The Final Call

Saviours' Day 2020: Back to the root! Nation of Islam convention to draw thousands to Detroit Feb. 21-23

By Starla Muhammad -Managing Editor- | Last updated: Feb 5, 2020 - 10:10:54 AM

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DETROIT—The city of Detroit is once again preparing for the “Crowning Event of Black History Month”—Saviours’ Day, the annual Nation of Islam convention. This year’s gathering is Feb. 21-23 at the TCF Convention Center (formerly Cobo Center) and will draw thousands of Muslims and non-Muslims from around the country and world for a full weekend of workshops and activities with the culmination being the highly anticipated keynote message of guidance delivered Feb. 23 by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan titled, “The Unraveling of a Great Nation.”

The Executive Council of the Nation of Islam, Muslims from Muhammad Mosque No. 1 in Detroit and support staff are working diligently around the clock in preparation to make Saviours’ Day 2020 one of the best and greatest ever.

Saviours’ Day marks the birth anniversary of The Great Mahdi and God in Person, Master W. Fard Muhammad born February 26, 1877 in the Holy City of Mecca. This mysterious man from the East came to North America by himself and made himself known in 1930 in a poor area of Detroit called “Black Bottom.” There he went door to door, peddling silks and teaching poor and suffering Black people about their brothers and sisters in the East and of the greatness of who they are as the Original people of the planet. Master Fard Muhammad began the process of restoration and resurrection of a people who have been abused, influenced, molded and destroyed by a wicked enemy for over 460 years through chattel slavery, Jim Crow and unjust government policies and practices that still continue.

It was in Black Bottom that Master Fard Muhammad met, raised and cultivated a Georgia-born Black man named Elijah Poole, teaching him for three years and four months before eventually selecting him as his Chief Minister and giving him the name, “Karriem” then “Muhammad.” In Detroit, Master Fard Muhammad raised over 25,000 Black people and gave all of them “Holy Names or Islamic names.”

“He came alone. He began teaching us the knowledge of ourselves, of God and the devil, of the measurement of the earth, of other planets, and of the civilization of some of the planets other than earth,” explained the Hon. Elijah Muhammad about his teacher in his book, “Message to the Blackman.”

“I asked him, ‘Who are you, and what is your real name?’ He said, ‘I am the one that the world has been expecting for the past 2,000 years.’ I said to Him again, ‘What is your name?’ He said, ‘My name is Mahdi; I am God, I came to guide you into the right path that you may be successful and see the hereafter,’” wrote Elijah Muhammad.

This year marks 90 years since the establishment of Islam in the West with the coming of Master Fard Muhammad which makes this Saviours’ Day even more special, observed Student Minister Ishmael R. Muhammad, national assistant to Min. Farrakhan and a son of Elijah Muhammad.

“The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam is happy and proud to return to the city of our birth and establishment as the Nation of Islam. We celebrate the birth of a Saviour and commemorate 90 years of the Nation of Islam,” said Student Min. Ishmael Muhammad.

“Detroit is a very special, special city. Not just because the Saviour made his appearance there, and from that city, made himself known; and from that city, he found the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and made him his Messenger, Messiah; but the city of Detroit represents not only the Mecca of the Nation of Islam, but it is the Mecca for Black America,” said Student Min. Ishmael Muhammad.

“To return 90 years later, and the chapter of the Qur’an, the 90th chapter is entitled ‘The City’ and it’s speaking about Mecca in Arabia. The fact that we are returning on the 90th anniversary, if you will of the Nation of Islam is very significant,” he added.

The Muslim Program and establishing a Nation

Attendees at Saviours’ Day 2020 can expect a full slate of workshops and sessions centered on “The Muslim Program” of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad found on the back page of each edition of The Final Call newspaper. Freedom, justice and equality is a demand and right of every human being on the planet, regardless of their color, explained Student Min. Ishmael Muhammad. “The U.S. Constitution does not confer these principles. Every human beings’ birthright is freedom, justice, equality, so the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan wants to put the Muslim Program as the focus of all of the workshops that will take place on Friday and Saturday,” he added.

Workshops will include sessions on real estate development, land acquisition and agriculture; disaster preparedness, How to Eat To Live, mental and spiritual health, courtship and marriage, international affairs, NOI Prison Reform ministry, the human and sex trafficking crisis and various aspects of the Nine Ministries of the Nation of Islam.

Like previous years Mother Khadijah Farrakhan’s Children’s Village, NOI Historical Exhibit, Vending and Drill Competition are back. Jumu’ah, the Islamic congressional prayer service, will be held on Friday, Feb. 21. Excitement is also in the air anticipating the third annual FOI and MGT graduation for newly registered members of the Nation of Islam. For the first time in several years Student Minister Dr. Ava Muhammad, national spokesperson of Min. Farrakhan will broadcast her “Elevated Places” radio show in front of a studio audience on Thursday, Feb. 20 from the TCF Center.

A Black History essay contest for Detroit Public School students is also being organized. Detroit students are encouraged to write about a leader in Black history that has made a significant contribution to the liberation struggle or to the advancement of Black people and the world. It is also in the works for some of the students to come to the convention on Friday as a field trip to participate in a Youth Summit.

Fruit of Islam member puts up an advertisement for Saviours’ Day 2020.

Anticipation is brewing for The Final Call 40th Anniversary Banquet on Friday night, Feb. 21 recognizing and celebrating the award-winning independent Black-owned newspaper founded in 1979 by Min. Farrakhan.

