2001
IWDM Study Library
Interview Al Islam in Focus 
Detroit Michigan

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
[music]
Siddeeq: [foreign language] with the name of G-d the merciful benefactor the merciful redeemer, welcome to the program Al Islam in Focus I'm your host Imam Siddeeq Jihad and today's guest is the Honorable Imam W. D. Mohammed the leader of the Muslim American society. This program is directed by Mikhail Aktar with me today as a co-host we have Imam Daud Alim of Detroit Michigan. We'd like to thank you for tuning in this evening. We'd like to have the honorable guests Imam W.D. Mohammed extend the greetings to the audience if you would sir.
IWDM: Yes Salaam-Alaikum it's a pleasure to be again back on Islamic in focus
Siddeeq: Alhamdulillah. We'd like to begin the program by reciting from the verses from the sura entitled [foreign language] we begin now [foreign language] translated, "We seek refuge with G-d from the rejected Satan. Oh people your companion is not one who is possessed and without doubt he saw the angel Gabriel in the clear horizon neither did he withhold readily acknowledge of the unseen nor is this the word of evil spirit acursed then where are you going then whither go ye. Verily, this is no less than a message to all of the worlds will prophet whoever among you who will to go straight but you shall not will except as Allah wills the Cherisher of the world Almighty G-d speaks the truth."
This particular series or verses from the Quran is assuring the people that Muhammad was not crazy and here we have a guest who was perceived as being crazy when he took over the leadership of his father Elijah Muhammad. Brother Imam I'd like for you to comment on your childhood up until now in terms of what you did and what you felt you were inspired to do to change the Nation of Islam following the passing of your father.
IWDM: As a child as far back as I can remember and they tell me even before I was born, I was given special treatment and I had a lot of special things going for me. The man who introduced the Nation of Islam concept to my father and helped him to get it established in Detroit in 1931 he named me before I was born he told my father and mother said when he's born do what you promised and that is to give him my name. He was more than one name, give him my name.
My father told me that he said to him you keep your promise to me to have him help us with this work and that meant the work of building the Nation of Islam and getting it where they wanted it to go. Yes. That was all done before I was born. When I was born I have postcard my mother and my cousin left with me cousin from pardon me, my uncle the brother of my father so his son my cousin [unintelligible 00:04:53] he also gave me a card and these cards were sent to my mother. One was sent to my mother one was sent to his family saying the I hear that child has arrived that's me the baby has arrived the child has arrived take good care of him that's what was written on the card take good care of him.
I've had special things in my life helping me all along. When I became aware of myself as the son of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad and member of the Nation of Islam I became aware also that the senior members of the Nation Islam knew of this saying concerning me helping my father and they would remind me when they would see me playing I wouldn't be doing any wrong but I'd just be playing and they say remember you're supposed to help your father with his work. I was too little to understand what this is all about.
That continued on until I got older like 17,18 and around that time I started to have a serious interest in the community in my father's following. I said to myself there are some things that they're saying that's not right, this sounds more like the idea of G-d in Christianity an idea of G-d that I think they wanted me to believe. I believed that they wanted me to believe in one G-d not three and the real G-d not temporary G-d [inaudible 00:06:45] G-d for the others he lives and then he died I'd say well, he was no G-d he's dead. A strange thing happened to me once wasn't so strange but as I look back on it it seems like it was send to me a little bit strange.
We lived at 6116 Michigan south side of Chicago in a frame house and if you know the little frame house it was used house when they bought it my father had the community but it when he was released from prison in fact he didn't come from prison to apartment that we were in he came from prison to this frame house that they bought for him and that was the first house we had to my knowledge we owned the house.
One Wednesday night he told me he was all dressed up I was doing my work school and all of a sudden here I see my mother finally come down the stairs and they're dressed up dressed up beautifully too looked real great in their cloth and he says, "Son we want you to stay here tonight and we have to go to the temple." I said, "Yes, sir," and they left they went to the temple he said we may be back late and they were back late.
The house is cooling now getting late at night and I started to hear noises but as a child I didn't know that the noises was just the houses adjusting to the different temperature the wood shrinking and whatever. I began to be afraid, not terrified, but afraid so I put my hands like this. This is the way we're taught to pray back in the Nation of Islam, this is the way they're taught to pray now [inaudible 00:08:36] pray like this standing, sitting, [unintelligible 00:08:39] like this so they don't make it this formal, salat that we make formal prayer like we make Dua someone studying in the Nation of Islam while they're doing it.
