00/00/2002
IWDM Study Library 
IWDM in Rome Pt.2

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
IWDM:
... kingdom from the democratic freedom
Speaker 2:
We have...
IWDM:
We have a guest speaker with his kingdom like you have here...in the eyes of G-d, from all races, different religion, we welcome all people. And the leadership was afraid that making the society democratic and open like that would give the little people a chance to see the wisdom and they would start eating at the bottom of it. They couldn't reach up high but down there at bottom of it, they'd start eating on it.
Speaker 2:
Of course.
IWDM:
And that is what happened. Yeah, I ate some of it at the end. Yeah, I ate the bottom of the cane.
Speaker X:
Allahu Akbar.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker X:
OK
IWDM:
Yeah, yeah. It led me to the Qur'an
IWDM:
Now l use the cane if I wan to.... Yea, Yeah, the staff, the staff. Now look here, there are two of them. One in the Qur'an and the staff of Solomon. And the little creatures started nibbling away at it. And Moses had a staff. And he was carrying it and didn't even know what it was. Because G-d reveals what it was and ...He said throw it and he started throwing away from himself. He threw it from himself and then he was afraid of it. It became a snake. And a snake moving!
Speaker X:
OK.
IWDM:
So, the same common man like Moses, Moses was a common man, an innocent person. But an innocent person, when he sees the wisdom of the world, that the world is using the rule, it's frightening. And when you open society up to everybody, the little people, they're curious too. They go peep in and sneak and look. After a while they're eating away at the cane.
Speaker 2:
Yeah. We going to have some of that too.
Speaker X:
Yeah.
Speaker X:
right.
Speaker 5:
The following is Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, speaking at the Vatican, in front of Pope John Paul II and a crowd of maybe 100,000 people on October 28, 1999, Rome, Italy.
Speaker X:
Muslim mission. For the next witnesses, we move out of Europe from North America, Imam Warith Deen Mohammed of the American Muslim Mission.
IWDM:
Bismillah hi Rahman nir Raheem. With Allah's Name, the Merciful Benefactor, the Merciful Redeemer, Vatican interreligious gathering, we dearly regard this invitation in terms of G-d from the heavenly faith communities of the world. We are joining one another here at the Vatican in Rome, with His Holiness, John Paul II, because Muslims, Christians and Jews and others share basic values and a belief in a virtuous life that wants justice and peace for all. Growth and population, modern transportation and modern media make for circumstances that put us in one global picture.
Television will occasionally put the great religious societies in the living room of its viewers. We cannot but look for opportunities for religions to meet and by sincere discussion come to a better knowledge of each other. We thank Allah for this occasion, for leaders from the great religions to meet here in this holy city of the Catholics, hosted by His Holiness, John Paul II, their leader who has all delegation among his Muslim well-wishers and fervent admirers. I have devoted my life to building bridges. Inclusion within my heart. I believe I wanted that and I think my father conditioned me to want that. That is, not to be separated, but to be with all good people.
I wholeheartedly accept and embrace with you the idea of unity, mutual sharing and love for one another. We have to condition ourselves to be at peace. G-d has given us the requirements that we have to meet for a life of faith in Him and when we meet these conditions, we do have peace. There are many convincing signs everywhere. Those with open eyes, belief and faith will see them and hear them. They'll hear the sounds everywhere that goodness is on the rise. We're living in a time of revival, revival of the true life that G-d put into the human soul, when he created the first person. A new world of faith community all over the world is on the rise. G-d is one, His creation is one, whole.
There is one universal law for all matter, for all material things and everything is related. G-d has made things different, human beings too, because G-d wants unity to progress. The diversity is to provide the unity with legs, with wheels, with movement for more progress. G-d said, He had made us humanly different by color, by nationality to encourage us to walk together and get acquainted with each other to have peace and unity. We thank His Holiness, John Paul II, for making this opportunity possible.
As the Imam and representative for a large number of Muslim Americans, we greet this multi-religious gathering with peace, salaamu alaykum, with peace and with brotherly love. We ask that divine favor be upon all the participants and on this holy place. Ameen. Peace.
Speaker 5:
The following recording is Imam Warith Deen Mohammed being interviewed by ... Focolare on October 29, 1999.
