The Pioneers of Islam in America Black History Month

while we're doing this program to kind of get an understanding of, of the overview of Black History Month, we know that this is we're at the tail end of Black History Month here. And this is an opportunity for us to look back at Black excellence in the black legacy and the legacy that has really built this nation, and how that pertains to us as Muslims, and the significance of that, for us as Muslims. The first two speakers that we have the reason that we invited them, they've joined us from South Dallas. They're from the masjid called Masjid Al Quran. It's in South Dallas, in the Oakcliff neighborhood. And the reason why we brought these these brothers is because we want them to

address mass incarceration and the school to prison pipeline. For those who don't know, insha. Allah tonight will be educated on that. And what makes these brothers qualified is because not just that they've studied and they understand is because they are intimately connected with this concept. Their communities are still suffering from the calamities of mass incarceration, and the school to prison pipeline, and they are in South Dallas, living in the communities which are afflicted afflicted by it, and they've dedicated their lives to combating this issue. And the really important thing that we must understand and recognize is that although they work with a number of groups,

they've made it a point to make the masjid the platform by which they combat this. So our first speaker is Imam Sharif and I'm sure if it's the current imam of Masjid Al Quran, he is very very knowledgeable on mass incarceration, he knows this topic inside and out and he will be sharing with us some information about this and also they're going to be focusing on not just the reality and the history and everything but what is it that we can do as Muslims living here in Dallas? What is it that we can do to help in this so with that I'll hand it over to him I'm Sharif

rock MANOVA Hey.

By the girls wanted line by the night was still that guy and Lord has not forsaken the noise he displeased vividly to how to be better for the than a present as soon as I got in law, give me that there will be well pleased. They did not find you an orphan and give me shelter and care. And he found the wandering and gave the guidance and found the need and made the independent. Therefore cheat not too often with hoarseness, no riposte, the petitioner hurt but the bounty of the Lord rehearse and proclaim I mean,

as a brother mentioned, Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.

This will not, as the brother mentioned,

this being Black History Month. And we do want to address the month within itself.

But we also want to want you to understand that Black History Month is is something that's recognized, but it's also something lived by a group of people each and every day.

We want to begin speaking, in the sense of where and how mass incarceration came to be. It's not something that everybody is really sure what purpose is served. But it did serve a purpose because

years back, let's say after the end of slavery,

we have to be mindful that the mass incarceration began as far back as debt, trying to figure out how to re enslave a group of people that had been slaved and captured and stripped of their culture. These people were now to be free. Okay, and to

control that was the objective. So one of the first laws that were passed after the free after the free emancipation, one of the first laws was passed was the vagrancy law. And understanding the vagrancy law in front of platform that if you did, if you were not on a plantation, and you were free, but you yet had nowhere to live, you fail up on the vagrancy law. Hence, the the 13th Amendment could be applied, which would allow you to be incarcerated.

Moving forward each time

the establishment assaulted the community of the African. It was based in a socio economic perspective and the growth of the country.

From 1865 to 1900 1910, the African community was prepared to trade internationally. But that community was destroyed.

People was burned hang

on to the mindset of those that were left were in fear, but those who had the mindset to move forward and progress, they will hang and destroy

hence we move forward another 40 years and 50 years. And

that energy within the African community arose again, brings us to the 1960s 1970s.

When we were very much in a community mindset,

you had the birth of the Nation of Islam, which built the foundation of this land that you practice today.

This is something that we should pay homage to. Because without those works, and those efforts are the nation.

We might not be as easily free to practice our religion as we do today. With that in mind,

the same thing happened to the nation that happened within African community,

desegregation, civil rights.

What we gained was civil rights, we lost our sense of community that we did have, we gave it up to assimilate another community that in turn, hurt the African community. But as I sit here, and I look at this beautiful site, how the family is orientated here in your community, you have a community of Muslims that have been separated from one another.

And they don't have the opportunity to quite practice, as you guys practice here today, because they've lost their sense of community as a people.

Why you guys here can be together, you can pray together, he can go to school together. Okay, well, the African community does not do that. And the African American Muslim community struggles within those communities, yet we are fixed in changing the environment and the things that have happened to us in the past. We move forward again, after

the Civil Rights

Act.

The dismantling of many organizations that were geared toward the benefiting

of our communities, once they were dismantled by the establishment,

we move forward into the 80s when the community again is at risk. And what was the end what happened in order for you to

have mass incarceration within the state of Texas,

say in 84 to 85,

the state of Texas had 42, penitentiaries.

Six years later, dad, approximately 152 penitentiaries, in the African community made up 78% of the population.

How did that happen?

The establishment had a scheme they put in place where they dumped masses of cocaine into the community. They also went along with the dead industrialization of the community and the outsourcing at that time, when we when we cease to manufacture as many products as we did in the past in the bulk of the nation. So you take your middle class out, in a sense within African community, reason why I'm discussing these things is because I would like you to get a clear window of understanding of the community that is around Masjid Al Quran and our purpose, understanding our purpose to bring a sense of community

to end mass incarceration, and to end the school to prison pipeline. And as I said, six years later, they had 152 penitentiary, so Yeah, the thing. How did we How did they feel those pinches up? Well, in the 80s, they feel those penitentiaries up by

the cocaine era, the crack cocaine era,

no pass, no play, a lot of things were implemented, that hindered

the African American from his growth.

Deep desegregation been one in a great sense. Why? Because the child had to get through certain hurdles, and it affected them. And hence, by affecting them,

it changed their character.

So once you grab that generation of kids that's between 19

and 25 in the 80s. You feel your penitentiaries up. What do you had to do legs, you have to keep them sustained.

Hence the brother was speed.

The pipeline that was created

the most important thing we're trying to move forward in within our community

is to change the social economic environment

to change the educational results,

the African community does not get the same results out the educational system as other communities. So you have to ask yourself why?

We have asked ourselves why we have educated ourselves in that fashion. I myself, have four degrees, one of masters being in public administration to understand the social, political dynamic that policies are written under.

I have a university University Studies degree, which is a bachelor's that focuses on criminal justice, humanities, and sociology. And also I have a business degree in electronics degree. These are the things that we have equipped ourselves with the brothers in education, and he'll explain his background. We spend use equipping ourselves with this information in order to make a difference within our community.

We get the same things out of same politicians

doesn't make a difference what side of the table they're on whether they're Democrat or Republican, we have to ask ourselves why. My concern is, is that regardless of who feels the seat, there are responsibilities that go with that seat. So it really doesn't make a difference. Who wins the seat, the Republican or the Democrat in the African community, what makes a difference to us is whether or not they fulfill their responsibilities to the community. These are amongst the things that we have set out, as we begin creating programs for our youth, programs for young men that are fathers, and programs that are for young women.