We held our hands like this and I put my hand like that I didn't feel comfortable with the teacher of my father man in my mind's eye what I'm seeing is his image his face from the photo that we had I never saw his face except on the photo as a child. I'm looking at that face and I am not so comfortable-
Siddeeq: You were about 17 again?
IWDM: I was 12 years old I know because I know when we moved there and I know when we moved away from there I wasn't 13 yet so I was about 12. I just had a birthday 11 months or so or I was 12 somewhere in there between 11 and 12. I held my hand like this and I wasn't feeling comfortable looking at this face of Mr. Fard so I said, "Allah if I'm not seeing you correctly please help me see you correctly," and then I prayed.
Siddeeq: I know you've mentioned before that when you make the Dua, should we hold our hands together like this as opposed to--?
IWDM: No you can hold them anyway. You can hold in anyway, just palms out separate all together. It's okay, yes, as long as they are open like a cup. The cups can be separate and you bring the two cups together, okay. [laughs]
Siddeeq: All right.
IWDM: Like this some people people pray like this. It's fine. Some people even pray with with the hands reached to the sky and that's fine as long as their hands are open. Open.
Siddeeq: Okay.
IWDM: Yes.
Siddeeq: Okay, so I'd mentioned that people perceived you as crazy, could you tell our audience some of the things that people viewed as being crazy or different or different [crosstalk]
IWDM: Yes, well there's so many people [crosstalk]
Siddeeq: - of your father in the Nation of Islam?
IWDM: There's so many people crazy now that I think I a little crazy too. [laughs]
IWDM: I'll tell you one thing. What I had to tackle was enough to drive a man crazy.
Siddeeq: Yes indeed.
IWDM: Yes, but thank G-d we made it through it all.
Siddeeq: Yes sir.
IWDM: Yes, so that was up until 12 now. When I got about 18 years old, maybe late 17 or 18, I was sitting in the seat with all the other believers, brothers, and brothers sat in the front and sisters sat behind us at the temple.
Yes. And this was on the 5335 Greenwood, temple in Chicago, and my friend and partner, we associated Leroy, the brother of Imam Darnell Karim. Older brother, Imam Darnell Karim. He was sitting to my right just like you are right now, and I was sitting here and he said every Wednesday night they were given like half the time, half the night for youngsters to come up and try speaking, to see if they could become young student ministers. Leroy said "Let's pop the surprise." I didn't know he's gonna do it. He said "I'm going up there tonight". I said "You are?" He said "Yes." He did when Sheikh James Shabazz, same man, when brother James called Minister James back then. Minister James said "I want some of your young brother- we want some of you young brothers to come up and speak." Leroy raised his hand and it was [unintelligible 00:12:14] suddenly took back him to come on up. He went up and he spoke and did a pretty good job. He came back and he sat down, I'm stage fright, always was very stage fright. I'm have stage fright- I'm not person comfortable with big audience looking at me, not by nature.
By habit and training, I don't have a problem anymore. He stepped down and he said- he looked at me and he said "Chicken." [laughs]. You know you ain't supposed to take that. I went up against this feeling that said, "Stay in your seat." He challenged me and made me go up. I went up and I stood up there, frozen almost, before the people, I looked at the people and I saw their faces. And their faces were looking at me and their faces were saying "You're the one we've been waiting for”.
We want to know what Elijah Muhammad's son, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad's son has to say. I saw that on their faces, I'm seeing that you know that these people expect me to speak to them. Yes, and the fear and the uncomfortable feeling I had all went away and as I was thinking about their faces, looking at their faces.
Siddeeq: Yes. You can see G-d working with you as far back as 12 years old.
IWDM: Well then I didn't see. I just saw the people helping me. Making me want to say something you know the they're looking like this, "Speak, speak, speak. We're waiting on you." The first thing I said to them was "We shouldn't say in the name of Allah and in the name of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad."
Siddeeq: You were 17 at that [unintelligible 00:14:09] juncture?
IWDM: I was 17-18.
Siddeeq: Yes sir.
IWDM: I think 17.
Siddeeq: Yes sir.
IWDM: And the people, they're just still looking to. Then I began to tell them why. I say this sounds like Christianity in the name of the Father, name of Son, name of Holy Ghost. I say we should just say in the name of Allah, in the name of G-d. I went on to talk them and I talked and I had no problem, all the fear and discomfort was gone. I sat down after about 10 minutes 15 minutes maybe. Soon after that, when I say soon I mean within months after that, like within three or four months after that. Many ministers around the whole United States around the nation start opening up in the name- well I suggested to them how to do it too. I said say in the name of Allah and we thank Allah for Elijah Muhammad, and that's exactly what they start saying.
