08/30/1994
IWDM Study Library
IWDM Radio Washington DC

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
W.D Mohammed: Well, thank you.
Interviewer: I'm glad that you are. Well, let's talk about you are due to make a presentation here in Washington DC, can you tell us what that's going to be about?
W.D Mohammed: This year we're having the annual convention in Washington DC and I'm hearing that has already indicated to us that's going to be the biggest one we've ever had.
Interviewer: Now when you say we are having a convention.
W.D Mohammed: That's the Muslim Community Association that I am with. Muslim American Community Association.
Interviewer: How many Muslims do you expect that will be part of this convention? Where will they be coming from?
W.D Mohammed: The convention committee says they're expecting between 8,000 and 10,000 and they'll be coming from around the country.
Interviewer: I was reading some material that there is a mosque in every city or major city in this country.
W.D Mohammed: That's true. Well, we inherited progress that was made under the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, the late leader of the Nation of Islam was called Black Muslims. We inherited most of the progress of that movement that lasted over a period from 1931 until he passed in February 1975. We do have-- we didn't lose, we picked up, we lost some places, but we picked up more places than we lost. We do have mosque, religious meeting places, centers or mosques in every major city and in a lot of small cities too.
Interviewer: For those who may not understand the difference between what your father began as known as Black Muslims, the Nation of Islam and what you practice and lead today. Is there a difference, and if there is, what is that difference?
W.D Mohammed: Yes, there is a difference what was introduced to us we believe now after studying, we've come to the conclusion that what was introduced was a black nationalist religious organization. Religion was used because our people are spiritual and they-- well, the one who conceived that idea he was a foreigner his name is Fard F-A R-D, but it's pronounced F-A-R-A-D, Farad. We believe that he conceived the idea and had as a hope that once the America changed so that blacks would feel more comfortable as citizens in America.
That they would then began to look for the religion of Islam but actually he didn't give us Islam, he gave us the name Islam but not the religion Islam. He gave us the black nationalist religion that had the main idea the greatness of the black man that the black man was G-d, incarnate or G-d and that the white man was the evil creation. He put together his own myth and he labeled the organization Nation of Islam incorrectly.
I don't think he had bad intentions but when it comes to Islam, there's an indication that he did have a respect for Islam and that he wanted the followers to eventually study the Arabic text of the Quran and come into an independent idea of their own, of how Islam is to be perceived and how it is to be lived. Strangely enough, I think it worked because it produced me, it produced my youngest brother Akbar, he's a member of the International Muslim Community or Muslim Community as directly pronounced in the word Muslim. It produced the Imam Daniel Kareem here in Chicago area who identifies with all the Muslims and we all were students.
We were students under the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and we are students under the Arabic teaching that he got for us professor Jamil Diaz, from oversees Jerusalem. It's our belief that though the organization and his language seem to have been really going counter all that is truly Islam. That the intent was that we come to Islam, real Islam one day when changes come in America that would make America a good place for blacks, or at least an acceptable place for blacks to live in and now try to have families in the future.
Interviewer: Do you feel that this country has come to that point?
W.D Mohammed: Yes, we do. We believe that we used to have problems, and we know some other ethnic groups that migrated here, they have problems too. We have problems and a lot of it comes from the label that was put on us as black and stigmatize that black men inferior. We believe that we still have some problems, but we don't think the race problem is anymore the more serious problems that we have.
We think the more serious problem we have now is just a need to take charge of our life and take charge of our environment that we are responsible for, whether it be our home, our apartment, our place in the community, our businesses whatever. We believe that African Americans and all citizens just have to be more responsible today.
Interviewer: This minister Mohammed and minister Wallace D. Mohammed, or is the correct title, - should we refer to you as Imam Wallace D. Mohammed?
Interviewer: Yes, or minister is okay.
Interviewer: Thank you. Does this not put you and Islam at direct odds with Minister Louis Farrakhan and what is currently known as the Nation of Islam?
W.D Mohammed: Yes, it does but at the same time, we believe that the experience we had, the change that we made, we call the transition from the old idea to real Islam. We believe that the minister Louis Farrakhan and his following are affected in the same way we were and sooner or later they don't have to resolve the internal conflict that they have. They can't get rid of that internal conflict.
Interviewer: That internal conflict being?
W.D Mohammed: The conflict with real Islam. What they preach is in conflict with real Islam and they want to identify with all Muslims. I haven't heard anything from Farrakhan's mouth that would make me believe that he doesn't want to identify with all Muslims.
Interviewer: Matter of fact just a few months ago, I had read, I don't know how accurate this is that he was focusing heavily on studying from true Muslims.
W.D Mohammed: That will eventually bring him in line with all Muslims that are on this earth. That's what we believe, and I see some strong signs that that's going to happen.
Interviewer: Has there ever been any discussion? It was rumored that there might've been a discussion, a meeting, a reconciling of differences between minister Farahkhan and of course, your leadership here in this country has-- did such a meeting take place? Has there been efforts of reconciling your differences?
W.D Mohammed: Well, yes. We have met on at least two or three occasions. We didn't arrange the meeting directly. The meeting was sponsored by others. Twice it was sponsored by the Muslim World League based in Mecca, that is an international organization too. They sponsored two of the meetings and I met Louis Farrakhan and we were encouraged to try to come together and be united as one Muslim community in America.
