May Allah have mercy on his soul and grant him Paradise.—Fahizah Alim

Bismillah-r-Rahman-r-Rahim. It has come to our attention the great Muslim American theologian, Warithdin Muhammad [1933-2008], son of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, made his transition to Paradise. It was Warithdin who took over the reins of power when Elijah Muhammad passed in 1975. In taking the Nation of Islam into Sunni Islam, we felt he threw the baby out with the wash water, but in truth the Nation had become a din of iniquity, full of thieves, robbers, dope dealers and sexual deviants, the very antithesis of the personalities Elijah Muhammad had attempted to resurrect and reconstruct from the graveyard in the wilderness of North America.

But no matter the failings of some of Elijah’s students, there were many whose lives were indeed transformed into better human and spiritual beings, while the rest got Supreme Wisdom but didn’t get it, and as a result the condition of many Muslims is worse than that of the deaf, dumb, and blind Christians they decry. How is it that Muslims possessing Supreme Wisdom and Sunni Islam exist is such poverty they are the mockery of Christian and other Negroes, even the white man who is overjoyed whenever he sees North American Africans doing for self, thus relieving him of their burden, as if he is not the direct cause of their burden.

This very day, he has taken billions of taxpayer’s money to bail out the international bankers who have defrauded millions of black, white, brown, and yellow people of their fundamental wealth, their homes. Yet the bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will not help the poor one iota, but is de facto socialism for the rich, while more poor people shall become dispossessed of their basic wealth.

Warithdin was steeped in Sunni ideology that is mostly reactionary religiosity—one only need look at the Sunni Islamic world with billions in oil money, yet the people exist in virtual slavery, poverty, ignorance and disease, from the Maghreb (Northwest Africa) to the Persian Gulf. In Sudan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Gulf States, the people are denied basic human rights and democratic liberties. Little opposition is allowed and except for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon, there is no radical opposition to the autocratic regimes, unless we call Osama Bin Laden’s theology radical, but only in the right wing manner and the Stone Age Saudi Arabian brand of Islamic fundamentalism.

Toward the end of his life, Warithdin turned back to the do for self teachings of his father. In so doing, he mirrors Farrakhan who is also turning back to the Supreme Wisdom of Elijah Muhammad, since the teachings from his Study Guide carried his followers nowhere.

As the followers of Warithdin celebrate his transition, it is time for them to make a great leap forward out of the grave of reaction and let the masses see they indeed understand the teachings of Elijah was the ultimate truth for the present era. Clearly, the devil is the devil, no matter what time or place, and he shall appear in white face or black face, have no illusions on this point. We must therefore guard against being deceived, no matter if it is John McCain or Barack Obama.

Finally, Warithdin did indeed attempt to clean out his father’s house. But the sad fact is that after his mission, there yet remain devils in the house, faking as imams but have the intention to practice white supremacy domination and dictatorial authority using the Qur’an, Hadith, and Sharia to legitimatize their iniquities, as in the old regime, making mockery of all that Warithdeen and his father attempted to construct. May Warithdeen rest in peace and paradise for all the good he accomplished. And may his followers heal from their sorrow and celebrate the infinite possibilities he engendered.

Marvin X (El Muhajir), poet, playwright, essayist, activist, is considered the father of Muslim American literature and one of the founders of the Black Arts Movement, the most radical literary and artistic movement in American history. www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com. He is now booking engagements for 2009. Call 510-355-6339. His latest book is How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702, $19..95.

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Other Responses

(FinalCall.com) - The following statement was released today by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam regarding the passing of Imam W. Deen  Mohammed. Sep 9, 2008

CHICAGO - We mourn the loss of our brother Imam W. Deen Mohammed. We thank Allah for him and his great contribution to the ongoing work of Prophet Muhammad

ibn Abdullah (P.B.U.H) and his work of helping to create a better understanding and image of Islam in America and throughout the world. Our prayers and our thoughts are with the Mohammed family, with the followers and all those who feel our great loss.

http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_5190.shtml

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The Shalom Center mourns the death of Imam W. Deen Mohammed, may the memory of this righteous and loving leader be a blessing to us all. This national leader of the American Muslim community died yesterday in Illinois.

