Now this 4th of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in frettas into the grand illuminated temple of liberty and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems where inhuman mockery and sacrilege irony. Do you mean citizens to mock me? Do you mean to ask me to speak today? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crime, lowering up to heaven, was thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin. What? To the Americans. To the American slave is your 4th of July. I answer. A day that reveals to him more than all other days in the year the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham. From a free speech by Frederick Douglass entitled What to the Slave is the 4th of July? Welcome to the Qumran. May the peace and blessings of the life-giving creative spirit be upon you and upon your family. My name is Melvin Ishmael Johnson. Coming at you live from Skid Row Studio. And I'm in the studio with my co-host Earlene Anthony. Our call in number is 1-800-893-9562. Now this week on the Qumran Report, we're going to talk about Islam and Muslims. And I'm delighted to have with us in the studio, our guest host, Al-Hajj, Muhammad Abdullah, who will be interviewing Imam Isha Hafiz. Welcome to the Qumran Report. As-salamu alaykum. Thank you. Now before we get into our discussion, I would like to play a clip from Frederick Douglass' famous speech since we have the 4th of July coming up this Saturday. And the speech, I'm going to play a little short 3-minute clip of the speech. And it's called, What to the Slave is the 4th of July, which was delivered July the 5th in Rochester, New York. Now this 4th of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fredders into the grand illuminated temple of liberty and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, where? Inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean citizens to mock me? By asking me to speak today? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crime, lowering up to heaven, was thrown down by the breath of the Almighty. Burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin. What to the American slave is your 4th of July? I answer. A day that reveals to him more than all other days in the year the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham. Your boasted liberty is a shame. Your boasted liberty and unholy license. Your national greatness swell in vanity. Your sounds of rejoice are empty in heartless. Your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted imprudence. Your shouts of liberty and equality holler mockery. Your prayers and hymns, your sermons and your thanksgiving, with all your religious parade and your sovereignty are to him mere bombast fraud. Deception, impiety and hypocrisy. A thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practice more shocking and bloody than are the peoples of the United States at this very hour. Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies of the old world. Travel through South America. Search out every abuse. And when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation. And you would say with me that for revolting barbarity, shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival. Fellow citizens, I would not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies. The existence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity as a base pretense, and your Christianity as a lie. It destroys your moral power abroad. It corrupts your politicians at home. It saps the foundations of religion. It makes your name a hissing and a byword to a mocking earth. It is that. It is the antagonistic forces in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers your union. It threatens your pockets. It is the enemy of improvement, the deadly foe of education. It foster pride. It breeds insolence. It promotes vice. It shelters crime. It is a curse to the earth that supports it. And yet you cling to it as if it was the sheet anchor of all your lives. Reporter Reporter Reporter Reporter Reporter Reporter Reporter Reporter Reporter Reporter Reporter Reporter Reporter Reporter time I'd like to turn it over to our guest host. He would introduce his guest. And I'm looking for an interesting discussion. Our guest host, Al-Hajj, Muhammad Abdul. As-salamu alaykum. Thank you very much. Allahu Akbar. I want to praise Almighty God, Allah, in the Arabic language. As-salamu alaykum, Imam Ishaq Abdul Hafiz. Wa alaykum as-salam, Brother Muhammad. Alhamdulillah. By the grace and mercy of Allah, inshallah, the topic is Islam and Muslims in the world. And first and foremost, without speculation and observation, what is Islam and who is Islam? And who is Islam? And who is Islam? And who is Islam? And who is Islam? Who is a Muslim? Inshallah, I'd like to, again, as you started, you know, in the name of God, the most merciful, the beneficent. The defining Islam, the word itself, you know, is from the root word, salam, which means peace or submission. And the worldview of the word Islam is that when God first created everything, he created it submitting to him. So that everything, in fact, is in a state of Islam, a state of submission. the particular definition of Islam to Muslims in the Muslim world. As the Prophet has said, Islam is to believe, to declare, to accept, to bear witness that there is none worthy of worship other than Allah, the creator and sustainer of life, which we say the shahada, and to bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. Then to establish prayer and to pay the zakat, which is the fee that is based off of one's savings or something that one does not spend all year, then 2.5% of that is contributed annually, and that's called zakat. And this is something that's obligatory for one who is in Islam. Then to fast in the month of Ramadan. The person who is physically able to do that, but that is one of the pillars, as the Prophet has said, Islam is built upon five pillars to declare that there is none worthy of worship other than