From Birmingham to Brixton, an initiative for peace comes to Black neighborhoods as Muslims seek to serve and save

By Brian E. Muhammad -Contributing Writer- | Last updated: Sep 5, 2012 - 10:24:56 AM

Light in the midst of darkness

(FinalCall.com) - In the worst economically depressed and crime ridden areas, the Fruit of Islam (F.O.I.)—the men who belong to the Nation of Islam are being received as “saints, soldiers and saviors” to the young, the old, the male and the female alike.

“I think it was a good thing; y’all opened my eyes. Y’all got me wanting to come in and y’all came out in a nice number,” said Ladarius Gaddis, a Benedict College student in Columbia S.C., after witnessing the Muslim brothers engaging community residents and distributing information in efforts to lessen tension and promote peace.

The historically Black college is a few minutes from the drug laden Gonzales Gardens Apartments visited by the F.O.I. for two successive weeks. Conditions are so bad in the complex, a 12-year resident who calls himself Stone “the Hebrew Israelite” portrayed life there as a “transit plantation” where crime and dysfunction are regular, but few people are stable and permanent.

Ms. Goodwin, an elderly tenant, was glad to see the men. The building facing the men lined up in ranks was one of the complexes biggest drug houses. For her, the F.O.I. was relief as she has struggled against the open trade since moving in.

The F.O.I.’s continued role of bringing “hope in the midst of darkness” comes in response to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s call for the Nation to engage suffering communities with love, solutions and guidance found in the teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

“It’s a beautiful initiative, to come into the community and show our Black people love, show them that we still care about them, even though the enemy left them behind,” commented David X, who was out for the first time as a fairly new F.O.I.

In cities across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, South Africa and the Caribbean, dignified Black men continue to converge on troubled neighborhoods as instruments of light, life, power—and service.

“The people were like a parched desert waiting on a cool drink of water,” said Ronald Muhammad, N.O.I. student minister in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He sees the initiative as “timely,” noting there is “a trust that only God could have placed in the people” for the Fruit of Islam.

James M. Muhammad, student F.O.I. captain at Muhammad Mosque No. 36 in Charlotte, N.C., sees a major potential impact on a city where Blacks are largely marginalized, ignored and hidden under a veneer of diversity.

“I think it would bring about a true sense of unity … pride and identity of Black people in Charlotte,” he said.

Charlotte is hosting the 17th anniversary of the Million Man March and Holy Day of Atonement on Oct. 14. Even before the Muslim men began distributing information about the anniversary event, the community likened their presence to the energy leading up to the 1995 march, said James M. Muhammad.

Alabama Magistrate and longtime N.O.I. aide Maurice Muhammad agreed. The support, cheers and love shown by the people is overwhelming, he added. “Little boys walking with the F.O.I., imitating their movements, emulating the drill formations and wanting to carry the papers and pass out flyers; the F.O.I. gives them a healthy example of manhood,” he said.

“They want to be what they see; as we strive harder to reflect the guide we have been given, by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.”

The first night out in the Southern city of Birmingham came on the heels of tragedy in the Gate City housing project where a three-year-old was accidently killed by his father and in a separate incident, a five-year-old was shot and wounded. The atmosphere was charged with mixed emotions and anger, but calm came with the presence of the F.O.I. As they fell into military formation, resident shouted, “Allah-U-Akbar, they are here,’ ” Maurice Muhammad recalled.

“It’s really a good idea—what the Minister is doing—he wants us to go to the people and let the people know that we are out to help them, not condemn them,” explained Harvey Muhammad of Muhammad Mosque No. 38 in Columbia, S.C. The 90-year-old student Minister and N.O.I. pioneer has soldiered for Islam since 1955 and said the F.O.I.’s public presence provides an example of “strength and to let them know that they can live a clean life.”

For Victor C. Muhammad, also of Columbia S.C., taking the mission to the streets means placing the ideas, program and effectiveness of the N.O.I. in the public arena of ideas.

“The community will begin to talk about the Nation and the Minister more among themselves, and eventually … into more public conversations,” he told The Final Call via e-mail.

As a N.O.I. student Prison Reform Minister, Victor Muhammad understands firsthand the urgency of plugging into the community. He serves an inmate population in a state that’s near rock bottom in education nationally, saddled with high unemployment numbers and a growing gang problem—all factors that feed the penal system.

Prisons have become big business, experts say; with a high rate of inmate recidivism showing reform is weak or nonexistent. Statistics show two million people incarcerated in America and half are Black. To activists the prison industrial complex is the “new American slavery” with a “schoolhouse to prison-house” pipeline driven by capitalist greed.

