{"id":27,"date":"2008-09-10T10:04:50","date_gmt":"2008-09-10T10:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2008\/09\/warith-deen-mohammed-and-the-mounta.html"},"modified":"2008-09-10T10:04:50","modified_gmt":"2008-09-10T10:04:50","slug":"warith-deen-mohammed-and-the-mounta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/09\/warith-deen-mohammed-and-the-mounta.html","title":{"rendered":"Warith Deen Mohammed and the mountain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, iconic muslim-American leader Warith Deen Mohammed passed away<\/a>. I want to reflect a bit on the significance of this man’s achievement and note what a landmark his life’s work was on the landscape of American Islam. But to understand the impact of what WD Mohammed achieved, it is necessary to remember another man, who died almost 44 years earlier: El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, also known as Malcolm X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Anyone who has read Malcolm X’s autobiography<\/a> will recall that when X performed the hajj in April 1964, it was like a new revelation, completely transforming his militant views on racism. The spectacle of Hajj, with all race and class stripped away as men and women alike perform the simple acts of piety en masse, left an indelible impression upon him. As X wrote, <\/p>\n

\n

“There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world.
\nThey were of all colors, from blue-eyed blondes to black-skinned Africans.
\nBut we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit
\nof unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to
\nbelieve never could exist between the white and the non-white.<\/p>\n

You
\nmay be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage,
\nwhat I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of
\nmy thought patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my
\nprevious conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my
\nfirm convictions, I have been always a man who tries to face facts, and
\nto accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge
\nunfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the
\nflexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent
\nsearch for truth.<\/p>\n

During the past eleven days here in the Muslim
\nworld, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass and
\nslept in the same bed (or on the same rug)-while praying to the same
\nGod with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of the blue, whose
\nhair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of
\nwhite. And in the words and in the actions and in the deeds of the
\n‘white’ Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black
\nAfrican Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana.<\/p>\n

We are truly<\/i> all the same-brothers.<\/p>\n

All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The act of Hajj gave X the cumulative strength of Islam as his weapon against racism, and inspired him to embrace mainstream Sunni Islam. He had broken with the Nation of Islam only a month prior to embarking upon Hajj, and on his return established his own organization. The tension between him and the Nation of Islam ultimately led to his assassination, most likely at the direct command of Elijah Muhammed<\/a>, then-leader of the Nation of Islam and Malcolm’s closest mentor, until their parting of ways.<\/p>\n

Elijah Mohammed is W. Deen Mohammed father, and upon the former’s passing in 1975 it was WD Mohammed who took the reigns of the Nation of Islam. Consider the following facts about the Nation of Islam at the time:<\/p>\n