that”. When I saw her again I asked her, “Did you ask your pastor if you can go to the temple with me?”. She said, "Yes. And he said that the Muslim are not a real religion. Muslims are heathens”.
I talked to her again. I said, "Go back and ask him." I said that’s wrong. I told her we believe in G-d and went on to tell her the other things we believe in. I said, "go back and tell him that”. She went back. She came back. I said, “did he say it was ok?”. She said, “If you come first to my church, then I can go to your temple”. I went with her to her Church. Later, she came with me to the temple. Didn't happen all at once. It took her a long time to come to the temple. I remember also walking on the church grounds as a boy. Someone called out to me and said, "Hey Mohammed." They used to call me Mohammed.
Especially, those who didn’t know me very well. My brother was very popular as a youngster. They call him Mohammed. And when they learned he had a brother under him they called me Mohammed. They call him Big Mo. They call me Little Mo. So, this child hollered out and said, "Hey, Mohammed." And the holy mother she said, "who is Mohammed?" I said, "That’s Me." She said, “Get off this ground no Mohammeds are allowed.” Now I don't think that would happen today. But that happened when I was a boy.
When I was a boy, they tried to make the public think that the mission of our prophet was the mission of Ali Baba and the 40 thieves. Or the mission of weak tent dwellers, weak in their morals who drank wine and had a harem of 10 or 20 women. That was the image they projected when I was a boy of our religion. Hollywood did it. You could find it a magazine. You could find it in the comics, comic strip, and in the newspaper. Yes. That was the image they were given of our religion when I was a boy.
Now, today you must understand, that the American public is a much much more informed and educated public than it was in the days when I was a boy. And they know, the trouble makers who want to undermine discredit and eventually tear about any chance for the growth of our religion in America or anywhere else. They know that dealing with a much more informed and educated public. So, they can't come out like that. So, the war they make against muslims is the same war they make against everybody else that is a threat to them. A war against the spirit that G-d intended man to have, a war to dominate his soul, his spirit, his mind. The very human potential is a target of their weapons, the very human potential in man.
You know nature may have left our faith to the survival of the fittest, there's no sad thing about that. But the west claiming to complement nature, claiming to assist nature, claiming to lead nature for the greater life of man. Pretend to be leaving the situation to the survival of the fittest, while trying its best to make as many unfit as possible. So, how can a nation claim to be civilized, claim to be moral, while at the same time, do it all it possibly can to make as many of its poor weak citizens the victim of immorality, the victim of dope, the victim of hooligan life?
You know all this for a fact. You ain’t that stupid. You know that these cities don't have tolerate the presence of crime that they tolerate. You know yourself if you have been halfway awake as a human being, you know that the same media that comes behind its own work, is the culprit. They sale the public a fad and then when the fad runs its course, and another fad is needed to come in, the same media comes out and condemns that fad. The media that instigated the fad, the media that started the fad comes out then and condemns it as an evil.
Because it has another one now that it wants to promote, that one has just about ran its course. They're talking about coke now being a bad thing, threatening the lives of American people, maybe even the security of the United States itself, the national life of this country. But I remember when the same media was selling coke to the masses of the ignorant people of America. How are they selling it? By glamorizing it. It glamorized coke and it glamorized the coke society and now the same media comes behind its own work. That's the Devil.
Well, you want to go home? I do.
I'm tired of living so far from home. I want to go home. In fact, sometimes I feel like E.T.
The phone call would help.
If we're truly Muslim, we just feel good about being here today. It is an opportunity for us to demonstrate, not only before ourselves but demonstrate to those who think they can kill our spirit, break our will and send us back into nothing, it demonstrates to them that we are determined Muslims, that our converging is not a fad, it's forever.
I would like to read to you just a few-- Well, I said pages but I'm going to limit it to just a couple of pages from a book put out by the Ministry of Justice in Riyad on conferences of Muslim doctrine and human rights in Islam. They have been held in Geneva, Paris, Rome, major headquarters of the Christian world. From this publication now I read, "The Muslim's zeal in studying was truly astounding, none perhaps ever surpassed them. Whenever they captured a city, their first concern was to build a mosque and a school. A mosque and a School. In the large centers, these schools were always newer."
Benjamin of Toledo, who died in 1173 reports having seen 20 of such schools for higher learning in Alexandria. Besides ordinary schools for teaching, great cities like Baghdad, Cairo Egypt, Toledo, Cordoba in Spain possessed also many universities equipped with laboratory, observatory and laboratories to bring all the materials necessary to scientific research. In Spain alone, there were 70 public libraries.