God, without associates or partners, to bear witness that Muhammad is his messenger, to establish the prayer, to pay the zakat, to fast in the month of Ramadan, and to make hajj, the person that can fulfill that ability, physically to be able to do it as well as financially to be able to do it. So there's a condition on making the hajj. But these are the things that are part and parcel of being Muslim in Islam. And a Muslim is one who does believe in the oneness of God. Now, the bigger picture that Muslims believe is that all of the prophets and all of the messengers, beginning with Adam, are Muslims, for they all submitted to God. And we are, as the Quran says, that all of you are from Adam, and Adam is from clay. And so that the humanity is one. And the religion that God sent for humanity was Islam, not the names in which people call themselves after either the prophets or after the tribes. These are the definitions that people today call different religions, but the actual religion that Islam is submitting to God. And so it's not Muhammadans. We're not Muhammadans. We're Muslims. Alhamdulillah. By the grace and mercy of Allah. How did you become a Muslim? That's a wonderful story. I was a student in college at Tuskegee University back in the late 60s. And I was studying African history. And I wanted to study the people of Africa. And particularly the instructor was not a Muslim. But as he described the religion of Islam and its impact upon Africa, and at that time, he said 70% of Africans were Muslims. And then he broke down what was Islam. And as he broke it down and started explaining, you know, what it is that Muslims believed and what Islam was, I could identify with that, particularly when it made the point that Jesus, from the Islamic perspective, is not God and not the son of God. He was a human being born in a unique situation similar to Adam, that God did be and he was, but that he was not, you know, the God incarnate. And this was something that, you know, resonated with me, as well as, you know, understanding that whether my ancestors particularly were Muslim or not, the attractiveness to Islam was the equality of women, you know, in the faith, that there was no, the women didn't have a role that was subjective under men, of subservient to men, but it was on equal par, that in everything that God has offered for me and has offered for women. So I like that. That, that balance, the whole concept of everyone being connected, that all of the prophets and messengers, it was not different religions. It was the same religion that came at different periods and different times. And so there were different particulars of the practices, but there was no difference in this. These were the things that really made me attracted to Islam. And so, you know, 45 years ago, I accepted Islam. And from that point on and the reward that I received, is beyond imagination to have been able to now travel to Africa, to travel to the Middle East. And again, to know that this is not an Arab religion, but this is a human religion. There are 2.5 billion human beings who are Muslims, which is one out every four humans on this earth is a Muslim. And you're studying Islam as you begin to inquire in your pursuit of Islam. What impact did you have? Did Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X have on you, if any at all? Elijah Muhammad actually was very minimal. The influence from that perspective. I'm from Gary, Indiana, so I was familiar with people out of Chicago, but for whatever reason that had never attracted me, you know, from the perspective of just from the black race or, you know, how Islam was being presented in a, in a, mass part of the society back in those days. Uh, I really didn't get to be getting into Malcolm until after I took him out Shahada. And then even though I had dabbled with the Panthers, I mean, so I quoted a lot of his quotes and followed him from that perspective, but not from a religious perspective until after I became Muslim and then read his autobiography and then really, really, really fell in love, you know, with him and his growth and seeing the impact that the faith had done to him as a young person. That was very, uh, motivated. Uh, very motivating for myself. And from that point onwards, he always was, uh, absolutely a mentor. Uh, you know, even after his, his, his death, he was a mentor in the sense of how he stood up, particularly for the black man, you know, uh, giving us something to, to, to stand up for and giving us the quality and a character, uh, to resist oppression in the way in which it was being presented, uh, through most of my life. Uh, you know, we struggled for how would we, be able to challenge the, uh, oppression and its many forms. And, you know, and so studying Malcolm and seeing that model, uh, to me was always a better model. And then again, particularly his journey when he made pilgrimage and his growth, you know, his evolving as he became more and more conscious, uh, and then all the way to where he totally submitted, you know, to the true God, you know, of Islam, you know, and not associating anything in that worship. And again, looking for that connectedness, uh, with all people who were struggling. What do you see in regards to the things that are happening in regards to the Muslims in the world and how Muslims are being portrayed? You're hearing about terrorism, you're hearing about suicide bombers, et cetera. How do you, uh, explain to people in regards to the criterion of Islam and the things that are going on? And especially like here's the month of Ramadan and, and, and there's a continuation, uh, these things that are happening around the world in various parts of the world. The particular Mohammed make, Oh God's peace and blessings be upon him truly is the best guy for Muslims and how to implement this faith and take the, the, the awesome words of God from the Quran and to let those words be more than just idealism, but actuality. And so there's a principles and there are, you