Muslim leaders in the US often find themselves in the media spotlight, with all the attendant fanfare and occasional controversy. For the past few decades, however, one major Muslim American leader managed to keep a low profile while at the same time leaving a lasting impression on the greater Muslim American landscape. That man was Imam Warith Deen Muhammad, who rose to prominence through the Nation of Islam led by his father, Elijah Muhammad, to become a globally recognized Muslim leader. He died yesterday at the age of 74.

WD Mohammed eventually rose to prominence in both African-American and immigrant Muslim communities, became the first Muslim to offer an invocation in the US Senate, and served in leadership positions of countless Muslim and interfaith organizations. His unlikely journey over 30 years ago from the socio-politically motivated Nation to mainstream Islam - one which the majority of approximately 2 million African American Muslims followed - remains his most awe-inspiring achievement, one that balanced pride in American ideals with the responsibility to make it a better country.

Even though he was seen as the natural successor for leadership within the Nation of Islam, WD Mohammad became increasingly open about his rejection of his father's teachings: the divinity of blacks, the divine origins of Nation founder WD Fard as "Savior Allah incarnate", and the belief that whites were the Devil incarnate. While serving time in prison for concientious objection to the military draft, Mohammad studied the Qur'an and built up the courage to confront his father's teachings, even as he was groomed to succeed him. Once released from prison, his rejoined the leadership of his father's movement, all the while his doubts growing stronger.

His refusal to endorse the unorthodox teachings of the Nation, combined with his open confrontation of corruption within it, kept him in obscurity among other leaders of the group. It was not until ten years later, after the death of his father, that WD Mohammad was able to ascend to leadership and begin turning the movement towards the vision he had spent the last decade crafting. By 1977, he formally broke the Nation away from its original teachings and discarded the name, leaving it and its few remaining believers to Minister Louis Farrakhan, who runs a much smaller Nation to this day.

While WD Mohammad was determined to re-orient his organization towards orthodox Islam, he did so without rejecting the positive teachings that the Nation brought to that community, such as self-reliance and personal discipline. "[He] was able to do two remarkable things," says Sulayman Nyang, a professor of African Studies at Howard University. "One [was] the re-Islamization of the movement; the second, the re-Americanization of the movement." Under his leadership, Imam Mohammad's community reached out to other faith groups, stressed civic engagement as a means of self-empowerment, and worked for economic self-sufficiency. By some accounts, the community under his influence grew to nearly one million people.

Imam Mohammad's influence, however, was felt outside the African-American Muslim community as well. While some immigrant muslims were (and still are) unaware of what WD Muhammad gave to their community, his influence was most profoundly felt within Muslim leadership. As he reached out to predominantly immigrant Muslim organizations, he brought the lessons of nearly a half-century of organization and vision-making to the table. After his invocation to the US Senate in 1993, he led two more for President Bill Clinton. He shared a stage with Pope John Paul II and The Dalai Lama in 1999, addressing 100,000 people at the Vatican. In 2000, he had a public reconciliation with Louis Farrakhan, though that was seen as a sign of the Nation's increasing subordination to the global, mainstream Islam Mohammed steered his community towards.

Towards the end of his life, Imam Mohammad stepped down from day-to-day leadership of the now-decentralized community that his father once tightly controlled. Shunning the spotlight until the end, WD Mohammad found refuge in an organization called "The Mosque Cares", where he spent his remaining days speaking about Islam and the need to create bridges of understanding between different faith and ethnic communities. "I don't have a PhD," he says. "I don't have a master's degree. I don't even have a BA," he once remarked to a room of Muslim teenagers. "But I'm connected to something mighty great. It makes me respectable, honorable in the company of kings, queens and presidents."

"His intrinsic intelligence and high academic acumen made him wise, but his kind heart and charitable character is what made him so beloved," remarked Congressman Andre Carson. "I extend my sympathies to his family and friends as they mourn his passing." Carson, who is one of two Muslims currently in Congress, embodies the spirit of public service Mohammed tried to instill in Muslim Americans, one that combines a core Islamic spirituality with a universal sense of service to humanity. The sea change he led within the African American Muslim community will not likely be repeated. But it must be preserved.

A Muslim prayer service for Imam WD Mohammed is planned for Thursday, September 11 at 1:45 p.m. at the Islamic Foundation of Villa Park, 300 West Highridge Road, Villa Park, IL 60181, followed by internment to Mt. Glennwood Cemetary, 18301 East Glenwood and Thornton Road, Glenwood, IL 60425.