We are talking about a thousand years ago or better in Al-Islam. One library in Cordoba contained 600, 000 volumes. We know further from the history that has been recorded by Western writers-- Western historians, that the Jews faired best in their history under Muslim Spain. The Muslims ruled in Spain for better than seven centuries and during that long period of Muslim rule in Spain, the Jews themselves have written and documented that their life faired best under Muslims.
You perhaps heard the story of King Richard and Salahuddin? Salahuddin, to correctly pronounce his name. They were fighting on opposite sides in the Crusade, Salahuddin for the Muslim right to freedom and life on this Earth and the crusaders for Christian dominance of the globe. And Salahuddin, being also a physician, a doctor of medicine and physician, learned of the illness of his enemy and he sneaked into their camp to spy it out. But also came upon their sick hero and administered medicine to him. Restored his health and he got out as he got in and continued the battle.
Now, Muslims and people here today, we can't be happy over the state of black America. I would rather say African America. We can't be happy with it. Why? Simply because we're still in a bad situation. We're still with a sense of terrible burdensome sense of insecurity. We're still a long way from getting what our soul wants. Now, let the doctors of sociology and psychology-- Let them find out exactly what's wrong with us if they want to, on their own. But we know that something is awfully wrong with us.
I heard a patient once went to a doctor and the doctor says, "What's wrong?" The patient says, "I don't know." "Why did you come to me?" "Because I'm sick." The doctor tells him, "Can you tell me, do you have any symptoms?" The patient says, "What?" "Do you have any symptoms?" "What is that?" He says, "Well, is there something bothering you in the leg? Is something bothering you in the head or the stomach?" He said, "I don't know." The doctor talked to this man, the conversation went on and on and the doctor concluded that nothing was wrong. He said, "You aren't sick, go home. Stop wasting my time and go."
The patient, as he was leaving, he says, "Doc, I think I'm going to die because I'm sick as hell." He just left. He knew he was sick but the doctor couldn't find it. He couldn't tell the doctor where it was, where the sickness was. We're in the same situation. Here we are, African-American man, the white society, white institutions of learning, they can't tell us what is wrong with us. They look at us and say, "Hey, you negro, go about your business. There's nothing wrong with you all. Your complaint's over. You are all just complaining for nothing. Go about your business."
"We don't have time to even listen to you all anymore. We listen to the Haitians, we're listening to the Cubans, we're listening to the Koreans, we're listening to the Vietnamese, we don't have time to listen to you all anymore, you all go about your business, there's nothing wrong with you all." We're walking away saying, "We are sick as hell." We know something's terribly wrong with us. Our soul tells us that you haven't gone where you're supposed to go. Our spirit is heavy upon us. It seems as though we've stopped at a door of death. For many of us it is as though we've stopped in our paths towards liberty at a door of death. Some of us can't see ourselves getting past that door of death.
Because they have worked to condition us for failure, by building us up, way up, to drop us down, by building our hopes way up, to drop them down. If you are really discouraged, a person from their endeavor, encourage them to put the most in their endeavor. Then, try and control their failure and bring that failure about right at the point that they think they're going to get victory or success. That's what our enemies have done to every great effort on our part to liberate ourselves. They do it to our business, our collective business efforts, they do it to our collective political efforts, they do it to our collective religious efforts, they do it to our collective social efforts.
They watch us and plan and plan and orchestrate, and work under us and work behind us, and work in every deceitful way to captivate your movement, to captivate your progress, to accelerate you, only to bring you down. And I’ve told you the only way is to do it without their help. And don't be fascinated and don't be taken when they bring you some big help. If they bring you some big help, study it. You may reject it and maybe in your wisdom to reject it. If it is in your wisdom to accept it, don't get excited over it. Because if you give your spirit to it they will destroy you.
They will keep it going until your spirit is all with it and then they will stop that help so your spirit will be dropped again in hopes of killing your will and your spirit to move on to your destiny. But we're here in Detroit, at Cobo Arena today and we're not stopping, they have not killed our spirit, they cannot kill our will, we have found a greater purpose. We’ve found a greater purpose than equality with the white man. We have found a greater purpose than integration with the white man. We have found a greater purpose and light with the white man, we have found a purpose with G-d and it is eternal.
It is eternal, our purpose is with G-d, not with white man, not with America, not with his concept of democracy, our purpose will outlive America itself.

Let me tell you something, most of the immigrants that come to this country, they come here with something in their life like that. They come here to get what America has to offer but they have committed themselves to something that will outlive America. The Asians come here with the concept of life, that he's going to have if he leaves America or if he stays. The Jew came here from Jewish quarters but he came here with a life that he intends to hold on to whether America lives or dies.
