08/1997
IWDM Study Library
Arab American Business Conference Secaucus NJ

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Speaker 1: To the Imam, I feel that as if he's been involved with us in the planning of this function. Talking about vision and opportunities. Talking about our image and I've talked in my all brochures and showed him what we had in the print into that. I don't know if you are already talked to me in the previous life or what, but we were there. That's Alhamdulillahi, why we're here. It means a lot for me to be that you are here, because you believed in what we are doing, as I believed in you that I know you'll be here for me. I know you'll be here for me anytime we ask you to because it takes a lot more than just our own individual purposes to drive this world to a better world, but we better be prepared to be a part of that economic growth that is going to come years ahead. Because if we're not, do not blame the world for our problems. Do not blame the world for the miseries that we're driving our children to that we are not preparing the world for them. We have to do that and we have to take the courage to get out of the shackles like Imam Deen mentioned. To take that drive. It's a long drive.
For those who says there, "Aren't you disappointed because of the turnout of the audience?" I say, "No. I'm inspired with the turnout of the audience."
If there's one person that was here, that's what Rasool Ullah began with the inspiration of one person that believed in him. But now I have a lot more than one person that is here, and Alhamdulillahi, we're going to do much better.
There is not much that I can speak about Imam W. Deen Mohammed that the whole world didn't know about. Just brief two words that I'd like to say. I wish there are a lot more of Imam W. Deen Mohammed around. I really do wish there are a lot more people that can have this courage. That would go to the everywhere in the world, trying to penetrate. Imam, I'm at your disposal anytime you need me there because I know you've been here for me and I will be there for me too. I'll be there for you. Insha'Allah.
I don't want to take any more of your time. I'd like the rest to hear the Imam speaks about the CPC concept. Let's see how we can begin the drive with us. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Takbir
Multiple speakers: Allahu Akbar
Imam W Deen Mohammed: Allahu abkar. Alhamdulillah. As Salaam Alaikum. Peace be unto you. Alhamdulillahi rabbil alamin. We praise G-d, the cherisher and sustainer of all the worlds. We witness that He is one and Muhammad is his servant and his messenger. The last prophet coming in the tradition of the great prophets. The seal of the prophets mentioned in the books of the people we call Jews and Christians.
Dear Muslims, CPC, Collective Purchasing Conference, is an idea concept that Allah has blessed us with because we struggle to do what pleases our G-d, Allah Subhana WA Ta'ala, highly glorified and praises He. In the fashion that we think respects the way of our Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.
It's a very simple concept and with it, or I should say, before, it was the vision. A vision of having Muslims in America, African-American Muslims, build a model Society. A model society, not in one place, but in several locations wherever we find suitable circumstances or favorable circumstances for building ourselves up in our neighborhoods.
The vision sees us coming from no establishment into establishment. The vision sees us a poor-- Has us as a poor community moving from poverty with our own small resources together in unity for the same aim, the same goal. Moving together with our small resources from poverty to business establishment. From no representation in our neighborhoods, to representation in our neighborhoods. From no contribution to tax base, to a situation where we will become a strong contribution to the tax base of the city.
This is the vision, and the vision is important to us because we're Muslims with our Muslim life. We can't have this Muslim life now that we know we should have and that we want because we don't have money to finance the building of good schools, private schools for our preschoolers, our children and our adults. We would like to have schools for our adults too. Other religious communities, other denominations in Christianity, other denominations in Christianity, other religious communities, they have their schools and private schools funded by them. Preschool, elementary school, high schools, colleges, universities. This is the way education began in this country. By religious communities getting contributions from the private sector and building fine universities. Many of them had to struggle. Many of them saw business as a way to realize the goal of having good schools, quality schools, paid teachers, paid staff and fine equipment. They saw business as a help and they entered business. Many of them are still existing today because they respect business life in their institutions, their operations, et cetera, are supported by monies from businesses. That's the way we want to grow. CPC is going to do that.
When we began, we don't pressure anybody. We don't pressure anybody to come into this organization. We don't pressure anybody to give or donate to us. We simply tell you what we are all about and we invite you to get more information from us. We'll mail you more information, and to see if you would like to become a member of CPC, Collective Purchasing Conference.