IWDM:
Okay
Interviewer:
Okay.
IWDM:
Not yet?
Interviewer:
I'll ask the question?
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed:
Okay.
Interviewer:
Okay. Imam Mohammed, since the weekend at Malcolm Shabazz in 1997 to date... and this meeting here with the holy Father yesterday, what do you think has been achieved over the dialogue between Christians and Muslims?
IWDM:
We have come to know the Focolare much better. We were impressed with what we learned of them from the first meeting. But now we know them much better and we're closer together. We have benefited from their love. We are beginning to love that more ourselves and we're benefiting from their desire for unity and for making us aware that we have to practice to be successful with love and become more united as human beings under G-d and the family of mankind.
We are getting so many spiritual benefits, so our association with the Focolare and the messages that we are receiving from Chiara Lubich, they're giving us so much spiritual help for our lives and not at all, in conflict with our religion, but it gives us help that makes us understand our religion even better and gives us opportunity to practice our religion, not only as Muslims, but to practice our religion is wonderful, with Christians who are accountable with the principle of Christ -love.
Interviewer:
What is it like when you were able to speak in front of the Holy Father yesterday?
IWDM:
Well, I'm a man that....I humble myself before G-d. I'm confident, aware of my .... and I'm not uncomfortable with anybody.
Interviewer:
We had a chance...that you were to the Holy Father yesterday evening...on television. Our callers tell us your word...you had kiss with him...
IWDM:
Yes, I tried to hide the kiss I gave him. I thought the camera was not getting a head... but someone told me they saw me kiss the Holy Father. I kissed him and he gave an opportunity to kiss him again, I kissed him twice, once on the cheek and once on the left shoulder. because he's a leader for all human beings. He's a leader for Muslims, for everybody. He's a man for justice in the world. He's a man for peace. He's a man for devotion to G-d, obedience to G-d. And this is what all the great religions want. So, he's... not just the leader for Catholics.
Interviewer:
Can I just ask you the last question? What do you think... What implication that the Holy Father gave to all religious leaders coming together? What implication would that have in interreligious dialogue in the future?
IWDM:
Well, anything the Pope says, it carries weight, and it gets attention. And I find myself quoting Pope John Paul II, myself. So, he gives us a lot of help when he makes statements to us that we can share with our brothers and sisters who work with us, our workers, in our circle. We share them and we also share with our congregations these statements from him and these statements give us so much help because they're coming from a man that’s recognized by so many hundreds of millions of people and respected so highly. So, he gives a big help and he's aware of that. He knows that.
Interviewer:
Just one last. Could you tell us, if you wish, about something of the meeting you had with Chiara the other day?
IWDM:
We had a wonderful meeting as always. I see her as a blessing from G-d. A pure soul, a blessing from G-d and her mission is a blessing from G-d for all people of faith, not just Catholic or Muslims, but all people of faith and we're proud to know that they are Muslim who are Focolare. We're very proud of that. In fact, I want and insist that I become a member, because I feel that I am a member, a part of Chiara Lubich, myself..
Interviewer:
Thank you very much, Imam Mohammed.
IWDM:
Thank you.
Interviewer:
Have a happy trip.
IWDM:
Thank you.
IWDM:
... for the best people in the world have met together in the Vatican and G-d wanted us to be there with them, and we were there.
Speaker X:
Allahu Akbar!
Speaker 1:
Happy Birthday, brother Imam. Thank you very much.
Speaker 5:
The following is a partial recording of Imam Mohammed speaking to the Focolare gathering at Castel Gandolfo on the 25th of October, that is a Monday. We did have the majority of it, but not all of it.
IWDM:
My mother wanted me to know that my schooling as a member in the Nation of Islam began as far back as her breastfeeding me. She faithfully recited for my ears to hear prescribed lessons, printed and written, and printed by Mr. Fard, the mysterious teacher of my father. These lessons were printed on leaflets and smaller pamphlets. These orientation materials centered around Fard's creation myths were formed to promote reading habits, interests in mathematics and in general science, and to establish myth as reality or as actual fact.