It's embarrassing for me (born to immigrant parents) to admit that until WD Mohammad's death, I was not fully aware of all the good he had done for the American Muslim community. All I knew was that he brought Nation of Islam followers closer to orthodox Islam. I had no idea he led invocations for Pres. Bill Clinton, spoke at the Vatican alongside the Pope and Dalai Lama, and devoted himself to bridge-building between Muslims and non-Muslims, and indigenous and immigrant Muslims. He seems to have always taken the middle road when he addressed an issue, and that is extremely admirable.

This statement was very powerful to me:
>>As he reached out to predominantly immigrant Muslim organizations, he brought the lessons of nearly a half-century of organization and vision-making to the table.<<

I'm now finishing Dr. Jackson's book, Islam and the Blackamerican, and now learning about WD Mohammad, and I am more aware of how much the immigrant Muslim community is disconnected from its indigenous counterpart and has in fact overshadowed it, and how detrimental that really is for everyone. We can learn so much from Blackamerican Muslims and how they have successfully crafted an American Islam, which is something immigrant Muslims are still struggling with greatly. I think it should be a duty of the immigrant Muslim community to reach out to indigenous Muslims, just as WD Mohammad reached out to them.

From God we come and to God we return. May God bless WD Mohammad and may his efforts always be remembered and continue to serve our community.

I support the growth of a healthy and sincere Islam in all forms. And I thought the article was great. I knew something about WD through the years but not the major achievementrs. It's very wonderful indeed. But it's interesting that black American Muslims seem to be the only indigenous American Muslim community that gets talked about. A lot of those Muslims are converts, for the remainder, their parents were. The power of their community is amazing in many respects, and some of their community still needs a bit of work, like all human communities. I came up through the 1960s when many blacks were flocking to Islam as they found it in those days and they found a place of dignity and solidarity in their struggles against a white dominant and racist culture. All commendable. But I find it curious though that white Muslims in America must either hide in the closet of academia and "Middle Eastern Studies" programs and identifying each other to each other with the same caution and secret handshakes that gays have in the past or try to pretend to be an immigrant, pick out a national group and try to pass and grovel to gain acceptance. For all the obvious sins and despicable global hubris of the US government, white Muslims are not the enemy and should be respected and embraced as are black American Muslims. If they are not, then what exactly is the difference between them?

>> "One [was] the re-Islamization of the movement; the second, the re-Americanization of the movement." .. Under his leadership, Imam Mohammad's community reached out to other faith groups, stressed civic engagement as a means of self-empowerment, and worked for economic self-sufficiency.

Within those few words are mission statements for a better Ummah if ever I heard one.

>> But I find it curious though that white Muslims in America must either hide in the closet of academia and "Middle Eastern Studies" programs and identifying each other to each other with the same caution and secret handshakes that gays have in the past or try to pretend to be an immigrant...

Whatever the racial divide, it wouldn't be Islam that divides us as an Ummah. It's also unfair and cruel to assert such a bold stereotype. The idea of American Islam being either an African American or a recent Immigrant form is precisely what is being challenged in the article. I think the article is also undermining the stereotype that African American Muslims are resistant to Immigrant Islam (whatever that is).

There are no such divisions except our own. The divisions are real, but they're not rooted in Islam.

>> white Muslims are not the enemy and should be respected and embraced as are black American Muslims <<

Well firstly, there are not that many WHITE Muslims in America. They are a small small portion, maybe less than 5% of all Muslims in America. Maybe even 2%-3%. Secondly, most of them are well-educated and financially established, so they are more akin to the "educated immigrant Muslim class" then to "refugee immigrant Muslim class" or the "black Muslim class" if one may make a crude subdivision here.

Majority of the "white trash" in America (with the exception of Mrs. A), a class of people who are more likely to find commonality of social mores with black Muslims were they to become Muslims, are not Muslim. They find for the most part their religious need met by the Church system and are therefore less likely to think past that then black people who because of their history are more likely to take interest in Islam due to their hostility to Christianity as a "White Man's Religion."

It is a bit crude to try to paste all Muslims in America into one pot, because like all Americans otherwise, they come from so many diverse social backgrounds.

>> Majority of the "white trash" in America (with the exception of Mrs. A), a class of people who are more likely to find commonality of social mores with black Muslims were they to become Muslims, are not Muslim. They find for the most part their religious need met by the Church system and are therefore less likely to think past that then black people who because of their history are more likely to take interest in Islam due to their hostility to Christianity as a "White Man's Religion."