know, uh, conduct that one must follow, uh, scripturally when it comes to even being oppressed and how you deal with one's enemy. Miss much of what we're seeing in the middle East is, you know, the sad result of when people have been so oppressed, you know, even by their own, by the Kings and the different rulers and, and on all of the, the, the madness that has gone on, particularly since world war one and world war two, when their countries were colonized, uh, and, and, and the youth got totally disconnected from, from any kind of hope. So we're seeing, we're seeing people just acting in a, um, a very, um, defensive position. And because they, they on the surface want to use the religion as, uh, the mechanism that they claim that they trying to establish justice in their land. But we're really seeing that they aren't using the principles of Islam, uh, as, as they have removed those so-called oppressors, they themselves are now are the new oppressors. Uh, is it clear to look at what the Quran calls for and how did the prophet, uh, as he went through different struggles and he went through different battles with different person, he didn't just kill everybody. He didn't just cut off everybody's hands and, and all this, uh, unmercifulness that we are witnessing in much of these people, this whole concept of, of suicide bomb. This is something totally, uh, against Islam for wanting to kill themselves, uh, and for wanting to kill innocent people, uh, for wanting to do, to do much of these acts that we're seeing has absolutely little to do with Islam. And when you see the, the complication, uh, of, of the former military persons, I mean, my assessment that much of these, uh, well, we have witnessing Saddam Hussein had more than 300,000 soldiers that got disbanded in, in the bath party. And these people are the ones that, from my perspective, because there's no way in the world that some people just based off faith can be able to take military equipment and use it on the level that these people are using it to be able to grab land, the way that they grab and land to be able to set up a system, the way that they're setting it up. These people have, this way more for this sophistication than just someone who is religiously motivated and just me and coming from different parts of the world with no background in how to run a society and how to structure a military to be doing this is absolutely not possible. And so I know for a fact that it is, you know, the, the, the remnants of the other regime that using Islam as the, the, the cover to say that what they're doing is Islamically and they're trying to establish an Islamic state, but there's absolutely nothing there. They're establishing, but madness, you know, and, and oppression, like you said, just in another name, uh, what people need to, again, if they want to be able to assess what's going on, look at the Quran oneself, study the life of Muhammad through the Sarah, see how, when he conquered Mecca and went back into Mecca, he didn't come back in and kill and murder. And, and all, even the people that had killed Muslims before killed his followers. He did not come in with, with a heavy hand and he did not come in and say that they had to become a Muslim because the Quran says, that there is no compulsion in religion and the truth is distinguishable from falsehood. So there's no way that no one could ever tell a person that if you don't become a Muslim, I'm going to kill you. But somebody, because even if the person said they was going to become a Muslim, it's not acceptable by God because the only way a person can become Muslim has to be on their own without any force, without any coercion, without any pressure. Otherwise it's not even accepted, you know? So for somebody to do that and then to, uh, to, to, to harm people and to, to threaten people or to, to use this violence in order to create the fear that they're creating is totally opposite of what this faith is all about. And this is why it's so important. What's so beautiful is seeing Muslims here in the United States, uh, living this faith in a proper way and trying to be, you know, the, the true exemplars because just because somebody is, is from the middle East or from the Arab world, they have no, uh, basis to think that that's the only picture of really of true Islam and how Islam can be lived. And so persons in this part of the world can be able to show through giving, through caring, through working and being, and being, uh, active, you know, particularly with all people who are going through difficulties through all people who are suffering through all people who are in the jails and the prisons or the people on the streets, the Muslims must be holding hands and be out there with them in an active participatory way to show that this is what Islam is. You know, and, and it's, and by the not only not being compulsion and religion, God makes Muslims. So it's nothing nobody can say. Nobody can influence who being charismatic. That's going to attract somebody to actually come into the faith. God opens up somebody's heart and then they'll come into the faith. Our job is to explain to the people what is the faith so they can be able to see what Islam is and what it does offer, which is offers hope and, and, and for them to know that God is a merciful God. And he is a forgiving God. He is not a God of, of, of malice and, and, and, and chaos and confusion and one that is that reeks in vengeance. He needs no vengeance. So he forgives and he forgives and he forgives, but he just does not accept that one worship through associating anything with him, you know, in his creation from, uh, the atrocities that took place September 11th, 2001 in the United States, America and other governments indict, indicted Muslims and continue to indict Muslims and perpetuate numerous atrocities in regards to incarcerating people just on that date. How do you address what took place September 11th, 2001 in America and the continuity of that till 2015? From my perspective, you