favorable to western paralyse and we as muslims don't see anything that is hateful at atmosphere in america well that atmosphere is being challenged every day and sooner or later if the war spreads to iran we are going to have to say something we have to say something about the suffering of the palestinians we have to the government of the united states we don't care if we are except the blue to a lot less efficient than we would hope the government would accept us by jew we have to accept this on the basis of truth and justice anything else if we compromise our faith to please you then allies displease with us one of the most striking features of the nation of islam as a movement is both it willingness and ability to work across race religion and politics to advance the position the position of oppressed people have is this long factored into that effort  didn't make any difference what religion was presented the prophet was able to reach them out of their own books i feel that in our zeal to promote islam sometimes we disrespect christians belief in the bible we know it's been tampered with but how do you say it to a christian without alienating them when i grew into a muslim house of worship if i see ok but if i say so how do i effect christians by disrespecting jesus i can't so if i respect jesus then i go into a house that is dedicated to the worship of jesus and then i gradually teach them that he was not an object of worship and then you use the words of the gun spool to prove my point so it's very hard for a christian to fight me if i'm coming out of his book and began bringing the un to verify the truth of the bible so i go into christian churches and i teach sometimes in christian churches during their eleven o'clock worship out and when i finish i mean the christians are just as happy but i have plan caribbean and i had rabbis come here and have dinner with me and they asked me would i go before the board of rabbis i said tomorrow if you can arrange it and would you come into as that power to come next then all of humanity together into one great family and all of the religions together into one great expression of faith and that's that makes him see us as combatant so how i say it is the word is slam means and time is submission to the will of god and so i say submission entirely to the will of god is the true religion of god and that's what jesus taught that's what moses taught and until we are ready to submit and talent to do the will of god we my religion but jesus taught submission and mission to the will of god and we can prove it by his very words in the gospel and that's what moves so is how you that's our effort in the eighty's you held a series of lectures titled the union of the black in the red these lectures were complemented by an effort to work with native american communities and during the upsurge in gang violence you were active in promoting  latino black alliance to confront the challenge of the gang violence between the two communities and you also travel across the world for a friendship tour to make connections between the nation and brothers and sisters of broad all these efforts point to a commitment towards building the kinds of alliances you were just talking about what are some of the challenges you faced in these efforts to build these alliances and what can these experiences teach other muslim of organizations about how to build coalitions well if it's not on this feed by the u s government and the neoconservatives that run it they don't want to see us come out of the nest em service or we're explaining so we make it a habit to go out among the disbelieving public and invite them to the month we bring them in and teach them first then prayer so i f it's have been pretty good but we have severe opposition severe opposition in our efforts across the world they have been very successful i have to say that i am very well respected in many many muslims because throughout the muslim world teachings and then we don't dial out asked for it come on let's let's talk about these things and on some occasions we've recorded  have been on television together with some of our pakistani brothers asking questions about the alija mohammed father of mohammed and our way of looking at them and it broadcasts the answers but the battle is not the but i'm hoping that has america gets more and more involved in war with muslim countries and the persecution of muslims intensified in america as it will then as muslims we have to come together to offer protection to each other when the forces in america say we don't want any i in this country as it's stirring up in your now it will stare up in america as well the nation of islam has generally been a movement for alleviating the ills in the black community in particular how successful has it been looking back on the career of the nation and your career in addressing these problems and what do you see still needs to be done the problem still remains and w culture that is so degenerate people who like the message but are not yet willing to say i'm going to give up my alcohol life my marijuana my heroine my cocaine my poor child's and i'm not willing to give up romancing the beautiful ladies and so i like the teachings they will say but am not ready there are millions that have heard the message but the world has such a pool on them that they will like it but they don't want to be transformed so with us as a handful in comparison to the number that except to be transformed by the power of  and to live in a slum a life so modern by sheer when i did an interview with him for nightly talked about the condition of black people does this mean that you have been ineffective in changing the condition of new people i said in a sense you could say that you because you can't make them muslims so i can