07/11/1999
IWDM Study Library 
Interview Shaw University
Raleigh NC

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Interviewer:
This morning we are very honored to have as our main guest for this morning none other than Imam Wallace D Mohammed and he's calling us and being with us this morning. We're very glad to have him from Chicago, Illinois talking about his up and coming visit to this area on the 15th and 16th of this month. And we are so proud and pleased to have him with us. This is not the first time he's been on Connections. This as a matter of fact is the second time and we're glad that the Imam is taking this time out of his schedule to be with us. Good morning Imam.
Good morning Imam. Are you with us? 
IWDM:
Yes. I appreciate the opportunity. 
Interviewer:
Thank you so much Imam, for being with us this morning and of course we know how critically important it is that your schedule be on time and we certainly thank you for taking your time out of your busy schedule to come and talk to us this morning.
IWDM:
It’s my pleasure.
Interviewer:
One of the first things I want to talk about Imam is your visit here with us in the triangle area of North Carolina, scheduled for the 15th and 16th. On the 15th of course you'll be here and participating in a ceremony "Building Bridges For Better Community Life" at The First Baptist Church and that will be on the 15th. Talk to us a little bit about that ceremony and what folks can expect.

IWDM:
And we are realizing more and more as we struggle to better our conditions as individuals and more importantly as a community or as a people. And we are learning that the world has changed very much from what it used to be. The world of the today is a world that needs nations to connect with each other and countries and people to connect with each other and religious bodies to connect with each other. And an African person in the Vatican, he was the director for the Department of Inter-Religious activities and dialogue. That was Cardinal Lincoln. And he recently said, and by the way, he's one of the persons that being considered for the position of the Pope after Pope John Paul II. He said recently that there has never been a time when religions are coming together as they're coming together now in this time. And I think that's happening both for all segments of society, not just for religion, it's happening for business. The world is becoming a one world now, a place that all of us share and all of us have to work together for a betterment of our lives for a good future for all of us.
So that's our interest in building bridges and firstly in our own neighborhood. We have to work together, Christians and Muslims. Muslims are a minority in this country. Small, not nearly as many as they have in the Chistian community and we need them and we think we have something to offer. So we want to join hands and work together. We don't want to be apart from each other, thinking that we are so different that we have nothing to do with each other anymore. That will hurt us real, real badly in this time and even more in the future. 
Interviewer:
One of the things I want to talk about for those who may not be as familiar with you Imam as maybe they should is your role with the Muslim American Society and what that all means. So if you would please take a second or two and explain what the Muslim American Society is about and what your role in this happens to be.
IWDM:
The Muslim American Society are mostly members who came into mainstream Islam, and embraced Islam as a religion for the first time in its complete concept and implication. We came from the following of the Nation Of Islam, under the leadership of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, my father, he was the one who directed us and guided us and united us. And we followed that unity that he gave us. And we are still a united group and we are working, still working for the same thing and that is the betterment of human life for people who need help or for people whose opportunities can't be reached because of problems with society or problems with ourselves. So we are still working on that but we're working on that with an interest first and being true Muslims first and presenting the best image of Muslims and Muslim life so that we don't have a spiritual conscious or spiritual burden on us that will prevent us from reaching potential in a material environment.
Interviewer:
Well, I'm looking also Imam at an article I think today or yesterday's article in the Wall Street Journal where they wrote a first page highly flattering article about you entitled "Black Muslim Path To A Moderate Cleric From A Radical Pedigree." And they're talking about the kinds of things that you've been doing. Subtitled "Son of Elijah Muhammad Preaches A Greater Islam In Tune With The Time." And from that our numbers tell us that many African-Americans, they're just not athletes as they used to be, are really taking a hard look at Al-Islam now and all that it means. What kind of numbers Imam can you give us about African-American participation in Al-Islam?
IWDM:
Yeah, well we believe that the number of African-American now is around about 2 million in America. And we believe that there is 2 pardon me, 3 million or more who are not African-Americans. We have Arabs, Indians, Pakistanis and many others and we believe the numbers are growing for both the indigenous Muslims, the African-American Muslims and also those who migrated and have taken citizenship in this country.
Interviewer:
What some non-Muslims may not be aware of and some of them mistakenly think that the Muslim movement or Islam is in direct contradiction with their religion that they knew from birth mainly talking about Christianity. Can you talk about that and how the two religions are working together.
