12/07/1984
IWDM Study Library
IWDM T.V. Interview

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

Host: -program, I'm Imam Faheem Shuaibe. This program will be co-hosted by Imam Abdul Qadir Al Ameen. We are blessed and fortunate today to have with us what we believe to be the most formidable leader on the national and international scene today, the leader of the American Muslim Mission membership, Warith Deen Mohammed.
And so I say this time to both my co-host and my guest, peace be onto you, as-salamu alaykum.
Guests: Wa alaykumu as-salam.
Host: This program today, we're going to be focusing on community concerns, the community concerns of the American Muslim Mission. This is, of course, most useful to our viewers, as well as those who have accepted to be members of that particular body as Muslims, the American Muslim Mission, to give everyone the focus as to who we are, where we're going and what we hope to accomplish.
What I like to ask you first, brother Imam Mohammed, is what areas of focus should be given the most attention? If one had to select between the individual or the group, is there a balance that can be made in those two concerns, the individual or the group, or should the group be superior or individual?
W.D Mohammed: Circumstances will decide that at a time when individual needs are ignored, then we would favor the individual. The time when community needs are ignored, we have to favor community. As you say, there should be a balance. The preferred situation would be when the individual and the community is given proper attention.
At least, respect for their legitimate needs. I think the situation for us in our community right now require more attention to the community than to the individual. I think the individual can best be motivated by us addressing the community needs.
Host: In speaking to you earlier, you stated the phrase, Islamic democracy, and you stated it almost in an inspired type of way. It's like this is what we're looking for, in comparing Islamic democracy to democracy that most people understand to exist in America today. What is the comparison, what is the differences, and how are they alike?
W.D Mohammed: First of all, Islamic democracy is religious-based. That is our holy book has defined for us what freedom is. Whereas American democracy is defined by the constitution and the constitution of the United States. Our constitution is a politically based idea.
But I find that there is a striking resemblance in much of the idea of democracy that we know as America, and the Islamic democracy. I would like myself to have a situation in America where people would be able to themselves recognize the limits set on them in terms of what they can do in society.
I believe most of us would want that, but when it comes to restricting the freedom of people in America's life and American society, we are not allowed to do that. So what we have to do is just to depend on each other, to work in the best interest of the society without addressing the problems of freedom.
But I think inside our mosque, inside our own community, we are obligated to address the concept of freedom, especially when we see the ideas being, I would say contaminated or deformed in the minds of the members of the community.
And the kind of permissiveness that has been allowed in society, not just America, in the world society, in last five years or 10 years has to be met by us. If we're to keep a healthy idea of freedom in our community, so we have to address this from Islamic terminology.
I think the society of America would fare better if all of us in our private situations, mosque, church, synagogue, business community, our institutions, cultural institutions, all these I would say points of situations for addressing the needs of society. When all of us address our particular private concerns in our own private quarters, then we serve America--  we're serving America, that's why I think we're serving America.
Host: Sounds like you're saying, number one, that we could lose the true definition of real and natural freedom if we give our self over to the way that the mass media and [unintelligible 00:06:27] has defined freedom for us. And the way to correct that is to begin to hold the truth, the idea of what freedom is, and propagate that within our own homes, institutions, businesses, and what have you.
That would preserve and that would bring it to the kind of democracy that we like, [crosstalk] so very good. Brother Imam, you have some questions?
Host 2: Brother Imam Mohammed, we would like to welcome you to San Francisco, to the Bay area where we're really pleased to have you here to work on some of the community concerns of the American Muslim Mission. In particular, the AMPAC seminar that's scheduled for here tomorrow. We would like to welcome you.
We believe that the effort is one that's enhanced our effectiveness in making a genuine contribution here in the society. You mentioned the idea of Islamic freedom, and I would like to speak regarding that. In Islamic terminology, it uses a term "Halal" which talks about lawfulness, and the same word is talking about freedom. Could you share some ideas with us regarding that?