“Black people need a voice, guardian, watchman and someone who will stand and point out dangers and contradictions we face while calling us to unity, to account, and to the message of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad which Min. Farrakhan has been delivering almost 45 years in the absence of his teacher,” explained Final Call Editor-in-Chief Richard B. Muhammad.

A central part of delivering that message is The Final Call newspaper, observed Editor Muhammad. “This dinner is an opportunity for us to celebrate what we have done. To really show appreciation to all of those who have worked and sacrificed; to our readers who have supported us and to the man whose vision, whose ethic and a man who mortgaged his home to get us started. We have the opportunity to pay homage to all of these workers in the cause of Allah (God). It’s going to be a great night. We think everyone should be there,” he said.

One of the focal points of the weekend will be a major town hall themed: “The Black Man and Woman Must Consider Separation,” on Saturday, Feb. 22 at The Shrine of the Black Madonna. It will be the 20th town hall meeting the Nation of Islam has held around the country since mid-2018 on this subject taken from the teachings of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad as the best and only solution for Black people in America and their open enemy.

The difference in this Saviours’ Day town hall from the previous gatherings is the title, explained Student Min. Ava Muhammad. It will truly be a town hall meeting and “not a lecture,” she stated.

“It is significant to note that when we began the town hall meetings, this theme was in the form of a question: ‘Should Black people consider separation?’” said Student Min. Ava Muhammad. However recently, Min. Farrakhan revised the theme from a question to a declaration, she continued.

“The Executive Council had been using the question form and he changed it. He said ‘Sister, Ava, we are beyond the time when we can be asked that question. We, you, have no choice but to consider separation. It is separation or death,’” she said, reflecting on the Minister’s guidance.

“We’re witnessing the fall of America in every aspect of life. The political infrastructure is crumbling in front of us, as we see through this impeachment trial of President Trump. Economically, the United States is crumbling. She exported all of her manufacturing over the last 40 to 50 years. And manufacturing is the heart of any economy and making jobs,” she added.

We as Black people do not feed or educate ourselves, provide our own housing or own land and we can never have independence without land, continued Student Min. Ava Muhammad.

“It is time for us to discuss where, when, and how we are going to lay claim to some of this continent that we made wealthy and powerful. The town hall meetings are not religious based. They are based on the common history, the common ancestry and the common experience of the 40 to 60 million descendants of slaves in America,” she explained.

“Detroit, Michigan, is statistically the Blackest, large city in the United States, in terms of the Black population. It is also where the Nation of Islam was founded, and it is near and dear to our hearts. We want the Black people of Detroit to come out and discuss this issue of taking control of our own destiny. It makes no sense at all that we should be the majority in a city and have no say so in the distribution of wealth and revenue and that we can be moved about at will, without having any input into the quality of our own lives.”

The town hall will include a panel of experts from around the country. “We want everyone out,” said Student Min. Ava Muhammad.

Preparation and planning

The Muslims in Detroit are looking forward to hosting another Saviours’ Day in the city, said Student Min. Troy Muhammad of Muhammad Mosque No. 1. The FOI from Detroit and the Central Region have been canvassing the city, distributing flyers, going door to door and spreading the word. Billboards have been erected and word of mouth is spreading. Student Min. Troy Muhammad has visited nearby cities including Flint, Mich., and Cleveland, Ohio to coordinate busses from surrounding areas to bring people to Detroit for the Minister’s Sunday keynote message.

(L) Fruit of Islam from Chicago and Detroit spread the word about Saviours’ Day 2020 and pass out The Final Call newspaper. (R) Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad with Student Minister Troy and supporters in Flint, Michigan.

“I just am so thankful the Believers are coming back. We want to welcome them,” said Student MGT Captain Missy Muhammad of Muhammad Mosque No. 1.

“The spirit of God is here, and we can feel it. Detroit has been truly affected by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. It’s no resistance in selling tickets, everyone is excited,” she said.

With everything happening in the U.S. and abroad, people are particularly anxious to hear from Min. Farrakhan, said Student Min. Troy Muhammad.

The political chaos that continues to grip America, racist attacks by angry Whites on Black men, women and children, police abuse and fratricidal violence plaguing Black communities, is happening daily. The mask of civility of Whites continues to slip as Blacks and non-Whites are being scapegoated for America’s problems. According to a January report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Blacks while making up only 13 percent of the U.S. population make up nearly 50 percent of the homeless population.

The country is losing alliances and friendships from other nations as Mr. Trump’s foreign policy moves generate chaos and confusion. The fallout from the targeted assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani earlier this year and the administration’s controversial Israel-Palestine peace proposal have done little to quell a growing uneasiness with Mr. Trump’s leadership and direction of the country. There is concern his impeachment but subsequent acquittal by the U.S. Senate will embolden and inspire more dictatorial-type actions from the commander-in-chief.

“Detroit has always been a city where the people respond to the voice of the Minister because this is where Master Fard Muhammad came. It says that he left, and he had 25,000 followers. Those followers’ families are still here. You see the holy names all over the place and you can trace certain families back to being a part of that. It’s always a special thing to have the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan in Detroit. It’s very special to have Saviours’ Day in Detroit,” said Student Min. Troy Muhammad.

“It’s a big time. A lot of things are going on. Even the Arab community wants to hear when it comes to what just happened with the assassination of their leader in Iran. They want to hear from the Minister because it seems as though he’s the only voice that they (Arab and Muslim world) have. I’ve talked to many of them about that. … You know people look to the Minister as an authority on these things. He’s the one who gives us clarity and understanding on a lot of these issues.” For more information on Saviours’ Day 2020 visit www.noi.org.