The growth of our community is essential.

If not,

we see ourselves falling further and further behind.

We are looking for the Muslim community to support

our efforts in a fashion that

is solely supported by Quran in the sense that when you see a wrong or an injustice, you are to change it with your hands. And if that does not change it, then you speak out against it. And if that doesn't change it, then you to test it in your heart.

The latter being the weakest form of faith. We have equipped ourselves to change with our hands, we have moved into the community, I live in one of the worst communities and in a blue area that you mentioned at the last meeting.

And one of the most high risk areas.

But at the same time, I'm very much at home. Because I understand that the natural resources that have been removed from the community or the individuals themselves. Many are A students, our best and our brightest. They're just like any other natural resource, if you continue to pull it out of ground, there's no way a community can grow. We are in a mindset of

a rheostat reestablishing our communities,

to where well we have family nights within the community that everybody comes out, they have their children. We talked about doing work within the community, there's going to be Muslims from the outside in.

Because most of the people that are in African community within DFW are

if not

first generation Nation of Islam,

or second generation Nation of Islam.

The only way Islam is really going into grow as if we move out into the community which we have done.

Islam is supposed to make a difference.

And we are looking for support from the Islamic community to do so.

That's why we're here tonight. You know, I know I breezed through black history.

But I also don't look forward to being marginalized in the sense of

we recognize black history

once a year, but yet we live under the conditions and the socio economic oppression

day in and day out. So as a brother goes into the prison pipeline,

we just want you guys to consider the things that

you can practice if you move outside of your comfort zone

is last spread right now. And I don't actually think

It has the best outlook nationwide. But it can. And it's about the work that's put in. With that. I'll leave you as I came. Salaam aleikum in our pets to brother Jamil

did I call her mom Sharif? As you mentioned, brother Jamil is going to be talking about the school to prison pipeline, I wanted to mention one thing, based on what he was saying that he needs support from the community. I want to recognize that, you know, last week, there was a group of young Muslims and organization, YM, they were trying to do a program for for Black History Month. And we considered whether to invite these brothers to one of the massages where they have their Holika. But I want to commend those brothers that they made this decision that instead of inviting them to come, they all decided to go down to South Dallas to metalcore on how 100 deep right and 100 guys are

sitting in the hall. And we listened to both of these brothers, we listened to the sisters who have been in that community for a very long time. And we really got the ability to understand that community and the plight that that community is going through. And one thing that I want to mention is that I don't think we've ever felt more welcome. And I must say that they were so happy that we were coming in it was almost like, why hadn't we done this before. And so that's something that I would hope that you know, we can do is that we can begin to all of us a reminder to myself and everyone else, we can begin to go to these communities where the massages were there where the

Muslims were there before there was such a large population of Muslims in this country. We have to remember those brothers and sisters and the struggles that they had. Brother Jamil is, is a community organizer and educator in South Dallas. Also, these two brothers, they do this excellent program that myself and another brother also had the pleasure of attending, where you listen to all the degrees and the qualifications that the brother has. But every weekend these brothers have a meeting was about 20 youth, and not Muslim youth, just general youth from the community, who at the ages of 15 1617 years old, are already going through the process of criminalization. And they

already have started developing a record and many of these youth on probation, and they have things around their ankles and they have court sentences. And these brothers take the time out to counsel them and to talk to them and try to assist them in avoiding you know what could be calamity. And so brother Jamil will be talking about the school to prison pipeline, inshallah.

I'm going to show this

to my brothers, I want to greet you with a Salam aleikum. My sisters are Salama Leakey,

as he said, my name is Brother Jamil. I am an educator by trade have been teaching since 1999. I got into education for the sole purpose of being able to serve the children in my community. And in with that in mind, I am a child of poverty. And I want you to understand what what that means. So that I can kind of add a little perspective, inshallah be able to paint a picture for you so that you can truly understand the work that we do, and, and how critical and crucial this work is for our community. If you take a child, say this child's age, and you put them in a condition, and when I say poverty, I mean, you're talking about an environment where it is lacking, right? And so what are

we talking about lacking, we're lacking family support. So if you pull the father's away, you pull, oftentimes the mothers away, as he mentioned, drugs hit our community very hard. And a lot of our parents got addicted to the drugs that were poured in. There was history, there's documentaries that you can actually watch, that shows how the US government was actually bringing in cocaine from South America to fund a war and pumping the drugs directly into the black community as another way of derailing our people. So if you if you take that story back and we go to the beginning,

the beginning of this blip of history for our people, and I want to make that known that this is just a blip of history. Today. My intention is to get you to understand that we are a people of great legacy. We are people who are not a degraded people naturally, we're not a people who are naturally imbalanced or naturally impoverished. We come from a rich history. When the Europeans and the Arabs and even the Africans decided that they were going to start the transatlantic slave trade. They specifically stole people, specific people based on specific gifts, talents, things that are creative, culturally

They stole a particular people, many of us were Muslims when we were stolen. But when we crossed that boat that that river, I mean, that ocean on that boat, and we came over here to the banks of America,

all of that was stripped away. Okay, and we were put into the worst conditions, those of us who did make it across the ocean, many of us died on the boat ride over. Alright, so I want you to understand that were people who have been traumatized, but we did not come from that we are, we are ancient people. Right? We are people of origin were people who are foundational, right. And so this little blip in history that we're telling you about is a story of a people trying to restore themselves back to the prior legacies of back to their prior existence before this thing called America this social and political and economic experiment called America, right took us away from

who we truly were. All right. So if you take that history, and you, you say that we spent up until 1865, in captivity, so we're working on plantations, essentially building this nation, and mind you, not all of us were on plantation, there were indigenous Africans who were already in the Americas at that time, right? Who many of them, by virtue of being black, could have been subject to becoming enslaved. But there was some who were never slaves, right, but we wants to construct a social construct of black became a thing, then it included all people who were have dark skin, right. And so then the system was able to racially discriminate against the specific people based on a color of

skin, then the caste and class system was created. And as the brother said, after emancipation took place, and we were so called freed from bondage, physical bondage, the process of creating laws and coals for free men begin to take place. And that's when you get, as he say, your vagrancy laws, your black codes, in different social barriers that begin to set up more and more boundaries for our people to receive our own liberation on freedom. when left alone, one thing that people began these people began to realize is that when we're left alone, we will begin to build and we did that many times off the plantation within a matter of 50 years, we had built historically black colleges and

universities. Even before the emancipation, there were two or three black colleges that existed in the north. Okay, so these were people who were coming together and saying education was important. On the plantation, it was illegal for us to learn how to read or write.

