1982-December-17

A.M. Journal

Muhammad Speaks

Imam W. Deen Muhammad

Send questions to Muhammad Speaks in care of The American Muslim Journal, 7801 S. Cottage Grove Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60619.

QUESTION:   You   also   mentioned   a compromise with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in a recent speech in Chicago. Would you please explain?

IMAM: I think I was speaking from spiritual sensitivity, because every time I go back to language that sounds like the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, I get the feeling that maybe some ignorant person will think I'm getting ready to take up the old teachings again.

Every time I go back to talking about pooling resources, collective buying, separation from the white man, economic dignity and those notes that he really played loud and continuously -whenever I go back to those things, I get the feeling that I'm compromising because really I'm putting myself in jeopardy.

I think that I'm really putting my own ideas in jeopardy, that people in ignorance may think I'm condoning everything the Honorable Elijah Muhammad represented, and that's not true.

QUESTION: You mentioned in that same speech that Christianity is the support for white supremacy. Does this mean that the Church is on the decline?

IMAM: No I don't think the Church is on the decline. I think the Church here I in very recent years, maybe a year or so, has started to rise again. What I'm talking about is that there is Christianity and "Christianity”.

I see Christianity as two: Christianity i and "Christianity." There is the Christianity of Jesus Christ, the moral principle, the strong moral principle in the life of the Church, and there is the "Christianity" of paganism that presents Jesus Christ in a physical body and says he's I God -- I think that's the "Christianity" that supports white supremacy.