know, and they don't like to talk about the real motivation of what brought that about, but every, from the beginning, of 1979, you know, after the Russians had invaded Afghanistan and you know, this country and others were assisting with the so hard Mujahideen in Afghanistan. But right around that period of time when Iran was beginning to have its own revolution and taking out the shawl and religious persons were beginning to take reigns politically in their countries in the Western world, you know, challenged that and the U.S. started putting more and more troops in the Middle East and in Saudi Arabia in particular. So, you know, this is what really created the backdrop for what 9-11 was all about because they, you know, had the young Arabs and the Muslims in that part of the world and started saying there should be no troops on the holy sites of Saudi Arabia. And that whole emphasis, you know, was what sparked the impetus that led to 9-11 was continually saying, we said, get out of here, you know, and by not, you know, coming out, you can, you know, if you look at the different things that happened leading up to that with the bombings of the ships in Yemen, the embassies that were being bombed, but all of the emphasis kept being bring the troops out of the Middle East. But of course, the Western nations had the Saudis afraid of the Iranians and was at that point afraid of Saddam. So they were saying, our troops need to be there to protect you all. And so this was the whole, you know, and people were knowing that with the whole thing with all using money in order to build up these militaries. I mean, this whole militarization of the world through Western mechanisms and military hardware, you know, fosters all of these things that led to this, this attack that came here. But again, it was to strike at and thinking they could strike the kind of a blow that would make the, you know, the United States pull out. And of course, it just led to more, more going in. But as we see 15 years later, are we safer? Is the world better? I mean, they, the, it's terrible and as horrific as Saddam Hussein was, we were not seeing this madness that we're seeing today. So the dismantling of many of those places following this, uh, with all of the labs that were lost by American soldiers, all of the trillions of dollars that were lost in all of this conflict. Look at Iraq today. Look at the Middle East today is worse than it was. And now the, and the world is worse today for what and how they went in to, you know, so-called, they try to, to, to either get revenge or to correct something. So evidently, you know, the, the, the method, the policies, the strategies have been opposite of what you would think thinking people would have been able to do to say, how can we be able to resolve this kind of a conflict rather than exacerbating or turning it into something? And now nobody knows where in the world this whole thing is going. And, uh, you made me remember, uh, reflect on the United States Congress passing the omnibus terrorism bill in 2000. And the first person that they came and arrested was Imam Jamil Al-Amin. Could you elaborate on his incarceration from 2000 to now as a political prisoner? You know, when one knows Imam Jamil Al-Amin and, you know, I know in his history and his involvement, uh, you know, in the struggle, the charges, uh, so out of, of a lamb with, with, with his character and how he's always, you know, dealt and addressed, uh, the, the struggle in the, in, in, you know, in Atlanta as well as in this country. And for them to have these charges, there's been so much on persons who even admitted that they would have wanted to actually committed the act, uh, of killing the, the, the sheriffs in, in Atlanta. But nothing was ever looked at, you know, in a serious way because, you know, the Imam Jamil Al-Amin was still so hated for his, his activism from, from, from his SNCC days and from the late sixties that, you know, and once he became Muslim and, and he wasn't out, you know, radicalizing or talking to me, he was, he was community building. And when you can see that that component, you know, in, in his involvement across the board, uh, in this country, he, he was such a, uh, an impactful, uh, organizer and leader. Uh, and this is why the, the leadership of Muslims, uh, throughout, you know, the, the, the, the Americans, uh, have totally and always supported him, uh, 100%. And I've always felt that this was absolutely something that was, uh, uh, uh, you know, travesty in, in how he was treated and how he continues to be treated. Could you speak also like in regards to the, uh, activism of yourself in the prison system and, and acceptance of peoples of various races, except in Islam in prison and the recidivism, what is the situation in regards to that pertaining to Muslims? In America, you know, from the, I've been involved in, in, in the prison system for more than 28 years and witnessing the true difference or the true change that men do make and women, uh, who come into Islam and, and, and start incorporating it as a, a, an actual practice, actual way of life. Then we don't see the recidivism as we do in, in, in other ways. We don't see them going back to a lot of the lifestyle. And even if they go back, to some of the lifestyle, they don't go back to the level and to the degree that they did. So we aren't seeing those numbers go up. We do want to have more, uh, community involvement, uh, from the Muslims, in particular, you know, in, in working with the men and women on, you know, on the inside, uh, particularly as they're trying to make these life changing transitions, uh, coming into the faith of Islam, as you mentioned, uh, at one time, mostly in the, in the prisons, you know, it was considered an African American religion because the majority of persons, you know, in particular, were, uh, aligned with Islam or, or, or they felt more comfortable with Islam. So there was, that was a train, but now many, uh, Spanish speaking persons