The Irish Catholics, they came here in America. The Romans, Italian Christians they came to America, they have come from many quarters. Germans come to America, Dominicans come to America. Now, all these newcomers, Cubans and all but they come here with an idea of life that they're going to hold on to whether America lives or dies. The reason why our situation is so pitiful is that we don't have an idea of life that can live beyond the life of America. Those who follow the Qur’an, those who follow the Sunnah of the Prophet, those who are with me in this religion, you have a life that will live beyond the life term or the lifeline of the United States of America.
It is only when you have this life that you can compete in a society like this. You have to have a life that's more precious to you, that is more precious to you, that is dear to you-- dearer to you. You must have a life that you value above the society that you are in because if you don't when that society turns all its forces against you, you will lose your spirit. You're going to lose your hope. You're going to just be finished because you don't see anything beyond the country that you've given your whole soul to.
I thank G-d I've never given my whole soul to the United States of America. I give my whole soul to Allah and to obedience to His Word, and to follow His Prophet, and his Sunnah. To follow his pattern of conduct. That's what I've given my whole soul to and because I'd give my whole soul to that, I can live in America and survive the life of America. I can live in America while America is disappointing me, while America's crushing me, while America's working seriously to see that my life ends. I can still live in America with hope because what I have will outlive America. What I have is bigger than America, bigger than America and I invite you to join what I have.
What they fear that will happen among us is that we will come into independent vision. They fear that we will come into independent vision, vision to direct our life, vision to hold for us a purpose for the whole race, vision that will hold for us the purpose that all men lives were created for. They fear that we will independently come into such a vision. Now, here is the sad truth, not only the American white man but also many of our Muslim brothers and sisters in Muslim lands, they fear us coming into an independent vision.
They will make us think we are being racist when we support one of our own as our leader. They will make us feel that we are un-Islamic in some kind of way because we say, "Imam W. Deen is our leader." They don't want us to address racism. They don't want us to address the long, long problem, tiring problem of the African-American man. They don't want us to address our people's dilemma. They say, "Don't talk about that, just tell them what the Qur'an says and tell them what the Sunnah says." That's great.
That's great but that's medicine. I've got to apply medicine to a sickness. Don't tell me to use medicine and don’t address a sickness. Yes, the Qur'an and the Sunnah is the medicine and my people are the sickness. I'm going to address the Qur'an and the Sunnah and I'm going to address my people. Yes, they are afraid that we will find a cause bigger than blind obedience, a cause bigger than money, a cause bigger than sex, a cause bigger than being popular. A cause so big that it will give us the desire to compete with every nation on this Earth. That's in me and I'm not alone.
I didn't want to talk this long but are you ready to go home? I am. You know there used to be a time when were tagged, targets, targeted to be made fools and they made us fools. Most of our people fell to their influences and became nothing but a race of fools. Some of us stood in our dignity but the majority of us became a race of fools. You know it. Times have changed now and they fear so much that they will lose their secure position of power and dominance to circumstances that will get out of control. One of the greatest fears of Western society is now and has been for some time, population growth.
Before all of these contraceptives, pills and contraceptives were manufactured, they were busily alarming the intellectuals to the great threat of population growth. Once they got all the evils lined up in place, to exterminate the ignorant overpopulation, the overload in the population, they stopped talking about population growth. It stopped being a heated issue for them. Why? Simply because you're being sterilized. You're being exterminated. You're being eliminated by crime life, by narcotics, by vandalism, by self-destruction, self-abuse, Evel Knievel spirit, etcetera.
It's doing away with you. They don't have to worry about controlling any population anymore. And teenage girls now can take their parents to court if their parents stand against them in getting an abortion. Little youngsters are threatening their parents, "I'll have you arrested for trying to discipline me." So, they have brought into a situation that they can live with. They don't have to fear now population explosion that much. But is it a situation that the victims can live with? No. We must open our eyes and understand that we can be righteous. We can be good people.
We can be better in our morals than the people who are running the country. But if we don't have any insight into what they are doing, then, if we don't have the knowledge of the system and where it is, its tactics, its plans, tactics, today. If we don’t have any insights into that, our virtues, our morals won't save us. The good will go down with the bad. Yes. You may say, "Well, will G-d allow that?" No. The G-d, Allah, He always made it possible for the victims to have a representative. I'm not saying I'm the only representative. There are many.
