04/15/1996
IWDM Study Library 
Live Interview Malaysia TV

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Interviewer:
So how do you do Mr. Muhammad?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Thank you. Very pleased to be with you.
Interviewer:
Today. Yes, we welcome you so much to be with you here today and thank you for making the time. Mr. Mohammed, is this your first time here in this place?
Imam WD Mohammed:
It is. Yes, it is.
Interviewer:
How do you find the first time, first impression?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Well, I find it much, I was excited about visiting here for over 15 years. We met some wonderful Malaysian citizens of your country who were Muslims and they were interested in what we were doing in the States and they invited us to come and see Malaysia a long time ago. And we have desired to visit ever since then. Now finally it materializes for us in a much more wonderful way than we expected. We are more appreciative now of your community.
Interviewer:
Thank you very much there. And the purpose of your visit this time, I mean this first time.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. My purpose is to make contact with the Department of Higher Learning and meet the business people to see if there's a possibility of us having real significant ties with you to benefit from your wonderful method of propagating Islam and introducing Islam. And also to benefit from your community model, the Muslim community model here in Malaysia. We live in a similar kind of multicultural pluralistic society, so we can benefit a lot from your model, InshaAllah.
Interviewer:
But who or what organization do you represent when you come here? You represent yourself or.....
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. Our community of Muslims kind of evolved out of what was a prototype religious community using the name Islam to one day attract blacks to Islam. So, it was a kind of a scheme or plot to satisfy the Nationalistic desires in blacks who were dissatisfied with America during the time when the law discriminated against us. You, see? So, it came in 1930, around 1930 it was introduced into the state, into the black community, depressed black community of America. So, we grew out of that. We believe that it was the intention of those people, that idea, it was their intention to just to have the emphasis on a separate state for blacks as a bait, as an attraction. But the real interest was to one day get us to appreciate the Qur'an and the Sunnah, the way of our Prophet. And for many of us, for the most of us, for the majority of us, it has worked. And we have a big community of Muslims now in mainstream Islam. We are very proud of it.
Interviewer:
So, you represent the....
Imam WD Mohammed:
Represent that group that evolved out of that, I would say, paradox.
Interviewer:
Right now, then let's come and talk about that, about the Muslims in particular, or even Islam in America now. What is the population like?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Well, we believe the population of all Muslims in America is about what they say 6 million. There's an exaggeration. Some say ten eight, ten, 12 million. I believe that's exaggeration. I believe it's 6 million. And of that 6 million, the blacks, African Americans, we believe we are approaching 2 million. Over a million and a half I'm sure.

Interviewer:
And then how many of these six millions inclusively of the white Muslim, white Muslims?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Very small percentage but growing. Yes. We are encouraged by their interest in Islam now. We have a few whites among us in our education department. We have a few whites. In fact, we have one white who is the manager for the Kuwaiti Islamic bank. And we are very proud of that. He's a white man, but he became a convert because of our influence in the states.
Interviewer:
Right. Yeah. And okay, now when you say about the blacks are dissatisfied now.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Not now. That was before. Still, there's some dissatisfaction, but not a big problem anymore.
Interviewer:
Alright. Now how does the Americans in particular view Muslims and Islam?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Much more favorably than I would say 10 years ago. Even 10 years ago and 30 years ago, 50 years ago. It was terrible. It was very terrible. There was no interest in Muslims 50 years ago. And those who had some knowledge of Muslims or Islam thought that it was no room for it in America, that it was antichrist, it was against the church and that it was fanatical. So, we had a bad image in America. But that image has improved recently more than ever before. I think it's because of the relationship with America and the relationship America my country has with Saudi Arabia. Yes.
Interviewer:
It could be a positive effect.
Imam WD Mohammed:
It's a positive effect, no doubt about it. It has been a real positive effect. The interests in having allies in the Islamic world as Saudi Arabia and Egypt has greatly improved the desire in the power structure to have a better image of Muslims projected in America. And I believe it is influencing the way television and media, newspapers are projecting, are reporting on Muslims in the world. There's still a serious problem because humans are humans and you will have some people who are still anti-Muslim and they're in the media too. But their influence is not so much that we have to be worried anymore. We are getting a pretty good press.
Interviewer:
But I mean don't the Muslims themselves create a kind of image now that is more positive than before?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Certainly, much more positive. For sometime it has been hard to get Muslims in our association, blacks, African American, to change from the negative posture to look for things that we may like in the life of America. In the real life of America. See, America has two lives. Yes, two lives. One is the life of the free who have their own idea of what freedom is. The other life is the life of the free who has the classical idea of what freedom is in history. And they are the strong, they're the people that support America. They're the people that support humanity and want to see America become more human and more civilized all the time. I'm with those people. I consider myself a patriotic American with those people. And I'm against those that want to have their own idea about freedom. And it's superficial, it's artificial freedom. It's not the real freedom. So, America, in spite of what we see in the media, television. Television has to show the popular image, what is on the surface. It shows what's on the surface. It doesn't go underground much. So, we see the superficial life.
Interviewer:
On TV it's just superficial life. It's not the real life.
Imam WD Mohammed:
That's not the life that keeps America. I'm with the life that keeps America.
Interviewer:
Oh, that's good. And I'm with you. The other part that I might inquire is when you came to Malaysia, you have already a certain perspective of Malaysia, your perception of Malaysia, your perception of what Malaysia has done. Can you share with us your view?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. Well, quickly, I wish I had a lot of time because I'm very excited about your model as a model for all Muslims. Your model is a model for all Muslims in the world. Yes. What I'm seeing is a more balanced society here. More who appreciate the rational and practical aspects of Islam and interest in Islam. The Prophet, our Prophet, Sa ala Alahi wa Salaam, Prayers and Peace be on him. He said that G-d didn't give us anything more valuable or more precious than the ability to reason, the power to reason, to think. So, this emphasis on practical life and practical example, I think it's what's making you a model leader for all the Muslim world. I think we should come from the extremes of ritualism. And piety sometimes can become artificial and it's not really helpful anymore. So, these artificial kinds of things that we've gotten ourself into, I think we should look at them again and see if we have come out of balance. We've lost the balance of Muslims, you know.
Interviewer:
You're trying to say that you learned something here. That Islam can be translated into action that is more realistic.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. And Islam, though it started in Arabia with the Arabs of Arabia, Islam was never intended to be just an Arab religion or the religion of one culture. The Prophet, in my understanding, insisted those who are preachers or the Da’ees who went from him to other parts of the world into Africa and other parts of the world. That he insisted that they didn't go to undermine the culture of the people, but to introduce Islam and let Islam do the work of feeding that culture and supporting whatever excellence they already had in their culture. So, when I look around the world, I still see a beautiful cultural picture of the different cultures we have on this earth. And that's the way Islam should be. And none of us should be so hung up on our particular race, our nationality or our culture that we don't see that Islam's foundation for human beings is really the humanity. Islam's foundation is upon the humanity of man. Din Al Fitrah Al Ladee Fatarah Al Nas. Also, the Prophet was told to say G-d said "Tell them, Ana Basharhu Mithlakum"- The only difference is that G-d has inspired me.
Interviewer:
Okay. And as you were saying about Malaysia, you say that you see the balanced society, you see more practical aspect of Islam here. What other aspect do you think that you would like to learn from Malaysia? Maybe on education or other things.
Imam WD Mohammed:
The Asian people, I think they have always been good in math. And you've proven to be very good at managing business. And we have been deprived of material establishment because of slavery. Our life goes back to slavery a hundred and some years ago. But now we have freedom and opportunity in America and we think that the real dignity of not just Muslim blacks, African-Americans, but the dignity of African-Americans and minorities is going to require that we have better business sense and better appreciation for the role of business in the life of society. So, we hope to benefit from a relationship with you there too.
Interviewer:
Okay. Let's talk about the future. What do you think of the future of Islam in America?
Imam WD Mohammed:
The future looks very good to me. It's bright, it's great. I'm very optimistic.

