2000-March-31

The Muslim Journal

Plans for a Better Future: Peace, Inclusion and Universal Brotherhood
1999 Annual Islamic Convention: Part III

Imam W. Deen Mohammed

If you want to satisfy the children you have, go to any loving mother who is sane and ask what does she want for her children. If you don't know, she will tell you. Sane mothers, healthy-minded mothers all want the same for their children. Likewise for sane fathers, healthy-minded fathers; they want the same thing for their children. So shouldn't we all work together for the future of all of our children?

People seem to think that today we still have a big problem with racism. Well, it is a big problem, but it is much smaller than it used to be. You still have the lonesome, frightened racist going out to get attention from the media, so he can tell the world, "We're still here; we haven't accepted the order of the day."

Don't accept this as a great disturbance where we have to go back to the past and say, "Oh, racism is still alive," as some of our politicians and demagogues are saying. How can it be alive and well, when it was sick to begin with?

In desperate times, you have to understand the desperation. The world now is favoring respect for humanity and the inclusion of all people in humanity - equal opportunity and equal respect for all races, the black, the white, the brown, the red - for all people.

This is very aggravating for the racists. They used to have the great Nation of America, the great United States tolerating the law of segregation, tolerating the Jim Crow laws.

So we have to understand the times and how the times have changed for favoring humanity and not those who don't believe in humanity. White supremacy has no faith in humanity. White supremacy separated itself from humanity and pretended that none belonged to the creation of G-d or that none was worthy of the high place that G-d created for man except the White supremacist.

That was a cruel lie put on them. And now that I am free of that aggravating time, I don't have to worry that someone is going to take me out and lynch me or enslave me again. I don't even have to ask the government to stop that. There are not enough of them {white supremacists) around to satisfy these brothers who have been in training to whip somebody for a long time.

I feel sorry for them; my heart goes out to them because my beginning was similar to theirs. The man who came and introduced my father to religion gave him the same idea that they had. We were told that we were black and supreme and that whites were evil and wicked by nature, that they were inherently bad and naturally inferior mentally to us.

Now G-d has saved me from that and has given me peace in my soul. So when I see a racist still tormented by the lie that was told to him of his worth among human beings, it makes my heart go out to him. I want to grab him and hold him even in chains long enough to teach him out of that misery that the world put him in. And I say the world put him in that misery; he did not do it to himself.

Our oneness supports our diversity, our diverse cultures and our diverse languages. We all are from the different quarters of the world and have our own languages. But G-d has made it so that any of us can learn the other's language. So at any time, we can declare for all of us one common language and not do away with our separate languages. And that is what is happening, whether we ask for it or not.

The world is bringing us to a place where we are going to have to be able to speak with each other and speak freely. It is too close now; we are too close together. Time is not separating us, and distance is not separating us any more. We are going to have to speak one common language.

Naturally, the Muslims will say that common language should be Arabic. The English will say it should be English. Or let it be Spanish. The point is that G-d is bringing us together. He says, "As you were in the beginning, so shall you be in the end."

In the beginning, you were the human being. G-d made you with the human soul that He gave you; He inspired you. You are thinking that G-d is a billion light years away from us, and you are right. But G-d is also right there with you in your soul, between your heart and your blood stream.

G-d is there between your mortal life and your heart. G-d is right there watching what is happening to you that is influencing you and working on you that's coming from outside of you. G-d is watching what is developing inside of you.

G-d says, "He thinks he is gone; he thinks he is dead, but I will wake him up to let him know that I was here all the time." Closer to you than your own jugular vein - that is what G-d told Muhammed the Prophet (prayers and peace be upon him).

"When My servants ask thee concerning Me, I am indeed close (to them). I listen to the prayer of every suppliant when he calleth on Me. Let them also with a will listen to My call and believe in Me, that they may walk in the right way." (Qur'an 2:186)
To be continued