Many times the empty wagon makes the most noise. The Prophet(S.A.W) was once asked why did evil grow he replied because the good men let it. To you young Lions I like your spirit,prepare to wage physical War against even our own who would destroy our youth. You may think Im the crazy Uncle in the attic, but the real slave master is not moved by right or morality

I would like for you to know, dear brother, that I was happy to hear that Minister Farrakhan and Reverend Jackson spoke at the funeral for the young brother ( high school student) who was beaten to death “neo-Klan” style by a group of obviously deranged black youngsters who, these days, also use camera phones to record lewdness and contemporary madness–violence, group sex, and whatever they think is in vogue along a continum of American immorality–in Chicago. There are quite a few of these brothers whose names we never read about.

A public intiative should be announced by the Black-American Muslim community to work with other progressive leadership with the black community to deal with black-on-black violence. Patrols, workshops, community lectures, and other means shoulf be undertaken. This is a major issue and has national implications.

I have been listening to Minister Farrakhan for over 35 years. So, I am well aware of his speeches and thoughts.

I am saying that the Black-American Muslim community needs to have an “internal discussion” about where it is going and what it needs to do as it relates to structural issues impacting black life–indeed American–across the board.

Right now, as far as I can see, they are not doing what they need to so in terms of the larger structural upliftment of black folks within black communities across the board. In other words, all the saber rattling and the “Muslims-know-best” sense of superiority has to be addressed for the common good of our people.

Solutions? Brother: men and women far more erudite and intelligent than I am have outlined all of this generation after generation and the American Negro, in all of his/her incarnations, like a bad psycho-social cancer, just does not seem to get these basic lessons.

We still cannot work together as a people even with the blessing of Islam. Look at the battles Imam W.D Mohammed had to fight for much of his life trying to address folks under his leadership who still did not grasp the importance of his social and economic programs and, instead, throught it was better to walk around in robes and dresses.

I heard a white commentator say this morning on the television program THIS WEEK that “America is no longer a superpower.” That’s a hell of a statement and should, at bottom, be cause for alarm among a people who have been historically expendable no matter what their religious affiliation happens to be in America.

If the men within the Black-American community cannot stand up and make an attempt to curb the senseless violence where we live, well, we might be extinct in the next 100 years.

We have to go back to basics: education, industrial training, business development, family formation, and how to eat to live.

That’s it.

The current president (President Obama) is catching hell and, in fact, black folks as a whole will catch ancillary hell as these people rise up to curtail him–meaning: the blacks.

The backlash is already in the works. Sometimes, it is better to hold the position of advisor to Caesar than to become Caesar. Certain Ethnic groups in this country have played this political hand quite well.

Of course, the larger rhetoric of the 1960s is no longer applicable given a number of variables in American life–but, we do need to take what worked from that period and the ensuing years and take one last stand in America in terms of making our individual and collective lives better.

Ghandi indicated that the creater comes to a hungry man in the form of a loaf of bread.

Unemployment, under-employment, struggle, and lack of resources is not new to the Black-American community. But, as this nation undergoes major change, it seems to me that the Black-American Muslim community should join hands with other groups for the improvement of life circumstances on the ground and not make the mistake of the 1960s and sit on the sidelines while the preachers undertake work that lead to real structural changes in the black community and America as whole. Read Martin Luther King’s Speech: ” A Knock Before Midnight.” He lays out a critique of complacent religious leadership.

I wish you peace, brotherly love, and prosperity.

Every Sunday, The Holy Nation Of Islam broadcast live lectures from Mosque Maryam , I do not recall one speech condemning what so-called sect of Islam, they adhere to or whether they are Christian. Has Islam failed, NO We need to to a better job in representing what We feel is the word of God to the people.

“SELF IMPROVEMENT THE BASIS FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT” Have any of You My highly intelligent Black family ever read this? If so what do you think? I know you Brothers will find some way to tear it apart for You can address the problems We suffer from, Yet you have not uttered one word in what We as a whole can do are “What You As A Enlightened Child Of GOD Are Doing.’

My experience trying to be a dignified black man in America was–and remains–traumatic. It has nothing to do with Islam in America.

I do not think I am using far out examples at all, nor am I demoinizing hadith or sunnah. Period. That’s an implied and outlandish contention.

I am simply outlining the on-the-ground-reality of our people in this country and, more imporantly, where I live. That’s all. And I am glad that I was able to communicate my thoughts after all of these years.

We are all, in the end, veterans of one war or another–the most paramount of which is to be better human beings within the context of our situation in America which, I might add, is no picnic. (I’m not, for the record, trading places with most of our African brothers and sisters either, who, in many cases, are dealing with madmen leading their nations.) I pray for them daily. Colonialism exacerbated by corrupt “Swiss bank socialism” African leaders is hard to deal with.