and large numbers are becoming Muslim as well as even European Americans are becoming Muslims. Uh, and we're, we're seeing this again, that the unification of Islam and its message and its practicality and how it's practiced is, I think what is, uh, the trend that, uh, that makes that successful, you know, that's not to, to put other faiths down, but Islam absolutely, uh, you know, is a faith that particularly speaks to me, you know, it speaks to, to, to, and many of the African American men who didn't have a man in their life, uh, can come into a religion that really addresses, uh, how to be a man, you know, how to be a father, how to be a son, how to be a brother, how to be somebody who is trustworthy. Uh, one of the, the, the greatest things that the prophet has said that he asked the question to his companions, what is better than prayer? What is better than, what is better than fasting? What is better than charity giving? And he said, it is being good to people having good character. And that's one of the strongest attributes. And it doesn't mean that it minimizes prayer or it minimizes fast, what minimizes, uh, charity, but it's given a point that living good, caring about people, this is the quality that God wants of us. As human beings, he mentions in the ground, he did not make us different nations and different tribes and different languages and different shades and colors so that we could despise each other. But that's so that we could be able to appreciate each other just as we appreciate when you go in a garden and you see different flowers or you go into a, a, a vegetable field and you see different types of vegetables or you go out and you see different kind of, you see cows and you see sheep and you see goats and you see chickens and you see different colors and you see the beauty in that. We should see the beauty in each other as human beings. And if we can be called to that and act upon that, and we can do our part because as we see, you know, not just in the middle East, but here in, in, in, right in this city as well as across this country, we continue to see the violence of man against man. And we must, all people of faith must continue to, to, to bring these messages, you know, and, and accentuate the truths of these messages, which is for people to be able to, to live a life, a full life, you know, and not to be placed in a category because they can't read or they can't write or because they are from a blue blooded family or because they don't have a degree. You know, we have to be able to make a change and make a difference in, in, again, using these space to again go over and beyond so that men won't use these weapons that men use and give created to keep this chaos and confusion. What about women and women in Islam? The role of women in Islam? As I mentioned, uh, the, the role of women is, is as partners, you know, the, the word for, for, uh, marriages is as old as he created everybody in pairs and, you know, and, and we own equal part, like I said, the woman is not behind the man. She's not in front of the man. She's beside him, you know, and, and she's a, we're, we're help mates, you know, to, to be of assistance to each other through this journey, you know, of life, you know, and, and that's what life is. It's a journey. Uh, and, and, and so collectively a woman can reach every height that a man can reach spiritually. She can reach every height as you, you know, uh, mentally, you know, uh, intellectually. Uh, there, there's absolutely, you know, no distinction other than the physical ways in which we were created. And so the guy said, he, he, he, you know, that the difference is, is a man has a role and a woman has a separate role in the structure of the family and, and, and, and, and, and our capacity to do, to do certain things. But those are not things that makes one inferior or superior to the other. But these are unique, uh, innate, uh, structures, you know, that we both have. But collectively and together, we become the best as a team, as we were created to be a team and not to do this on any individual level. Uh, the grace of mercy of Allah in regards to the Quran and the Arabic language, what is, what is it in regards to the study of Islam? And the Arabic language that makes it stand out in regards to the previous scriptures revealed to the prophets before a prophet Muhammad had been out of peace be upon him. The other scriptures that came, uh, over time were lost. Uh, there was no promise that those scriptures would be preserved in the language as they were revealed. Muslims, you know, believe as the Quran says, Muhammad is the Hatim, an NBI. He's the seal. He's the last messenger. A prophet that is going to come to earth receiving a revelation from God. And God has promised that the Quran would not be lost. And it is not from the time that Muhammad received it. There's never been a period where the Quran was missing for one year, two years, never exactly what was revealed to him in, in the Arabic language was rehearsed and rehearsed before he passed away. He knew that his companions, which was in the thousands had exactly what was revealed to him. And it was placed in exact order and which we follow it today, more than 1400 years later. Uh, and again, this is a promise from God that this would, would be there. And so for all Muslims, it is, uh, you know, the preserve, preserve preservation and, and the, uh, retaining of this, uh, as an objective and as a goal to read the scriptures in the language as it was revealed, there is no class in Islam. I can other faith traditions where you have the priest or you have the, the, the ministers in a whole class and a whole category separate from the common person. And Islam, the mom is only one who is, who has studied and who has learned, but he has no different rank than any father, any man, any Muslim in, in, in, in the community. There's no clergy, uh, in Islam. So every Muslim is required, you know, and it has the, the potential to preserve and, and many millions