Why? Why would you make up a theory like this? A theory that is built on racial stereotypes and undermines any need for Imaan as a basis of faith. You over extend yourself. Going from social analyst to social scientist with no proper grounding in the former into the nightmare social engineering that makes up fascism in the latter. You do no service to Islam by doing this. And you do even less service to the truth.

Ghulam, I'm a white Muslim too and for once I actually agree with Hajibaba except for what eh said about MrsA. And indeed what Akenanubis said was very accurate, too. Its not pretty, but these are the divisions within American Islam and while Islam is not the cause, people abuse it to reinforce thier divisions while others try unsuccessfully to use Islam in the service of unifying.

I believe it will never happen: break down the ethnicity barrier and then you are confronted by the class barrier, and then by the gender barrier (literally, too!) and then by the age gap. People instinctively look for ways to divide themselves and classify themselves by making an "Other". This is probably why Blackamerican Islam HAD to develop independently from immigrants and without accepting white converts into the fold.

I just heard about the death of one of the Muslim communities most vibrant, and charismatic leaders. Imam Muhammed was the one that inspired me to look deeper at my own faith as a Muslim, and strive harder at what it meant to be Muslim. I remember at one particular time I was incarcerated in county jail, and Imam Muhammed sent me one of his personal Qurans' from his own library. Along with several pamphlets concerning Islam. He will be very much missed.

>> Its not pretty, but these are the divisions within American Islam ...

I don't deny that the divisions exist. What I'm pointing out is that broad stereotypes have a way of misrepresenting people. When these broad stereotypes are covered in a type of social analysis (a very weak one), it has a way of making alot of illegitimate things seem legitimate. Its the tool of extremism and is dangerous. It lends itself to other ugly social experiments, like social darwinism and fascism and its really not cool.

Academics are by their nature solitary and private people. That's even more true of our early academics, but to start implying bold assertions about their character is dangerous and wrong.

Maybe Shahed needs to confront the issues of unity as a whole separate subsection of altmuslim dialogue. Theirs alot of inter-religious dialogue, but what about the intra-religious dialogue. The divisions are quite stark and need to be dealt with in a very delicate manner. But they do hamper many aspects of our development as an Ummah.

Ghulam! That's an excellent idea and has been my pet mision for some years now. But, there is so little interest in it because it forces us to confront ourselves. Anyways, inter-religious dialogue serves only two purposes: to shield us from the vengance of the society around us at large, and to convert people. Inter-religious dialogue would have wholly different aims.

Shahed, I very much second Ghulam's suggestion. What say you?

Unlike most "idealistic" bigwigs here, I happen to have attended several Waris Deen events and interacted with the people of that community. They come across as an islamized version of the "Creflo Dollar" crowd. You would nt even be able to tell they were Muslim on the outside from a distance. There is no segregation of sexes and most women are dressed in extravagant African outfits. And they are loud, golly are they loud. Or perhaps it was the soul music playing from one of the stalls that made me think that.

What do all those idiocyncracies mean? Nothing in the grand scheme of things. They are all very nice normal Americans, except they are Muslim. Contrast that with some of the Salafi communities in New York, New Jersey, or even the Sirah Wahaj people for that matter. Completely different crowd and social behaviors. But exact same black American people, from the exact same background. Trace their lineage back to their parents and grandparents and they were probably all part of the same Nation of Islam or Christian subgroup or whatever. But now under the banner of Islam, they are totally socially incompatible.

Some may paint these two sets of communities as the extremes on either end of the spectrum, but in the black Muslim community, these two subgroups together account for more than 50% of black Muslims in America. So they are not fringe groups by any stretch of imagination. How one expects these sort of sub-groupings to come together in some sort of platform is wishful thinking el-grande....

Maybe Shahed needs to confront the issues of unity as a whole separate subsection of altmuslim dialogue. Theirs alot of inter-religious dialogue, but what about the intra-religious dialogue. The divisions are quite stark and need to be dealt with in a very delicate manner. But they do hamper many aspects of our development as an Ummah.

Intriguing suggestion. I'll take this back to the editorial board and see how we can set something like this up.

>> Unlike most "idealistic" bigwigs here

Its not idealistic bigwigs. Its intellectual integrity. Honesty. It takes EFFORT and MENTAL APPLICATION. To test your own assertions. Anyone can have an opinion. When you make such assertions about society, they can be very broad and mean very little ... just like alot of your analysis above.