Siddeeq: That's a beautiful story.
IWDM: All around the nation they start saying, "In the name of Allah and we thank Allah for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad." Some would say we thank Allah for His servant and messenger or for the Holy Apostle, they put their language to it, but they wouldn't say in his name. They said we thank Allah. I'm sure that they didn't check with anybody. I guess they figured that's Elijah Muhammad's son, if he didn't say [unintelligible 00:15:39], it must be all right.[laughs]
Raymond Sharrieff, the Supreme Captain, he never changed and he made a point of letting the people know, "I don't accept this from you, [unintelligible 00:15:50] Minister Wallace." He called me Minister Wallace back then.
He would say "In the name of Allah and in the name of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad." His messenger and he going in there. I never spoke to him, I never said a thing to him. He never said, he never came to me and told me, "I don't agree with you" but that's the way he told me, from the rostrum. I never complained. My father never told me to change. He never said he had any problem with me doing that. Not ever.
Siddeeq: Your father obviously had tremendous faith that you would be the one to succeed him?
IWDM: Yes, not only my father, my mother, my sisters, my brothers and many senior members of the nation of Islam, some of them right here. [unintelligible 00:16:46] Who saw him, my father's teacher [unintelligible 00:16:47] Mr. Fard, they saw him. The one they [unintelligible 00:16:49] call Allah in a person and Savior and all that, yes. And we used to call him that too. I did. I was taught to do that. Yes what they right here in Detroit they also know of what was said about me helping my father and about me being named before I was born [unintelligible 00:17:09] and all that. I'm living right now in Detroit.
Siddeeq: All right, yes. Could you comment on what happened in 1975 in terms of the transition and your strategy for bringing the followers of your father into the pure light of Islam.
IWDM: Well, let me go back to my father, last time I saw my father. In the hospital room and it was just one day before the big day- no, two days pardon me before the big day, the Savior's Day. Just two days. I'm visiting him with other relatives, members of the family and other relatives and brothers and sisters. They had come to see him and he had gotten dressed and was sitting on the side of the bed. He got up and he kind of walked up, took a few steps, walked around a little bit. I smiled and I thought, I said "Daddy", I said "You going to be [unintelligible 00:18:10] with us" I said "You will be out there, you will be out there Savior's Day." He looked at me and kind of smiled. He said "Well, son, if I'm not out there, you are. Yes, say you, say you are. You [unintelligible 00:18:23] all will be out there."
Siddeeq: He said.
IWDM: That's what he said. Now, when I accepted to be the speaker and to be chosen as the next leader because I knew before I went out there, the officials [unintelligible 00:18:44] the national officials at headquarters, they had already told me that I was their leader [unintelligible 00:18:50] definitely told. My father had passed and they told me that you are our leader. I knew that I had to go there and perform as a leader of the Nation of Islam.
My main concern was to wean the followers of my father off the old language that had a problem, that where there was problems for Islam as given to us in the Qur'an and as given to us by the Prophet of the Qur'an, Muhammad, prayers and peace be upon him. That was my main concern, was to wean them off of that and I thought the best way to do that was to give them things that appealed to them that they would like to hear, but that would also be putting them in a mental situation and an emotional situation, to go easily away from those things that were objectionable to what is accepted in Islam. Yes.
Siddeeq: Well I came into Islam in 1973 under the leadership of your father and one of the strong things that pulled me in was the Caucasian man being the devil and the Yakub story. I'm sure that you look at that as being a big stumbling block to-[crosstalk]
IWDM: Yes, it's foreign to Islam, it's foreign to scripture in fact the major religions would reject those ideas as not being revealed in either of the books, Bible or Quran.
Siddeeq: Yes, so comment on why did that come into the movement and how did it come into the movement this story of the grafted devil being that the Caucasian man was grafted from the original African American--
IWDM: Well G-d blessed me I studied hard and G-d blessed me to follow the mind of my father's teaching and find how his mind went from this to that and how he arrived at his myth that he gave us as reality. I don't think we are the only ones who have myths as reality. Most of the world, every nation has some myth as a reality that's not reality, it's myth but the people accept it as real, like Santa Claus and many other things. Anyway, you were asking how the--
Siddeeq: Yes, the strategies that you had in your mind in dealing with the strong and bad myths of the Caucasian man being the devil and those kind of things. There were a lot of people who thought you were crazy so to speak when you came in saying that Caucasian people had the capacity to be Muslims. We also know about Malcom X and his-
IWDM: I'm laughing because why should it be crazy that when you say that whites have the capacity to be Muslims and human beings. It's only crazy from a crazy position.