of Muslim children, you know, begin to remember as grand as young as six, seven years old. And this has been a practice from the time of the prophet, to this day. Uh, and, and so this is one of the ways that has been preserved and, and, and, and retained. Uh, and this continues to be, you know, again, one of the, the, the miracles, uh, of the Quran is, is witnessing how it is preserved and, and, and transferred from one community, from one generation to the next generation. And this, uh, traverses, you know, in Africa, in Asia, because in Malaysia and Indonesia, the largest Muslim populations, and in both of these lands in Pakistan, as well as in the, in the air world. And all Arabs are not Muslim. Uh, sometimes people get confused and think that all Arabs are Muslim, but no, there are many Arabs who are Christians, who are Jews, who are atheists, agnostics, you know, but, but the majority of Muslims, uh, are, like I said, are non-Arab, uh, and things, you know, and now here in the, in the United States, uh, praise be to God, there are many, even young African American Muslims who, Hafez of, of the Quran, Hafez is one who has memorized the entire Quran. We have many, many American born Muslims who have studied overseas, and now they are learning it in their scholars. And so this is the, the, the, the legacy, the truth of Islam and how it continues to spread. Alhamdulillah. By the grace and mercy of Allah. Shukran. Thank you for, uh, the information. By the grace and mercy of Allah, may Allah bless everyone to benefit from the information that you have disseminated. And may Allah, out of His mercy, inshallah, bless and receive the full reward, inshallah. SubhanAllah. Rabiqa, rabi lizzatiyya, mayasifun, wa salamu alaikum wa salam, alhamdulillahi, rabi alaikum, wa salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Beautiful. Shukran Jazilin. Um, let's go to our community calendar, and then we're going to come back and, um, open up our round table. This is our community calendar of upcoming events. This Wednesday, July the 1st, 2015, from 530 to 8 p.m., we're having what we call a holiday tech talk. And this is where our Skid Row studio hosts, engineers, interns, new and upcoming show hosts come together to discuss ways and means to have high quality shows, ask questions and share information about social media. The location is the vortex 2341 East Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, 921. And this is at the corner of San Francisco, San Francisco, San Francisco, San Francisco, San Francisco, Santa Fe and Olympic. Our guest speaker will be Patty Berman, president of D-Lake, that's downtown Los Angeles neighborhood council. Our musical guests will be Deborah Penberthy and Willis Boyd. This is a free event. Refreshments will be served. And we invite you to come out and meet and greet some of the show hosts. And the contact information for this event is 213-625-7000. 19-655-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790-6790- food, drink, music, and displays of current and future projects, and much, much more. Contact information is industrialdistrictgreen.org, and this is a Catherine McNinney project. If you have a community event that you would like announced on our show, send the information to dramastage1 at yahoo.com, attention early in Anthony, and the call-in number for our show is 800-893-9562. Now back to our host. Okay, thank you, Ms. Earlene Anthony. I'm going to open it up for this great discussion. I want to start, but I just want to mention, you mentioned Tuskegee, and that really hits the chord with me, because there's a connection in this way. Andrew Carnegie trained Bugatti Washington. Bugatti Washington, of course, who developed Tuskegee, but one of the persons that Andrew Carnegie trained was a person named Napoleon Hill, and he developed a very successful book called Think and Grow Rich that had 17 success principles in it, and one of the principles was persistence, and in that book, the person that he used for persistence was the Prophet Muhammad. And that's the first time that I heard, really, you know, I heard the name, but this was in the early 70s when this book was introduced to me, and the chapter on persistence, you know, had a whole chapter in there about the Prophet Muhammad, and I wanted to find out who that was, you know, and that's what, that's how I come in contact with the Prophet Muhammad. And, of course, Andrew Carnegie taught Bugatti Washington. He was very committed to his mission and the success principle, the mastermind principle. And out of that, he developed the Tuskeegen machine, and one of the individuals named Peyton, he would go to New York and develop the Harlem Realty Company and start buying a property in mostly all White Harlem, and this led to the development of the largest black community in the United States. very interesting. So Tuskegee, wow, beautiful. And Gary, all the relatives that I have back there, and Gary and all that kind of stuff. But look, let me ask you this. What is the biggest challenge for African American Muslims in a majority Christian African American population? I think the largest challenge is being understood. So often, particularly from the Christian community, from our particular African American community, they don't understand how much we know about Christianity, how much Muslims love Jesus and his mother in the highest position that they hold in Islam, that people don't understand the connection with Prophet Muhammad and Christianity when it comes to the first migration from his community that was being oppressed in Mecca. He sent them to Abyssinia, which is... Another name is Ethiopia, because they were known to be Christians that were good and wouldn't abuse them. And twice he sent his community there. And so Muslims learning that, there's a special affinity towards Christians when we look at it from that broader perspective. And again, what the Quran says about the people of the book. And I think if they understood that, then they