By Charlene Muhammad CHARLENEM
A worldwide mission
CHICAGO (FinalCall.com) – Spanish and French-speaking Muslims from the Dominican Republic, France and Haiti as well as Believers in the United Kingdom, Eastern Caribbean, and Africa are living testaments of the 83-year influence and impact of the mission of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and the works of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.
Presenter Abdul Akbar Muhammad, the Minister’s international representative, opened the Feb. 23 “Worldwide Mission of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad” workshop by pointing out the breadth of the Nation of Islam during its annual convention.
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Other panelists included Hilary Muhammad, the UK representative for Min. Farrakhan; David Muhammad, who represents the Minister in the Eastern Caribbean; and Vladimir Muhammad, who serves the Dominican Republic.
Patrick Muhammad, N.O.I. student minister in the 7th Region for Haiti, and Attorney Joseph Makhandal Champagne, Jr., mayor of the Borough of South Toms River, N.J., offered information and perspective on the Nation’s work in Haiti.
Brian E. Muhammad, Final Call Newspaper contributing writer, moderated the session.
The Universality of the Nation of Islam and Minister Farrakhan’s outreach efforts was discussed by Min. Akbar Muhammad. In October 1994, Min. Farrakhan took some 1,900 people to Ghana, West Africa for Saviours’ Day, he noted. In addition, Minister Farrakhan conducted three World Friendship Tours (1985, 1996, and 1997), and visited the Caribbean five times in 2012, added Min. Akbar Muhammad.
Before Bro. Brian introduced the panelists, Min. Akbar Muhammad thanked Theresa Muhammad of Stockton, Calif., for her diligence in helping to spread the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s Teachings to Latinos and Native Americans.
“The ‘Message to the Black Man’ is the message to all the original people. We have been praying for our saviour to come and this is the penicillin. This is the medicine that we as so-called Latinos, who are the original family, needed. And so when we hear this, and this changes our lives, this is why we accept the Teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad,” Theresa Muhammad said.
The panelists symbolize what the Nation of Islam has been trying to establish across the world, Min. Akbar Muhammad continued before Vladimir Muhammad spoke.
Vladimir Muhammad, who embraced the Teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in 2001, translates Min. Farrakhan’s messages into Spanish and distributes the videos throughout his native land.
He provides the same Spanish-language videos the Stockton, Calif., Study Group’s Free Breakfast Program for viewing.
He got the idea to translate the teachings into his native tongue after realizing 80-85 percent of the people he encountered selling The Final Call newspaper spoke Spanish. They would give him money, but couldn’t read the paper, he said.
Vladimir Muhammad began studying the history of Latin America and then armed with his studies and the Teachings, he received permission from Minister Don Muhammad of Mosque No. 11 in Boston, to make Spanish lectures on CDs and DVDs.
“When we went out with the Spanish CDs, the people were supporting the Spanish CDs so we began to break the barrier,” Vladimir Muhammad said.
He also helped to produce a Spanish language radio program and these efforts produced a Spanish study group in Rhode Island. Shortly afterward, the group began webcasting the meetings, which were viewed in the Dominican Republic, Atlanta, San Francisco and elsewhere. A study group in the Dominican Republic has been established, Vladimir Muhammad said.
“There’s socialism and then there’s communism. But the Messenger teaches us that Islam comes after everything fails. And this is what’s going to take power in the West and all over South and Central America,” he said.
Mayor Champagne thanked Minister Farrakhan for having the vision to promote the workshop through Min. Akbar Muhammad and for spending his time and resources to spread the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s teachings throughout the world from the perspective of the regions that received him.
“I say perspective because when I first came in the Nation of Islam, I was very attracted to the Minister, to his spirit … And that brought me face to face with myself, to discover my nature, to discover my purpose,” Mayor Champagne shared.