W.D Mohammed: What governs the behavior of a believer Muslim, believer, I would say a believer becomes specifically about religion, our community now, is the fear of G-d. As long as there's a fear of G-d in us and that fear is not just being frightened by something you know, not the-- I would say the crude kind of fear that may come to the mind of our viewers or our listeners.
But it's a cultured fear. Its a refined fear. As long as there's "Taqwa", fear of G-d in the people, then that consciousness in the people restricts their activities, keep them conscious of limitations placed upon their activities.
So from there, we then go to the word of G-d, the Quran, and we would desire that our community be a Quran reading community, an informed Islamic community, and to be informed the community has to be acquainted with the holy text, the Quran.
And secondly, the second most highest authority would be the way that Quran was lived by human beings. I have heard different Imams said, lectured on the Quran, how it is to be lived, how it is to be applied. Many of them have described it as a manual. If you buy a new automobile, you would expect that the manufacturer to give you a manual for operating that automobile. And the Quran has been described as a manual for our whole life. Often when you buy a complicated machine and no machine is more complicated than a human body itself, a human life itself, you also need to demonstrator. Someone to demonstrate the operation to you because you are new at it, this-- [crosstalk].
So you need the Prophet Muhammad as a model. He's a model type model, so we need to know also how Prophet Muhammad lived this religion, because some people may read one verse, and he's sent straight up into the sky, and not know how to live it.
He might be sent straight up to the sky, because some verses are so beautiful, and poetic beauty and so beautiful in spiritual appeal, that just take the average person who is looking for spiritual-- I would say spiritual relief, would take him out of the world.
So we need Prophet Muhammad as a model before us always, so we will know that this religion is to be lived on earth in a human community. I believe that when we keep respect for G-d, then we're safe, all of our relationships are protected in that respect. I'm speaking as a religious man.
I feel the best way to protect my relationship with my wife, with my mother, with my children, or with my friends, my associates on the job, I believe the best protection for all relationships is to keep sacred before me, my relationship with G-d. You see that's the Taqwa, the fear of losing that relationship, as far in that relationship with G-d is Taqwa. Fear of G-d, consciousness, whatever they might term it.
I don't think that anything else can be accomplished for a true believer in G-d without that. At first he has to have Taqwa, and then he should seek to improve his knowledge. Because just to be protected against reckless behavior or improper behavior is not enough.
I have to be guided into the right behavior. So the Quran is such a great source of knowledge. It will give us principles that to live by. Whether we are professional person, business person or student in school, still in school, or child at home, the Quran gives us principles to live by.
Without that, we can't go very far. I hope that we have Taqwa. I hope that we'll get acquainted with our holy books, so we know how our religion directs life. And then, I hope that we will take advantage of opportunities in our community and in the society to prosper, to be become productive. And to me, that's freedom. To me, that's freedom.
Host: The American Muslim Mission political awareness convention, you described how the holy Quran, it covers all of our ways of life, academic, political, business, and otherwise.
In context of the political awareness seminars and conventions that are now going on throughout the nation, what is the basis from the Quranic point of view that serves as the springboard for this particular event, given it is not purely political, it has its religious basis. What is the reasoning behind that effort?
W.D Mohammed: Conditions force us to make certain decisions. The Quran, whether the Quran has motivated a particular interest or excited a particular interest is not a concern. But for Muslims, what is going to govern their interest, what is going to govern their interest? So that's the concern, that's the Islamic concern.
What is going to govern that interest. I think conditions have brought about these new programs, I would say re-entry to certain activities, like collective buying, pooling our small earnings and raise resources to try and do something collectively, or coming together to address political issues, political climate for African-Americans, and for the country.
These new kind of interests that are being addressed now by the members of the community under AMMCOP and AMPAC, in my opinion, form because of conditions, environmental conditions, human conditions. But as Muslims, once our conscience begins to deal with the problem, then we have to be sure that we are dealing with it Islamically. So then we look for Islamic direction.
What is the Islamic direction? If we're going to be- if we have to tackle this problem, what does our Quran, what does Allah say about this in the Quran? How would Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, how would he deal with this situation?