would know that it's not that we reject, we reject Jesus, but it's that we accept him as a messenger and a prophet, because we have to accept him as a prophet and as a messenger. And in the way in which he was born, we totally accept. And so the confusion that people have, not knowing that sometimes brings grief to American Muslims with their family relations and things. But again, and other than that, it's because of just the prejudices that we, we already know that exist and never gone anywhere as African Americans. And then additionally, you change your name. And they always used to sometimes look at people who do things like that as being uppity. And if you kinda uppity, then they wanna kinda put you down because you don't want to, as Malcolm, used to always encourage us to change. I mean, we didn't come here named Joe and Bobby, and all those other names that we've accepted. And so when we embrace and take on a sacred name, or a name that is more traditional from where we really come from, for some people, they're afraid of that and think that we reject the whole society. And it's just, no, no, I reject that. That was taken from me two, 300 years ago. And now what I do reject is I'm not gonna hold on to something that's not truly from my family. And so when we embrace and take on a sacred name, it's not just from my family. It's from my essence and things. And so sometimes that misunderstanding creates a challenge for American Muslims and things. But I like to, because I've lived so long, thank God, from being a young person. And I remember when I changed my name and my family was afraid that I would never get a job and I would never be accepted. And I trusted that I'd be okay. And I've never regretted and never looked back. I remember, like I said, Malcolm was saying, you can change your name to Oogoo-Gaboo. And the respect that you would get from somebody else truly was real. And I, you know, in many instances, got so much more respect when somebody saw the name that I chose rather than the slave name that I was not gonna be beholden to. Okay. Comments about that or? The next question I wanna ask is what are your thoughts on here in Los Angeles, the African American population, probably nine, probably less than 10%, but in the Skid Row area, the people land in the tents and on the streets, probably 90% African Americans. What are your thoughts on that? You know, I have similar thoughts when I, like I said, worked in the prisons. And when I sometimes look at these numbers and percentages in the state of California and this whole country, and then I look at this, you know, astronomical numbers of our million in the jails and the prisons, I say, you know, there's gotta be more to it. And I mean, our people are not just criminal people. And so you know something else is in play. And it's this policies that are in place that have allowed, you know, a lot of this to be taking place, you know, and I do feel we must do more, you know, in strategizing and in reaching out and not giving up on our people or even labeling them, because sometimes some of our own community labels the people who are, you know, in these circumstances, situations, and not realize this is bigger than that. These aren't personal choices, you know, things have happened that specifically have been directed towards us. You know, when I look in I hear numbers like 70% of black children are born without a father in the house, you know, out of wedlock, I mean, these numbers, these numbers are mind boggling, you know. And so when I do go through downtown and I see my people in these numbers, you know, I continue to question and I continue to look for answers and I continue to try to make myself available in ways that before that I didn't, you know, because there were times that by me going to Tuskegee and Tuskegee being, you know, on a campus and being kind of isolated and the majority of the people were African Americans who were successful, and there's a VA in Tuskegee that was managed by African Americans and the Tuskegee Airmen and I kind of was thinking that everything was okay and then I come back to Gary and I come to these big cities and I see, and I was in denial, you know, of what really was going on and I've struggled with that, you know, and coming to say, you know, it's something sinister. What are your, what advice would you give African American missionaries? What advice would you give to African American missionaries coming out of prisons and trying to integrate back into the community? To hold on to their faith, to use that as a tool that it is, to continue to trust and to make bridges, you know, with other people because this right now is one of the things that I'm specifically working with and on is working with these men coming out. Like I said, I retired five years ago and now I'm working specifically with African American missionaries. I'm working with African American missionaries and I'm working with them on this other end of trying to help them reintegrate back into the community successfully. To think like we used to think and be entrepreneurs. To not only think that all you can do is work for somebody else because I think those are some of the keys that are going to help us get beyond this, you know, when we realize we've done this before and we've been successful. We've got to go back to depending upon, you know, not ourselves in the sense that we don't take advantage of all of the instruments that we have, you know, and we've got to go back to being successful. And I think that's what I'm trying to do. I think that's what I'm trying to do. I think that's what I'm trying to do. I think that's what I'm trying to do. I think that's what I'm trying to do. I think that's what I'm trying to do. I think that's what I'm trying to do. I think that's what I'm trying to do. I think that's what I'm trying to do. I think that's what I'm trying to do. I think that's what I'm trying to do. I think that's what I'm trying to do. I think that's what I'm trying to