In 1996 longtime Nation of Islam member and pioneer Muhammad Abdullah Muhammad’s lessons on Haitian history helped Mayor Champagne discover it included Islam, and further helped him connect the dots between his heritage and the Teachings.
Student Minister Patrick Muhammad, though born in New York, lived in Haiti for 15 years, and then moved to California, where he heard Minister Farrakhan. “The first time I ever saw him and heard him speak, I never knew of him. I never heard of the Nation. But the moment I saw him speak at the Sports Arena, I began to cry and I said in my mind that this is the father I never knew,” Patrick Muhammad said.
He recalled being part of the Nation’s delegation that delivered a water purification system to Haiti, following the massive 2010 earthquake that ravaged the country. “We told them from the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, he requires one thing: Do not sell the water,” he said. Catholic churches are in Haiti and people are dying because they don’t have clean water, yet the church is selling the water to people, according to Patrick Muhammad.
“We must now engage to learn more and be studious, keep in our mind and our heart that Allah came in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad to whom All Praise is Due Forever! Keep in our minds and our hearts that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is his Christ and the Minister is our divine reminder and go with love among our people. Just show love and show that we are students and we can get all our people,” he said.
David Muhammad, Eastern Caribbean representative of Min. Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, highlighted the importance of the Caribbean to Black America and to the international Black struggle.
With the repatriation, reparation, Pan-Africanist, and Black Power movements, even in modern times, many great cultural icons came out of the Caribbean, he said. Many Blacks have Caribbean ancestry but don’t know it because their families have been broken up, fragmented and destroyed, he continued.
That Min. Farrakhan’s father is from Jamaica and his mother is from Saint Kitts ties in the significance of the Caribbean region, he noted. “I believe that we have underestimated the impact and influence of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, not just in America, not just in the Caribbean, but all over the world today,” David Muhammad said.
“Today in the 21st Century, there is only one living leader left that represents Black people all over the world. That is the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan,” he declared.
In the last year, Min. Farrakhan has visited more than 10 Caribbean nations and has been received as a head of state, he noted. The Minister has met with prime ministers, the leaders of the opposition, and the governor general or president in all of the countries, David Muhammad said.
The spirit of Saviours’ Day and particularly, the Muslims’ salutation, left Hilary Muhammad speechless.
He focused in part on the fact that in the United Kingdom, the understanding of God came from King James, not the translation of one language into another, but the King James version of the Bible and his view of how he wanted the world to see God.
Though Minister Farrakhan was banned from London in 1985, he spread through tape cassettes, shattering the purposeful, erroneous perception of God, said Hilary Muhammad, whose mosque is headquartered in London’s Brixton section. It was the greatest proof that Allah is God, he said as workshop attendees leaped to their feet and offered a standing ovation.
“I know when I heard the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, I didn’t see his face! I didn’t know his height! I didn’t know his complexion! But when I heard him, I heard God Almighty! I didn’t hear anybody else! That was God,” Hilary Muhammad declared.
Since Nation of Islam followers in London were blessed to come into existence through videotape and audiotape, they were never personality worshippers, Hilary Muhammad explained. They never had the privilege of Minister Farrakhan in the UK so the growth is pure love, he insisted.
Minister Farrakhan allows London to print a UK edition of The Final Call newspaper and his tapes and videos are there, so what’s wrong with him going personally to speak only to his followers? Hilary Muhammad asked government lawyers.
UK government officials replied they didn’t want Minister Farrakhan to come into England and stand on the pavement to speak to anybody, Hilary Muhammad recalled.
“Now what enemy who has conquered and subdued the entire human family, is afraid of a man to even just stand on the sidewalk? … He don’t even want him to stand in his country because they know as the book of Habakkuk says, that wherever the son of man goes, burning coals will go at his feet, which means war and revolution … But it’s too late, right,” Hilary Muhammad said as the applause and shouts grew louder.
The workshop ended with a Q&A and invitation to those interested in further organizing around the worldwide mission of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
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