Siddeeq: People that had that mind were crazy but thought you were crazy?
IWDM: No, I wouldn't quite put it that way because they weren't crazy because I used to believe in that too. We were not crazy but we just accepted something because we had faith in the people who were giving it to us, Mr. Fard, and the Hon. Elijah Muhammad. We had faith in them so we didn't question those things we just accepted those things without questioning them.
I came to the knowledge that certain things in the bible, if you are blessed by G-d to see the language and understand it you can form another language and say what that bible said and you can say it again in your own language, put it in your language. Actually the grafting is not the grafting of a devil but in the bible it talks about the grafting of people into Judaism, the Gentiles. Grafting the Gentiles into Judaism. The original tree is called olive, it's understood to be referring to the Jews, the original Jews.
Siddeeq: The story that we had was a story that was just given for a reversed psychology.
IWDM: No, if you listen and hear me out then you'll understand what I'm saying. Here we have a tree that's symbolic of the Jewish people as the original thinkers in the religion, the ones that G-d gave the scriptures to. They are called the original olive in the bible, it's the bible. It mentions the Gentiles as being grafted out of the original olive. If you know something about grafting plants, you don't really graft out until you graft in.
You graft something in and then it bears fruit and then you have something out. It's coming in first then out. It just puts it like that, graft in then graft out. It speaks of the Gentiles and those who are not born Jews and traditionally Jews, the Europeans and others who were converted to Christianity, it speaks of them as the grafted not as the original olive.
Yes, this is the bible. What he did was just stretched it farther and he said these Gentiles are grafted out and they are grafted out of the original into the weakest form and that's the devil, that was Mr. Fard's. Then he put all his myths to it to make it a beautiful story, to make it at least a captivating story about this man, wise scientist, black man with a big head.
At six years old he discovered that the magnetism steel could have magnetism and the negative and positive charges. When he put the like ends together they repel and the other unlike attracted. Then he said I'm going to make me a people like that, this is a myth now I'm giving you. I'm going to make me a people like that who will be unlike and then they'll attract the blacks. Because the myth says all the whole population of human beings was black there was no white race. The white race was grafted scientifically out of the black race.
Siddeeq: Would you say that a lot of people resented you for letting the world know that that was a myth. That was part of the nation Islam?
IWDM: By then I didn't say myth, I feel only now I can say be safe to say myth. I just said it's a story, I just said that this is the way he put it's to be understood, it's to be translated like Dr. Gulliver’s story. It's a beautiful story.
Siddeeq: What's the name of the story?
IWDM: Gulliver's story with the Lilliputians, Gulliver's Travels and the beautiful story of people, little people, normal people and all that. It's a nice story but it's a myth, it never happened. It needs to be translated and when you translate it you know the political situation back in that time, you'll know he was talking about the big people or certain political bodies over there in Europe. The little people were the mistreated and neglected people over there.
He was just portraying what he saw at the big people ignorant taking advantage of little people and little people too ignorant in their life but they are trying to survive. As he puts the story together and there are many stories, myths that are put together like that. Mr. Fard put his own myths together and he called it, he didn't call it reality, he said it Yakub story.
Siddeeq: We have like two minutes to go on this particular segment, would you like to ask him a question brother Imam Dawud?
Dawud: Imam how do you see the Muslim world, is it getting better or is it getting worse?
IWDM: The international Muslim world, it's getting better and it's getting worse at the same time. There are a small number of students of Quran and the life of Muhammad, the prophet, peace be upon him. There are scholars some of them are not academic members of academia but they are just scholarly researching and studying the Quran and the Mohammed's life, peace be upon him, to see if they can serve this present generation or world better as followers and teachers of Islam. That's the good thing that has happened. Some of them are politically influenced, some of them are socially influenced but a good number of them are spiritually influenced. They are just looking to see how to make the Muslim community conform to the best of what Allah gave Muhammad .
Siddeeq: Brother Imam we are coming to the rap up of this particular segment, we'd like to thank you for tuning in to the program Al Islam in focus. We'll have the second segment of this particular interview next week. Thank you very much for listening. May Allah always keep you and guide you and protect you. We extend to you the warmest of greetings of assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh, that is the peace of G-d be upon you, his blessings and his mercy. Thank you for listening. [music]
Siddeeq: Bismillahir rahmanir rahim, with the name of G-d. The Merciful the Benefactor, Merciful, Redeemer. Welcome to the program Al-Islam in focus. I am your host Siddeeq Jihad. We have as a co-host, pardon me Imam Dawud Alim. And our honorable guest is Imam W.D Mohammed, the leader of the Muslim American society. This man has traveled the world for over 25 years. Teaching the religion of Islam and he is highly respected and highly regarded by people all over the world. He is indeed the leader of the largest group of African-American Muslims here in the United States of America.
