Earl Abdulmalik Mohammed Speaks

IMAM TERYNSO EL-AMIN (CINCINNATI, OH): As-Salaam Alaikum Imam. I was reading Imam W. Deen Mohammed's commentary on the stolen verses the sold, and that our history begins there. I notice that there is push back even from Muslims in our Association saying that our history started in Africa as kings and queens of great civilizations, and that they are ashamed to be referred to as descendants of slaves. How should we see our history?

IMAM EARL ABDULMALIK MOHAMMED: Thank you for this question Brother Imam. As-Salaam Alaikum and Allah's Mercy. Again, I would like to answer you in the briefest possible way. It is our plan to take up this subject, especially as it relates to al-Islam in the African-American people's planning for their life ahead in this country and the world. The African-American people are now in a place where they must have attention on and compete in the global economy of ideas.

It will not be enough that we claim a blood-line from Africa. It will not be enough that we are the world's most celebrated entertainers and athletes. No, we will have to address the condition of man on this earth in every important and vital need. This is the status of a 'New People' and a 'selected' People. No idea of human life better equips us than the Islamic picture of human life. Our communities need our leaders to think more broadly and deeply about our condition and any future contributions we will make to the essential needs of the American people.

Islam, in our special tradition in America, that is, in the teaching of Imam W. Deen Mohammed, has prepared us for this vital responsibility and role. This is the role our late special leaders envisioned for us. And this is the Time they predicted. Their importance in our life was to prepare us for this very time. When the world is convulsing and trembling all around us, materially and spiritually, we have the designation and stability of a prepared, thoughtful Islamic life. This is what I intend to teach in every major city in this land at every possible public venue. We will represent our life's teachings in its best report, the teachings of Imam W. Deen Mohammed, throughout America just as he did for all of his 33 years of public works and leadership.

There is much to this question. I do not want to answer it speaking as if I am an historian. The historian's interests are different depending on who is funding their research, or what their moral disposition is. I have seen where some African-American scholars come to a conclusion of bold lies that would rival the immorality of any Orientalist's political biases or any Eurocentric racist's biases. I am answering this question with the facts, and with the spirit of our Muslim-American contribution to the discussion in mind. I am speaking as the Representative of our Tradition. I must say this until it is established as common, reliable knowledge.

We are descended from Africa. We can claim this generally, as all humanity is descended from Africa. There is no disputing this anymore. I do not want to even give the impression that it should be debated. The physical science of it all stands firm in high academia. So, I am not wanting to call any special attention to that in this discussion. Also, we can claim Africa specifically, or ethnically, as we know our ancestors who were enslaved in America and all throughout the Western Hemisphere, and other areas of this earth, were from Africa. There is no disputing this either.

Here is where my attention is in answering your question. I would like to say here that the first of those who began to consciously address our relationship with America and Africa, and were working on how we should designate our group soul as a people descended from Africa and enslaved in America, came from our line of leaders. Marcus Garvey, the Honorable Elijah Mohammed, Imam W. Deen Mohammed were working on the mind and spirit of our People to understand where we belong in this world. The African-American scholars cannot deny this, though they may not like it. This is not the occasion for me to address the influence of Afrocentricity on the thinking of those seeking answers. We will address it over time.

In this matter I want to address what has formed us as a People. The question is what truly is our mother-land? What truly is our father-land? I am not speaking of only what formed us in our physical selves. Much more importantly, I am speaking of what formed our soul's disposition. I am speaking of what is responsible for forming us as a People. I am speaking of what has formed our group consciousness. What has formed our mind and spirit, our intelligence, and our sentiments as a People?

Do nations in Africa claim us for our minds and spirits as a People? I have heard where some African nations are offering African-Americans citizenship now. We should ask why? More than any other reason they need investment capital. These nations, and I would not like to mention any one of them, know the African-American people have American-level incomes and access to American credit and capital markets. Their interest in us is more important to their economic realities, than anything they may offer us to satisfy any pressing need in our souls for an African-continent connection.

We are a distinct People. We are a unique People. There is none like us in Africa, nor any other place on this earth. We share the physical features of the typical Africans, and if we choose we can identify in that as the strongest connection. It may be the most obvious connection, but I know of African-Americans who if you took them to points in Africa the Africans themselves would have a difficult time seeing the physical connection. It is because the African-American reality of mind is the outcome of social and moral forces. He is not just to be identified in his physical reality.

We are the product of the most despicable and abominable experiment against the human soul ever conceived on this earth. We are THE proof in the modern human realm that a Merciful Benefactor and Merciful Redeemer exists, and attends to man's condition and answers his needs. Our Prophet Muhammed, the prayers and the peace be on him, was asked about where human life should turn with respect. He answered to the mother three times, and then to the father. The mercies in the mother leading to leadership-wit in society. The mercy in the father leading to stability and foundation for that leader-content.

So, I repeat: What is our mother-land? Where were we birthed and with what milk were we nurtured? What is our father-land? Where were we raised and into what labors were we immersed that caused our spiritual muscles to develop? I can tell you to answer these questions honestly, you must have the influence of Islam working for you. Our People, most of them, cannot think so deeply to answer these questions satisfactorily for themselves. They ponder the issue on the surface of it when they are naming their children Jamal and Maleek and Ayesha and Lateefah. Their soul is pointing them to an answer, but that answer is clouded by the scholars of Afrocentricity, and Hermetic philosophy for the more curious ones; to braids and dread-locks and 'naturals' for the sentimental ones; and to anger, defiance, and too-often, recalcitrance, for the rebellious ones.

The milk from our mother-land had both the sour and sweet taste. Our Lord-Creator intended that even the sour milk be made sweet to nurture us for our purpose. The rigors of our father-land tore our backs with scars that made for a blessed toughness of spirit, compelling our mental and moral muscles to look deeper within and not to rely on the promises of an oppressive society all around us to find our worth or identity. This is why the following that began with the Temples of Islam and completed its journey at the Holy Qur'an and Muhammed the Prophet's teaching could never be accused of following any so-called Arab religion.

In the milk of African mothers and muscle of African fathers was the germ of natural pride, and a wholesome, self-respecting fulfillment in an independent Muslim-American identity. We are not satisfied in a Muslim identity that exalts the culture of others above our yet incomplete but confident striving for the satisfying sweetness of our own Islamic cultural life in a New Africa in America. Our minds and spirits were formed in the American material, social, moral, and spiritual construct. We were, landing on these shores 400 years ago, a soul crushed into an orphaned reality, and seed planted.

This American environment, with G'd seeing us, birthed and reared us. Because of it, and our finding on our own terms the truth of Holy Qur'an language and emphasis, we are a maturing social and spiritual intellect. We are the first, the native, and the true daughters and sons of America, orphaned from a disrespected African seed and descended from African slaves. We are not the children of an American physical land mass, but we were formed in making that land-mass a productive nation, and birthed from its social and spiritual plantation-womb of conflict.

When we say the words "Muslim-American" it means for us Mr. W. F. Muhammad, the Honorable Elijah Mohammed, and Imam W. Deen Mohammed. As the first in the line of the leaders and generations following those special pioneering ones, we take the next steps of progress.

This is a composite answer and I hope it is helpful to you and others who may read it. We will answer it in more detail in our public addresses, beginning in Washington, D.C. very soon.