So right away, we recognize a call to duty. We have to go back and say, "Wait a minute, let me see what G-d says about it. Let me see what my religion says about it." So I think the efforts are proceeding, the efforts for gaining support and proceeding because we are Muslims.
That's marvelous, because we are Muslims, because we are-- I mean, when we look at the needs, we say, "Oh, yes, here is our needs." What does the Quran say about it? The Quran stresses man involvement in community. That man has to see himself as a member of the community, and man has to take up responsibility for the community life. He has to accept responsibility for the course or the direction of his community.
Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, he has said the blessing for family is in sharing a meal. There is more blessing in sharing a meal, eating with others, than eating by yourself. Prophet Muhammad has encouraged us to work with each other and to live with each other, to enjoy life with each other.
This is more rewarding than doing it alone. So there's emphasis on community, and when we see it in Islam the average Muslims, whether he can readily grasp or readily connect these ideas or not doesn’t stop him from knowing that this is something that I should give my support to.
So right away, he say, "Oh, yes," blah, blah, blah, "I'm for this, how can I join? How can I join AMMCOP, how can I join AMPAC? How can I get involved in a collective buying program? What can I do to help the political seminars?" The spirit is ready for us because he have read, he have heard the word of G-d.
Though he can't recall it as quickly as an Imam or somebody else maybe, many of them can, [crosstalk] he still registers just as quickly that this is an Islamic concern as well as a people, a community concern. This is essentially an Islamic concern.
Host: It brings to mind your response to that it's like we're first natural. Your second self, it will dictate certain things, whether you read it in the book or not. So you won't have to deal with the situation.
But before you move too far or gain a momentum or getting to an inertia, I never use the term before, make sure that your movement is approved while you deal with this, just to make sure it's approved or it goes in a manner that's approved by the religious guidelines. Thank you very much, Brother Imam. Brother Imam?
Host 2: On the idea of economic concerns for the community, the annual big buy and accomplishments that the American Muslim Mission have made in terms of collective bargaining power. Could you give us some ideas on how this is progresses, and how we can be a model for other communities as we were in the past through our accomplishments?
W.D Mohammed: At a time when there are so influences, society now perhaps is more burdened than it ever has been, since man’s been on this earth.There are more goods here, more wealth than perhaps there’s ever been here, too. But at the same time, there is more pressure on the individual, more spiritual pressure on the individual. So we have great advancement, great achievements as people, this modern age, civilizations have made astounding strides, and really there's great wealth, too, especially in America.
But there's so much hunger, so much poverty. So much distress and almost hopelessness in so many people. Why? Why? It is because people are not supervised as much now as they used to be supervised. And the reason why they are not supervised as much because of this burden, the burden is tremendous on the individual to a spiritual burden I mean.
To just carry those responsibilities and get up and do things. Man used to have time for reflection when this world wasn't so crowded. It wasn't so bad. Man had time for reflection. Now a person have no time for reflection, he is gone.
Get up in the morning and go. If you expect to keep the bills paid, you have to run until the end of the day. Because of that, everybody is just overburdened and don't have time for supervision, to supervise their own life as it should be, or to supervise those that they are over-- their dependence, their children, etc. I think pleasure needs- pleasure needs, need to be studied.
Somehow as a Muslim community, we need to address the pleasure needs in the life of an individual, and not try to force people to go in that door, but see what their pleasure needs are, and make available to them the great, the number of choices that G-d allows us before filling out that.
The greatest pleasure is to please G-d. The greatest pleasure is to please G-d. But how do we please G-d? The only way to please G-d is about performing in the world. When we find a way for everybody to perform, to fulfill their pleasure needs, and at least keep before them the options, the choices that you can make, to fulfill your pleasure, then we will get production, we will get production, we will get more production.
I think the seminars that we are having will focus in on that. To hear people, because of changing circumstances now, they don't know where they are, they don't know where they should go. They don't see any opportunity to be move forward.
So it's the duty of those who have opportunity, to bring these opportunities to the attention of those who are hopeless, or those who are just don't have vision, bring these opportunities to them. These seminars, these seminars and the political awareness address will focus in on opportunities that are still here, many opportunities are still here.