We are indeed honored to have him as our guest. Again, we welcome you to the program and we're going to continue from last week. We had the question being asked by imam Dawud Alim. We would like him to finish and refresh his memory as to what the question was when we concluded the last segment.
Dawud: Yes, Imam Mohammed. Last week, we were talking about the state of the Muslim world and you asked me if it was international, and I said yes I'm talking about the international state. So could you continue to elaborate? You talked about the scholars in the world academia but they were involved in trying to bring the excellence of religion. That was the good point and you mentioned about someone being political. Some of being social and that's about where we stopped.
IWDM: Yes. Dr. Torabi of Sudan. He is a popular leader in a large area of the Islamic world. I've known him as a friend for many years, for more than 15 years. And he is, I think spiritual but his position, the position he takes, I think is more social and political. He questions the treatment of women and he has become very popular with many women now in the Muslim publics and now in the public of the Muslim nations.
That's one of them but we have others, and they are not known as well. We have Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi, you know him. Who was head of the Islam, Islamic Society of North America. President Islamic Society of North America. He is a thinker in Islam, a student, scholar and I thinker in Islam. In my opinion, he is a good voice one of the better voices of Muslims or Islam in America today. In many parts of the world we have these great voices in countries I won't name any of them outside of the Sudan, I mentioned Sudan. That doesn't mean that these people will be accepted in their own lands now. They might be unpopular in their own lands but popular in many areas of the Muslim world.
I have a friend, Dr Hameed Dogar, who's the Imam of the Villa Park mosque. Where the finest most beautiful structures, Islamic structures that we have in the Midwest area. Fact that the best that I know of and he's an old friend of mine, I met him at my father's house. He's one of the good thinkers the beautiful good thinkers in Islam and he is doing his work of bringing the right picture of Islam and message to people in Chicago area. His message goes outside of Chicago too because he's known, kind of a popular person in the propagation of Islam and there are many others.
This is a good sign and we have people coming forward even though sometimes I don't particularly agree with their language with their rhetoric or their language but I appreciate them asserting themselves for the first time. Their women voices some I agree with some I don't, Muslim women. To me this is a good sign, that they're concerning themselves and they're speaking out they're saying there's something wrong.
We have also youth now. The youth coming forward, we have a young man out of Saudi Arabia. He came to America and he makes speeches all over and he's beautiful, his speeches are very beautiful. He goes to Europe, speak there. Very beautiful speaker, good. All these are good signs. but when we look at the nations of Islam the government's I should say rather than nations. When we look at the governments of Islam and I don't want to name any one in particular but you name any one for yourself.
When we look at the governments of Islam and how they are themselves controlling the way Islam is presented in public life and denying the freedom to decent innocent upright (unclear), preachers and Imams, and students and professors. They're denying them the freedom to write in the papers, the public papers, the national papers or to speak on the radio. They're denying them because they have certain ones that they put on the radio. The government authorized them to be on the radio. They're on the radio just a read whats in the Quran and mention no issue. Don't mention any disturbing issue, don't touch the water. Don't make waves on the water. While the people are left ignorant because the people are not listening them.
Why are people not listen to them. The public is mostly not listening, because they don't see any sign that you really believe in what you're saying. If you believe in what you're saying, we'd have a better life. We'd have a better public. We have more respect for freedom of speech et cetera. I don't mean freedom of speech to say anything like we have in America. You know we can get on TV and advocate almost anything. Yes, within limits though. You can get put in jail too. If you don't watch your mouth in America you can get put in jail, but we do have much more freedom. I'm not talking about stretching freedom to the point where you can defy G-d. No. The freedom just to obey G-d, we want the freedom to obey G-d.
Siddeeq: Yes, good point.
IWDM: These governments won't do it. They won't give their public's the freedom to obey G-d in their public life. The way they want to obey G-d.
Siddeeq: Yes. Brother Imam, would you comment on the 9/11 or one affair in its aftermath or what you see in respect of that.
IWDM: Well, first it shocked me and I'm hard to shock. I'm a person I never thought I could be shocked, really. Until that day and I didn't realize it until the next day when I was got up in the morning I got up at home looked at television. I had to have brothers drive me back home. There was no planes flying. I had an appointment on the 11th with President Bush. I was one of the religious persons that were to meet with him, I think upon a request but also upon his invitation after request had made. Then he invited us, selected certain religious leaders to come to meet him and he was going to have us give our comments on profiling.