>> They come across as an islamized version of the "Creflo Dollar" crowd.

How do you tell people are Muslim from the outside? The sexes aren't in the same area and they're really quiet? There isn't music in their culture? Did you know that African Muslim Women have always dressed like Africans? Shouldn't African American women dress like African Americans? Do you know what the Prophet SAW looked like? In my view, there's a reason he was indistinguishable from his own people but would be easily distinguished from Moosa AS or Isa AS. What were Bosnians a version of when they were being murdered for being Muslim?

>> these two subgroups together account for more than 50% of black Muslims in America.

Where do you get that number from??? Obviously people who attend these events that you've had the courtesy of "observing", are of a specific ideological grouping. These events attract certain crowds but aren't representative of the whole. I've personally attended an event that attracted a few hundred people where Anwar Awlaki was to call in and give a talk. Sexes separated very strictly and all the men sporting giant beards and rolled up pants. A Cleric renders a speech and says very openly that Kaafeers are worst than murderers and rapists. That a Kaafeer is either openly an enemy or secretly an enemy of Islam and we should treat our work colleagues and neighbours with the suspicion this deserves. I didn't stay for long. Its hardly a representation of our community. What conclusion should I draw on beards and short pants?

I seek refuge with Allah from the evil insinuations of The Rejected, Accursed, Shaitan.
With the name of Allah The Merciful Benefactor, The Merciful Redeemer: As-Salaam-u alaikum.

Throughout the development of peoples religio-spiritual evolution, via revelations from Allah, man has fallen victim to emphasizing the physical, whatever, above the spiritual (al ghaib). Allah has always let man know that the spiritual, e.g., aspect of existence is the real existence. Allah lets man know that until man changes what is wrong within man, e.g., symbolically the heart, that Allah will not help them. And to this end He has had to punish man for deviating from what He says is our most important entity that needs to be developed according to His blueprint.

The Honorable Brother Imam W. Deen Mohammed (As-Salaam Alaihi) kept emphasizing this above info until he died.

There were some Whites in The Nation of Islam under The Honorable Elijah Muhammad. They had to meet with him personally and be cleared by him in order to attend meetings or to join, due to his being taught by The Honorable W. D. Fard Muhammad (one of the names that he was known by), his mission with its message was to the Blackman in America. Blacks from other countries who had not undergone the PECULIAR INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY (as the form it took in America is known historically) were treated as the Whites in order to gain admittance to the meetings. I found this out when I tried to bring in an Egyptian Muslim brother (Karam Mahmud, may have misspelled his name) whom I worked with in Kansas City, MO. The White Nation of Islam Sister Suzanne Haneef wrote a book WHAT EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ISLAM AND MUSLIMS. Brother Imam W. Deen Mohammed (As-Salaam-u Alaihi) made us aware of her and her book. There were Whites, Native Americans, and some Saudi officials, whom I have met, who claim Bro. Imam W. Deen Mohammed (As-Salaam-u Alaihi) as their Imam.

As Allah taught us, so did Bro. Imam W. Deen Mohammed (As-Salaam-u Alaihi), the physical aspect of life is fleeting and deceptive. Outwardly one can look like a strutting peacock, and inwardly be worse than Hitler. What is the dress of the misguided Muslims? Prophet Muhammad (s.) is reported to have said at an Eid celebration that the African Children were rhythmic. And a great Muslim historian, Ibn Khaldun, made the same comment. And the Afro-American is known to be loud, some of us work on being a little more quiet.

The following are excerpts from the Quran on what is righteousness; and Allah says several times in the Quran that no one has the authority to change His words, and He says that the Quran gives its own best explanation.

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Al-Baqara
It is not righteousness that ye turn your faces to the East and the West; but righteous is he who believeth in Allah and the Last Day and the angels and the Scripture and the prophets; and giveth wealth, for love of Him, to kinsfolk and to orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and to those who ask, and to set slaves free; and observeth proper worship and payeth the poor-due. And those who keep their treaty when they make one, and the patient in tribulation and adversity and time of stress. Such are they who are sincere. Such are the God-fearing. (177) 2:177
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Al-Araf
O Children of Adam! We have revealed unto you raiment to conceal your shame, and splendid vesture, but the raiment of restraint from evil, that is best. This is of the revelations of Allah, that they may remember. (26) 7:26

This Lecture by Minister Eric Muhammad speaks of the assumption by Imam Muhammad of the leadership of his father's organization and the impact of that leadership up to today.

A NEW RULER 10/05/08

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