I have a book here right now-- These people are doing a wonderful job. It's called The Black Leadership Family Plan. It gives a plan of action to save the black community. Our families, direct our spirit, direct our energies and keep us alert for our life, our property, and our future. Reverend Fauntroy, is one of the representatives of this plan. Ossie Davies, I think he was the first one who initiated, to asked to initiate it, to ask for that plan, of such plan be drawn up and many of our political leaders are supporting it.
I believe, the gentleman with the television program out of Washington. What's his name? Tony Brown. I know him well, I was thinking so many things on my mind. I couldn't think of the name at the time. Tony Brown also is promoting such a plan.
If you would read this book and see what they are advising or advocating as what should be our mission, you will see nothing new. I've been preaching for 10 years, points in this book. Not only have I been preaching but others have been preaching too. Just what's in this book. We few are seldom heard by many. It takes people whom the media have made popular or people the government has made popular, to reach the masses of the people. So, I congratulate them and I support this plan and will do my best to cooperate with what they're doing. But I want you to know that we had this before they made it and we are not giving this up.
If things happen as they have been happening in the traditional life of the African-American, this will last only for a short season and it will be put down and forgotten. Right now, I see tendencies to commercialize it, right now and it's just in its embryonic stage. And I see tendencies to commercialize it. So how long can it last, if they commercialize it? I don't think it will die fast though, I believe it's going to be around for a while because there's a strong, strong urge in our people today to live, to survive, to come into a better life. Strong urge in our people today.
This scanty showing here. This weak showing of attendance here today, don't let it disappoint you. They are hoping that you'd be disappointed. Don't be disappointed. Don't let any appearance of deficiency in us and in our efforts set you back. They may set us back dollar-wise, they may set us back real estate-wise, they may set us back even number-wise but when it comes to our spiritual commitment and our will to see our life through, they cannot set us back. They cannot set us back.
A great leader, a man that stood on the other side of the line when it comes to strategy for success in this country but nevertheless was admired by many of the Muslims and still is admired by many Muslims belonging to my history, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He said, "A people oppressed, once they rise up, there's no stopping short of full freedom." I believe that. I believe that. So, they can work against us.
They can use their courts and whatever to unjustly set us back, take our power, take our material power, take our financial power in hopes of breaking the spirit and killing the will of our community to keep going and keep realizing its objectives, but they will fail because what we have is permanent. What we have is bigger than the world. It's an attachment to G-d's purpose and G-d's purpose is bigger even than this world. Thank you. As-Salaam-Alaikum.
I was just reminded to share with you the news that I received from the office of Rabita, that’s the Muslim Worldwide Organization for the welfare and promotion of Al-Islam. I was told by their office in New York and correspondence that they sent me from the headquarters in Mecca, that for the coming year of 1987, the Supreme Council of Mosques have appointed your simple Imam W Deen Mohammed to a membership on the Supreme Council.

Host: Salaam-Alaikum.
Audience: Allahu Akbar.
Host: Also, I must beg the pardon of Mrs. Muhammad for inadvertently omitting the introduction of her dais guess. Sometimes, I think of them as one but as we can attest to her very, very fine work as President of the Clara Muhammad Foundation, she is truly and indeed her own person. I would like to now have Reverend William to present the gift to Imam Mohammed and Mrs. Mohammed.
Reverend William: In the name of Almighty G-d, on behalf of the Unification Church of Michigan and our founder, Reverend Sun Myung Moon, I would just like to present this small token of love and appreciation for this great man of G-d. Thank you.

Audience: Allahu Akbar.

Interviewer: How did you like the message today?
Male Interviewee 1: I liked the message very much. I liked particularly the universal nature of it, the fact that the African-American Muslim is identified with Muslims throughout the world and in the international definition of Islam all men are brothers. A Muslim is one who seeks justice for all men. I say it was a very fascinating message.
Interviewer: Did you like it?
Female Interviewee: I was very, very impressed with what Imam Warith Mohammed had to say. I think with the kind of problems we have in the African-American community all over the United States that what he said was vital. It should've been packed. Anybody that wasn't here missed a great, great lecture.
Interviewer: How did you like the message, sir?
Male Interviewee 2: It was very inspirational. It is what I feel, that most Americans need to hear especially, at this day and time. Seeing that we have been moved by media and influenced by the media on a lot of negative influence on Al-Islam but this is a plain, clear message for the people know the truth about Al-Islam. How it was given to us as a religion for all of humanity not something of counter-revolution, anti-establishments we all underground. I think it is appropriate and what we need in this day and time.

Female Interviewee 2: I thought the message was very inspirational as usual Warith Deen Mohammed always gives the African-American people something to feed on and to take with them and until the next time we see him we will be thinking of what he said today.

