Hopefully Muslims worldwide will learn from the growth of a Muslim community here in the West what it truly means to a proper Muslim.
Muslim Americans setting example for Muslims abroad, leader says
Saturday, Aug 11, 2007
By Jason Wiest
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK - The leader for the largest Muslim community in America said Friday that Muslims here live in harmony overall with people of other religious backgrounds and that Muslim nations abroad are taking note.
"I believe that Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and perhaps many other Muslim nations, are really studying (Muslim) life here in America to see how they can benefit from what's our strategies over here and our embracing one another over here," Imam W. Deen Mohammed said Friday at the Clinton Presidential Center.
Mohammed is the son of the late Elijah Muhammad, who led the Nation of Islam until his death in 1975. While his father's teachings included the belief that white people are "devils," Mohammed publicly opposed his father and after his death dissolved the organization. He established a new Muslim American Society, declared it part of the orthodox worldwide Sunni Islamic community and taught tolerance.
Since then, Louis Farrakhan has re-established the Nation of Islam under its original teachings, but Mohammed said the organization is starting to shed its intolerance and align with orthodox Muslims.
"The time for those leaders who had that hate rhetoric has come and passed and they know it," Mohammed told reporters after a question and answer session with the audience.
His appearance was part of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service fall lecture series.
"I think there's a merger coming," Mohammed said, noting that student ministers in the Nation of Islam have been studying with orthodox Muslims. "A quiet merging of leaders of the Nation of Islam and leaders in my community."
Calls to a number of Islamic mosques and centers in Little Rock and around the state went unanswered Friday, as did a call to the Houston office of the Southwest Region of the Nation of Islam, which includes Arkansas.
Today, Mohammed is a Muslim elder statesman leading approximately 2.5 million American Muslims. He is a member of the World Supreme Council of Mosques, the Peace Council and an international president of the World Conference of Religion and Peace.
Farrakhan has stepped down as leader of the Nation of Islam due to cancer, and an executive board currently oversees the organization.
All faiths should focus the similarities, not differences, of other faiths, Mohammed said.
Violence in the Middle East stems not necessarily from hate, Mohammed said, but from the frustration Muslims feel as they struggle, while knowing of the past greatness of Islam.
"I think sufferance of the Palestinians and many others have driven them out of their normal minds," he said.
On questions about other topics, Mohammed said that religion should remain out of public schools, and that the nation's leaders when taking the oath of office on the Bible should "feel the touch of it, that's all."
Asked about the 2008 presidential race, Mohammed hesitantly said he would not vote for Hillary Clinton. Instead, he said he would support "anybody who looks a lot like Barack Obama."
Muslim Americans setting example for Muslims abroad, leader says
Saturday, Aug 11, 2007
By Jason Wiest
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK - The leader for the largest Muslim community in America said Friday that Muslims here live in harmony overall with people of other religious backgrounds and that Muslim nations abroad are taking note.
"I believe that Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and perhaps many other Muslim nations, are really studying (Muslim) life here in America to see how they can benefit from what's our strategies over here and our embracing one another over here," Imam W. Deen Mohammed said Friday at the Clinton Presidential Center.
Mohammed is the son of the late Elijah Muhammad, who led the Nation of Islam until his death in 1975. While his father's teachings included the belief that white people are "devils," Mohammed publicly opposed his father and after his death dissolved the organization. He established a new Muslim American Society, declared it part of the orthodox worldwide Sunni Islamic community and taught tolerance.
Since then, Louis Farrakhan has re-established the Nation of Islam under its original teachings, but Mohammed said the organization is starting to shed its intolerance and align with orthodox Muslims.
"The time for those leaders who had that hate rhetoric has come and passed and they know it," Mohammed told reporters after a question and answer session with the audience.
His appearance was part of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service fall lecture series.
"I think there's a merger coming," Mohammed said, noting that student ministers in the Nation of Islam have been studying with orthodox Muslims. "A quiet merging of leaders of the Nation of Islam and leaders in my community."
Calls to a number of Islamic mosques and centers in Little Rock and around the state went unanswered Friday, as did a call to the Houston office of the Southwest Region of the Nation of Islam, which includes Arkansas.
Today, Mohammed is a Muslim elder statesman leading approximately 2.5 million American Muslims. He is a member of the World Supreme Council of Mosques, the Peace Council and an international president of the World Conference of Religion and Peace.
Farrakhan has stepped down as leader of the Nation of Islam due to cancer, and an executive board currently oversees the organization.
All faiths should focus the similarities, not differences, of other faiths, Mohammed said.
Violence in the Middle East stems not necessarily from hate, Mohammed said, but from the frustration Muslims feel as they struggle, while knowing of the past greatness of Islam.
"I think sufferance of the Palestinians and many others have driven them out of their normal minds," he said.
On questions about other topics, Mohammed said that religion should remain out of public schools, and that the nation's leaders when taking the oath of office on the Bible should "feel the touch of it, that's all."
Asked about the 2008 presidential race, Mohammed hesitantly said he would not vote for Hillary Clinton. Instead, he said he would support "anybody who looks a lot like Barack Obama."
That is so awesome.