grieve myself over the fact that my people a slow in responding to the call to islam allied himself comes and the chastisement begins to come on america and us then people start saying will work i bet it change my way and that's the way it was if we study  them the judgment of my love so in the days of no he preached the people didn't except in the days of lot insult him and gomorrah the homosexual behavior that our law said was an abomination he didn't except law so his preaching to them was a witness against them so that when the time of preaching was out and the and that's what we do but i believe that islam will be very successful in america in spite of the power of our government and the media control to poison the this is our last religion and he will make people to be muslims in his home town like other religious organizations the nation of islam has a well defined program for social and economic empowerment how successful is that program been throughout your position as the leader of the nation of islam it has been successful to a degree not as much as i would like we have mosques in studied groups in over one hundred twenty cities in the united states in great britain in france in guyana in sierra leone in south africa and whichever there is a moscow study group we try to set up a school  and we try to pool our resources for economic development we have from land in upstate new york farmland in georgia found land in michigan we try to produce food for our community we could reach the believes to go into business to supply the needs of the community and pooling their resources to do that and we're doing that all over the country but the mosque itself we have built the five million dollar restaurant that we had to close because it wasn't supported well by they shall we tend to open in a few months  business is difficult some of us are very successful and some of us are still trying to be successful but we know it's something that we must do because the come a time when the slave masters children will say to us well if you're a muslim we're not going to hire a muslim so we have to be in a position to hire each other and the only way we can do that is through economic development and we could do much better in that harry is it something that you would promote for sort of instruct other muslim communities to do the same sort of sort of activities to not just build a mosque but to actually engage in social and political or economic development absolutely i have heard that as we can go to public schools dressed as you are dressed and we don't stand out but when assistance go to public school wearing the hejab they find difficulty so it is best that when we set up a message in there we try to set up a school for our young people that they can learn in an islamic environment where it won't be so hot on the girls in particular and the boys and so we try to set that kind of an example and we encourage that among all muslims that we should set up our own schools pool our resources and set up clinics and different kinds of things to serve the needs of our people we just went to the human center yesterday you were where with you know that center from the idea of the nation of islam roosevelt california they have no strings attached they have a computer office there for brothers and sisters they have an apartment for brothers coming out of prison we say yeah you know but all of this is good and we can't do enough right so if all of us got involved and did what we could do then we could improve a lot of people our muslim community much better than we do while most political commentators are focusing on on brother obama a little attention has been given to the fact that u s congress has its first muslim congressman keith when we do need a muslim voices in congress and bless him in spite of the forces that would like to use it in a time period like this as opposed to a child that america wants and has a muslim congress they were very opposed to and it was the somali community where he lives in great number that helped to put him in office now that he's there is wisdom and skill because he wanted to take his oath of office on the run and you saw what it brought up when he used the through a pact they'll send money into your community and raise up a candidate to defeat you because you are not going along with  and the best interests of the country the nation of islam has historically been quite political however it has never entered the political arena in any formal capacity that i'm aware of is this part of an effort to keep the nation at a grassroots level or do you foresee or little of her for the future having more direct political participation well the honorable elijah muhammad kept us out of politics but he encouraged us in other ways to try to put some of our own kind into office we realize that this is some gain in politics but it's not the answer to the problem of our people so we tried to run two or three candidates out of washington d c for we have muslims now in state legislatures most of them judges muslims that are in the political fabric of the united states not  white house does this mean that the u s has progressed in terms of race and politics or is this an exception i believe that he does have a real chance but that doesn't say but even if he gets the chance he can change america's course there are too many forces that are already like leeches on him right now and one of them is a pac and all of the congressmen and senate is ice president  them and so no matter how fresh his approach is and i believe he's going to be very successful i worry it will be more of the same  with a black face and if you ever try to really use the power of his office to change the direction of this country you may end up like j f k or other presidents that were assassinated