Some statement on people by I.W.D.M. Imam Mohammed: Yes, we are a people shaped by our experience and community environment. In the Bible and in the Quran, there were people who were rejected by the society that they were in. And those people were backed by G-d to make a cultural and spiritual transition, an exodus, and find a new life. We are a people like this, and we were forced almost to seek a new life because of being separated so completely from any conscious traditions that we had in Africa. We were not following any traditions that our people had in Africa. Slavery had obliterated and erased all of that. We were uprooted, in being transported from Africa to the plantations. We had no recognition and no way to retreat, no way to return to Africa. Mr. Fard acknowledged that, when he said, They could not swim 9,000 miles to go back home. He meant it was impossible for our minds to go back to Africa and start all over again. We would have to pick up our lives here and build a life for ourselves. This will be our new origin, our new genesis. I gave a lecture once in New York on The New Genesis for the African American People. When I was preaching for the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, it began to vibrate very strong inside of my spirit that, Hey, we have to recognize that we are a new people. We are not like any other people in America. All of these people are tied to past traditions and life and culture and everything. We are not, so we are a new people. We are a new people born on this soil. The first Americans, called American Indians, were here before the White man. And history says that they came to this land also. At that time, it was not populated, and they came here and populated this land. Here we are brought here as slaves and completely separated from our past, babies taken from mommies and daddies and raised just to be workers on plantations with no ties to home life at all. Home life was slave life, and that is all it was. Gradually, we became acquainted with Christianity and became Christians. But actually the big movement of the church didnt start, until we were freed from the plantations. It started with the African Episcopalian Church. And they are a new people. They have a Christian origin that began in the soil of the South, as all of us have our origin beginning in the South. So I said, We are a new people. That helped me so much, when I accepted that we are a new people. Our history begins in America. Our history begins in the South and in the North as new people. So if we are a new people, then G-d is obligated to help us and work with us. In the Bible, G-d asks the question: Will a man rob G-d? And G-d speaking said, You have robbed Me of this whole people. I began to see that as being something that we should be concerned with more than even the Jews. G-d is speaking of the Jews in the Bible, that the world had robbed Him of them. They were under Egypt and Pharaoh and the world had taken them. Yes, the world had taken them, but they were still in touch with their religious life. They were still in touch with their religious history. Here the world had robbed G-d of a people again, but they had robbed more than the synagogue, robbed more than the church, robbed more than the mosque. You robbed the cradle; you robbed the birthplace. You went and took the baby out of the cradle and took him away from all that he was familiar with and carted him off to a new environment and new circumstances, where he had no way of being in touch with the religious life that he once had, with the business life that he once had, with the political life that he once had. He had no way to go back to any of this. He had no way to recall any religious connections or anything else. This was the most thorough theft of a people that had ever occurred on the planet earth. So we are a new people. If we just register that and understand that, we will go forward. We dont even need the help from G-d. Your own nature will push you forward and will urge you to go forward. A baby learns how to walk on its own intelligence, power and energy. A baby learns how to crawl, how to stand up, how to walk, and learns our language and how to talk on its own energy. What is that energy? It is the energy of new life. So if we accept that we are a new people, we will have the energy of new life helping us. Now, if you believe in Scripture like I do, you will also know that G-d is on your side. The African-American people are very peculiar in a way, very unique. We are very unique in a real sense. We are a people who arc still trying to move away from a past that was very ugly and very painful - slavery and discrimination in this country. That seems to be the push, that seems to be the gush of wind thats at our back and we are running forward. We think we are leading ourselves but we are not. We are being pushed forward by that mighty gush of wind from the past. In my opinion, we can never see straight enough with that kind of force moving us. I have a lot of criticism for the March. I dont have any faith in people coming together to demonstrate to the United States of America and to themselves on television that they are going to be responsible, that they are ready to accept responsibility for themselves. We are a unique people, a very special people of the African American people who still hold to God and want our life to be under God. Believe me, most of the people, especially the leaders, of the Islamic world who come to know us appreciate us and they think that we have something special to offer. I dont want to say too much of their compliments. Q: What is the view of the American people towards the Muslims? IWDM: The American people have always had an appreciation for certain things that they saw in the African American Muslims or Black Muslims, even when the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was teaching his brand or his idea of Islam. They appreciated that there was no smoking, no drinking, respect for women. When I became the leader, I received more opposition from some Muslims than my father received. I think it is because of U.S. connected developments in the Islamic world. The press has started to report more accurately of Muslims and particularly on our religion. That may be owing to my constituency and to our trying to be decent Muslims. We try to cooperate with everybody in America who is decent. That has brought American people to have a real appreciation for us, and I think we have a real good situation in America.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 09:51:09 +0000
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