Noteworthy it is, this Asian, Mr. Fard, went directly to the slum areas of Detroit, Michigan, to attract to his creation myth a loss and unschooled, uneducated soul. Mr. Fard had no place in his experiment for the likes of W.E.B. Dubois on "The Talented Tenth." Mr. Fard searched among the illiterates and gathered to his side the most culturally deprived of the African Americans. Mr. Fard did not want so-called Negroes, as he called us, so called Negroes, whose learning would cause them to doubt the new creation myth of the origin of the world and also of the origin for the white race. A student of Mr. Fard's conceived myth and Mr. Elijah's leadership role, after years of study, I concluded the true purpose behind the creation of this strange, unorthodox Temple of Islam,
in the slum areas of Detroit was to plant in the soil of a new creation myth that would hold us a verging interest in finding the truth, believing the author came to befriend victims of racism, blacks, kept me with his language long enough to see it as satire as height of flattened spirits and as a foal exposing white supremacy and as a buried in the soil of the myth, breath whispering, "Be educated, you black following. Live to see change in America you black following. Live to reject Fard's work you black following. To accept only the Qur'an."
Speaker X:
Takbir.
Speaker X:
Speaking in Italian language...
Speaker X:
...you took leadership, and also...
Speaker X:
IWDM
Speaker X:
I know. I never took anything...I know, I know.
Speaker X:
Speaking in Italian language.
Speaker X:
... is correct. ... you did bring the whole group towards openness, peace and .... Can you say a few words about this so-called leadership?
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed:
Ah, yes, yes. There were a lot of things said about me that helped me get accepted or to be the one that the following would accept as their leader when my father passed in 1975. As far back as I can remember when I was a little boy, I didn't understand it but I would be reminded that "you're not like other boys." So, they're telling me to check my behavior, don't follow the other boys. ...So, you are not like other boys. You're going to follow your father and be a help to your father. "Our savior told us that," referring to Fard, the teacher of my father. "Our savior told us that." And sometimes it would be my sister. I have two sisters by my mother and father.
It'd be my sister, Rayyah, she's called now, her name was Lottie, before changing it to Rayyah. Lottie would say to me, "Wallace, you have to remember who you are and she'd say, You have to be different." She said, "Don't be like the other boys, you have to be different." She would say, "Our savior said that you would help your father." She said, "Do you know he wrote your name on the back of the door in chalk before you were born? Mama was carrying you and he wrote Wallace D. on the back of the door." And I learned later that Fard wasn't sure that I would be a boy, so he told my father, "If he's not a boy, say oops, we missed that time."
So, a child having his mind impressed, these ideas of himself,
he doesn't occupy himself with those thoughts, but as I got old, and started to face problems and see our community having problems, then I began to reflect back on what they said and I think that was the beginning of condition for me. Them telling me these things as a boy was the beginning of the conditioning for me to bring me to where I am now. Yes. And this was not only told to my family members. It was told to the general membership. I'll give you something that happened. One day, we call Saviors' Day, annual celebration, you might be aware of this, reading about us, about our history.
It was always on the 26th of February. My father was not feeling too well and he was expected to make the major address and he told me, he said, "Son, I want you to be with me today." I said okay Dad. I'm very.... I couldn't have been more than about, maybe 19 or 20, very young. And I said okay Dad, and I was there with him. I didn't have to stand in his place, he was able to deliver, but when he delivered, he said, "I am like David." He said, "But my son is like Solomon." Say, "He will build the temple."
He said this before his annual gathering of believers from all over. And those who had the privilege to be in his presence often, like his chief persons in the leadership, they were made very much aware of Fard's saying, prediction, and all of that. And that's what I was referring to when I told you I didn't take anything.
Speaker X:
Speaking in Italian language... "Second question", (asked in Italian language). (Translation) Question: "This pact of unity that was maintained, that was made with Chiara, at Malcolm Shabazz Mosque, So the question is, for the Imam, was the value of this pact that he made with Chiara...as fruit and effect...what effect and fruit does it have on his own personal, you know, so what he saw in the society, in his group and his movement?