Interviewer:
With all this misunderstanding, with all the obstacles.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Those are small problems, small problems. The big thing is that our Muslim society of the world is looked upon more favorably now by most Americans. And definitely the government wants the citizens to know about Muslims, they want citizens to appreciate Muslim life and contribution to civilization. So this is a good time for us. And there is a democracy there. The freedom is not exactly the kind of freedom that we understand in Islam, but at least it respects our right to have our own religion and our own way of life in America. This is really the most precious nature of America society. It invites all people, bring your life here, establish your life here, and enjoy the freedom of America. So, I think this is a very good opportunity for us. And I think America may be one of the, or actually may be the situation that is going to bring about better conditions for Muslims all over the world.
Interviewer:
Oh, it's a good perception there. Now last but not least. What next? You have come to Malaysia, talk about business opportunities here.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Opportunities to benefit from your institutions of higher learning too.
Interviewer:
Yes. So, what do you see for the future in that area of education?
Imam WD Mohammed:
We hope to have our bright youngsters benefit from opportunities here. In fact, we have already received five applications from the President of Iqra, Sheik Almani in Saudi Arabia in Mecca for five of our students. One of them is my grandson Tahir. He will be coming to Malaysia I hope this year. He's graduating in June as an honor student. He's been an honor student for the whole four years. And we hope to have some more of those. We very carefully select them so that we have the most active minds and those who will take this opportunity to learn here very seriously and come back to America and make a contribution to the American Muslim community In Shallah.
Interviewer:
Okay. Now this is the last but not least kind of question. More international, more current. You know that the situation in Lebanon yesterday, we've got news coming from Lebanon. Not a good picture at all. It's a bad picture of what's happening there. What is your view on that? The situation in Lebanon where Muslims have been deprived, they bombed the hospitals and things like that.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes, we know the Old Testament belief, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. And the new Israel is much more, I would say, understanding and much more inclined to be patient and to work out peace than the old Israel. But the old Israel can come back if terrorists from our side, from the Muslim side create too much of a problem for Israel. So, I think that's what's happening. I hope it's temporary, I hope it's temporary, but I think it should be checked. And government should use its influence to check that.
Interviewer:
Okay. Any message to the Muslims of Malaysia directly from the Muslim of America that you represent.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. Any information?
Interviewer:
No. Anything you would like to say. Last words.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. I would like to say I hope to come back soon. Please make it possible for me.
Interviewer:
Will do. We invite you again and again. Right. And our Salaam to our brothers and sisters there.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Salaam from our community, from all of the Muslims of America. Not just from our community. To you.
Interviewer:
You. Thank you very much.



