Saviours’ Day Program A Homecoming Celebration

By Askia Muhammad -Senior Editor- | Last updated: Feb 21, 2017 - 3:18:31 PM

(CCW L-R) Brenda Jones, Nuri Muhammad, Bert Johnson, Terra Defoe, Willie Wilson, Ahmed Salih, Jeffrey Muhammad

DETROIT (Joe Louis Arena)—Like every other activity during Saviours’ Day 2017, the program leading up to the keynote address by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan did not disappoint.

(L) Ishmael Muhammad (R) Troy Muhammad

At 2:00 p.m. sharp, Student Minister Jeffery Muhammad from Mosque No. 2 in Chicago stepped to the podium to open the meeting on time, just as Nation of Islam meetings have been opened on time since Master W. Fard Muhammad founded the Nation in this city in 1930, with the greeting words of peace in Arabic—As-Salaam-Alaikum—and with prayer.

Student Minister Troy Muhammad, leader of Mosque No. 1 here, welcomed attendees with a story which brought joy and tears. One year ago at this time his father passed and he feared that his mother would be lost to drug abuse. His last resort was to introduce his mother to Minister Louis Farrakhan and to ask for his prayerful intervention with her.

“The next day she said on Facebook, ‘I felt like I met with Jesus,’” Student Minister Troy Muhammad told the cheering audience. “I told her, ‘You did meet with Jesus.’ She has not picked up a drug since she met with the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.”

A proclamation from Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan was presented by his assistant Terra Defoe, welcoming the convention “home” to Detroit. “The future is ours,” Ms. Defoe declared.

The city of Detroit welcomed the Nation of Islam, visitors, guests and supporters for Saviours' Day 2017. Photo: Final X

Brenda Jones, President of the Detroit City Council delivered remarks, a proclamation she authored, and exciting news that an intersection on Linwood at Puritan St. would be designated with a new street sign “Tynnetta Muhammad Avenue,” to honor Mother Tynnetta Muhammad, the late wife of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and Detroit native.

In July 1930 when the Nation was born, 149,111 Black people lived in the section of town called “Black Bottom.” Today, nearly 87 years later the Black population has multiplied, and spread over the entire city. Now, Ms. Jones said, 562,949 Blacks live in the city of 677,116, amounting to more than 83 percent of the city’s population. She urged Nation of Islam members to resettle in Detroit again.

“When the Nation of Islam comes home,” Ms. Jones said, “crime goes down. Come home to Detroit and help us build.” Nation of Islam members should consider moving to the city and purchase a house, or purchase more than one house here, where real estate prices have long been depressed, even under-priced, the Council President advised.

Representing the broader Muslim community, Imam Ahmed Salih, chair of the Imam’s Council of Michigan described the joy he and other Islamic leaders felt during a “mesmerizing and magical halal meal” and evening of conversation with Minister Farrakhan. He warned that the brutality against Black people around the world, where “terror factories” manufacture “homeland in-security” is not in any way “Christ-like.”

The dinner conversation and hearing Min. Farrakhan’s “comforting words,” renewed Imam Salih’s “faith, resilience, and divine optimism,” and would have the effect of “turning all of us into activists,” said Imam Salih.

The Rev. Willie Wilson is pastor of Union Temple Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., and said that he celebrates the 40th anniversary of his friendship with Min. Farrakhan. “How did a Muslim and a Christian stay together for 40 years? We stand together on Truth for all God’s children,” he said.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan arrives on stage at the Joe Louis Arena, Feb. 20. Photo: Michael Muhammad

All around the arena—the first and only major city sports stadium in this country named in honor of a Black athlete—the signs of Nation of Islam progress in filling all the skilled audio, visual, and production positions to make the day’s program go over smoothly were filled with both female, as well as male N.O.I. members. Muslim still photographers, videographers and Internet and broadcasting technicians recorded and distributed the event for worldwide distribution.

Even the principle of charity generated a buzz throughout the audience as Student Minister Nuri Muhammad of Muhammad Mosque No. 74 in Indianapolis saluted the “freedom fighters, martyrs and revolutionaries” of the past, including Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and included the Nation of Islam leadership of today. “If it weren’t for the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan,” standing up and re-establishing the teachings of Mr. Elijah Muhammad, “there wouldn’t be any us,” said Nuri Muhammad.

As the anxious audience awaited Minister Farrakhan, who entered the stage at precisely 3:00 p.m., Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad, the son of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad and Mother Tynnetta Muhammad spoke and prepared the crowd.

“God’s physical presence among us has been made known,” said Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad who is also the “Spiritual Son” of both his father and Min. Farrakhan serving as the latter’s National Assistant, prepared the audience. Min. Farrakhan is “here to announce today, the end of the (White man’s) world, and the beginning of a new reality,” as the Muslim leader mounted the stage to a thunderous ovation.

The Final Call