It never happened as you know because right after my plane arrived. We were driving going toward the White house and we hear what happened and we decided right there in the car, the car that I was being driven in, to turn back and to go Philadelphia. The officer who was with us was a detective who works who has worked for a mayor, the mayor of the city. Brother Shakir, you might know brother Shakir, of Washington DC. He said, "It might be difficult, he said when we get in there, there's no telling when we can get out." I said, "Well, we shouldn't go in." I said, "The situation is too bad we shouldn't go in. We should go because they were fearing that some attacks might be on the White House [crosstalk] Washington." I said, "We shouldn't go in. We should go towards Philadelphia, Pennsylvania." I say maybe, "I can stay in Philadelphia until we decide what we should do." They said, this is not going let up soon and it's not going to be normal for long while, so you're right. I said ,"I think I know what you're suggesting. I said are you are all willing to drive me home?" They said, "Yes, we definitely want to do." They drove me home, the brothers drove me home. Yes Yusuf, the Imam Yusuf Saleem, brother Shakir and that was brother Omar, who used to be the captain, I think you know him.
Siddeeq: Yes.
IWDM: They drove me home and the next day I woke up and I turn the TV on, next morning and I realized for the first time that I was just feeling normal. That I was back to normal. It was like being a dazed in a daze, almost like dazed. No one expected that something like that would ever happen. Never, never expected anything like that to happen. When they said it was suicide bombers who use the airplane and the passengers, the civilians on the plane and took them in a plane that they made a bomb to explode against The Twin Towers Trade, the World Trade Center in New York. Then also they flew a plane into the Pentagon.
When I heard that, I said to myself these poor people have been driven out of that mind. I say they're murders, suicidal and murders. Two major crimes in all the major religions. I knew they couldn't have been Muslims in their sane minds. If they were Muslims, they had lost their minds. Yes. I saw them as murderers because insane people are not necessarily criminal people. I have visited hospital friends, relatives insane but they were nice. They weren't violent or hateful or criminal, but when you are criminally insane, you're a bad person. G-d didn't make insanity a moral thing. It's not a moral thing. You don't loose your moral nature because you go crazy. You can go crazy and still be respectful of your parents.
You'd be doing things crazy but you have limits on your behavior and you feel remorse when you do something bad. I've seen crazy people. I mean really psychotic. They do something and they feel remorse, "Oh, I'm sorry, they start crying"
Siddeeq: What advice would you give to the world in the aftermath of this horrible event?
IWDM: Well, it's too much to say. I was attending a leadership meeting. Religious leaders again in Cleveland Ohio hosted by our Imam, Clyde Rahman, and a very very popular preacher who has a big following in Cleveland, Dr. Otis Moss. Dr Otis Moss brought us there to make comments on the September 11. When he spoke he made a nice speech. I thought it was very much on time and very carefully. He very carefully worded his speech. I liked it very much.
Last words he said was, "This is going to need some deep thought." Speaking of the September 11th tragedy. I think that what he said is the most important message we need to get out to the whole world. What occurred needs us to think very seriously about it but not just think about it, think in to it, look in to it and don't just look at that incident but try to see what was building up to make that incident occur.
Siddeeq: Yes sir.
IWDM: Yes. I think the leaders of our nation they should be doing that. The religious leaders we should be doing that and the public. Our public should have an interest to know what happened in the life of these murderous, suicidal people to make them go to [unintelligible 00:45:35] extreme.
Siddeeq: Yes. Is there a movement afoot to have a group of religious leaders counsel or perhaps advise the president? I know there was some talk about it at the conference you had with Reverend Schuler and Minister Farrakhan a few weeks ago?
IWDM: Yes. There were also Islamic Circle of North America and I believe ISNA, the Islamic Society of North America too. The largest of those two. I believe their leaders were also considering the idea of having a select group of Muslim leaders go and visit the president. If that should ever happen and I'm invited to join them, I'd be most happy to do that.
Siddeeq: Since the begin of your leadership have you met all of the presidents of United States and I've had visitors to the White House?
IWDM: I believe I have.
Siddeeq: Yes.
IWDM: I didn't meet Nixon.
Siddeeq: Okay.
IWDM: I met Gerald Ford, President Gerald Ford, I met President Carter. And you know I met President Bill Clinton. Yes, I haven't met President Bush yet but I was hoping to meet him on 11th and that's [unintelligible 00:47:09]. Yes I was. I was expecting to meet him and I was hoping to meet him and I just wanted to tell him, "Mr president, I did not vote for you but I think I'll support you if you run again," and Bill Clinton is not running for president.