The members are all equal. To become a member, we only have to come up with $2,000. $2,000 represent one share. That share puts us on equal basis with the person who comes in with $50,000 and has 25 shares to our one share. We're equal to him in this respect. We can buy, if we want to purchase products that we buy collectively. The individual who puts $2,000 in, he can get $2,000 for the products at the same price to him that the individual who has $50,000 invested gets that product, same price.
This is unusual for business, but I think it's the way the big corporate world works, is that right? Yes, that's the way of the big corporate world, it works just like that. The man who puts the $50,000 in, his advantages is his return, his gain, over the man who puts just $2,000 in. We want to help the small man, the small man in business, and that's all of us. Most of us in the business, we're small business people, very small business people. We want to bring life, help, assistance, life to those small business operators so that they will be able to compete. You can't compete if you're paying terrific price for an item and the man on the corner, he's not a Muslim, he's not a you, he's not even from the neighborhood maybe. He doesn't even live in the neighborhood, but he has more money, so he's buying in volume, he's buying in quantity, and you're just buying to survive. He puts you out of business. You can't compete with him; your prices are too high. Your overhead is too much for you. You go out of business. If we cooperate with each other, together we'll be one powerful, rich entrepreneur.
We have many poor people, but if we can cooperate with each other, we'll be one big powerful entrepreneur. Then we can compete with that man who comes from the other uptown or downtown. We can compete with him. We're really at an advantage and he's at a disadvantage, because he is in our waters. He's in our waters. Why don't we establish ourselves in our own waters? That's pretty easy to do. This is not the, I would say the program of Marcus Garvey. This is not the program even of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, but it's very close to his program.
His program was centralized. His program was centralized. He believed in centralized operations, and it worked for him very much like the Federal government works for the economic world of America. We know the government is not a good business man. The government is not a good businessman, we know that. And the Nation of Islam was not a good businessman because it centralized everything and it depended upon a national staff that didn't have experience most of time in business but was dictating to those who had experience in business, just like our government. It didn't work. It didn't work. It hurt more than it helped. This is not the same, this is different.
And we see more clear now the life that G-d wants for us we in Al-Islam all the way. We're not halfway in Al-Islam. We're not standing in something else and we've got our fingers sticking in Al-Islam or standing in something else with the toe sticking in Islam. We're all the way in Islam now, you see? We're much better situated to be successful. We want to stay in control and we will, Insha’Allah, we will stay in control, but we're going to go out and search for honorable Christian investors to invest with us. We're already encouraged by a couple we're looking at that's got money. They have some money. If they were willing to invest, I understand that there was some businessmen in Saudi Arabia too who were looking at CPC and they're thinking about investing. If they can invest and accept the way the CPC operates, we can't change anything, then they will help us in a big way and we will help them in a small way, and we will all grow together. We will all grow together.
That is CPC, very simply put, very simply described to you. That is CPC. It is a limited liability company. Its essential activity is purchasing from companies in America or anywhere. We love to purchase from Muslim countries, too. We hope to buy sardines like the Nation of Islam under Elijah Muhammad. May G-d forgive him his errors and sins and give him in Paradise. He used to purchase from Morocco, large quantities of the excellent sardines that they have in Morocco. Morocco has excellent sardines. Skinless and boneless, I'll never stop eating them. The Nation of Islam hasn't imported any of those sardines, I think in about 30 years or more, but I have never stopped eating those sardines. I found them, they're in the stores of America. They're the leading skinless and boneless sardines in the stores in America. No other sardine is selling like the sardines from Morocco. China, now, has some sardine and they're very good. They're very good too, so pretty soon they're the new in the market. Pretty soon they'll be competing with the Moroccan sardine, and that's good because I'm going to tell the Moroccans, "You have a competitor now and we are going to be a buyer, so maybe you will take up the slack." Inshallah.
I've given you a picture of what it is. It's essentially buying and selling that's all. Buying collectively by putting our small monies together and directly from factories or we want to feel that we know the factory, and we know where the source is. We want to feel that we're getting factory prices so we can bring the cost down for our retailers, wholesalers, retailers and peddlers, the peddlers. If you're a peddler, get a license. Every city got a license for a peddler. Get your own license give us our-- Get your license and we will sell to you, if you're a peddler. But you have to have a license for us to sell to you.

Thank you.