So as an educator, I'm thinking, why would they want to keep people from learning how to read or write? Right? It must be something to that. But our people never stopped fighting to learn to read and write. So as I said, after slavery ended, we begin to build black colleges, over 121 black colleges were built. And so we move fast forward, and we move we constantly trying to establish ourselves, and then you move into the 1960s. And you're talking about a civil rights packers, and I know I'm speeding through but I want to kind of set some kind of historical precedent so you can understand how we got to where we are now. And you move on and many of you know about Dr. King and

the civil rights movement and civil rights package that supposedly gave us these rights. The desegregation for many of us wasn't

the golden nugget, it wasn't successful for us. All right. Because if you think about it, if there's a force that doesn't want you to be a part of this system, and then they're forced by the government to put you into their system, how do you think they're gonna treat you? Do you think you're gonna get the best education? I mean, just think about it. Really? I mean, do you really think that you will get the education as best for the success of your people when you have been forced integrated into their system? Well, what happened is, once these desegregation laws came through, and the government forced us to be integrated in the system began to devise ways devise ways to essentially

use the system against us. Right. And so we talked about going to the school the brother has a story of I'm kinda

wonder why you didn't share it. But he always talks about what desegregation did. He's a little older than I am. And so he's first generation desegregation.

And then being placed into a system in the south, where your teachers look at you like you're

less than your inferior, you might have dreams of becoming a doctor or a lawyer or whatever. And they're going to know you can't do that your people don't do that. Right. So you have to think about what we integrated into laws were pay, pay past civically, to essentially create a system in which How can we create a way to send them back to the plantations? How can we use the public school system to send them back to the plantations? Right? There is a clause in the 13th amendment that was supposedly that was supposed to free us that said, unless, right, you're free, unless you commit a crime. So what do they do they create environments in which criminality is your only economic

source? Right? We have a system of where we have these ghettos or these urban areas, even though it's integrated. We have an urban area and essentially, it's an area that's concentrated with poor black people. And a create economic embargoes around it their food deserts. Not only are their food deserts, they circled around and in a red line the areas and they don't loan money to people in the area. So business is not a part of that environment. The economics is stifled the food is stifled the education is stifle, right, and this has happened I'm not even in the past anymore. I'm telling you, this is a legacy that they have created for our people that currently exists. And where we sit

at in South Dallas, where massive Al Quran is, it is a prime example of a community that has been economically deprived. You cannot buy good food in an area people buy food from the grocery store. I mean, from the corner store instead of a grocery store. So you go to the gas station and get your food. Okay. And we all know how important food is. The schools I spent today at a school up the street from the mashed it.

Our children are suffering even in the schools. The schools are built primarily in the same structure that the prisons are. Some of them don't even have windows on them. And if it is one of those, they're painted, so you can't even get light from the outside on it. All right. So we're fighting an uphill battle. We went to a program yesterday or the day before yesterday, and it talked about a rig system.

We talk about how they politically disenfranchised is how they economically disenfranchised, that's how they there's voter suppression tactics that they use gerrymandering, what a REIT, they marked the districts up in a certain way where they can essentially minimize the black vote so that the economic dollars don't come through to support any kind of grow economic growth in the communities. All right. And so a part of our work at Macedon Al Quran is looking at all of these in justices looking at all of these abuses all of these human rights violations, and figuring out ways that we can support our youth who are most vulnerable to these kinds of oppressions. Because we feel like if

we can do something with the youth in a way of education, and create creating programming, and creating awareness that we can create a movement that allows them to be the catalyst of change. When we spoke to the 7080 90 brothers, they came to the masjid last week, I try to implore them to be a part of the change. We have a huge census since this 2020 I see the brothers and sisters over here are fully engaged in the census 2020 For Plano, we need that in Dallas, but we don't have the awareness that you all have out here. People don't really realize how important it is that you are counted. Not only that, a lot of people have criminal backgrounds that they're afraid to even engage

with anything as dealing with the government. So there's a whole educational mindset that we have to you know, kind of change around. But we need support from brothers and sisters like you. We need support for the programs that we have. Our people are lacking in education or people are lacking and healthcare mental health as a if you can imagine all of the trauma that all of that I did that little brief, spotty history that I just gave you is way more detail but that brief, spotty history. All you see is trauma, trauma, so we're talking about people who have been traumatized and the wounds don't even get to heal.

So we need support and mental health and physical health. We need full support. We need a lot of support for our community.

And so when we are allowed the opportunities to come and and share these stories and try to you know, touch your heart in a way of compassion where you feel enough empathy and love for those who are 40 minutes outside of where you live who are not as fortunate and blessed as you all are

we come and we come with the message of peace let's build a bridge let's build a way that we can work together to do the work that we have to do because we can't do it alone. We need to support of all of you brothers and sisters so inshallah

in we can have a discussion we can gain more understanding

I'm I'm honored and grateful to have this opportunity to speak to you because this is this is my work. You know, this is this is what we do non stop. And so I'll close with it. As I began as salam aleikum wa salam ala Leakey.

Just wanted to as we prepare to listen to Chef, Yasser, who's going to be talking about the topic that was on the flyer African American Muslims, pioneers of Islam in America, the reason that we brought these two brothers here, I know, brother, Gmail mentioned that he's honored to be here, but I'm sure the entire community is honored to have these brothers here. Also, I think that we should really grab every opportunity that we have to, you know, try to bring their communities together, as they mentioned, the work that they're doing, they really need the support of the entire community. And so as these brothers here, I would recommend and really invite everyone that when the program is

over, they're going to be here, we should all really greet them and find out what they need from us. Because the one thing that I'll mention working with them extremely welcoming and very easy to work with very transparent people. And they're excellent people to work with. And we ask that Allah accepts all their efforts, I mean, and with that, we'll hand it over to Chef Yasser zakat.