I've never experienced any hostility from him and I hope he never experienced any from me when we meet personally. When we meet personally, he tells me of a strategy that he has and he says he thinks I move too fast, but he admires what I've done and at the same time has criticism.
Interviewer: His point is you've moved too first towards real Islam.
W.D Mohammed: That's true. That I moved too fast and that just brought our African American or black members into the world community, our international community of Muslims and he thinks that was done too quickly. He says he has a strategy that's going to eventually bring his following too.
Interviewer: What has been your response to his observation of you moving too fast?
W.D Mohammed: Well, I think I don't agree with him at all. I think I moved very cautiously. The transition took place over a period of about 15 years. I think that's long enough.
Interviewer: Over a 15-year-period, when did it first come? If this is a fair question I mean, 15 years is a long time. I guess to put it in layman's terms, when did you see the light?
W.D Mohammed: [laughs] I would say I was getting a glimpse of the light when I was even a young man, I would say in my teens. In my teens, I began to feel burdened by some of the beliefs that we had concerning G-d, the Concept of G-d.
Interviewer: The concept that G-d was Black, the devil was White.
W.D Mohammed: Yes, and the problem for me it was that the Black G-d created a White devil to punish his own people. To me, that was a little bit weird. I said that sounds like somebody has a mental problem, to create somebody to torture himself. He is a Black G-d then he goes and creates a White devil, to torture or to do evil to Black people, just to prove that he could create a enemy or a contender, and then have victory over that enemy. Eventually, it said that after about 7,000 years- after 6,000 years in the 7,000th year, there will be victory for the Black man over the White man, or for the G-d over the devil.
Interviewer: Then, of course, you have since-- and prior to that traveled around the world, and must have seen what we know as Malcolm X Shabazz had saw when he traveled, that there were Muslims of all races and creeds.
W.D Mohammed: That's true. Really a big percentage of the Muslims in the Holy Land, what we call the Holy Land, that’s Arabia and Jerusalem, we would call them Whites. They would be classified as white, a big percentage of them. Arabia has all colors like America, dark, very black, but most of them are whitish people.
Interviewer: Sure, and the former Yugoslavia and the Bosnia all Muslims are white.
W.D Mohammed: They are white and Turkey too. The Turks they would tell us they are White too. That's a big country of white people that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad had always accepted them to be Muslims so there is these conflicts. You're looking at white people that we accept, and then we're told that even a man we saw as a-- was taught to believe was a savior like Christ G-d- Fard, his picture, we have his picture, he looks White. He ain’t a Black person. If you ask them what-- shows these photos, and say, "What color is this man?" "A white man." They'll say a White man.
Interviewer: You're talking about--
W.D Mohammed: The teacher of my father.
Interviewer: Yes, the teacher of your father, all right.
W.D Mohammed: Yes, Elijah Muhammad. The one who taught Elijah Muhammad, he was a foreigner and appears to be White when you look at his photos.
Interviewer: W.D Fard.
W.D Mohammed: That's his name, W.D. Fard. Yes, sir. You're told one thing and you're seeing something different, so this bothers the mind. Honorable Elijah Muhammad he would always avoid admitting that there was any problem with the G-d idea, the G-d concept or the teachings about the white race. He would wisely I would say, deal with us to get us to accept that every person with a white face is not to be identified as a devil.
At the same time, he was teaching us to respect anybody if they are in authority and have legal rights to be in that authority, whether the police, whoever it was or your employer. He said, "If your employer's white, give him an honest day's work. Don't cheat on him". The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was teaching something that would strike the ear as being very explosive, very dangerous in America. At the same time, he had the wisdom to advise his followers and to caution his followers, and to keep that organization from exploding in America.
Interviewer: Do you see Minister Farrakhan and this probably will be our final question, you said that he had a plan to move more towards your direction.
W.D Mohammed: Yes. I would say towards real Islam.
Interviewer: Do you see that plan being implemented any time soon moving towards real Islam?
W.D Mohammed: Well, we embarrassed him at my address in Detroit on the 13th of August. I urged Farrakhan to go on and make that change that he says he has a strategy for, to go on and make that change so that all of us will be relieved and so that the Muslims will follow him, will not continue to carry that burdensome conflict.
Interviewer: How many Muslims are in America?
W.D Mohammed: We estimate that there must be about six million total, all Muslims in America. We believe that American Muslims, Muslims that converted to Islam.
Interviewer: How does that compare to the Nation of Islam?
W.D Mohammed: Well, we are much less than the six million. Most of the six million are immigrants, but we believe our number is approaching two million in America.
Interviewer: And in the Nation of Islam?
W.D Mohammed: They have-- well the number they give between 20,000 and 70,000. I would say that it's closer to about 20,000 but he has a big following, public following. They don't identify with religions, but they come to see him. He's a very attractive speaker.
Interviewer: Mr. Mohammed, I thank you for being with us. We hope that maybe sometime you can return for a lengthier conversation.
W.D Mohammed: I hope so too. I'll make it my business to have our people there in Washington to get in touch with you. When I'm there I would very much like to be on your show again.
Interviewer: I appreciate that and we will have you back.
W.D Mohammed: Thank you very much.
Interviewer: Thank you very much. That is Minister Wallace D. Mohammed. We'll continue your calls after this. You heard it, what do you think? Give me a call.