We have people in the community. We have almost just given up, said, well, no jobs-- but we find that people are always coming in, replacing us, and they find a job. They make a job where we thought there was no job, they make for a job.
Those who see opportunity can just bring these opportunities to the attention of others, then I think we can have some progress, and I hope that the political awareness meeting and address and the seminars, and also AMMCOP, seminars will try to reach as many people as possible in the community of the poor, where people are without vision now because of heavy burden on life, heavy burden on the spiritual life of the people.
I think what we will have as a result is more support for collective effort. For collective effort. Economic programs, collective buying, and political awareness seminars that are designed to bring information to people who otherwise would be overlooked on this.
People who are not motivated, people who have given up on society. I imagine that there are among us some people that we have failed. Yes, because we fail people, too. [crosstalk]
Host 2: When you say "us", you mean Muslims? [crosstalk]
W.D Mohammed: Muslims. We try to do our best, but I'm sure there are among us some people we have missed, too. Once you disappoint people, or they lose faith in you, there isn't much you can do for them, until that faith is regenerated in some kind of way, revived some kind of way. I would hope that that Muslim who lost faith in us will find an opportunity brothers and-- among Christians or others.
I would hope they would find opportunity. There are many Christians who have lost faith, and I would hope that they would find opportunity brothers among the Muslims or Buddhist, or somebody else. I hope they find opportunity, so that's what we want to do, just bring opportunity. And there are a lot of opportunities. It's not as bad as you think.
Host: Yes, that's right. You had pointed out in an earlier political awareness conference about how we still bear the scars, of the psychology of our experience, speaking specifically of African-American people, of slavery and these, and worse than that, we still bear the sensitivity. As a consequence, we approach psychological problems as though they were concrete facts.
So a lot of our problems, would you say, is just a simple psychological blindness? We can't see the opportunities that are there. You described this in detail since we've been here, about how people are so burdened that we can't see things that are around them. And the hope is just to simply relieve the burden long enough for us to lift our heads up and see the opportunities.
W.D Mohammed: They need something new. If I have given up on something I have been doing, something I have been working at for 20 years. And if I've given up on that, maybe you can come and look at my situation and convince me that I need to take that back up.
And say, look here, man, I think you've haven't done justice to this. There are still opportunity here that maybe you can convince me. But if you can't, if I can't be convinced that I can make progress out of old methods, and with the whole situation, then I need something new.
And that's what we're about, we're about pointing people to new opportunity, a lot of new opportunity. There are a lot of new opportunities to succeed in life. I hope that what we will achieve as a community is productive lives for our members and for people, to share that with others, productive lives.
Here's another important thing, ownership. A lot of people don't understand that the reason why you are not motivated, the reason why you are not aggressive is because you have no sense of ownership. Most of the people, they don't have a sense of ownership, they don't think they own anything. Let's start with my own self. This is in my possession. You've got to do something for it to make it productive.
Host: That's a very good point. We've been having a very elaborate point of discussion with our special guest, Imam Warith Deen Mohammed. We'd like to thank all of you for joining us this afternoon, and my co-host Imam Abdul Qadir Al Ameen. We hope that you will join us again on our next program of the American Muslim Journal. I am your host, Faheem Shuaibe, saying to you peace be onto you, assalamu alaikum.
SECOND SHOW
Host 2: Peace be unto you. We would like to welcome you to the American Muslim Journal. We have our special guest this evening, Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, leader of the American Muslim membership. We would like to welcome him to the San Francisco area. We have co-hosting this evening, Iman Faheem Shuaibe of Masjidul Mohammed Oakland, and myself Imam Abdul Qadir Al Ameen of the American Muslim Center in San Francisco.
This evening, we would like to discuss current events in the media, and we would like to question Imam Mohammed regarding recent events that have been reported regarding hijackings, and these actions have been attributed to Muslims. And we would like for Imam Mohammed to share his view regarding this.