Smilla Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah, who Allah Allah he will be one well Hammerberg first and foremost is Aqua Mala to our two distinguished guests. We really appreciate your presence here. And this message it is your masjid and I apologize for not having visited your Masjid Inshallah, we're going to exchange numbers and whenever you're willing to invite me to Shell look, I'll be there in sha Allah Tala try my best to expedite that insha Allah. And these types of programs need to be more often we need to definitely exchange our talent, and each community should know what the other communities are doing. Before I briefly summarize my own points. I may I

strongly suggest all of you here. Watch a documentary called the 13th. Okay, it is a award winning documentary, it's on Netflix, and it's eye opening. And I thought I knew all of this stuff. When I watched the documentary. I was in tears almost in wanting to scream out of anger and frustration. I mean, it's just the way the system is rigged. It's so depressing. And it's so you just feel so much exasperation. And most of us don't even most of us in this audience. We have no clue how the system has been rigged against certain minorities, and especially African American brothers and sisters. So please watch the 13th It's on the standard unit is Netflix and all that might, I'm not going to give

a long talk is going to be very brief overview. Because I strongly feel that most of us in this audience, really we haven't done justice to the history of Islam. Before the arrival of our fathers and our you know, one generation before us, we think that Islam came with us. And that's simply not true. Islam has been in this land for over 350 years. In fact, there are references to even more than this. Christopher Columbus's discovery as well, is linked a little bit to the fall of the the caliphate and Granada. As I have mentioned a number of times, however, the largest wave of Muslims that first came to this land before that were very small, we count them in the fingers of one hand,

a few people here and there that migrated and realized the reason why Muslims didn't come like the Irish did like the Italians did was that America was a tough land to live in. America was the unexplored frontier in the 17 1800s. It was a it was a very difficult land. The only reason you'd come here is if your own situation was very, very dire. And by and large Muslim lands, were at peace, Muslim lands were flourishing. Why would you give that up and go to a faraway strange land? The the earliest people that came to this land willingly were either people who fled religious persecution, like the pilgrims and their ilk, or those that suffered extreme economic hardship like

the Irish and the great, you know, potato famine, drought of the 1850s and whatnot. Those were the two main groups that came willingly. The largest group that came unwillingly are of course, the slaves that came from Africa and amongst them around

only 15 to 20% were Muslims, around 15 to 20% of all of those hundreds of 1000s of people that came, they were of our faith and our background. Of course, all of this was injustice. But no doubt, we feel an even greater sense when it is somebody that is of our own Islamic heritage and background, even though of course, the crime is universal. And all of you should be aware that we have documented evidence of the existence of Muslim slaves doing what they could to practice their faith. How do we know this multiple accounts, first and foremost, the diaries of the slave owners, slave owners are writing down what they're witnessing in their slaves. And we have plenty of such diaries

still around that explicitly mentioned, very clear Islamic practices. One of them mentions that I came to know of a religion called Islam or Muhammad it is and he called it because my slave would regularly pray five times a day facing the north, he would fall down on his head. This is a white slave ward in the 1820s. And he's mentioning that one of his slaves is regularly praying, facing, you know, the North and, and bowing down, we have another slave owner in the sub Hello islands of Georgia, mentioning that he preferred to buy Mohammed and slaves they called Islam back, then we'll have an ism, he preferred to buy Mohabbat and slaves because they didn't get drunk. So he preferred

to get both slaves because the other ones would get drunk. So at least he would purchase Muslim slaves so that they didn't get drunk. And because of that, there was actually a community of slaves on spello islands in the 1820s and 30s. We have documented evidence, they actually built an open era, Masjid, and that island, and they would celebrate Eid, the owners would mention this in the diary that they passed out a certain cake that is still cooked to this day in West Africa, on the day of Eid, they would bake that cake and they would hand it out like a type of bus booster or something, they would actually make it on that day. This is 250 years ago, and they're celebrating

or eat on this land over here. That's the first evidence we have many dozens of eyewitness accounts of slave owners who saw what their slaves were doing and recorded it. And then even more significant, we have the writings of many of those Muslim slaves as well. The actual writings that they have are preserved, much of them are still preserved in the Smithsonian, I myself have seen a good selection. In the Smithsonian, you can go there, there's a special exhibit, it's free of charge, by the way, Smithsonian museums entire DC it's our tax money, we should take advantage of so many museums that are really nice museums. And there's a museum that is when I went there was

actually an exhibit of Muslim slaves. I think that was a temporary exhibit. I don't think it's permanent. But they have a slave museum. And they have within it, they have a number of neurons that were handwritten by the slaves. We this is American Islamic history, over 200 years old manuscripts of the Quran that were written by slaves, and I've seen this with my own eyes, and you can Google them and find images if you're not going to go to DC. And the irony, of course, is one of the funny stories is that the slave was one of the slaves. His owner wanted me to convert to Christianity. So he was impressed that the slave could write Arabic. So he said to the slave, I want you to write the

first chapter of the Bible. They call it the Lord's Prayer. Let's say I want you to write the Lord's Prayer in Arabic. So the slave wrote Bismillah al rahman, rahim, Al hamdu, lillahi, rabbil. Alameen are among them, the whole sort of party. And then at the end, he goes, and my slave master thinks this is the Lord's Prayer, but this is sort of Delphi writes it in Arabic, right. So the point is that, and we have that by the way, we have an image still, if you want to Google that there's an actual image of that still, to this day, and the slave owner who is proudly saying, My slave is now a Christian. He's written the Lord's Prayer. And lo and behold, of course, once you are a Muslim,

you're never going to, you know, convert away but you know, sometimes you have to just say, you know, they're being tortured, Percy, whatever they had to do whatever they had to do. So Subhanallah, slavery did bring a large group of Muslims over here. However, obviously, these slaves by and large, were forced to convert forced to convert to Christianity, they were not able to maintain their identity for multiple generations. Along with this around the 1870s or so small groups of Muslims began to migrate from Muslim lands. These were not more than at Max 25,000. Entire in the entire 2030 years at max 20 25,000 Muslims came, and those Muslims came because there was a

famine taking place in the province of Syria in the Ottoman Empire. And so they did come for economic opportunities beginning around 1870 or so however, they kind of sort of remained to themselves they settled in Idaho in upstate New York and sections of Canada and still

We have remnants of their families. Frankly, most of the descendants of those original Muslims are no longer Muslims. And I've met a number of them. By and large, they have left Islam, they weren't able to preserve their Islam either. So the next phase very quickly, that is of great interest to us, it begins around the 1910s, to be more precise 1913, when what is called the pseudo Islamic movements began. Now, us Muslims of the quote unquote, Orthodox background were very dismissive of these movements. However, I argue that we need to rethink through the purpose of those movements, we should not judge those movements, merely on the basis of theology, we should judge those movements

also on the basis of the impact that they caused. This is not to justify their bizarre theology. This is not to excuse however, it is to say that we weigh the pros and cons. And we also look at the pros, even as we criticize some of the cons that took place back then, around 19 1900 1920. Or between this era, there was a an outburst of religiosity. There was a revivalist movement amongst African Americans. And this is displayed in a number of churches that were also born in this timeframe where African Americans they discovered a type of Christianity that is still around to this day, that is a different type that is found in mainstream Protestant churches, and they're

bringing in their culture, their heritage, along with this in this tame, same timeframe. For the very first time, movements also erupted that were not Christian. And some of them were pan Africanist. Some of them brought in some issues from, you know, the religions of Jamaica and others, and some of them a very small handful, they brought in pseudo Islamic elements. Perhaps the most famous is called or was called, the Moorish Science Temple, the Moorish Science Temple. Now, back then, Muslims were called Moors that's what they were called from Morocco Moors because Morocco was the main country that was closest to by the way, Morocco was the first country to recognize America

