October 22nd - November 4th, 2010
20 | CIVIL RIGHTS
Presidential Non-Answers: A Townhall With Obama By Azam Ikramullah On October 14th, I had the privilege of attending a town hall with President Obama sponsored by BET, CMT and MTV. The town hall, entitled, “A conversation with President Obama,” aired live at 4 PM on all three networks. The studio audience was made up of 230 young students from all races, ethnicities and religions. This was not the only town hall Obama has held in the lead up to the November 2nd general elections, in order to enthuse the Democratic base and demystify the fear, uncertainty and doubt about Obama’s decisions the past two years. President Obama took questions from the audience, which ranged widely from education to cyber-bullying to social security reform. Unfortunately, the scope MISTAKE >> continued from pg 19
leader Louis Farrakhan to be a member of and the featured speaker for their coalition and moreover having his people dictate the venue, they have opened a Pandora’s box which they will discover is impossible to close. It is an issue much graver than taking a stand as Pakistan did years ago with the Qadianis. As American Muslims, we stand by the shore awaiting a tsunami. News travels quickly in the 21st century - do not think other groups have not taken notice of this meeting. The door is now wide open to accept not only the Qadianis but also the Ismailis, Bahais etc. as ‘brothers in faith’. This is not an outlandish possibility, since the NOI still advertises the Qadiani translation, tafseer and aqeedah on their website. What some people do not realize, is that Farrakhan is not a Muslim, but rather he is a heterodox, esoteric Batini who for over 55 years has masqueraded as a Muslim. He publicly maintains the same pantheistic, esoteric doctrines as that of his teacher, Elijah Muhammad, and uses any opportunity he has to restate his conviction to Elijah’s teachingsincluding his speech before CAAM!
of questions tended to be exclusively domestic; neglecting the serious questions Obama has to answer for when it comes to his foreign policy. In addition, it seemed as though many of the questions were simply a regurgitation of questions asked every day. And, the questions that were unique were met with standard political jargon. After the event, one questioner was asked if they thought the President answered her question; her response was that after she got over the shock of actually conversing with Obama, she realized that he didn’t really answer her question. And I believe statements like that best describe the MTV event. One moment that stood out to me was the President’s response to a question regarding race relations by Kishor Nagula. After pointing out the controversy over Arizona’s immigration law, the Islamic
It was Elijah Muhammad, who declared up to his death in 1975, that he was, ‘the Messenger of Allah,’ and that Allah was a man. According to Elijah, Allah had a father named Alfonso and a Jewish mother named Baby Gee. Elijah said the Hereafter is now and all black men are angels. One of these angels he claimed, was named Allah, who appeared in human form on the streets of Detroit, Michigan in July of 1930. Farrakhan to this day, teaches this same doctrine- ‘Yacub’s History’ as is evidenced on pages 45-52 of his study guide on his website.
Elijah explained this concept in detail in his books, “Message to the Blackman” and “The Fall Of America.” He taught that blacks were originally “moon people” and that a UFO “mother wheel”, piloted by 13 youths perpetually orbited the earth, waiting to unleash global destruction on whites, while rescuing all blacks. The UFO inspiration doctrine even caught the eye of mainstream media. At the time of the 1995 Million Man March, Farrakhan alleged he had a, “vision of being swept into a UFO that took him to a larger mothership.” While in the UFO, he claimed to have spoken to the late Elijah Muhammad before being beamed back to earth. (The Washington Post, Sept. 18, 1995, p. D3). On nationally televised Meet the Press, Tim Russert questioned
cultural center in Manhattan and other issues, Nagula asked the President, “What’s happened?” And, while Obama made a good point that race relations get worse during tough economic times, he ended by saying the “trend line” is looking good. I know a lot of Muslims around the country who don’t feel like the trend line is looking up for them. In fact, the trend line is starting to accelerate in the downward position. And while America isn’t banning Islamic dress like France, many Muslims are attacked physically or verbally every day in this country simply for believing in Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him). This event can best be described as a missed opportunity for the President and, indirectly, the Democratic Party. Instead of simply repeating old rhetoric, the President should have used this event as a
call to action, because if drastic measures are not taken, Democrats will lose many seats in both the House and Senate. And I don’t want that, and neither should you, because as bad as it may be, it will only be worse with Republicans in control. And while I didn’t have an opportunity to ask the President a question, I did have the privilege of shaking his hand after the show ended. As he was walking towards me, I debated what to say to him. I could have simply exchanged some pleasantries, but this could be a once in a lifetime opportunity. So as we shook hands I said to him, “we have to help the Palestinians.” And as he was moving on, he said to me, “I’m working on it.”
Farrakhan about Yacub’s History and the UFO concept, to which Farrakhan replied, ‘I subscribe to every word the Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us.’ (April 13, 1997)
of the shahada- that is, it is a NEGATION and THEN an affirmation. One must first NEGATE (LA ILAHA), before affirming belief (IL ALLAH). To invert this basic precept as some have done, is unheard of even among the most lax of the Muslims. Thus when he remarks in his opening CAAM address, ‘..we believe in all of His prophets, and make no distinction between them.’ Since Farrakhan is an esoteric Batini, he is by default INCLUDING Elijah AMONG those prophets. Only by ignoring the aforementioned principle can Farrakhan and his like slip by unnoticed and manage to camouflage themselves as Muslims.
Years ago a brother said, “Farrakhan’s ideology is the same as Pharaoh. This is not part of Islam, a form of Islam or anything which could move incrementally toward Islam. This is the din of Shaitaan. It is absolutely diametrically opposed to the very foundation of Islam. In fact, the Nation of Islam is the move on the part of the Kuffar against Islam ever developing a foothold in the US. You seriously underestimate your enemy. They are much deeper and more clever than most of us who react to events on a very shallow level without any understanding of the fundamentals of Tauhid on which all of Islam is based.” It is thus impossible for anyone to try to make a distinction between Farrakhan and his UFO inspiration, or stand against bigotry while aligning oneself with Farrakhan. Neither Farrakhan nor his personnel make a distinction, why then should we Muslims make a distinction? Moreover, it is an error to oversimplify the issue by denouncing Farrakhan’s racist diatribes and playing down Farrakhan’s God-is-a-man and Prophet-after-Muhammad aqeedah. In fact, Farrakhan ignores the basic precept
Azam Ikramullah is majoring in Information Systems and Finance at The University of Maryland.
In the end, bigotry and ‘Islamophobia’ have little to do with the issue. Surely, bigotry is contrary to Islamic principles and Islam rejects it. However, the deviation of Elijah Muhammad, Louis Farrakhan and those who follow them are MUCH more serious than racism. It is the sin which Allah DOES NOT forgive. “Inna Allah laa yaghfiru an yushraka bihi, wa yaghfiru maa duna dhalika li may yashaa” (Sura Nisa:116). If Farrakhan would leave his man-is-god and prophetafter-Muhammad aqeedah, but was still a raving racist, he would be much better off than the other way around! Let it be said very clearly, that there is NO ideology on the face of this earth which could be farther from Islam than that of Louis Farrakhan. NONE!