Furthermore, deteriorating socioeconomic conditions affects the poor causing a preponderance of Black on Black; Brown on Brown crime where some communities have become killing fields. With the dedicated effort to take his message to the streets, Minister Farrakhan is leading the F.O.I. into doing the work of “healing, restoring, reconciling and making whole,” a neglected uncared for people.

“He’s taken the vanguard position; he’s leading the way and showing us how to extend an olive branch of love and peace and unity and brotherhood and sisterhood to our people,” Abdul Samee Muhammad of Sumter, S.C., told The Final Call.

Historically, Muslims successfully eradicated negative conditions because of their God centeredness and only employing the weapon of truth coupled with love of self and kind. In his critical book, “A Torchlight for America,” Minister Farrakhan explains the Muslim track record of success.

“Our people respect us. We don’t go to our people with guns. We go with love and the moral imperative that appeals to their nature as the people of God,” he wrote.

The youthful 79-year-old Farrakhan has called the men out of the mosque as instruments of salvation to bring wholeness into the lives of wounded people as Jesus called his disciples into the highways and byways.

“If we can be witness bearers and also a catalyst to the people, then we can see that same spirit in them that will cause them to change their level of activity,” said Desmond Muhammad of Fort Lauderdale.

In Memphis, Student Minister Anthony Muhammad expects demands to solve problems will accelerate establishing the nine ministries advanced during the Millions More Movement. He noted the N.O.I. mission is spiritual, mental and moral resurrection of people and blessings are found in serving them. “He (Minister Farrakhan) is taking us back to our first work,” said Anthony Muhammad.

Referring to the Holy Qur’an, he said, Allah (God) gave every people their way of devotion. “Our act of devotion is the sole purpose for which we exist—to deliver our people. And we can’t deliver them if we don’t engage them.”

“It has also infused life, blood and energy into the community,” added Ronald Muhammad. Until now, people forgot what a Black man full of life and hope looked like, he added.

A universal initiative for peace

Although the N.O.I. headquarters is in Chicago, Ill., the scope of its redemption work is global with efforts in Canada, Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and South America.

For Blacks in Montreal, Canada, problems are centered on poverty, racial profiling, poor housing conditions and immigration issues, according to Mikail Yusuf Muhammad. Going into the community was a positive eye opener for the F.O.I. in the Montreal Study Group, he said.

“For some of our F.O.I., this was the first time they experienced the love that our people can have for Black men standing up for them,” said Mikail Muhammad. “The sense of knowing you can make a lasting impression with but a little of your time and some love in your heart; the sense of having a mission, it’s a milestone.”

August 31, 2012 marked Trinidad’s 50th anniversary of independence, however the island nation is beset with quality of life problems among its Black population. The Muslims have distributed DVD’s and information in several Black communities in East Port-of-Spain, Laventille and other areas led by David Muhammad, the student coordinator of the Trinidad group. Their efforts come amid heightened hostilities between law enforcement and the community over the August 21 police killing of 23-year-old Nigel Ceasar, a Laventille Painter, who was reportedly unarmed.

David Muhammad posted on Facebook, “if he was unarmed as the residents told us, this was an act of cold blooded savagery and cowardice.” However, he also addressed the tremendous Black on Black violence engulfing Trinidad and offered a counter-narrative about self-love and responsibility.

“What concerns me more is that when the police murder our youth, we get together and protest but when our youth kill each other everyone stays silent indoors and no one lifts their voice against this cycle of Black on Black self-destruction,” he wrote.

In the United Kingdom, sprawling estates in Brixton are places of danger, drugs, crime and violence for many. But for the members of the Nation of Islam’s London mosque, Stockwell Park, Myatts Field, Angell Town, Tulse Hill and other subsidized housing represent a field to work out in.

“If we don’t do what we are doing, the people there have no hope at all with being acquainted with their righteous, brilliant selves, they just have no hope from a righteous perspective unless we go,” said Hilary Muhammad, who oversees the N.O.I. in the UK as student minister of Muhammad Mosque No. 1 in Brixton.

Though Minister Farrakhan has been on the government’s banned persons list since the 1980s, his followers are devoted to lessening violence and promoting peace in the streets. The Muslim efforts include full-fledged mass outreach on Monday evenings offering information and spiritual guidance with follow-up efforts during the week. It includes bringing a word and a strong example that Black men can be and are more than criminals and gangsters.

Worldwide, the F.O.I.’s work represents service to the downtrodden that Minister Farrakhan described in the preface of A Torchlight for America. “We would like to offer the words of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, with ourselves as an example of what those words can produce, as a torchlight for America,” he wrote.

“I expect more dialogue and development of community-based agendas; the F.O.I. is serving as conduits of progress,” said Maurice Muhammad.