1776 The first country to recognize America as an independent nation was Morocco and Morocco and America actually had ties together trade treaties because again, Morocco and America are the closest from after the Atlantic. So there's a number of trade treaties that they had. And the more science temple you can call it Moorish means the arabesque or the African arabesque or the Moroccan so the more science Temple was begun by Noble Drew Ali Noble Drew Ali, and again the name it is obviously a Muslim named now he did have something called the Quran, the Holy Quran, and we have copies of this you can find them on Amazon or whatnot. This has nothing to do with our Quran. He called it the Holy

Quran, but it is a book of his own writing and whatnot has nothing to do with our Quran. They began to dress like Moroccans with the fez cap, they began to dress like Moroccans they adopted pseudo Moroccan or African names like El Shabazz became very common, the name Shabazz, became Shahbaz became very common amongst them others as well. They also are the ones who began the X at the end of their names, right, the Malcolm X Kim is going to come later on that more science Temple was the first one to begin this notion of of x. Nonetheless, their theology is not recognizable to us as Islam. They don't have sadaqa they don't have zecca. But they have elements of Islamic culture, the

dress, the garb, the Quran, Mecca, these are there. But in actual theology so noble dryly, it is very clear that he never really studied Islam, he had really no idea other than what he's reading, but he's trying his best to bring something for his people that is different than the status quo. And by the way, the more science temple, at its height, at its pinnacle, probably had Around 30,000 40,000 people, and this is in New Jersey and New York area primarily, but they were also in Detroit and Chicago. These days, the more science Temple is essentially non existent, they still have one temple left in New Jersey, and from what I know, there's Around 100 people, all of these

pretty much all of them are 7080 years old. They're the descendants of the first batch that really is just a very small group that is still clinging on, they're obviously not active anymore, and you might meet one or two, but really, they are no longer a viable movement, like they once were, they fizzled out, this movement fizzled out, the second movement that came was the most successful, pseudo Islamic movement. And we owe a lot to it. Even us here in this room, we owe a lot to what they have done and the foundation that they have laid. And of course, that movement is the so called Lost and Found a nation of Islam, the last and foundation of Islam. And this has a very, very

interesting a story which again, time is limited. I'm going to summarize in a few minutes, and one of the biggest mystery factors is we don't know much about the found

of the movement. The founder of the movement is known as foreign Mohamed Farid Mohammed Khalid Mohammed. And further Mohamed is an obscure person. People have tried to research who he was, we have a picture of him. You can find it online, we actually have two pictures a mug shot when he was arrested. And the picture that is still hung in the Nation of Islam temples to this day for Mohammed is an enigmatic figure. We don't know much about him. However, one of the most prominent theories is that for the Mohammed is the son of a Indian Muslim who migrated to New Zealand and a local lady of New Zealand they call themselves kiwis, that is the fact I'm not it's nothing it is they call

themselves kiwi. So he married a kiwi, a lady from New Zealand, and he was from India. And and this is not a conspiracy theory. I don't believe in conspiracy theories. This is as much as we know, this Indian Muslim was a follower of midazolam, Muhammad, okay, this Indian Muslim who migrated to New Zealand was a follower of the AMA D or the Qadiani movement that means the owner Muhammad, and so this son is born, and most likely His name is wildearth. And he comes to America in 19, maybe 18 or so 1918 or 1970. And he calls himself Wally from wildearth. He calls himself Wally Faro, the wireless wire is furthered something, so he calls himself you know, wildly fired. And so what, and

then eventually, you know, farther Mohammed and this person, whoever he was, first he came as a door to door salesman. But it turns out, it wasn't liquid enough, he began preaching his version of Islam, and people began following him. And one of his converts was a person who used to be a gambler drunkard, by the name of Elijah Poole, who eventually changed his name to Elijah Muhammad, Elijah Muhammad and Elijah Muhammad embraced this version of Islam in the 1920s, mid 1920s. And he followed followed Muhammad not Elijah Muhammad is

born and raised in Atlanta is an African American foreign is as we said, half most likely half Indian or maybe Afghan and half New Zealand. This is the most likely theory there are other theories as well aware the origins of Fidel because nobody knows, obviously long gone. So and he was eventually expelled because of a visa fraud or because he was caught embezzling. And so in the late 1920s, he was jailed. That's why we have a mugshot of him. He was jailed for stealing and something and then he was sent away because of the crime that he had done for Elijah Muhammad visited for the Mohammed in jail. This is according to what he said, We don't know for sure. Elijah is the one

telling us this. And Elijah visits him in jail before he's expelled. And Elijah allegedly says I know who you are. You are Allah in the flesh. And you have been sent to us, the African American community to liberate us and save us. And according to Elijah fathered said, That's right. But if you tell the people they won't accept that, but I am Allah does stuff for those who say, and you are my disciple, Muhammad. And so Elijah Muhammad, then begins took over whatever that Dawa, whatever that call was, and he began preaching a new version of whatever fraud had been doing. And he's the one who created the so called last and foundation of Islam, which was then called the Nation of

Islam, and which is then noi, the Nation of Islam, and followed by Elijah Muhammad began his calls in the early 30s. Now, this coincided with another trend and this trend, again, there is no conspiracy, you can look this up. This is very clear. And I don't do conspiracies. I really don't believe them at all. But but this is a fact. The son of

the son of midazolam, this is named Bushiroad. In the second Khalifa, we have the Khalifa is right now we have the fourth grade great, great grandson, so the son of

midazolam, Muhammad, who became the Khalifa, that Khalifa lasted from what 1918 to 1965 that over 50 years he was there Khalifa he made it a point that we need to preach the AMA D or the Qadiani theology across the globe, and he would sponsor people to go and preach and teach their version across the globe. And so he chose somebody by the name of Mufti Mohammed saw that you can look it up, we have photos of him, we have his immigration card, he chose Mufti Mohammed Sadhak, to come to New York with the explicit commandment that try to convert especially the African American community and with the Mohammed sada went with that purpose in mind fun

by that movement, we have his immigration paper, you can look this up and whatnot. And he began explicitly preaching to the and of course, not just to them everybody, but the largest following that he had was amongst the African community. Why? Because remember, this was a time of great depression. Well, it still is. But back then it was a different level. And he began preaching, if you join Islam, in Islam, everybody's equal, which is true, he took the correct things of Islam, and he mainstreamed them is like Islam as the faith tradition that from the beginning, has promised equality to all races from the beginning, doesn't matter what your race is. And of course, he's