Specifically what we would like to try to point out is how at times the media attributes actions to a whole community which is actually individual actions. We believe that we are done an injustice, say a person because a person is of Arab descent or of a Muslim faith, that they attribute these type of actions to the religion. Could your share your concerns with us and views on that?
W.D Mohammed: Yes, we would hope that the persons in the media and I am from Chicago, I feel that our media television and network, and major networks do a very good job in reporting news in a way not to do injury and call for injury to other interests, or the concerned religious community itself.
Sometimes, the way the information is given does a lot of harm to this service. Unintentionally or intentionally, I don't know. I think it's maybe perhaps a lot of times is unintentional. We would hope that that wouldn't happen. But anytime you have people who are doing things as hijacking, and the name, the name like Kamal, Raji or something.
Those people who have made with their Islamic names right away they say is a Muslim. Then if they say it was a Arab, Arab terrorist right away they think it's a Muslim. We have people in our membership that is Islamic community world community membership who are no different from people in Christianity.
You have people over here they say they are Christians. But the average, one of us wouldn't go to them for Christian instructions, would we?
Host 2: No, sir.
W.D Mohammed: Okay, same thing in Arab. And the Muslim name, you have many people who say are Muslim, they are Muslim, but who would go to them for Islamic instructions. Many of them don't know anything about their religion. But simply because they are born in Islamic society and their parents were Muslims, they are just been called Muslims, and so they say "As-Salaam-Alaikum", and they asked "Who is G-d?" and they say "Allah is G-d, and one G-d". "Who is the prophet?" "Oh, Muhammad".
They find that their Muhammad is a prophet. But as far as knowing how to live his religion properly, he may not. I think we should understand that.
And persons who are exposed to reporting of hijacking and terrorist acts, non-violent people of the Islamic nations, of the Muslim world, should be aware that those persons are no more representative of Islam than many criminals that locked up in jail, on death row, and many of them that are sticking us up and snatching our- the purses from our mothers and old people, and preying upon us in the street.
We can't say they are responsible Christians, they are not representatives of Christianity. They don't represent Christianity. We have to be aware of that, that the world is full of all kind of people. And no matter what your religion is, you always going to have persons who won't be in touch with and won't be as devoted to it as others, and many of them would care less for it. There are many people who call themselves Arabs, they care nothing, don't care anything at all about their religion. The circumstances of their life has given them to materialism or given them to struggling with political ideology that won't permit them to see their Islamic responsibility.
We have many people in Islamic world now who are capitalist, and we have many more who are socialists, and many of them are communists. We have many atheists in the Islamic world, and they will have Arab names. They will have Islamic sounding names.
That doesn't mean that they would be Muslims. We have to understand, too, that Islamic lands have been occupied for generations by foreign cultures, foreign nations and foreign cultures. The Islamic world community, Egypt, Sudan, all of these countries of Africa, Asia, Pakistan, for example, that was a country born in 1947. The people that made up that citizenry were under British rule.
What I see in a lot of the behavior that we deplore terrorist acts, hijacking, doesn’t suggest to me at all that this is a Muslim. It suggests to me that this is other than a Muslim. I would say that much of this is going on, is going on because those people are left without guidance, and they are following ideologies that don't require that they be responsible human beings in a human world.
Host 2: And speaking about these stresses of that kind, because sometime people do hijack out of distress. They just simply don't know how to deal with their situation but by force, in that sense. What strikes me as interesting is that the starvation that we are hearing more about in Ethiopia and other places.
I've seen the names of the areas that are supposed to be taking place in. You get names like Mali, and Somalia, and the Ghana area, and it reflects back to me that this was a place where we used to be the great kings and rulers in powers, and what-have-you. The dynastic type situation of the African people.
What's your views of this situation that exist there in terms of the kinds of plight that we hearing about in terms of starvation, what have you? Can you think of anything historically that might contribute to that or is it just a happenstance?
W.D Mohammed: I'm sure that history had play the great role in it. Again, we are talking about African nations that have recently come into independence before they were under foreign domination. For centuries, for generations and centuries, some of them have been on the foreign domination.