IWDM:
We live in a Christian society and when I was a young boy, I was told that Christianity was false religion. And I was told that it was not the religion of Jesus Christ. When you tell a boy that, you put a lot of burden on his mind when he has to meet Christians in the streets and everywhere, and in the stores, and make friends with Christians and Christians become his personal friends. It's hard for him to live with that teaching and I think while I was imposing upon myself, obedience to the instructions I was given, by my parents and the teachers of the Nation, Temple of Islam,
Something inside was not comfortable with that and when there was opportunity for me to, I would say, rationalize the instructions or interpret again those instructions or understand those instructions just as expression may be just coming from fear, fearing that if we mix with Christianity, Christians, and believe that they're okay, their religion is okay, maybe we might not stay on that course until we reach the point where they wanted us to go.
So, I in my own mind, I'm older now, I start to reason with the instruction so that I could see my parents and the teachers in a good light. I didn't want to see them as bad people, okay? When I became the leader in 1975, I wanted an opportunity to open the way for the following of my father, the Nation of Islam, to mix with and have a friendly relationship with the people of the book, using the Qur'an. The people of the book, Sabians, Jews, Christians. And I'm around all Christians so I'm not seeing Jews or Sabians, I'm seeing Christians. When I met individuals as the leader and discussed differences with them, and dialogue, as the leader of the following, I found that when I was having this dialogue with the Jew, a Rabi, or a Christian minister or Christian priest, that I was forgetting that he was Christian and I was Muslim. And I was seeing him as a believer in G-d and myself as a believer in G-d.
When I met Chiara Lubich, I felt that stronger than I ever felt it before. That I was seeing a believer in G-d. I was seeing not a Christian but a believer in G-d. Although I know she is perhaps the purest of Christians, but I was not seeing a Christian. I was seeing a believer in G-d, a strong believer in G-d, a pure soul, giving herself to G-d. That's what I saw. I have that desire in my soul to be pure for G-d's sake and to give myself completely to G-d. So that made me just ... and want to be with her, want to stay with her and her presence to me was the brightest thing, in my day, for that moment, the brightest thing in my life, and that’s the way her presence is now, that's where her presence was when we entered ...this room. Her presence to me is just the sunshine, brighter than this other sunshine that I ...that I've experienced in my life.
This is because she is a pure Christian. She is a pure follower of Christ Jesus, and I recognized that long before I recognized her. I forced myself to read the Bible and I told myself, "Don't stop to study the Bible. Don't stop to question anything. Commit yourself to read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation without you questioning or without you stopping to study something". And that's what I did. I forced myself, just read it through. I read it through. Then I promised myself that once I read it through, then I would read it a second time to study it. The second time I read the Bible, somewhere these Bibles still exist. They're all marked up with my pencil and perhaps in some of my files or something back home and one was white covered or leather and the other one a black colored leather. The one I marked up was a white color. So, after I finished reading, I fell in love with the gospel. I fell in love with the Christian Church... But I never had a chance to express that love until I met Chiara Lubich.
Now, what has this meant to me and to my community? It gives us a clean, wholesome opportunity, to live our own religion with Christians, not just live it with each other, to live it with Christians. And it gives us an opportunity to meet Christians, to not fear openness with Christians. She has opened the way for us to feel relaxed with Christians. Even narrow-minded Christians. Hard-shelled Baptists, as my father used to say, even with hard-shelled Baptists. I can sit now, be at home with them and excuse their ignorance. All Baptists are not ignorant. All hard-shelled Baptists are not ignorant. But the ones I've met back ... I don't know why but I've attracted just the ignorant ones.
Yes. So, I think this is an opportunity for us to not just to know there's a common thread from G-d to all of us. But also, to know that G-d intends for us to be friends, to love each other. I don't understand why you have to explain that to me because what I've read where Jesus said wash each other's feet, I thought He was not only talking about you Christians wash each other's feet, but He was talking one of you Christians also wash my feet, and I'll wash your feet sometimes.
So, this is a big opportunity for us to live and live the best of our hearts and the best of our souls and be open and free with each other and walk with each other as brothers and sisters in our own identity and distinctions and not fearing each other. Chiara Lubich makes that possible for all of us.
Speaker X:
Speaking in Italian language.
Speaker X:
It would be beautiful to be able to continue. Maybe there'll be other possibilities, but I think now it's....