quoting Quran and he's quoting the life of the process. He was quoting Bilal, he started a newspaper called The Muslim sunrise, we still have copies of this the Muslim sunrise, he started newspaper, the Muslim sunrise, and in this newspaper, he was giving out for free in the districts of Atlanta, and of Chicago and of New Jersey and New York that were predominantly African American. He's telling them come to my lectures and talks. And this, of course, also coincided with Elijah Muhammad's Dawa. Now, we still are trying to figure out, you know, how more of this took place, but there's clearly some connection. And one of the most obvious indications of this, by the way, is the official

translation that was and still is used by the NOI to this day is the translation that was done by the Qadiani Muhammad Ali, Muhammad Ali's Quran translation, not the boxer Muhammad Ali, there was a guy in Pakistan by the name of Muhammad Ali, that or India that Muhammad Ali translated the Quran and he was a student of Musa Holub. To this day, that translation is the official translation of the NOI. And it has always been his translation from the 1940s how, again, we're still doing some research how that causal connection takes place. But the Nation of Islam becomes one of the most successful revivalist religious movements amongst African American community and the most successful

pseudo Islamic one. Now, once again, us Muslims, we look at their theology, and frankly, it is bizarre. He's preaching stuff that is clearly coming from his imagination. It's obviously not from the Quran and Sunnah. He's preaching that 70,000 years ago, there was an evil scientist by the name of Yaqoob. And Yaqoob, was an evil person. Oh, I forgot to mention so all of mankind was black gods, basically, they were originally black gods. That's the origin of mankind, they were all black gods. One of the evil gods by the name of Yaqoob got angry got irritated, he decided to create a race of devils to cause havoc to wreak havoc in the world. That race of devils is of course, who? The white

man, right, so all white people are devils. And of course, we have videos of Malcolm saying this in his 50s. I mean, in the back in the 50s. Before it convert to mainstream Islam, all white people are devils. And they also believe that there's this mothership that's going to come take them from from Japan, some UFO is going to come and save them towards the end of times, they have some beliefs that we have to understand Subhanallah it's so easy for us to be critical. 80 years later, this message gave them a sense of dignity and hope, this message rationalized for them, how can these people be so mean to us? How can people be so inhumane the only logical explanation that appeal to them?

They're not human beings, think about what forced them to accept that bizarre theology rather than just come and criticize. And of course, we don't agree, of course, it's wrong. Think about the circumstances that would cause an otherwise rational, normal person to start believing all white people are the devil's how can they believe this, because of the circle because of the hatred because of the xenophobia because of the clear bigotry that they've been experiencing since the day they were born till the day they die. The only explanation these people can't be human. And Elijah Muhammad comes with his theology, and it all fits into place according to the world that they are

in. Also, again, so easy for us to criticize the theology. Look at the social aspect, you know, what the nation did, the nation dignified. The people who followed it, the nation required men to do jobs, required men to dress required men to get a woman to give up alcohol and drugs and gambling require men to take care of their wives don't just sleep around, no, get married, have families take care of their wives. The Nation of Islam provided jobs it was a job creating opportunity. Elijah Muhammad himself personally made sure that there's going to be a number of factories that were opened up Believe it or not, there were fish factories, there were

bean pies as well that were sold like you know, bakeries and whatnot. He provided opportunities for his people to live a dignified life to dress with dignity, to act with dignity, to marry with dignity, his people really and truly felt a sense of belonging, a sense of identity, they felt meaning in their lives, perhaps for the first time. So let's look at

that aspect as well. And that is why dear Muslims who are hamdulillah born and raised in traditional Islam, which we thank Allah for, don't forget that the Nation of Islam paved the way for large groups of people to understand and hear what Islam is to hear the name, Allah, the name Quran, the name Maccha. The Nation of Islam, of course, attracted some very, very, very high profile converts. And those converts jettison the nation to a whole different level. Of course, most prominent amongst them was Cassius Clay, Mohammed Ali, and that is no doubt the legend of American Islam as Muhammad Ali. Muhammad Ali has done more for American Muslims just because of his name. And just because of

their Is that his name has been given Subhanallah that is enough of an honor that he has done for us, Cassius Clay converted, who else converted, I mean, many people of course, Malcolm X, converted his eloquence of course, as well known. Kareem Abdul Jabbar initially also converted to the Nation of Islam. All of these great and there weren't there were there were many dozens of famous people. at its pinnacle, the nation probably had around a million followers in the 1960s. That is a huge number for the 1960s. And another point, we need to recognize the nation universally, even to this day, dear Muslims, generally speaking, has a positive reputation amongst the African American

community, not a negative one. Why? Because they're looking beyond theology. They're looking at dignity, they're looking at lifestyle, they're looking at commitment and dedication and honor, and the nation does teach and preach this amongst its followers. To this day, by and large, the African American community does have an element of respect more than just an element of risk, even if they're not a part of the nation. They recognize the nation has done an immense amount of good, and there's hardly, especially back in the 70s and 80s, an African American family except that an extended relative, a cousin, a distant uncle was a part of the nation. So they've all heard of the

Nation of Islam, and through that they have been exposed to some element of Islam. Of course, you all know that the Nation of Islam eventually fizzled out. That's because most of the people you know, they left it and of course, the Elijah, Elijah Muhammad is on lifestyle, and in particular, the great hero, the legend that we all look up to Malcolm X and may Allah subhana wa Tada blessing magenta for those el Hajj Malik Shabazz, that his eloquence and his conversion to mainstream Sunni Islam and his public breaking away. And, you know, the rumors or the legends or that the NOI are the ones that eventually assassinated him. But again, the documentary just came, I haven't looked at it.