So we are talking about nations that have just recently come into responsibility or in to control. Certainly what circumstances that they have to live with for all those generations have some impact or some design on their behavior right now.
I read a column in the paper, I can't recall the magazine right now. The writer was saying that there is a lot of imported values in the so-called independent third world nations. The problem is that they identify with their own local culture and traditional life, but don't see the conflict in terms of values.
Here they are identify as a Muslim, or identifying as a member of this tribal culture, but they can't see the conflict of values. They can't see that they have been excited by a lifestyle that has passed away. The colonial flush. [crosstalk]
Host 2: The compound circumstances, in terms-- [crosstalk]
W.D Mohammed: How they spreaded their wealth and spreaded their fancy ostentatious garments, and royalty. And the third world people have been hungering for authority and possession of power. They are not aware that a lot of that hunger is wrong. They've been hungering for the role, for the power and the role of those people who oppressed them. So when they come into power, then they have a tendency to live extravagantly, to require too much for themselves. So a lot of the starvation that we find in Africa, in my opinion, is due to, I would say, false appetites-- appetites that are not consistent with the life of the people, the traditions of the people, and the reality that they are facing over there.
So you can go to a lot of these countries where there's great starvation, and you will find people living extravagantly. Too much. So what is wrong? Is that your tradition or beliefs have dictated that? No, I don't think so. I think for most of them, they're trying to do the same thing that many African-Americans are doing over here in this country. [crosstalk] Great dreams of being Miss Sadie.
Of being the white woman that has so much money, and she just throws it away on herself and her children. Too much money to think about. Or the white man who has great wealth, and he just can spend and spend and spend.
So we dream of coming into the comfortable places and roles that white people have been in, that were denied us. Opportunities that were blocked for us. Many of us don't know that we are motivated just to get what we have seen in white society. So when we get the opportunity, then we are not in touch with reality and we are living a fantasy. You see? Instead of living reality.
And I believe that's what's happening in many of the third world countries. People are trying to enjoy the conveniences and the resources and opportunities of colonial days, life and rule when it was in style to show off wealth. For example, some of these weddings  that we hear about in poor countries, look at the amount of wealth that is wasted-- [crosstalk] yes.
Wasted. Somewhere the people are starving, and all that money is wasted on a wedding for a little kid, a little small man. That's the big problem, I think. Not to say this is not a real problem. Drought in Africa is a real problem. The situation in Ethiopia is a real problem. No doubt about it, it's a real problem.
But what I'm saying is that we need to look at the full circumstance now and not just look at the trouble spots, or needs isolated from history and isolated from what has developed, what has been created there. We need to look at the whole circumstance, and I think we should-- that we can be willing to sacrifice ourselves because we are influenced, too, by these colonial appetites.
That's what it's come down to us. We have had a lot of that imported into our life. So we have to fight that tendency in ourselves, too, and learn to feel the suffering of people all over the world. I think it would help the American poor circumstances, if we would, in our own time of need, would say that the need in Africa or the need in Ethiopia is greater than the need in Chicago, South Side.
And let us get together and collect a contribution and donate something to relieve the misery of those people in Ethiopia. We need charity, don't you think?
Host 2: Most certainly.
W.D Mohammed: The poor won't improve their circumstance, then get a heart for those who are in worse condition than you are in. You see? And I think G-d will love that in us and will help us.
Host: Do we have time for another question?
Host 2: Yes. I wanted to ask another question regarding the emphasis that’s being placed on the problems in South Africa. It has renewed interest in that particular area, and I'm relating it to what's going on within the African-American community, particularly. There are many pressing kinds of problems from Washington DC, all the way out here in California.
And for all of our "so-called" leaders to be given their attention to what's going on in South Africa without addressing the real concerns of the African-American community in terms of our economic situation, our economic and cultural problems that are confronting us daily, is that a manipulation, or what are your views on that?
W.D Mohammed: If we don't stay alert and don't try to do something ourselves to better our own situation, then we are in trouble. We invite people to come in and undermine us, take advantage of us, exploit our weaknesses, etc. Now what I see is this, the present administration is not a socialist administration. It does not promote the same kind of social programs and social services that the Democrats would have promoted.
