Gregory Muhammad, NOI Prison Reform Ministry, Delaware Valley Region Student Coordinator
PHILADELPHIA—Nation of Islam Student National Prison Reform Minister Abdullah Muhammad recently delivered a message at Mosque No. 12 in Philadelphia, to a packed audience. He was introduced by Delaware Valley Region Student Minister Rodney Muhammad, who in his remarks spoke about the U.S. prison industrial complex and the impact of Islam.
“Islam is in these institutions (prisons), and nobody can get it out. Do you know what? And the U.S. Justice Department is responsible for it being there. Because you know what, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was teaching on the street. Did you think he was going to teach something different once he got into those institutions (prisons)?
Now, we have a man with us who has never been arrested in his life, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. And this is a man teaching us that we’re locked up. The Qur’an says, ‘we are the inmates of hell.’ And, we are having one hell of a time, …” said Student Min. Rodney before bringing up Student Min. Abdullah to address the audience.
During Student Min. Abdullah’s opening remarks, he urged audience members to listen to “The Time and What Must Be Done,” parts 23 and 24 from Minister Farrakhan’s 2013 lecture series. “This is the time of the Presence of God,” said Student Min. Abdullah. He went on to say, “This is not the time for integration, it’s the time for separation.”
He said that recently, he was thinking about the prophet Abram/Abraham. He shared that these thoughts came to him through Minister Farrakhan, saying, “Come out of her, my people,” in part 23 of “The Time and What Must Be Done. ”
“It caused me to start thinking about the prophecy that Allah (God) gave Abram. The prophecy says that Abram was put in a deep sleep. Abraham, but at this time his name was just Abram. So, it said that Abram was put in a deep sleep, and then a horror of darkness came over him. That is like a revealed nightmare.
As I thought about it, this was going on as the sun was going down. In 1974, the last message that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad delivered, He said, the sun is setting, but it will rise again. When it’s dark, most people go to … (someone in the audience replied ‘sleep.’) Right, go ahead and say it. The revelation was a sign of us having to go to sleep,” he continued.
During his message, Student Min. Abdullah explained that what was revealed to Abram was fulfilled with the condition of the Black man and woman as chattel slaves. He also shared from the Holy Qur’an that Allah (God) says to the angels that He will place a ruler in the Earth.
“So, now, Abram is in deep darkness and in a deep sleep, and he finds out that we gone into slavery, in a land that is not ours, and we gone serve them and be afflicted by them for 400 years. But after that time, I (God) will judge that nation which they shall serve.
So, they (the angels) said ‘what shall you place in it, except it creates mischief and causes the shedding of blood?’ And, Allah said, ‘I know what you know not.’ … Could it be that Allah now is going to begin the process of purifying us and teaching us all about ourselves in the process?” Student Min. Abdullah continued.
During his presentation, he shared information about the U.S. government’s role in setting up laws that lead to the incarceration of Black people.
“When I say, ‘the government is trappin’ too, it’s because like Jim Crow and the Black Codes were written into law legalized by this government. The same for our incarceration,” Student Min. Abdullah explained. He shared with the audience the history of the Iran-Contra scandal of U.S. President Ronald Regan, Vice-President George H.W. Bush and Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North who served in the National Security Council in the 1980s.
The scandal exposed connections between the CIA and millions of dollars in cocaine sales that benefitted Nicaraguan Contras in their 1980s fight against the ruling leftist Sandinista government. CIA operatives tied to the Contras ushered in cheap cocaine through drug-selling in the Black community in Los Angeles and other cities. Mr. North claimed partial responsibility for the sale of weapons through intermediaries to Iran, with the profits being channeled to the Contras in Nicaragua.
“Did you know under Reagan, George H. Bush, Sr. (George H.W. Bush) out of his vice-presidential office assigned Oliver North to help him finance illegal war? Congress or whoever it is that gives the money, wouldn’t give them the money to back the Contras. So, what they did, they even went to the Ayatollah who supposed to be the enemy of the United States of America to get that money to execute illegal war.
So, now … H.W. Bush and Oliver North down in Central America. And, Bush, because he knows the drug cartels with arms are also financing the Contras, paying them to bring cocaine into America. Now, the cocaine is here,” said Student Min. Abdullah.
The casualties of these actions include the many people who became caught up in the drug epidemic and became victims, he explained.
“Now, what’s so cold is to have the knowledge that the president and the vice-president, writing up a law or a bill (for a) ‘war on drugs.’ Are ya’ll following what I’m saying? They’re right there on TV and they are the ones that brought the drugs in; and now, they turn around on you like they turn around on us after we got off the plantation.”
During his presentation, Student Min. Abdullah also shared an update on the health status of Brother Mumia Abu-Jamal and his visit to State Correctional Institute-Frackville, located in Schuylkill County, Pa., about two hours from Philadelphia. He and the Nation of Islam Student Regional Captain Anthony Muhammad and this writer traveled to the prison to give a presentation to inmates and Brother Mumia was in attendance.
“I went over to shake his hand. He stood up to shake my hand. I was telling him how happy I was and, I’m talking about, I was sincerely, purely happy. And I don’t even know him, but just knowing what he has been going through,” said Student Min. Abdullah.
“See, ‘I will judge that Nation which they shall serve,” he added, referencing the Bible. “Our God is present! All that evil and wickedness you used to get away with, isn’t happening no more. When Mumia pulled that mask down, you didn’t see none of that (referring to a photo of Mumia’s severe skin condition), that man’s face was smooth as a fat newborn baby behind.
His skin texture is beautiful. I didn’t see any blemish, no bumps, just smooth and caramel looking. Then, he’s standing up erect. And, I said, ‘Mumia,’ and said, ‘man’ you are looking good; how are you standing? He said, he got that beautiful voice, he said, “These brothers around me, got me working out now.”
Student National Prison Reform Minister Abdullah Muhammad concluded by saying, “I’m telling you one of Allah’s (God’s) Names is ‘The Healer.’ I saw it!”