[laughter]
IWDM: I'm joking, I wouldn't say that to him. [laughs]
Siddeeq: We've noticed from watching the media reports that they are trying to explain Islam in it's true sense but right after they do that we notice that they show women with the face coverings. Would you comment on that face covering because it appears to me that they may be suddenly trying to discourage women from seeing Islam as a viable practical religion.
IWDM: Yes, first let me give the position of the scholars in Islam.
Siddeeq: Yes sir.
IWDM: The position of the scholars in Islam is that and they coming from Quran and from the teachings and life of our Prophet Muhammad. Their position is that women are required to cover themselves in public. Everything except the face and the feet and hands. 
So it they are required to do that except the face, then why cover it? Why put a veil on it? Why cover it? Why call the veil a hijab. When a hijab comes originally from the petition in a private home. What do they call the homes in the South that there's no walls, you are come in the front door and you can see the back.
Siddeeq: I don't know.
IWDM: Shotgun.
Speaker 3: They call it shotgun.
IWDM: Shotgun something like that.
Speaker 3: Yes something like that, yes.
IWDM: It means that it's like a shotgun barrel, you look at the opening of the barrel and you look out, nothing is obstructing, nothing is there. Many homes in the South for poor people they were like that. They just had one opening. But how did the people have privacy then? They put sticks up and they made little room, they took cloth and they draped it around an area and that was the private room. Same thing in the days of the Prophet. They would have an open area and they would put a cloth, hang cloth up so the guests couldn't see the private area, the rooms. Where the- -women need privacy. They have to have their privacy. Even the prophet would have his privacy too.
Siddeeq: Yes sir.
IWDM: That petition was called the hijab. Hijab is a petition, it's called a hijab. But now the meaning of hijab is something different. They call the veil hijab in the Quran does it say women of the house of the Prophet only, when you speak to guests but it's for all. We are supposed to follow their lead because they set the lead. When you speak to guests, do not speak to them except from behind the hijab.
Siddeeq: Does referring to the women being in the house [unintelligible 00:50:51] to just speak to the guest behind the screen?
IWDM: Yes, that's right. Now for all women including women of the house too. When you're in the public throw your himar over you.
Siddeeq: All right.
IWDM: [crosstalk] your himar, didn't say hijab, - himar.
Siddeeq: Yes, all right.
IWDM: What is a himar? Is a big heavy shawl like it's a big shawl or big scarf like a shawl and the women wear them now like they did in older days. In those days and they wear them like this and sometimes the women's dress show here. Say you go in the public, throw the himar over the breast so that the breast is not seen in the public. It wasn't the face that's being covered, it's the breast being covered by the himar.
Siddeeq: All right. In respect to the hair, what would be your position on whether on not that hair should be covered.
IWDM: The hair should be covered because it says in public the only parts to be shown, left uncovered face, hands, feet.
Siddeeq: Okay. We've seen that we're in the state of open opportunity to invite people to Al-Islam, do you think would be in order for us to begin to speak with Islam [unintelligible 00:52:12] and the other groups to come straight on this issue in terms of it not being in the Quran if a woman should wear the face whether or not there's no hadith literature to support that?
IWDM: Well, they agreed to that. They will agree to that.
Siddeeq: They will?
IWDM: Yes, they would agree that, only a few will not agree to that and most of them are not informed in the religion, they are not knowledgeable they just heard something from somebody else and they take it to be what should the doctrine from what is doctrine. They take it to be doctrine but they don't know.
Siddeeq: Yes. All right.
IWDM: Veil comes, - I've studied the veil in history and the most ancient, the oldest use of the veil that I found was Egypt, ancient Egypt in a mythical G-d called Isis. She wore a veil.
Siddeeq: All right. That's very interesting. Speaking of the myth, we know that you have encouraged us to change the spelling of G-d G-D and I remember you being in Cincinnati and a person got up in the audience and said that G-D reminded him of the curse word.
IWDM: Yes
Siddeeq: I was quite surprised that he would say that and I saw that you were very surprised too that he saw the G-D as a curse word. Just recently I was at a prison and there's some gang that has the initials GD and this person said that GD came to his mind about this gang. I know you had mentioned in Cincinnati there's some mythological G-d that goes from a dog to a G-d. I'd like for you to address that [inaudible 00:53:56] [crosstalk]
IWDM: Well, originally I didn't put G-D. I put G'D. An apostrophe means a letter is missing, grammatically speaking. Yes, okay. That's the way I put it and that's what it means. A letter is missing. Now I was not the first to do that. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad has lectured on the blackboard and he used the blackboard. He said we shouldn't use this spelling G-O-D. He said because when you spell it backwards it reads dog. Honorable Elijah Muhammad was the first one that brought that to my attention.