IWDM:
We both have books, we say a Holy Book and that means that we believe that each book has the word of G-d and the Bible for the Christians and the Qur'an for us. And we both believe in the same idea as to how man started on this earth. We believe that G-d created man, that man did not come accidentally come upon this earth, that G-d created man and we believe that G-d gave man one ancestor and that ancestor for both of us is the same name Adam. And we believe that from Adam and his mate, his wife came all the other people. So we believe in the oneness of the people too. We believe that human beings are one human family. And we also believe that Jesus Christ was sent by G-d to people and that he was the Prophet and also Christ. The difference here is that we have a few small denominations of Christianity and don't think that Jesus Christ is the son of G-d, he's only a Prophet and Messenger G-d. And for us that's a clear issue for the concept of the Oneness of G-d.
But we are very much like you when it comes to believing in the Oneness G-d. But that doesn't prevent us from accepting that we believe in the same G-d. Christians and Muslims believe in the same G-d. It's just that we don't have the same concept when it comes to the concept surrounding Jesus. But we believe that Christ Jesus and his mother, Upon both of them be Peace, that they were signs from G-d to us and signs from G-d means that everything does not meet the eye. It doesn't meet the eye. G-d has to inspire you and bless you, to come into the full meaning of Jesus Christ, his mother in the life of the people of society, or the life of the Christian Church. G-d has assigned deep meaning and I would say knowledge. But again, I used to have difficulty with Christians regarding the idea of 3 G-d's in 1, but I have no more difficulty. I have met with and met very many people in the Chirstian religion and we have had discussions around our religious differences. And I'm convinced that there is a language barrier but belief in the One G-d is the same for Christians as it is form Muslims.
Interviewer:
And that seems to reveal a great foundation Imam for the topic of discussion at Flint Martin on the 15th and that's entitled "Bridges for Better Community Life" because it seems to me what all religions are about is building better individuals and families and better communities.
IWDM:
That's exactly true. It was in that way at the time of the earlier Prophets.
Interviewer:
And one of the other things I want to talk about that's critically important before we get to some other issues is getting back to this calendar. The public address that you're going to be holding on the 15th, I believe it's at seven o'clock. There are several other leaders that are going to talk about "Islam Inivites All To Form A Strong Faith And Viable Community." And I'd like to emphasize that word faith in there because it's critically important that our elderly especially and our young children can feel safe in their community. Safe from folks who live within the community and people who live outside of the community. And talk to us a minute about how the Muslim community, the Muslim American Society feels that they can play a role in the safety of our community.
IWDM:
Thank you. I have to reflect on the life of our Prophet, the last Prophet, the Messenger of G-d who lived in Arabia and he is really troubled by the condition of the people and that is what moved him to go seeking G-d for help.
Religion as you said, is about helping people with their condition so that they can live together, better cooperate, work together for better conditions in their life. The emphasis on spiritual life, or spirituality is there because we believe that Christians and Muslims and Buddhist and many others, that man, man is essentially a spiritual being. And no matter how demanding his material life is on him, we know we have to have a job or some money to spend on our needs. We have to have acknowledgement of our material conditions so that we can have good spirit. These two things are connected. So it is established clearly in Islam, the spiritual life is the real life. It's the more lasting life and the heaven that G-d promises us is better than this world both in quality and substance. But at the same time, G-d says He put us here and we can only experience the growth of our life, spirituality and personally in this material world, engaging it, taking advantage of opportunities and improve our material condition. And the material faith, our community, our neighborhood for our people is much like the material faith for an individual in terms of how it affects the spirit of the individual and the community or the people.
We know if we don't have water to bathe with or to shower with, our spirit is not going to be comfortable either. And if we can't feed ourselves and if we are riddled with diseases, all of this is going to hurt us. So the material body is given to us help us and motivate us an urge upon us to improve conditions in our society. And if we devote ourselves to improving conditions in the society, it improves the mind, the mind grows. We grow more intelligent, we have better ability to handle a matter, and we grow more morally. In fact, engaging the material world and the real conditions of life of people who are flesh and blood, It actually advances everything. It stimulates the growth for everything. Our moral life depends on that and we can have an advanced material moral life if we live with each other in society and address the things, the problems that are affecting all of us in the same way.
So, in regard to spirituality within the church, again we have to understand that the expression of spirituality means flesh and blood and for community it means good establishment, good homes, good home environment, good neighborhoods, et cetera.
Interviewer:
And also Imam, along that line, we want to make folks aware of your Ambassadorship role within your organization. And it's not just here in America but you've been given an Ambassadors role within the world to talk about Islam and Muslims. And we all know by all indications that you're doing very well in that. I want to bring you a little closer to our home though here in Research Park, Raleigh, Durham North Carolina and all of eastern North Carolina and ask you how is the Muslim American Society doing in our state and in our area as well as North Carolina in particular?
