05/13/1997
IWDM Study Library
WBAI Radio Interview

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Brandan: We have on the line with us Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, international spokesperson for the Muslim American Society, son of late Elijah Muhammad who's the founder of the Nation of Islam. Good morning, sir.
Warith Deen Mohammed: Good morning.
Brandan: Yes. Today, we had a program commemorating what would have been the 73rd birthday of el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, also known as Malcolm X. I was wondering just what impact did this individual have on your life.
IWDM: I think he impacted my life very much as he did the lives of all the youngsters of the Nation of Islam. Those who were interested in seeing something done to change the bad conditions of the African-American or black people at that time. He impressed me as a person who took serious matters seriously. He was for real. He was true to his beliefs and his commitment, and he impressed me as a man. If he believed in something, he went all out for it. He gave his all to it.
I would watch him as he would be speaking to the audiences, mostly Muslim audiences that I was part of. And I would see a man who was reaching for his brothers and sisters to try to bring them together. He wanted to see African-American people united. You know that was what his organization was all about. Uniting African people, African-American people and seeing us united with also the motherland, Africa. He was persuasive. He was very persuasive. That's been said of him by writers how persuasive he was.
I would be watching him, and sometimes I would say this man has the power to attract huge crowds. He reaches them. He would reach them in time. If he had lived, he would have reached huge audiences in time. And he would have had a following like that of the great American evangelist Billy Graham because he had that kind of presence, and he was very persuasive.
Brandan: Did you feel that way about him all the time? Because there was a point at which he was kicked out of the Nation of Islam and I was wondering what your position was during that time. Were you one of the ones who was still feeling that here was a great individual?
IWDM: Yes. My feelings and opinion of him never change really. I have to say that I didn't identify strongly with all of his concern. For example, he wanted to take the issue of the black man's situation in America, plight in America to the United Nations. And I didn't agree with that. I thought we should settle the problems here in America and not go to a body that deals with the international world. I didn't strongly disagree with him, so I never tried to bother him or make any trouble for him even regarding that matter.
When it came to Al-Islam, he had a great respect for the religion of Al-Islam. He loved Al-Islam. At the same time, he had almost equal passion for seeing black people have a life that we could be proud of. He's much loved by me and so many Muslims throughout the world.
Brandan: You're listening to WBAI in New York. My name is Brendan White here with W. Deen Mohammed who is the international spokesperson for the Muslim American Society. What is the Muslim American society, and how did it come about?
IWDM: Muslim American society is really an association. It's not any longer a centralized organization. It's an association of mosque, that's religious places of worship and schools, our private schools. We still have our private schools. We have about 20 or more private schools and 13 of them very strong schools. We are very much interested in their education. We've come to believe that really Al-Islam seeks to bring about change in the life of people, transformation in the life of people in society. Mainly, through real proper education, education for the public, what we call public education.
Our Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, he established public education. That was 1400 and plus years ago or 1400 years ago, something new for the world. Public education is not new for Muslims. He insisted that all the members of the public the educated, males and females alike. He said, “education is an obligation on every male and female.”
Brandan: How does the Muslim American Society differ from the Nation of Islam?
IWDM: Different from--? The volume is lower. I heard you say different from, but I didn't get the last.
Brandan: Differ from what is presently now the Nation of Islam.
IWDM: The Nation of Islam under Minister Farrakhan?
Brandan: Yes.
IWDM: I think we're beginning to see a lot of the differences disappear. The main difference is really a difference of how we perceive religion. That is how we see G-d, what G-d is to us, what is humanity to us. The Nation of Islam's ideas were very, very far from being what is Islamic ideas when it comes to the concept of G-d and the concept of man.
We believed in the Nation of Islam, under Honorable Elijah Muhammad, that G-d was a black man. We believed that the human race had been changed from being a pure human race by the black scientists who grafted the genes until he was successful in getting a white race. And that white people hadn't existed on this earth before this black scientist found a way to create white people from black people. Those ideas are not known in the Islamic world. That was only the myth that was given to us in this part of the world to hold us together.
The teacher of Elijah Muhammad his name was Fard, F-A-R-D, but it sounds like it should spell F-A-R-A-D, Farad. This man, who was a very mysterious man, very unusual kind of thinker and worker, he put the myth together to hold blacks in the ghetto of Detroit together, in Chicago, and even went to Milwaukee. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was like his spokesman at that time. He did that to hold us together. He created a magnetism, a strong magnetism, a myth that was powerful to hold our attention.
He believed that it would hold our attention through the terrible times of the past until times could better, circumstances got better. The following would change from that, I would say a poorly educated, not educated at all following. Majority had hardly education above the elementary 8th-grade level. Majority of them were below 5th-grade level. They didn't know how to read and write. He taught them to read and write. He taught us to train each other how to read and write. He felt that that following when circumstances improve for our living. And having hope for life in the future here in America and that organization will attract a more educated group of African-Americans. That's exactly what has happened.
Because of that, we are seeing a kind of a de-emphasizing of the myth that we were given. And a strong emphasis being put on practical matters, bettering our social life, bettering the family life, bettering conditions in our neighborhood. Here is where the Nation of Islam under Minister Farrakhan, and by the way, Minister Farrakhan has brought about improvements for the Nation of Islam. That's evidence. Even the Muslims appreciate the progress that has been made, but they are still serious differences that won't allow us to be together as one group yet.
And as I said earlier that those differences are mainly differences of how we perceive G-d and the creation of the world and man and how we present that when we are speaking to an audience. That's the main difference. It's very serious for Muslims because that's fundamental in Al-Islam. One God and God is not material. He created material, but He's not a material being Himself and one humanity. That human family is one family. We don't have to be white and black to differ with each other. We have whites who differ with each other in history, and some of the worst wars have been between whites and whites. Some of the worst wars have been between blacks. We don't have to be white and black to have differences.
Brandan: As I said before, we're talking to W. Deen Mohammed who's the international spokesperson for the Muslim American Society, son of the late Elijah Muhammad who was the founder of the Nation of Islam. The Nation of Islam in the '60s, Malcolm X was one of the ones who really helped to spread the word at that time.
IWDM: Yes. For the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm was like Paul was for Christianity. Paul made Christianity popular, and it was Malcolm X who made the Nation of Islam popular.
Brandan: Okay. I know that you have a busy schedule, and I do appreciate you.
IWDM: I certainly appreciate being on WBAI, and I pray to G-d for your success. You'll get my address from my secretary and send me the package. I'll have a check coming your way right away.
Brandan: I certainly will.
IWDM: All right.
Brandan: Thank you very much.
IWDM: Thank you for having us on. Peace
Brandan: Peace