I learned in the last 10 years or less that many Jews refuse to put G-O-D. Jews will leave out the O and put a hyphen. The Jews put a hyphen. G-D. Since they learned that I do this, one rabbi made me aware of it. He said, "I see you spell the G-d like we spelled the G-d." I didn't tell him about my experience with the Honorable Elijah Muhammed. I said, "Yes, we do." But it didn't come from the Jews, it came from Honorable Elijah Muhammed to me. I don't know. I think anyone who's- -see I'm not bothered with the idea of G-d in Christianity, that's their business.
What my concern is the idea of G-d in Islam, for Muslims. The idea of G-d in Islam for Muslim is Allah can not be spelled backwards and say anything bad. If you say Allah, it means the G-d, only G-d. If you say, "Halla," it's like, "Oh, G-d."
Siddeeq: Hallelujah.
IWDM: Oh G-d, Halla.
Siddeeq: Is it the same as to Hallelujah?
IWDM: I don't now, something like Hallelujah maybe. Maybe similar. Yes, like Hallelujah. Yes. I'm sensitive and I've been that way since the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. But I remember, I imagine I was in my teens when I first heard the honorable Elijah Muhammad say that. When he said that, it made all the sense in the world to me.
Siddeeq: Yes, that's what happened to me. When I saw it being spelled, my first reaction was that perhaps our Imam is encouraging the Jews and the Christians to take a look at it and you were mentioning the Jews so that perhaps one day perhaps they will see that to be a term that shouldn't be used even in Christiandom.
IWDM: Well, no I didn't have the Jews in mind at all because to me at the Jews they call G-d by a different name. To them G-d is Elohim. G-d is Jehovah.
Siddeeq: Okay so your main purpose for doing it is?
IWDM: For the Christians.
Siddeeq: Okay.
IWDM: My main purpose for doing it is to let Muslims know that you shouldn't use this spelling G-O-D for G-d because you can spell it backwards it says dog.
Siddeeq: Yes, all right,
IWDM: Yes.
Siddeeq: Okay, Do you have-
IWDM: Do you want me say more on that?
Siddeeq: I was mentioning the Egyptian mythology that you had mentioned about them having a [unintelligible 00:57:28]
IWDM: Well, by the way Isis, the one who betrayed her father and took over. She formed herself in the midst, she became a snake and she crossed the path of Osiris, her father who was myth G-d, her Father. She crossed the path in the myth of Osiris the father, G-d the Father and caused his demise, his death. She is seen in Egyptian myth with a veil, with a cross and with a dog one of leash.
Siddeeq: I understand. Thank you very much for that.
IWDM: Well I don't buy any of that.
[laughter]
Siddeeq: A myth.
IWDM: It's a myth.
[laughter]
Speaker 3: Imam Mohammed, since we don't have that much time, I wanted to ask you about the Muslim American Society has a economic program that's really expanding and it's good. A lot of good news about it is called Comtrust and CPC. We don't have time to go into the history of the Nation of Islam economic program but we do see a similarity in the movement and the progression of it and could you expound on that in this next couple of minutes before we close.
IWDM: Yes we are obligated as followers of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad who have come from that that was incorrect to be with all Muslims of the world. We have an obligation to the Hon. Elijah Muhammad and to ourselves as the Nation of Islam, as formerly the Nation of Islam not to throw out anything that the Quran and Muhammad approves of. Muhammad the Prophet was a businessman before he was sent into the world to be a messenger, prophet, servant of G-d. He was a businessman. If when you read the Quran you can see the respect for business in the Quran. If you exchange money at a business deal in a business transaction- -says get a scribe to write it down, have a business contract, have a business receipt, have a business statement, write it down. Don't just trust your memory, that's business.
And the Honorable Elijah Muhammad's program was designed for poor people that didn't have money. He said, "Pool your small money so that we can use your small money to do big things." I'm making it short but we don't have any time left. What we have done after getting our spiritual life back, what we have done we have- - therefore G-d say the spiritual life is first but G-d says, "Do not forget your share of the material world." [foreign language]
Siddeeq: Thank you [unintelligible 01:00:52] Imam.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much.
Siddeeq: We like to thank you for listening to the program of Al-Islamic Focus and we indeed thank our guest, our leader Imam W. D. Mohammed for appearring on the program.[foreign language] The peace of G-d be upon you and his mercy.
[01:01:33] [END OF AUDIO]