I haven't watched a documentary but still, I mean, Allah knows who but it seems as if definitely they had a role to play. But by the way, let's not exonerate the FBI. Because the FBI and the others, they have their roles to play as well in all of this, but maybe the one who pulled the trigger was the nation but there are people that are interested in others pulling the trigger. So let's not forget that in the documentary goes into all of this stuff. The point being that the conversion of these great legends to Sunni Islam, Muhammad Ali convert to Sunni Islam, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, you know, Malcolm X they all converted to Sunni Islam and that Hamdulillah this paved the

way for large amounts and groups of African Americans too from the nation to eventually embrace soon ism. And of course, we have to we have to give thanks, and thanks a lot for the legend who really paved the way for this and that is what if Dean Muhammad, the son of Elijah Muhammad, why did then Muhammad when his father passed away in 1975, and February 22 1975, Elijah Muhammad on his deathbed, Elijah sired more than 25 children, as you know, where you should know,

six illegitimate six illegitimate sons and like 18 illegitimate and he chose out of all of his sons, what is Dean Muhammad now? What if Dean was named after Fard Muhammad because first his name was wildearth as well. So why did he was named after father the founder, the one who was there? And what is Dean was secretly a Sunni already. Why? Because of Malcolm X. Malcolm X had already spoken to wildearth explained to him your father preaches something bizarre. I've been to Al Azhar I've been to Makkah, the mainstream Muslim world doesn't believe in any of this stuff. You have to break away you have to So what is the was already in his heart. He believed in mainstream Islam. And it was

Allah's Khadir some say and Allah knows best. Elijah knew this and he actually wanted this. I don't know Allah knows, but it was Allah's kada that out of all of the sons, why did Dean was chosen and rod is Dean was already sympathetic to mainstream orthodox Sunni Islam. And so from 1975 Up until 1981, in the span of five or six years, he made it his goal to dismantle the Nation of Islam and to make his large movement join the mainstream.

A Muslim Ummah, which he successfully did in 1981. The Nation of Islam did not pray five times a day the Nation of Islam did not read the Quran. They read the Bible in English and some sections of the Quran. The Nation of Islam fasted in the month of December their own version of fast the Nation of Islam did not go for Hajj. They had a very bizarre theology. They didn't believe in the Kalima? Well, they did believe in the Kadima there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger they would say that there is no God but Allah in parentheses Fard, Muhammad, and Muhammad is his messenger in parentheses, Elijah Muhammad, so they said the kalam but neither the first nor the

second column have anything to do with us. The sun water theme Mohamed in five years, he took that massive movement and one step after another dismantling he taken on the critics until finally in 1981, he officially disbanded the Nation of Islam. And he formed the worldwide community of Islam in America, which is essentially the mainstream African American, all of the temples were converted to messages. And of course, the year after this, the second lieutenant of Elijah by the name of Louis Farrakhan, he broke away from the sun. Why did then, and he resurrected the Nation of Islam, and Farrakhan is still alive to this day, and he has a small following every year, the annual retreat

that they have the Savior's day becomes smaller and smaller. And it is my prediction that with the death of Farrakhan is already 87 years old. With the death of Farrakhan. I really cannot see this movement flourishing. It's already a very small movement, but it handled what it did was the bulk of the Nation of Islam eventually converted to mainstream Sunni Islam through the efforts, Allah azza wa jal used Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali. And why did this specially Why did the Mohammed May Allah subhanaw taala granted progenitor for those I was very, very, very honored. The year before he passed away that I shared a stage with with why did the Mohammed actually add the economic

convention. So I owe Akena, a huge gratitude when I was a fresh out of Medina Alhamdulillah, that was not known at all, but they put me on the same panel with wider dean. And it was one of my life's big honors to actually share a stage and I and he was very elderly at the time, and I shook his hand. So Danny, and I do nobody obviously, nobody knew is going to pass away. But I, I was very grateful to him at the time. And I was thankful to Allah that I was able to meet that legend what Dean Muhammad and of course, my point is, dear Muslims are going to finish up here in sha Allah. My point is that Islam in this country, would not be Islam without the contributions of African

American Muslims. And us, most of us in this audience whose ancestry comes from outside Hamdulillah. That's good, we thank Allah for that. But we should be grateful for those that have been here, way before us, those that have laid the foundations those that faced Maccha, 200 years, 300 years before we came here, the first one to raise the Advan to fast way before any of us came, were those that came as slaves to this land. And it is true to say that even though those African American slaves, our brothers and sisters were not able to pass Islam authentically down. Still, somehow it was embedded in their psyche and subconscious. Somehow, these people knew that they're not, you know,

believers have any other faith tradition, and hence, when they discovered a pseudo version of Islam, hundreds and 1000s million people embraced it, because deep down inside the fitrah told them, This isn't the true religion. So everything was better than what they were on. And what they were introduced to was a stepping stone that allowed them to then and shallot Alhamdulillah now embrace mainstream Islam. And we're very grateful to Allah that in the last 20 years, many, many bridges have been built between the two communities, still, a lot of work needs to be done. And that is very true. All of our both of our communities have talents that we can benefit from the other community.

And one other final point too shallow to Allah. And that's not about African American Islam. It's about African Americans. And it's about the civil rights and it's about the fact that many of us in this room, really and truly, we do not appreciate the struggles and I'm going to be brutally honest here Dear brothers, excuse me for being so honest here. I'm gonna say something that's a bit awkward for the audience. But it needs to be said that the fact of the matter is that most of us whose ancestry is from other lands who have been either come here or like in my case, even born here, but you know, we are coming ethnically, we're hyphenated Americans, Indian, Muslim, Pakistani Muslim. We

don't view the struggles of African Americans as being our own. I'm just being brutally honest. You're by and large, we don't view civil rights as being connected with our own history. And we're like, Okay, that was bad. Whatever happened, and that's what those guys may Allah make it easy upon them. Now, I'll tell you a personal story to conclude this this lecture, and it really made me It shook me to my core to this day, every time I think about it sends shivers down my spine. How giant I was how how how

Much of a bubble I myself was in without realizing that, you know, these, these stories are all interconnected. We're all in this together. And I remember, there was a lecture taking place in one of the national conferences. I think it was like the 50th anniversary of the MLK March or something. And so that was the theme of the conference, 10,000 people are going to be there the large conference that takes place, and I was one of the main speakers on Saturday night, and I was preparing my lecture and I'm driving to the airport to take the flight. And

I thought to myself, subhanAllah that was 1963 when the speech took place, and 1963 there was still of course, segregation. And my father who's sitting in the audience, he came here before 1962. So I said, You know what, let me call up my father. Let me ask him, this was my question. Listen, let me ask him. Maybe he remembers seeing the signs of whites this way blacks that way. You all know those signs. You've seen those signs. You've seen those signs in the pictures right whites left writes black, you know, use your that use, you know, the bus sitting in the back of the bus, the water fountain, white, black, remember those signs, right? I saw let me call up my dad, maybe he remember

seeing those signs, look at how Jai was thinking back are stupid, call him up. He's like, you know, I'm going to the lecture, there's a 50th anniversary of the MLK March, you know, is 2013. So it's the 50th anniversary? Do you remember seeing those signs? Your father said to me, seeing those signs, I had to obey them.

