00/00/2005
IWDM Study Library
IWDM Interview in Milwaukee

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Question:
As Salaamu Alaikum. I'd like to welcome you all to a conversation with Imam W. Deen Mohammed. My name is Rashida Aziz. Imam, we'd like to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to come meet with us today.
IWDM:
My pleasure.
Question:
We'd like to thank Imam also for his leadership and commitment to this community for nearly the past three decades.
Question:
Imam Mohammed, under your father's leadership, the world witnessed the African-American community achieving a huge success in business, on a scale that was unprecedented in the history of these people.
Question:
Barber shops, supermarkets, schools, farms, and international trade were created, and established by these institutions. The respect for the community continued to grow.
IWDM:
Yes.
Question:
What factors do you think created this spirit in these people to advance to these levels? And what do you think is necessary in order to re-create the spirit again?
IWDM:
Yes, our prophet Muhammad, salla Allahu alayhi wasalaam, peace and blessings be on him, he gave the meaning of religion in more than one way. But once he said, "Religion is sincerity." And what accounts for that great success was obedience, obedience.
IWDM:
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad had one of the most obedient followings that perhaps we have ever witnessed in America, on this new continent. It was obedience and we recognized the big material achievements. It was very, very impressive.
IWDM:
It's bigger than any we had seen in the previous African-American leaders, our black leaders. Like Garvey, who had a big business operation going for his followers and others. Now Elijah Muhammad dwarfed all of theirs.
IWDM:
I have to mention that the achievement that made that possible is the achievement that religious people value most. And that is moral obedience, moral obedience. His followers were very clean-living followers, exceptionally clean and disciplined, well disciplined.
IWDM:
Though they didn't have the proper religion of Islam, they had perhaps the description given to our religious life, our religious beliefs by Dr. Lincoln, C. Eric Lincoln; it's pretty much correct, he called this a pseudo or a proto, proto, proto, Proto-Islam. Proto-Islam. Meaning that it was in its early stage of growing to be, not yet seen as true Islam.
IWDM:
But there was faith in him, a Christian theologian. That it would come to be Islam, but it was growing as protoplasm. Not yet formed into a form that we can see with our eyes, but a living entity, for sure.
IWDM:
So they had faith. We had great faith. We obeyed the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, because we believed he was a man that God had mission. That's what accounted for the success.
Question:
Imam Mohammed, in the '60s and the early '70s, there was this language that is very Islamic in its nature. But it was used by many secular leaders to create a sense of urgency in the people to change their human condition in America and in the world.
Question:
This language, it didn't originate in the '60s, in the 70s, however. But it started possibly during slavery time. Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and others that were working hard towards the abolishment of slavery, spoke in terms of inherent human dignity.
Question:
Why do you think that that's not the message of leaders today? Why do you think it's missing, and what can you offer as a solution?
IWDM:
Yes. Well, you have to exclude me from that bunch.
Question:
Yes, sir.
IWDM:
Since day one, that's been my theme. Yes. I think the reason is that after realizing freedom from physical bondage, plantation slavery, achieving took a long time.
IWDM:
But over two decades achieving ... many decades, in fact, achieving inclusion in the society of America; inclusion just blinded us to everything that we were about. And only a very few survived that.
IWDM:
We got into the mix, and we just blended in with everybody else. We accepted the lifestyle of the popular culture. When Christianity was moving the black slaves, after they embraced Christianity; some of them had embraced God, who already were slaves. Though they didn't have any real scripture to follow, they believed that there was a God.
IWDM:
So all that was just erased almost by us mixing into the popular blend of the world. That's the reason why we have lost that focus on God-given life, the life that God gave us, we called the inherent dignity, as you referred to it.
IWDM:
The Constitution of these United States has an introduction that introduces this concept of man. "And we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator, by a Creator with certain inalienable rights, rights that even the government cannot take away. Among these, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
IWDM:
So the belief that man has his best life, that his most valued life is the life that God created him with. To believe that a soul that's different from any other life in the universe or in the earth. To believe that and believe that that soul was created by God to be assertive and to be progressive, and to have an aim.
IWDM:
And the aim is excellence, excellence for the life and excellence for the environment that that soul lives in. That was given to Adam, and that's inherited by all of us. Yes, that was lost. It's a great pity, but we're getting it back.
Question:
And in this mixing, the family life seems to also have suffered. What key issues do you think affected the demise of wholesome family life? And what do you think would be a good strategy to put it back in place, and re-establish the respect and appreciation for family life?
IWDM:
Yes. The corruption of the word freedom. When we believe that freedom was necessary for us to live the best of our life that God created us for, everything was fine. And freedom had a healthy meaning.
IWDM:
But as I said, blending in with the mix, then we have bought the definition or the meaning of freedom that the average person has in the public life. That means freedom not to be bothered by you. Or freedom not to have my life or my wishes interfered with by my parents or by anybody. Freedom to do my own thing by myself.
IWDM:
None of us are smart enough. Not myself, not I. None of us are smart enough to do our own thing by ourselves. All of us need an authority above us.
Question:
Speaking of these freedoms, in your book entitled The Schemes of Satan, you spoke about these problems that these freedoms encourage. Such as alcoholism, drug use, gambling, sexual perversion. These problems have been tearing on the fibers of our communities and society.
Question:
With these problems being so prevalent amongst the younger people, especially in our communities, how would you advise these young people to address these issues and these attacks on their moral nature?