Imam Mohammed, 74, was the son of Elijah Muhammad, the founder of the "Nation of Islam." After his father's death in 1975, Imam Mohammed led his community to

mainstream Islam.  Those who followed him took a path similar to that of El-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz ("Malcolm X") in his last months after his pilgrimage to Mecca, leaving racial and ethnic animosity behind in the true spirit of Islam.

The communities that followed W. Deen Mohammed are both more numerous and more deeply rooted than the "Nation of Islam"—while it  became better known in white America because of the animosities expressed by some of its leaders.

May his following continue to grow in numbers and in spiritual depth, and may other Americans learn to practice a loving and people-healing ministry, as he did and they do.

Asalaam aleikum, shalom aleichem—May peace rest upon us:

Arthur  (Rabbi Arthur Waskow)

The Shalom Center: A prophetic voice in Jewish, multireligious, and American Life office@shalomctr.org

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We at the Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP) mourn the death of Imam W. Deen Mohammed, a leading voice of rationality, love and goodness in the Muslim American community.

The account below from the Chicago Tribune gives some sense of his history in building positive interfaith relations and in providing a powerful alternative to the voice of the notorious anti-Semite and homophobe who heads the Nation of Islam: Rev. Farrakhan.

I was personally grateful for the several opportunities I had to work with Imam W. Deen Mohammed. I found him to be a man of great wisdom and compassion. He was a strong supporter of Tikkun Magazine and the Network of Spiritual Progressives and we had hoped to have him speak at our 2009 convention in Washington, D.C. and we were simply waiting to find a specific location and date for that event before finalizing the arrangements with him. Imam Mohammed provided me personally with important protection when Cornel West and I wrote our book together (Blacks and Jews: Let the Healing Begin) and found ourselves facing hostile audiences of Black Muslims who were repeating some of Farrakhan's hateful teachings and expressing hostility toward me that verged on overt violence.

It was a tragedy, though typical, that the American media gave far more attention to Farrakhan, because his hateful teachings were provocative and attention-grabbing, than to W. Deen Mohammed whose teachings of love and cooperation were largely unknown beyond the Muslim community.

We at Tikkun and the Network of Spiritual Progressives are saddened and mourn our loss of this inspirational leader.               

—Rabbi Michael Lerner Chair, The Network of Spiritual Progressives

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Imam W. Deen Mohammed was a spiritual wanderer who was banished several times by his father for filial impiety: once for remaining close to Malcolm X, Muhammad's prized disciple who turned into a critical voice within the Nation of Islam before he was slain. In 1961, Mohammed refused to serve in the U.S. military and went to prison in accordance with his father's teaching that African- Americans shouldn't defend a land of lynching and segregation. While incarcerated, Mohammed studied the Quran and found its teachings at considerable variance with his father's. After his father's death, Mohammed in 1975 took the bold step of aligning the Nation of Islam with mainstream Muslim beliefs and giving the movement a new name, the first of several. In 1976, Mohammed made a public appearance carrying an American flag. He proclaimed the time had come for black Americans to celebrate America. The following year, Farrakhan broke away to revive the Nation of Islam and its traditional teachings.

Mohammed's lifestyle was markedly different from that of his father, who presided over a religious empire from a family compound he constructed amid the historic mansions of the Kenwood neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. Muhammad was surrounded by a phalanx of bodyguards, dubbed the Fruit of Islam. Mohammed also rejected his father's sometimes overtly anti-white preaching?a rhetorical style continued by the fiery Farrakhan, Mohammed's rival for leadership of African-American Muslims. Farrakhan and Mohammed long traded barbs and theological jabs before publicly reconciling at a joint worship service in 2000.

"For me, [Islam] is too big a cause for our personal problems and differences to stand in the way," Mohammed said.

Mohammed was also deeply committed to building bridges between African-American Muslims and the increasing numbers of immigrants from the Middle East and Asia. In 2003, Mohammed unexpectedly announced his resignation from his organization, the American Society of Muslims, saying he was frustrated that many of its imams had refused to adopt mainstream Muslim thinking. During his final years, Mohammed lived quietly in a modest home in south suburban Markham. He headed a charitable organization, Mosque Cares, and spoke to congregations across the nation. His lectures were reprinted in the movement's newspaper, the Muslim Journal. But he had no mosque of his own. ChicagoTribune

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\posted 9 September 2008