I do not subscribe, at this hour, to any ritualistic notion of religion–which is to say: I believe, as Kahlil Gibran indicated, that “your everyday life is your religion”–what, in essence, you do, and, at bottom, how you raise your family, treat your felllow man, and build your community and nation.

There are aspects of the old NOI and the community under the late Imam W.D. Moihammed that I certainly appreciate; but, I would never again join any organized community of religious believers.

As far as I am concerned, there are far too many Muslims (Black-Americans) who fought in far too many wars, as you put it, and still fail to understand that we have to fight a larger battle–the ongoing need to dignify our folks in this country (America). The Black-American Muslim community is not living in isolation. And this requires a great deal of thinking and the ability to take off the blinders.

I was never a church goer to begin with. I came to the late NOI mainly because of the political and social uplift message and evolved accordingly when Imam Mohammed assumed leadership. I took issue with the “robot” mentality among far too many brothers and, furthermore, the idea that non ” royal-family” folks” (the believers as they were called) had not right to express their opinion.

The Black-American Muslims have to follow their religion in accordance with Universal Islam. That’s great and understandable; but, when I cannot walk outside my door at night in a black neighborhood or when I see savagery and lack of civilization raised to an art form in black communities (where a good number of Black-American Muslims live) and see, at bottom, a disconnect from addressing these conditions from the very people who should be addressing them, I think we are confusing the larger dynamic of religion–which is to give and sanctify and purify life. It is not, to my way of thinking, narcissistic religious escapism.

The good people, who are the majority in black communities, are held captive to the ignorance of a few internally and systematized lack of economic, educational, and social development from external forces. If the Muslim community does not represent the last hope, in practical terms, who does? But, this realization requires deep dialogue and a reality check among the Muslims. Why? They have become part of the problem–the social and moral corruption.

And, if dear, brother, you think that our people are not becoming increasingly isolated, I suggest that you read the newspapers around the country a great deal more. For me, the greatest blessing is not to believe in fairy tales. America, comparitvely speaking, is a great country. It is also a country that has done a lot of dirt here and abroad.

In short, I’ve fought to maintain my dignity as a Black-American man right inside this nation–and am not sure if I would walk across the street to defend this nation let alone in Asia–and just believe, to be honest, that the Black-American Muslims have failed our people in contemporary America. Period.

So, if you engage in a bit of gumshoe empiricism–which goes far beyond the notion of “trauma”–either the logical and sensible ideas of W.D. Mohammed, related to social and economic development of our people vis-a-vis logical human development were destroyed through an updated COINTELPRO program–cultural, idealogical, or religious, etc.–or the Black-American Muslims ended up with a disproportionate amount or prayer rugs, religious rituals, and not much else. There has to be an explaination.

Why? Even with the blessing of Islam, as you so rightly and eloquently put it, Black-Americans (which includes those in the Muslim community, some of whom have become reverse “closet Negroes) are still “trying” to come to terms with the psychic beating (ongoing I might add) that Black-Americans have been subjected to in America– an observation and characterization that goes far beyond the cliche of “victimization” and, in the process, requires an systematic examination of the social psychology of our people who, by the way, have had more great leaders rise from among them than you can count (including Imam W.D. Mohammed), and still, in circa 2009, are incapable of working together, building their communities, and raising their children–look at the fragmentation of the contemporary black family!–in such a way that we–as Black-American Muslims, Chrisitians, Jews, etc.– are part of the social fabric of this country (America) as power brokers and a group to be reckoned with.

Love you brother

P.S. I Earned the right to feel this way being a veteran of two wars. While tramping through swamps in Southeast Asia and tramping through the Red Clay in Georgia fighting with the Kluers over family Land

You remember the old television program back in the early 1970s–”Gilligan’s Island?” A number of white folks from various social strata were shipwrecked on an Island. They had to deal with their differences and learn/create a technology for survival.

Well, dear brother, let’s assume that we are all trapped on “So-Called Negro Island,”which was recently renamed “I Am Trying To Be A Negro As Fast As I Can Island,” right?

You have to assess the situation immediately and then go to work. The longer we take to take strategic ACTION, well, the less our chances for survival, let alone recovery to real normal and dignified life.

We know the work that needs to be done. We all know this. But, we have to come together, despite our differences, to get the vital work of rebuilding our communities.

We will sit here another 50 years splitting the difference over who is practicing Islam according to the hadith and sunnah or who has the finest oil on their red-dyed beard or custom made robes and imported sandals. Meanwhile, the neighborhoods that we live in are more dangerous than Iraq!