by those first says that want the president to serve the multinational corporations and the international bankers and their or was it an exception for him to get as far as he's gotten or does he see as he is a politician a black man in active in american politics reflect a genuine change in the attitudes of white america politically towards black america i do think there is a change in the had to do whites in america i think he has more grass root why black hispanic support than hillary clinton more support of young people who have not voted between the ages of eighteen and thirty five i think he is formidable and that does say that there is a change when you see young whites and you go in their homes and there's a picture of a black a on their wall so eighty percent a sixty percent of those who buy pot maybe even more young white people and the hip hop audience that generally black there is a change in the you so for a young man like barack obama who has that kind of appeal which he does i am he can really cause a great stor  in the democratic party and in the national political scene and from there in recent interviews you've used the metaphor of a prison to describe your current state what did you mean by that and what sense can you save in your free as you know i have been challenged in the general community with being anti white anti semitic anti american anti gay  and my statements changed or out of context makes me appear as that and since the media has designed a way for me to be seen that way that they wish for me to be seen as become a prison that they won't let me out on their own free will every time i have a major interview they want to ask me where you are the man called hitler great  for me because that's where they want to keep me and so i'm breaking out because white america now is getting to hear me a little different follows if they saw me as anti white i see that i am gradually beginning to break through the propaganda and even  are jewish i would call them detractors they have to back up some because the masses of my people and how many gentiles are listening to farah khan and have a different view of the whole together have you been to cuba no i haven't unfortunately my parents have a strong feeling towards castro and if so would have hindered my ability to travel there so i've traveled to other latin american countries except the one that my family comes from maybe you should go because if you love prophet mohammed for what prophet mohammed did for the poor and the we for three occasions all the way through to college free health care and even though the homes that the cuban may live in may not be to what we have in america they don't have cubans living under bridges homeless have to serve in the country rich land on it and began to share it with the peasants if prophet mohammad peace be upon him rose to power in cuba what he might do would be similar out being considerate is what job is is doing in venezuela and this is what has caused him to be negatively looked upon as addict when america has set up dictators throughout central america and even in cuba so did the multinational corporations united fruit company big gamble as the  criminal element could gain great fourth homes in cuba as long as they didn't disturb the status quo but revolution came from the little m and those who were living well unfortunately suffered because castro took away their land and some of the affine mentions and whatnot so there's a lot of hatred for him that are courting to a personal view it may feel justified but when i look at what he's done for the you would travel hoping to go to cuba and i feel that they do speak spanish yes and the generations that you know we're the first generation of people that left cuba they like white americans you know they don't see themselves in my view as the inheritors of an unjust system that came before them so they only saw like you say the personal issue of land ownership rather than the historical issue of land ownership that made it possible for such a small few to control so many let so much resources and land and so then it looks from the outside bad one agrarian then reform takes place in some ways you know my family hasn't despite their feelings they never made it a point for me to hate cuba but are castro personally and so i've had in some sense an objective look and we hope to go to cuba to look at the stomach situation but also for me to connect personally but it's been difficult because my family has that personal people and to write truthfully what you see and what you feel and bring that back for you it's you remind me but in his middle class upbringing he felt the pain and in this world anybody feels the pain of the poor is hated by the rich you know who he grew up in the nation of islam and i felt very very on it that he he's a very knowledgeable muslim and the fact that he came and was very well to see by the membership of the nation i feel that he mo than many could be a wonderful bridge builder and help us in our world toward a more perfect representation of this and for that thankful claim him sunrise and i look forward to his coming again to feel the freedom to come  to teach whatever god has lead on his heart to give us in many ways are the mosque doors open for other brothers to come and sisters to come and of course share their teachings coolants courts where do you see the nation of islam in fifty years or where would you like to see it i would like to see in every major city of america institutions and economic development i would like to see the day when opposition to islam is no more so that america can freely hear the word of islam and the beauty of this it is the only teaching that can save america from itself islam is the only teaching that can make black and white and brown and