We have one brother who has invested $50,000. Yes, $50,000. I assured him that when he invested, that his return, his gain with CPC would be more than his gain would be had he invested in mutual funds. We haven't really began to operate, we just started. We sold a few products at the convention. We're getting requests for the products. We only have two products for the same product. It's called Shea Butter. It's a hair and skin beauty care product, but it's terrific. It's terrific. It fights dryness, it fights skins dryness. It's very terrific. It makes your hair so nice. I was convinced of the quality and value of this product after using it myself for about 7 months or more. I've again run out of it and I've forgot the brother that gave me a sample of it. So, I'm desperate. I go and ask the operator, I said that, "I want to find this company. It says Chicago, Atlanta, Paris. I only have a name here." She found it. She found the company was in Chicago on Trust Street. Yes, 1255 Walback, South Walback. She found the company.
I went to this company and had to be told by the Christian wife of this Muslim brother. She said, "You don't know where you got this product?" I said, " No, I don't." She said, "My husband gave it to you. My husband is Muslim." 
We have another brother who was a hard worker in the community ever since I've known him way back as a young man. Hard worker, he was a lieutenant at a first office in the feudal Islam in the militant unit of Honorable Elijah Muhammad. He was always a hard worker and salesman. He told me, he said, "I'm getting this Shea Butter. I have a business." He said, "I can sell to CPC. I see you came here to help him. How are you going to do that?" I said, "We need factory prices." He said, "I know the family who owns the land and the trees are there. The trees belong to them. The tree that produces this product is called a lacquer tree. The product is extracted from the seed of this tree."
I said, "Okay. What can you get it for?" He ended up giving me a slight better price than the sister who's married to the Muslim brother. She has had a partner, her cousin. Two impressive women. They're selling several-- They sell jewelry, they sell clothing and cosmetics. They're two terrific African-American women, both Christians, one married to a brother that we have been knowing for many years, at least for 30 years, I've been knowing him.
I thought this was a good situation. I thought Allah has blessed us to have contact with these people. We love to see them grow and we want to grow our self. But Insha’Allah, the plan is not to just go and buy a product and see if you like it, that's not the plan.
Very seldom, will we buying products like we bought Shea Butter and like we're going to buy these sardines. We're buying the sardines because we knew those sardines are very popular. They went very well in the time of the Honorable Elijah. We know their goal, we know it went well then and they will go well now. But the way we're going to do this, we're going to have what we call catalog sheets prepared, we go find products that we think the community needs and will like and we have pictures taken of them and make catalog sheets. We present the catalog sheets to the distributors, all throughout the country. They present the catalog sheets to the Muslims in the city and the town and take orders. This will be our first step in the progression. We hope to progress to have home-buying on television. That's the goal, to have home shopping on television, where our members and the public will be able to shop from us right on television. That's not too far in the future.
So, I hope you are impressed as I am, I'm so excited. I know Allah's with us. I know we could've not done this without Allah loving us and helping us. Thank you very much. As Salam Alaikum.
Now I will accept questions if you like.
Speaker 1: Yes. I would like to ask some questions about some of the people might have that opportunity so they can get involved, Inshallah, with the CPC, so with your permission, certainly.
Imam Mohammed: Yes.
Speaker 2: I have a couple of question of my own. Excuse me. Just for me to walk and stand down, because I've been sitting for the last three months, for 16 hours a day behind my desk to just get a freedom of moving around. With the CPC concept, which we desperately need some of the efforts that you're doing, but that's the start, with Alhamdullilah, in the right direction. Did you consider the selective of the type of the product that we need to pursue, and there is a line of that agenda or there's just an initial products and development of any of the other requires that might come later? Is that available options now?
Imam Mohammed: Yes. We are open to any, I would say, suggestion or advice or interest that you may have. Someone maybe interested in something and it may just be the thing we need to do, but we need to look at to consider for purchasing, for a purchase. We are open, but we do have some specific-- We have a plan. The plan is to, as much as possible, supply our community with items that won't tax us too much right now. Items that won't require storage because that's more money. Items that won't require storage, that we can keep in the normal temperature in normal situations, and items that our sisters feel embarrassed, and we feel embarrassed to know that our sister has to go to someone outside and ask them for items that are intimate, intimate items. Lingerie, sanitary napkins, tooth brushes cost nothing to keep it. It's very easy to keep, very easy to ship. Tooth brushes, toilet tissue, napkins. These things that are easy for us to have them and not a big risk, spoilage risk and all other risks. We'll be looking at those things first, but we're also looking at cosmetics, because we all use it. We all use cosmetics. We're looking at some clothing items. Clothing items. As I said, we want to find these items, the location, the supplier. If the supplier is the supplier we want, if it's in Canada, in Mexico, no matter where he is, is just a supplier we want. Is he giving is the deal that we want? Are we satisfied with his product? When we find that, we will take pictures of the product and start making these catalog sheets.
