1976-September-3

Bilalian News

The Birth of the American Spirit": Part 2

Imam W. Deen Muhammad

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful; peace and blessings upon His Servant and His Messenger, Muhammad, forever. Amen.

There is no god but Allah; Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters:
America was put on the map of the world nations by English business people who had the wealth to pay for trips to the new land and the wealth to supply people to work the new land. After years of domination by England, the American people decided that they did not want to be ruled by the "mother Country” any longer. The people got together and said, "We must have freedom, we must have liberty, give us liberty or give us death." They eventually won their cause, not because they had the power alone but because there were many other forces working in the world. There were forces that wanted to see the old world of the West embarrassed both in Europe and outside of Europe. Many friends and much help came to the American pioneers to support the colonies. With this help, America became an independent nation about two hundred years ago — but that independence was only a political independence.

A False Independence

Real independence did not come and America remained a nation in bondage. The nation grew and progressed, but its action during its growing process did not agree with its Constitutional position that all men are created equal and that all men have a god-given right to freedom, to life, to liberty, and to the pursuit of happiness. This conflict in the growth of America eventually brought about the end of chattel slavery and millions of Bilalian people were physically freed. That "freedom" again was just a move further in the path towards the real thing that the life of freedom was trying to manifest in America. Physical freedom came but human freedom was not yet there because we were physically free but, as human beings, we remained slaves. Bilalian people did not have the human dignity of other people and we were not recognized as equal citizens of the nation. We were called "second class citizens/' we were laughed at and we were mocked: "Our niggers cannot make it without us. It would be best for us to send our niggers back to Africa." We had to listen to this kind of degrading talk for generations after we were physically free. We heard as much of this kind of talk in the so-called "liberal" North as we heard in the South. This tells us that the people had not yet opened their eyes to the kind of human values for which they were sacrificing, struggling, and dying. They had not yet seen the values that they claimed to stand up for. In spite of their beautifully worded constitution, they were still treating human beings as though they were no more than animals put on earth to be used, to be abused, and to be thrown out as trash.

The Hypocrisy Of America

Hypocrisy is rampant in the history of America.   Hypocritical people  led  our marches and stood out in front of us saying, "We must free the Negro, we must give the Negro his rights." Not feeling these words in their hearts, the same people failed when they were put to the lest: "Yes, we believe that black people should not be chained or denied their rights, but we do not like to see them share with us in America as our equals. This is our America." The newer generations do not say that Bilalians are still their slaves, but they keep reminding us that their fathers built up America. They do not like to give us any credit for doing anything of value in the history of America. Before they managed to develop inventions like the cotton gin, our foreparents worked from sun up to sun down picking thousands and thousands of pounds of cotton in the blistering hot sun.

We lost countless lives in foreign lands fighting wars for America, yet many Americans feel that we are not entitled to an equal share in the blessings of this land. They think that they owe us something, but not something of the same value that they owe themselves. They owe us more than they owe themselves because they did not demand as much of themselves as they demanded of our fathers and mothers. America took their sweat, their blood, their spirit, their mind, and their morality. They took everything from them and poured it down the drain so that their country would look good. We were brought here against our will and then raised to a mental form that was against our will. After that mental form had been brought into real form and the old form of our forefathers had died, we willingly cooperated with our captors. They had to capture us both physically and mentally and they even had to destroy us spiritually before they got us to become willing subjects in America. They sapped us of all of our real human energy. Now they owe us something for their actions and the leadership knows how much they owe us.

America: A Blessing And A Curse

The "Second Birthday" (Bicentennial) of America is not going to be celebrated by us in the spirit of thanksgiving. We are not ready to celebrate in the spirit of thanksgiving because we have not received enough from America to say, 'Thank you. ' We will celebrate but we will celebrate in the spirit of hope. We congratulate the leaders of the nation for having recognized the signs of the time and for having responded well enough to survive. We have the hope that they will continue to recognize the signs of the time until they have given us a reason to celebrate the birth of America in the true spirit of thanksgiving.