do. I think that's what I'm trying to do. I think that's what I'm trying to do. I think that's what I'm trying to do. I think that's what I'm trying to do. I think that's what I'm trying to do. I think that's what I'm trying to do. I think that's what I'm trying to do. depending on ourselves to use our minds and thinking like our grandpa thought when they came off them plantations and came off them farms and came to these cities they said i'm opening up a little shop i'm opening up a little store i'm opening up something that i can be able to take to the next level exactly one little comment and then i want to open up for some closest comments um you know i was looking at the haitian revolution and one of the things i remember reading in a book by jay rogers called um nature knows no color man nature knows no color line and he pointed out that the spiritual leader of the revolution was a person named dada bookman and it's jay rogers understanding that and they think it's been misinterpreted today that this person was a hafiz and the reason that they that's why they call him bookman is because he was the man that knew the book by heart and this was a a muslim and i think about that all the time when i look at haiti now you know uh with all of the um how buddhu have kind of taken over and the economic flight of it but but let me get around for some closing comments since we got a few minutes going uh one closing comments and let's introduce all you know i want to hear something from a wallet over there too well by the grace of mercy of allah like and uh what you just said in regards to brother bookman and haiti uh prior to the haitian revolution the premise was islam and the uh islamic movement in west africa uh bookman was a muslim and read the book servants of allah by dr sylvia and as well as the book deeper roots by dr abdullah hakim quick and by the grace of mercy of allah the prophet muhammad ibn abdullah peace be upon him is a prophet like and under moses peace be upon him as is said in uh paraphrasing in deuteronomy chapter 18 god said under moses i will raise up a prophet like unto thee and i shall put my words into his mouth all that i command him he shall speak that is the prophet muhammad ibn abdullah peace be upon him and the first five verses of chapter 96 verses one through five in the name of allah the beneficent the merciful read read in the name of thy lord who created read a proclaimed claim for thy lord's most bountiful he who taught the use of the pen taught men what they should do and what they should do but he knew not and for 23 years these these revelations continue and by the grace of my several laws as a loss upon what tyler said that remember when pharaoh slayed your man and spared your women that was a grievous test this is that test and in genesis as it says god said under abram noah sure that thy seed should be enslaved in a distant land for 400 years that nation that enslaves him i should chastise that nation i will raise him up with great sustenance that's the Okay. We're winding down a little. Can I get some closing comments? I want to hear Brother Mualid say something. As-salamu alaykum. I'd just like to piggyback on what Imam Hisaq said. For the brothers incarcerated, one of the best things and the most supportive things we could do coming from the prison system is remain in the faith. Coming into this materialistic, liberalistic society, we must remain strong in the faith and demonstrate to the non-Muslim community that Islam is a moral revolution that's taking place. It's not a military revolution that the people are looking for. It's a moral revolution, and we must demonstrate that through our behavior to the non-Muslim community, because right now society in America is perverted. And I think I would like to... Yes. I agree with the Imam that the men coming out of the prison must hold on to their faith, regardless of the materialistic standing that they have. They must hold on to the faith and remain good acting, conducting men. That's all I'd like to say. Okay. I think I got to wind down. I got 20-some seconds here. I'd just like to thank you for tuning in to the Qumran Report and from your host. And I want to mention that the brothers will be in the studio the last Monday. Okay. Every month, you know, bringing us this knowledge of Islam. May the peace and blessings of the life-giving, creative spirit be upon you and upon your family. I leave you from a speech by Frederick Douglass entitled, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July. Now this Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fredders into the ground. To lay an illuminated temple of liberty and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems where inhuman mockery and sacrilege irony. Do you mean citizens to mock me? By asking me to speak today? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crime, lowering up to heaven, was thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin. What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him more than all other days in the year the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant. To him, your celebration is a sham. Your boasted liberty and unholy license, your national greatness swell in vanity. Your sounds of rejoice are empty in heartless. Your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted imprudence, your shouts of liberty and equality, holler mockery. Your prayers and hymns, your sermons and your thanksgiving, with all your religious and religious parade and your sovereignty are to him mere bombast fraud, deception, impiety and hypocrisy. A thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practice more shocking and bloody than are the peoples of the United States at this very hour. Go where you may, search where you will. Roam, go where you may. Travel through all the monarchies of the old world. Travel through South America. Search out every abuse. And when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation. And you will say,