Speaker 2: Part of the market, the place that we'll be looking at is the community itself, because that's the biggest consuming market ourselves.
Imam WD Mohammed: Well, our first market that we should be looking at is our Muslim, right, the Muslim market because that should be ours if no other market is ours. It should be ours, the Muslim market should belong to Muslims and if anybody else comes into it, should come and get what we leave.
Speaker 2: I mean, I know I'm not married now, but whenever I used to go to the stores with my wife, my ex-wife gives me a long list of stuff to bring back home, including tampons. That's something it was embarrassing to deal with. But the one other questions, you mentioned something the sardines.
Imam WD Mohammed: Yes.
Speaker 2: I know there is a lot of companies, especially in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, that are fisheries and have the willingness to participate and join adventures and there was a fishing product. Did CPC consider that type of adventure?
Imam WD Mohammed: Yes, we are, we do consider that kind of adventure.
Speaker 2: Has that been approached to you yet?
Imam WD Mohammed: No, not yet.
Speaker 2: Not yet? Because we would like to help you with that arena, by all means.
Imam WD Mohammed: Yes, yes. We are open to that and we have considered that and we do expect. I'm invited now to attend a meeting of religious leaders from America, that's going to be hosted by the King of Saudi Arabia in America, in Washington DC. I understand that there's going to be some business people there too. I hope that that might be an opportunity that will result in some meaningful relationship for our CPC and Saudi Arabian investors. It's possible. You speak fluent Arabic too, don't you?
Speaker 2: Yes, I do.
Imam WD Mohammed: You should be my partner.
Speaker 2: I'll be there. I know you got my $2000.
Imam WD Mohammed: Very good, thank you.
Speaker 3: As Salaam Alaikum brother Imam 

Imam WD Mohammed: Wa Alaikum Salaam 
Speaker 3: I’m Bilal the poet son-in-law?
Imam WD Mohammed: Yes.
Speaker 3: This is his Stepdaughter.
Imam WD Mohammed: Yes
Speaker 3: He's in California. I heard you mention about having an interest in fish products are somewhat of that nature.
Imam WD Mohammed: Yes, I do.
Speaker 3: What I want to present to you, I want to invite you to a meeting tonight me and my wife is having at 6 o’clock at the Western End hotel, Inshallah. I'm going to bring this to you and show you what it's about.
Imam WD Mohammed: All right, thank you.
Speaker 3: Well, we just established our offshore accounts and one of the establishment in our offshore account is a fish processing plant that opened up in Gambia and these types of investments here that we talked, were not actually investing with contributions, is what I'm saying for the name sake, has opened up jobs for Gambians and we have other commodities that's involved. We would like you to attend tonight, Inshallah, and go over further details, if you are available.
Imam WD Mohammed: All right. Thank you. I have your number here, so let me look at this and get back with you.
Speaker 3: Shukran
Imam WD Mohammed: Afwan and that's Arabic.
Speaker 2: One question, Imam, before we go to the next question. Has the CPC considered working with any of the other major Islamic organization in the development of CPC?
Imam WD Mohammed: We most certainly do. That's what we want more than anything else. We're all Americans, but more importantly we all are Muslims, and we live in America, that's our circumstances as citizens, we are all here in America, and we all want our children to fare better than we are faring. Why shouldn't we work together? We can work separately, and we have to work separately, but we should have, some ties, we have to work together also. I would like to see the leaders from the other ethnic groups in this country. Who are Muslims, I like to see us have a business committee or business organization, business Majalis, a business Majalis where we come together and we look at our circumstances, we look at our situations and we discuss these situations together as Americans, as citizens of America and as Muslims, and see how can we cooperate? How can we work together?