And the minute he said that will lie, I felt like a

like a punch to my stomach. Because in my jahana in my stupidity, I never ever thought we would be subjugated to that. Like it never occurred to me that if we had been, as my father as anybody back there work, that if we had been hated back then that that sign applies to me and you just as much as our African brothers who live through that. And he told me for the first time, I'd never known this because this is all traumatic. He began to tell me stories that happened to him and he's here you can ask him yourself, about him as a student, single young man being treated as if he is an African American, thrown out of restaurants, refuse service at diners, not able to get a hair cut. And I had

never heard that part. Because once again, let me be brutally honest here. We are being raised in a beautiful bubble of immigrant Islam. We're being raised in an isolated bubble, where we have it mashallah Tabata Cola, we have some wealth, we have some education. And we think, okay, those were struggles of other people. And these are our struggles now. And we don't realize had it not been for African Americans in the civil rights movement, how did not prefer MLK had it not been for the struggles they underwent, we would not be sitting here the way that we're sitting right now, we would not have had the education we have, we would not have had the opportunities we have, how can

we be so blind? And I was thinking to myself, how could I not have seen this? It's so self evident. But that's what happens when you have privilege, you don't recognize it. You know, we blame other communities for the blindness or their own privilege. I'll be honest here, us here, we also have our privileges. We also have our biases that we don't recognize, we have various things handed to us on a silver platter. And we don't recognize the silver platter that it is. And this is not to make us like we just make it to make us appreciate. That's really what it is. I don't want to make you feel guilty for being who you are. I want you to appreciate the sacrifices of others, the struggles of

others. And I keep on saying last point, but this isn't childhood. The last point, dear Muslims, any society that you live in Injustice is injustice, doesn't matter who it's done to vote is done. And unless and until we take our faith, and we channel it to help the oppressed against the tyrant. The profitsystem didn't have to fight for Bilal. He didn't have to, he could have said you know what? I have bigger priorities in Makkah. He didn't have to fight for Ahmad and acid and Samia. He didn't have to fight for the lowly. He could have said maybe tomorrow we'll do that. No, he didn't. Because the part and parcel of Islam is to speak out for the truth, to fight against injustice, to make sure

that this type of oppression is not tolerated. The least we can do is be aware and speak out and help out in ways that we can and all that our brothers said before, before my speech about the double standards about the imprisonment about the incarceration Subhanallah the volume is blatant watch the documentary, The double standards are just beyond it's so off

Vyas. And once again, don't think just because your skin color is brown, that you're not going to be affected. Firstly, even if you have a little bit of privileges, you wouldn't be here without the sacrifices of others before you. And secondly, it's our job if we have a slight privilege because of who we are, with privilege comes responsibility with privilege comes extra weight, that we now have some clout that we can use, and we must use to help others out who are in situations that are unfortunate, but we're all in this together. In the end of the day, when Trump wants to be bigoted and racist, he doesn't just attack one group, he attacks all of them. Muslims, immigrants, Mexico,

everybody's just lumped together. That's what happens when you have racism and hatred and bigotry, bottom line, sisters and brothers, especially those whose ethnicity is coming from other places, rather than the African American community. Thank Allah subhana wa Tada for what our African American brothers have done. And then thank them because our Prophet system said he who does not act the people does not thank a lot, appreciate what they've done. Learn history, learn the history of Islam in North America, and then get involved in ethnic communities beyond our own. Get involved. See what other people are struggling and realize, every single community can bring something to the

table, that collectively the Muslim community will be far more powerful. May Allah Subhana Allah Allah keep all of our hearts united May Allah azza wa jal save us from arrogance save us from a superiority complex May Allah subhanaw taala was to recognize the privileges that we have and utilize those privileges to the best of manners and with that inshallah duck Mala and I'll hand it back to our moderator inshallah. Tada.

So, as we conclude, I just wanted to there's a, we don't really have time for questions and answers, but I know that there's one question that's probably on on all of our minds, as Chef Yasser was saying that we have to recognize our privilege, and we have to recognize our blessings. And one of the ways that we recognize our blessings is by trying to give back to those you know, who could really benefit from our help so to you brothers, I'm pretty sure everyone here is wondering if I want to help if I want to somehow contribute anything my time, my resources, my efforts, what can I do and how can I do it? And if one of you brothers could answer the question and conclude with a dua

inshallah we'll

select so what we're focusing on right now is

trying to get establish these youth programs. So we have youth programming, I specifically work with our at risk youth. Of course, when you grow up in communities that are impoverished, you have a lot of needs, we're trying to create a create opportunities for them to have surrogates or create a village type of environment where they can have men and women who care about them who are interested in their growth and development, who want to support them in any way possible. Mentorship is a big thing. They need financial resources, school supplies, clothes, like anything of that nature. So we have a program that we've set up the educating youth,

the education, what is it the you educate youth empowerment? Thank you The educating youth empowerment system. Bobby went on a long time, my mind is just

I'm still thinking about all the stuff he said I'm like, we need to talk.

The educated youth empowerment system, or EIS is a program that we put together that essentially, we work with at risk youth. And we provide them with social emotional development, right? So we're we're building a self awareness and we're building their social awareness in the efforts of having them gayness and understanding so that they can have purpose or find out what their purpose is. And then once they come about discovering their purpose, we create pathways in which they can attain some kind of

business entrepreneurship opportunities. We're working on a summer program right now, with the brothers where we're going to teach them IT skills. We're looking into artificial intelligence,

robotics, which is a different type of gaming app building, because our community is lacking in those kinds of areas. So any support you have from you know, coming down and volunteering, mentoring, financial support, of course is always welcome. We are very grateful for anything that you can provide

from the law

So like

when I opened up earlier

I mentioned and I recited

sewer 93 And

it's like one of my favorite sewers because not only have I myself falling into each of those categories as an orphan, meaning the world we come from is quite critical. And our children as well as myself when I was growing up, we didn't quite know what that was and

that your culture has so much to do with who you are today.

And we are working very hard to re instill our culture and to our people. So you can know who you are. So it won't be so easy for you to leave your community.

The one thing that you have to your benefit

as

your people migrated here is you migrated here as a unit

and you are allowed to function in that capacity whereas

we were stolen, brought here

and then fractured. So when I look at that, I mean when I look at this sutra

is very profound in the sense that the last point to Allah provided in each one of those scenarios.

And this is what we know will do for the community because it has done it for myself on an individual basis. And we appreciate you allowing us to come and opportunity to sit and speak with our brothers and sisters. And inshallah we'll have much much time to work with each other going forward and with that I'll close

so does that mean well so on behalf obviously our brothers made this up they here they're our brothers. So on behalf of the Board on behalf of a resident scholarship he has said or ma'am our staff our complaint her staff have said and about all the community like to sit Zakouma low hidden for coming in shallot Allah so we'll have more of these inshallah Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah who want to gather