red and yellow family christianity as it is now i don't think can accomplish that but i it's not a dad to be is a world has systems economic system political system judicial system i would like to see how way of islam established in every fall and not just a mosque we pray or a school where we go to become educated but then our way he becomes the way our law becomes the law fifty years from now we could be a long way down the toward that and what this period after nine eleven gives us is an opportunity to say to the world this is what is this is how we relate in the context of america though there are differences we refuse to shed each other's blood we are progressive muslims have imagine what america would look like if millions of people didn't get drunk how many accidents with their be on the highway with no drum muslims don't use drugs what would america look like if ten million americans to smoke marijuana drink alcohol eat pool fornicating commit adultery do violence to one another we could transform this nation and it doesn't take a lot to set good example and i think we have an opportunity in america to provide a good example for the american people  our readers in fact we have lots of immigrant communities that their kids have come were raised in the identity of this but for them embrace islam isn't isn't the kind of empowering identity that we had coming in and so what would you offer for to the as a lesson from your experience to the immigrant community of how to help their youth who are strained from islam and are hiding it in a sense because of the post nine eleven says context  i think as muslims we need reform i traveled in the muslim world in certain countries of africa the men were in the mines and the air condition circumstances the women were in the  prostate prostrating in the dirt is not something i read about this is something i experience when we went to we were in a building and as men we were in the air conditioned lunchroom the women were having lunch on the roof of that building mines in some societies of muslims their culture has all become the culture of islam women come to the men come and bring the religion back home to the women in this day of enlightenment where women all over the world are revolt against the standards set by men that are not according to god how do muslim women feel and if a muslim woman is dissatisfied with the way she was treated in islam how does she effect or shielding so when the children grew up in a house she's put in a position where she feels inferior the children grew up watching us so out of the way of islam from the islamic world coming into the context of america and you're trying your best to hold on to the culture but not providing all of the  for true expression in the children of you some what a shame you want to hide their religion and gradually go away from islam so sometimes when they meet us and we grew up as christians we grew up doing everything of evil that this world does and they see us taking on a change now and want to live  how we promote islam in a home in the society and how we make our children a part of an islamic environment that is vibrant that you allow your children to do things and then we can give an example i was a young muslim i thought that the life of malcolm x would be a great movie and i went to one might get deathly unfortunately he was out of the city correct or you're a culture lead incorrect and so many muslims feel big culturally correct but if you search the koran you can not find a justification for how they carry out these  to kill your daughter because she has a boyfriend when you can't turn on your television or anything without seeing sexually explicit movies fi we really need to find a better way to protect our young people then what we do so i think in answer to your question we really need to sit down and dialogue because this world is eating up on children because it offers them what we don't all avenues of taking sports baseball basketball football is a sport oriented world and i know a muslim who let his daughter run and she dressed as a muslim and ran and won i was so proud he allowed his daughter to express a gift that got us through college and she never strayed from her islamic growing up because she had some freedom of expression  i think there are many things we could do within islam to give greater freedom to our young people greater freedom to ourselves but always within the context of the limitations in a way that you could go anywhere in the dumper the muslim world and feel comfortable as muslims you find us in the islamic world living any slamming line without the threat of death of the shouting he really did us like that america that we live that long and we are so strong as muslims then we force them to respect our way if you heard of the amish people  they have their way it's very well respected they just don't do what the rest of the world does and they're happy in what they do and how they live their lives you i really appreciate you coming in time i've been here since thursday i've been living in amman jordan for just a little over a year with my wife and i want to do research there for my doctorate and we just got caught up what we really want to come back here we feel my wife was born in algeria but she came here when she was three and she's very strongly american she's discovered from being over there and i too that discovered that and like you were saying that this was not just to be aired or clothing we've discovered that i had an idea about it being over there i've discovered like you're saying that this is truly beyond what we present in terms of our physical appearance and i think that shiloh we have a bright future in the united states because we have a freedom to do few more things and we can't do in other places maybe