04/13/1986
IWDM Study Library
Jacob Javits Center
Pt.4
By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

00:03 Imam W. Deen Mohammed: So all of these people come over here in the bad times of Reaganomics, they come over here from Cuba, they come over here from Haiti, they come over here from Korea, they come over here from Vietnam, they come over here from everywhere. They come over here from Africa, attracted to the land of opportunity, attracted by principals of this democracy, attracted to free markets, free markets, free trade, et cetera, et cetera. And they come here ragged, in rags, poor, got nothing, live in a little apartment and care for each other, two or three families sharing the same small apartment, drab place, not a fancy place, nothing luxurious, drab, a place that the ordinary welfare recipient of the black people won't even wanna live there. He'll look at it and say, "Those people, they ain't nothing. How do they live like that?" And they live like that for about five years. They save up enough money to buy the abandoned property in your block, on your block. They buy your abandoned property and bring life to your abandoned property, bring business to your abandoned property, and do so much with it, you become jealous and say, "This is wrong for them to come in here and do this and get this business and do that."

01:32 IWDM: What's wrong with it? I'll tell you what's wrong with it. It's wrong that you're not in a cultural situation. It's wrong that you're not in an ethnic situation. It's wrong that you are not having a community ethos, a community spirit, a community context to your spirit that would make you do what they have done. That's what's wrong. It's not wrong what they have done. They have the right to do it. They're free, free markets! 

02:00 Speaker 2: That's right.

02:07 IWDM: So I can do this, though I have not nearly covered the majority. I told my wife, "I won't be able to cover all this." I said, "We're gonna have to put it into a book." We're gonna put it into a book, and have it out as soon as we possibly can.

02:26 IWDM: In concluding this, let me ask you again to look at the strange behavior in our group spirit that leaves us underserved as a people, with Islam in our past, with mosques as houses of worship in our past, with Islamic education for the family within our past, with Islamic social social sensitivity, with Islamic social relevance in our past. Do you think these other ethnic groups have no social sensitivities of their own? Do you think they have no social system of their own? Every ethnic group has either a song or an inkling of a social system of its own, and that's what enables them to survive better than we have survived...

[pause]

03:46 IWDM: They're brothers, Asians, Europeans. They bring their religious house with them to America, and they set their religious house up. Now, I think it's strange. Follow me, not matter what your religion is. Do what they do. They will build a house to their tradition. They will build a house in tribute to their traditions. They will build a house respecting their past, though they don't even intend to live in it anymore. They build it to preserve what was.

04:16 S2: That's right.

04:17 IWDM: So join me, whether you're Muslim or not, join me, first of all, in supporting my brother, Jaabir Muhammad. He's here somewhere.

04:24 S2: Here he is over there.

04:25 IWDM: First of all, in supporting my brother Jaabir, he has built a beautiful Islamic structure, mosque, house of worship near the house where we live, where our brother, father, and mother live, where my father worked out of as an office, and did the national business for the nation of Islam, as it was called. He has bought a mosque, he had built it. But we have experienced set back because that Muhammad Ali retired from boxing, and bad economic times that have worked to unestablish many people who are much better situated than Jaabir, and much better situated than Muhammad Ali. Even the Catholic church have had to give up abandoned properties because of these times. Businesses have pulled out of the North and went to the South, went to Mexico, and went overseas because of these times. Businesses have collapsed because of these times. So, Jaabir, don't feel bad because you're having bad economic times. Thank God that you're still here.

05:36 S2: That's right.

05:37 IWDM: And thank God that you have something still. Do not feel bad because of these times. These times have wiped out bigger business men than you, alright? And if you believe in God, you're looking to a better future. You're looking to a day when you'll accumulate more wealth then you ever accumulated in your life. That's the spirit of a Muslim. That's the spirit of the free people. So what we gonna do in the meantime, we are going to join each other, the Muslims and non-Muslims, and remember our past, and do something that will reflect a free man, a free spirit. Let us join each other, Christians and Muslims and Socialist Blacks, let us join each other and build edifices, mosques, so that when people visit this country, they will see the sign of a continued life of the African-American man.

06:33 S2: Yes.

06:34 IWDM: They'll say, "Well, these buildings were in their past. We see that they have honored their varying traditions." Let us build schools, Islamic schools. Let us build cultural museums and cultural theaters. Let us infuse into the African-American spirit for music, spirit for dance, spirit for art, spirit for culture. Let us infuse into that the Islamic potency, the Islamic potency, the Islamic spiritual values, the Islamic social values. Let us infuse it into it. Let us infuse it into them to give birth to make a Genesis for a new man. Peace be on you As Salaam Alaikum.