IWDM:
Well we thank G-d for sincere, educated, and very hardworking person like Imam Wahid. We have several of them in the area and they have embraced Christian leadership there and who are addressing the conditions of the people in their community and they're doing a wonderful job. The interest in the Muslims and in what we're all about is growing and we're not converting a lot of Christians to Islam as we did in the time of my father in the Nation Of Islam. That's because our concentration is not there anymore. Our concentration is formed building model life for ourselves as individuals and as people. And establising that life by working in cooperation with other Christians who want the same thing for their families. And so we don't find that we have hundreds every month converting to Islam anymore and that's not bothering us at all. We think Islam is really to be an individual choice, and not really a kind of prosyletyzing thing in a dogmatic way in order to form a puritanical people simply because we think we're better than other people. We think that has hurt us really. We gained a lot but we've also lost a lot and we lose more than we gain. Most people go back to the life they had before and sometimes they go back to the worst life. So we have gotten away deliberately from the sales pitch approach, trying to entice people to convert to the religion.
I don't like such a thing in Christianity and I don't like it in Islam. So we are growing in the Durham area and more significantly we're growing with other good people who have the same aim that we have.
Interviewer:
That is the refreshing to hear Imam and it makes sense and it really goes along with your approach nationally and internationally and particularly here in the triangle of really coming together in the religious community working with Christians and Jews and other folks as Imam Abdul Wahid is doing right here in the Durham area. It makes sense that you don't have the big push for conversion and I think that may make the whole Al-Islam, the Muslim movement a little bit more palatable and acceptable to some folks knowing that you're not out there prosyeltyzing and having everybody change what their parents have taught them all their life.
IWDM:
Sometimes in the past we have overlooked the diverse circumstances which were serving people in a good way. And I know of some who have left that life converted on the premise that they were made to think that they're not being loyal to their race, to the black people if they hold onto what, in the Nation Of Islam we used to call the white man's religion. And I've known, in fact I know several individuals whose life became worse.
They even became worse morally because they weren't satisfied with the Nation of Islam ideas regarding Christianity. And it took them , to really, I guess settle emotionally and began to think about it and then they thought about it then I guess they disliked themselves making the change and they became worse in their behavior than they were before. So we have to be very careful when you call people who are having Christianity, and they believe in G-d, they believe in doing good, they believe in being right, we should be careful about asking them to come from that belief and that life to another. We could be friends of theirs. We could embrace them and we could join forces with them and hope that they will stay good people and stay Christians. Because Christianity is serving them well and they walk through life with a sober mind. They want to actually look at Islam and leave Christianity, then we want them to make that independent choice on their own and we don't want to take them from a good life that they already have.
Interviewer:
That's wonderful. We only have about a minute or so left Imam and we certainly appreciate your time, but before you go I want to talk a little bit about, I want you to say a couple of words about the gathering at the Mosque on this coming Friday which you will lead.
IWDM:
Our Prophet Muhammad, Peace be upon him, he said that Friday is the best day of the year and he said that you observe Jumu'ah prayer at the Masjid. Jumu'ah prayer. It's more important than even the holidays. You have two major holidays and he said Friday is the best of all days. So Muslim go to Jumu'ah prayer. If you go to nothing else, you go to Jumu'ah prayer now. And that's very different from what it used to be. The main meeting day in the Nation Of Islam was on Sunday. So it's very important that a Muslim attend the Friday prayer, the Jumu'ah prayer.
The Jumu'ah prayer service is to serve the need to bring about a community, awareness and the obligation for us to devote ourselves to improve community life upon the guidance of G-d. Man cannot live alone to himself, not even develop his mind, if he separates himself from society. The Muslim life is the community life. We have to address that and go to service on Friday to get our senses aligned if they are not there already so we can be active and productive in community.
Interviewer:
I hear that music in the background, but I want to say to you again as I always have, thank you so much for sharing the enlightening and inspiring words that you always do and I wish you all the success in the world to continue on your national, international, and local tour to bring folks to another enlightened understanding. And we wish you all be well.
Interviewer:
Thank you. And we ask that you pray for us as we are praying for them. Thank you very much and I think they will. Thank you so much Imam WD Mohammmed, all the way from Chicago, Illinois folks. That has been one of Fox's specialities. From time to time we'll bring people from out of town, national talent, international talent, to talk to those subjects that should be near and dear to you. If they're not, we certainly enjoyed that and let's give kudos right now to Imam Abdul Hafeez Wahid of Durham who set this up and arranged for Imam WD Mohammed from Chicago to be with us and we thank all for doing this once again.