But at the same time, it's an administration that's committed to serve the welfare of this country and the people of this country. So then I'd give it as much, but I don't think we should give up hope, or should think that the situation is frightening.
No, Republicans, they're going to do that job, they're going to carry out their responsibilities. Bishop Tutu from Africa, I heard in the news that he's called the president's policies inhuman. But the president is accepting him. He's going to meet with the president, if he hasn't already. [crosstalk] Yes, I know he was due to meet the president.
So the president is giving him an audience. A lot of things that are said may cause us to misjudge. He called the president's policies inhuman, but then the one responsible for those inhuman policies gave him an audience. Under our President Reagan, great shipments of relief food that was on its way to India was redirected to go to Africa because of the need being more serious there in Ethiopia than in India.
So we've got to look at everything that's happening. Not just some things. You have to look at everything and try to be fair in our judgments. I try to be fair in my judgment.
Host: In light of that, did President Reagan landslide. What does that say to you about the mood and the attitude, or the personality of the country to elect Ronald Reagan to begin with?
W.D Mohammed: I'll sound like a Republican if I give an answer.
Host 2: It doesn't bother me. [chuckles]
W.D Mohammed: People are just fed up with a lot of talk and no work. A lot of promises, a lot of talk, and no work. They fed up with big talk and nothing happening. We know the country wasn't faring well at all under the last administration of the Democrats.
I believe the Democrats are very sincere, the great majority of them, but situations have developed in the world, in the international world, economic situations, and also moral situations have developed in the international world that affects us just as our developments here effect the international world. The things that worked well before-- if you give money to an irresponsible child, you're feeding the problems of that child. Right?
But if you give money to a responsible child, then you are helping that child. Well, America took too much for granted. Our society came to take too much for granted. And on the whole, the common citizens and even many of the rich and many of the children of the Ivy League or persons from the ivory tower. They failed to the same low level of human responsibility of human consciousness, where they just take things for granted. We needed somebody, we need a stronger administration, we needed a man of strong principle, that a man with confidence in his direction such as the president we have now to bring us back to the sense of responsibility, and a sense of-- I would say recognition of the needs of other people more than yourself
I think what the times demand is that we don't give up on being the greatest society, the most effluent society. We don't give up on having abundance, but that we, as they say, defer the pleasure until we discipline ourselves and become ourselves more responsible and more productive.
The world is crying for productive citizen. First thing you need is people who are willing to share with others, and can sense the needs of other people, in the same situation or in worst situations. That's what the world need, without that the world is going to come to a halt. It's going grind down to one-zero.
I don't mean to sound like a Republican, because I don't think I know enough about Republicans to become one. [crosstalk]
Host: [crosstalk] As we know in the Wall Street Journal, they were talking about how the old labels of straight Democrat or Republican don't apply anymore, and that you know people are deciding Republican on some issues and then deciding Democratic on other issues.
So it's like they're beginning to be a different mix. They use the term like "populist" and "libertarians" and others. They try to find new labels, but things are no longer as cut and dry. There's situations that change so much where this old political labels-- I agree what you're saying, they just don't apply in the same way anymore.
I can certainly appreciate that about the American Muslim Mission, finding that balance and dealing with the interest with the world or universal view.
Host 2: We appreciate you comments, brother Imam Mohammed, they've been very enlightening. We look forward to having you on the program again in the future. We would like to mention the ongoing activities of the American Muslim Mission, AMMCOP, and AMPAC's seminars. We hope that our viewers will join with us in the future. We'll have ongoing activities where we'd be working with these concerns.
W.D Mohammed: There's great need for community models for the poor. The rich always have community model. We have a great need for community models in the poor community. Many of the whites you know, they have what they call planned schools.
They have great ideas, innovative ideas about educating, re-educating, and educating their children. The poor needs that, too, and that's what our history is, our history is an effort to establish a model community for the poor. Maybe next time we can discuss can discuss plans for Sedelia.
Host 2: We would love to. We have two minutes left.