IWDM:
I'm like an old chief now. I'll sit with the chiefs and we'll talk, We're looking for you young folks to solve this problem. You will be able. You are best situated to solve that problem.
IWDM:
But I will say this: freedom. If we can go back to the spirit and meaning of freedom that carried us from plantation slavery to freedom from bondage, physical bondage. And to make the great progress that we made, inspired by leaders like Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Carter G. Woodson, and many others after them and before them.
IWDM:
If we can go back to that meaning and recognize that the idea of freedom that we have; most of us in our mind; has permitted us to lose focus and to lose moral life. To lose moral life.
IWDM:
If I'm free to do my own thing, and I don't have a higher authority in me that I have to respect, then I'm going to be free to smoke cigarettes. And I'm a young girl, I'm a teenager. I'll be free to smoke cigarettes. That's a big problem now. I'll be free to drink beer like a lot of youngsters do.
IWDM:
Pretty soon I'll be free to have a reefer. And after that, some coke or crack. Free to have a vain and be an anarchist, be against law and order. I'll be free to do all these things. I'll be free to join porn, and do nasty, filthy, perverted sexual acts.
IWDM:
Freedom can destroy us if we don't have a higher authority over us. So the answer is for our young people to listen to their elders, who still have focus on the right things, and to listen to each other who still have focus on the right thing.
Question:
Yes, sir. That is very interesting. Under your leadership, we've been working to encourage that. But what role do you see?
IWDM:
You're doing a great job, too.
Question:
Oh, Al hamidulillah! What role do you see our community's mission playing in the future of American society as a whole?
IWDM:
Yes. Well, America is two Americas. It's not one. It used to be two, black and white. I guess it was four at that time. It was black and white, and it's conscious living and unconscious living.
IWDM:
Okay? We should join those who are still conscious of how people, human beings, should stand up in their life and work for a better condition in the world. We should be with them.
IWDM:
The thing for us to do is to not be alone. Understand that we are not alone in our struggle. That there are many Americans; for example, we have right near us, South Holland. South Holland is called the church town. And that church town, I don't think you can buy liquor. I know you can't buy it on Sunday, but I don't think you can buy it at all there. I don't think they have liquor stores in South Holland. So it's a very conscious religious community.
IWDM:
Well, how come we can't embrace those people? Because we want a community like that, too. So we should embrace them, and we have many organizations such as the one I belong to, The World Conference of Religions for Peace. We have many others. I belong to two ... no, to three big organizations.
IWDM:
But there are many preachers right in our area. Reverend Meeks and others, right in this area. Wherever we live, we have some people, some voices, some people that are speaking out. They are trying to promote and bring attention so they can get more support for the good life that all of us want.
IWDM:
So we should to know what is the common good. What is the common good? What is the common good life? And then join all good efforts to have that come about more for our American people.
Question:
Yes, sir. What direction do you think your students should take in spreading what you teach among ourselves, and even outside of this community?
IWDM:
Well, Prophet Muhammad, again, I mentioned to him, salla Allahu alayhi wasalaam, prayers and peace be on him; he taught us to follow the best. He was reflecting what Allah said to us in Qur'an and follow the best thereof.
IWDM:
And in the Koran, we are told to obey Muhammad the prophet, obey God and obey his prophet, the messenger Muhammad, and follow the best example of those who came immediately after him.
IWDM:
That's his disciples. His students, his students. His disciples, his students who came immediately after him. They have many names, Abu Bakr and many others.
IWDM:
Then later there came another group behind him, following the full schools of thought, Madhahib in the Islamic world. They were excellent in their moral life, they were excellent in their social behavior. Very excellent moral life and social behavior.
IWDM:
So we should follow the excellence of those who went before us. And in this time I tell my students, "Follow the excellence of Imam W. Deen Mohammed. Don't follow his problems."
Question:
Yes, sir.
IWDM:
"Follow the excellence of Imam W. Deen Mohammed."
IWDM:
But first of all, know that we should follow the excellence of Muhammad because God favors him. His excellence is a model for any person who believes in God and fears the last day. Fear the consequences of their bad deeds. That means Christians, anybody. He's an excellent model for everybody.
IWDM:
So we should find those who have a record for living an excellent life. Then we should try to benefit from them by having association with them, by learning of their life and drawing from their life to make ours better.
IWDM:
If everybody take only the good from each other, we will be a strong and a very good people, and a very successful people.
Question:
Yes, sir. In trying to combine these efforts with other people in our society that we see are working on the same things that we are; what relationship do you see our community and the Nation of Islam having in the future?
IWDM:
Well, we still have serious problems when it comes to actually identifying as Muslims with Muslims of the Nation of Islam. That serious problem exists, not because we are not pleased with the progress that have been made for the Nation of Islam.
IWDM:
They are coming closer to the Qur'an, closer to our Holy Book, and they are coming closer to recognizing Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, to all Muslims in the world as the last prophet. We are coming closer to that.
IWDM:
But the language in their weekly paper is still the old language, which confuses the idea of God. It's closer to Christian idea of God than it is to Muslim idea of God. That's the number one problem for us.
IWDM:
But, we are cautiously looking and waiting for an opportunity to maybe perhaps do something, join them in business efforts, to strengthen business in our community and our neighborhoods; to join them in business efforts, to strengthen businesses in the African-American neighborhoods that are neglected, where material interest is neglected. Also to join them in the effort to bring about more social reform in the African-American people's life.
Question:
Yeah. You've been focusing a lot on business life in our community. Within the next 10 years, what type of developments do you hope to see established by-