Brothers and Sisters, America is the most difficult environment in which to live and to grow as human beings. America is a blessing, but as much as it is a blessing it is also a curse. America's great blessing is the freedom to move until somebody else who is moving freely comes against you with a little more -muscle than you have. What makes America so hellish is that everybody is free, so the weak are at the mercy of the strong. In other words, America is just a big jungle. In the jungle the lions are free, the jackals are free, and the rabbits are free. All of them are free, but the ones with the biggest muscles rule the jungle. In the jungle called America, everybody is free and the people with the biggest muscles rule the jungle. If this were simply a natural jungle, we would survive because nature has given every creature of the jungle its own instinct for survival. Very seldom will you go in the jungle and find all of the members of one species in bondage to another species. Occasionally you will find one rabbit in the mouth of a hound or one lamb in the month of a tiger, but you will seldom find a whole family in the mouth of a stronger creature.

The Pot Of Boiling Poison

In America, the setting is unnatural. We are not governed by natural law, we have taken on a mentality that is self-destructive. America is not only interested in conquering other people, but America loves its own destruction. Any person with his eyes open would know that if you keep pouring lies out into the atmosphere, pretty soon the form of life in the environment will become false. If you keep pouring moral poison, spiritual poison, and mental poison into the open environment, in time you are going to poison the life of the nation. The West not only exported poison, the West bred poison for its own society to feed on. The rulers of the West fed Bilalians one poison, they fed the American Indians another poison, they fed the Latinos another poison, and they fed their own children another poison. The result is that the society has become one big pot of boiling poison. The power and the strength of the American leadership today is only in its arsenal of destructive weapons.

The rest of the world laughs at America or either they shake their beads in pity at her. "America the Great" has been reduced to a drunken picnic. Some of the things that came together to make America what she is today is spiritual people seeking an outlet to express their religious desire and material people looking for an outlet to grow materially. Many races, many kinds of minds, and many different spirits have come to America and most of them have either been sick socially or sick spiritually. Most of the people that came to this land came either because they did not like their own home or because they saw an opportunity here to put themselves in power. They came here for wealth and power or they came here for freedom to demoralize others. Although there are many beautiful faces of America, these are some of her ugly faces.

We are talking about the birth of the American spirit. Life does not spring up out of things smelling sweet, life's origin is an odorous thing. We are talking about the odorous beginning of America so that we can see what kind of life has been formed here.

"For God's Sake"

If you take up the name of God and go out to do a great work, matters are no longer in your hands no matter what your intentions may be. Your intentions may be to use God or to destroy God's work, but Almighty God takes the matters out of your hands. God will make Himself known. If a power rises up to destroy His identity or to conceal His truth, Almighty God Himself begins to work in the crooked plan of the evil planner. The opponents of God may think that they are leading the show, but the invisible hand of the Almighty is always in control. America began "In the name of God," using God to get the people to rally behind them: "Let's have a true democracy for God's sake." "Let's have a land where all people can sing the praise of God for God's sake." The dream of the founding fathers and the pioneers was to build a home for religious people, a home for every human being that had a clean desire for the world.

The very people who worked to open the door on that dream were peddlers of vices and human misery. They filled the earth with more things that worked to undermine the development of the human spirit and to kill the human freedom than any other people on the face of the earth. Our forefathers lost their freedom when the "democracy builders" came into power. The American Indians lost their freedom when "democracy builders" came into power. So it was for every land in which they managed to get a foothold. The people in other lands bad to give up their human dignity so that America, the spoiled child, could boast a great victory "for God and democracy." The contradictions in America's words and her actions are both plain and very serious.

Rejected " Charity"

We see America as a nation growing with a face of a human being in the front of her head and the face of a diabolical beast in the back of her head. She became a raving, senseless monster that could not see or recognize the needs of other people. You may say, "but America has given billions of dollars to develop other lands." You do not yet recognize that America's "development program" moves from combat soldiers with rifles and bombs to "combat soldiers" with bibles and crosses. Even though they have showered the people with theories of democracy beans, flour, wheat, machinery, and industry, what is the real condition of the people? The people are complaining that even though they have more material comforts than they had before, they do not enjoy the same happiness and the same human dignity. As a result, the recipients of American "charity" have rejected America and they have rejected democracy. The countries that once opened their doors to accept the transporters of democracy have now closed their doors and told Uncle Sam to go back home. The old generation of human corruptors for power's sake did not win any friends.

Today, America looks at her beautiful record of "charity" and suffers at the heart. Those who received the "charity*' are not saying, "Thank you, America." If America would look at the death, the misery and the ignorance that it exported along with its "democracy," she could understand why the nations are no longer saying thank you for her "charity."

Your brother, W.D. Muhammad