Muhammad, Sultan 1

Sultan Muhammad Oral History Interview Thursday, February 28, 2019

Interviewer: This is an interview with Sultan Muhammad as part of the Chicago History Museum Muslim Oral History Project. The interview is being conducted on Thursday, February 28, 2019 at 3:02 pm at the Chicago History Museum. Sultan Muhammad is being interviewed by Mona Askar of the Chicago History Museum’s Studs Terkel Center for Oral History.

Could you please state and spell your first and last name?

Sultan Muhammad: My name is Sultan Muhammad. S-u-l-t-a-n Last name, Muhammad M-u-h-a-m-m-a-d

Int: When and where were you born?

SM: I was born here in Chicago in 1973. In the month of January 28th.

Int: Could you please tell us about your parents, what they do for a living. Do you have any siblings?

SM: My father, may blessings be on him, passed in 1990. He was also born here in Chicago. He is a grandson of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. He grew up in the Nation of Islam, working for his father, Jabir Herbert Muhammad who was the fight manager for Muhammad Ali and business manager of the Nation of Islam. Sultan Muhammad, my father, was also a pilot. He was the youngest black pilot in America at the time. Later he became an imam under Imam Warith Deen Mohammed after 1975.

My mother, Jamima was born in Detroit. She is the daughter of Dorothy Rashana Hussain and Mustafa Hussain. Robert was his name before accepting Islam. Both moved from Detroit to Pittsburgh where my grandfather on my mother’s side became an Imam and a minister in the Nation of Islam.

Int: That is quite a history of the Nation of Islam, your father’s relation with Elijah Muhammad and your mother. Was she part of the Nation of Islam in Detroit?

SM: Yes. She was born into the Nation of Islam. My grandfather on my mother’s side came into the Nation of Islam as a captain in Detroit. I believe it was 1957. He was one of the original captains in Temple Number One in those days, as they were called. He was then assigned as a minister by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in Pittsburgh where the family then moved from Detroit to Pittsburgh. The significance at that time was that Temple Number One was just that. It was the first temple established by Master Fard Muhammad, Sultan 2

Muhammad. Fard Muhammad who is the founder of the Nation of Islam. Then, proving himself as a strong organizer, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad assigned him as a minster in what was then a very small town, Pittsburgh, in his mind coming from Detroit where he spent his adult life and met my grandmother, Dorothy, there.

Int: Your father was the youngest black pilot. Say more about that.

SM (4:26): His rearing allowed him not to have any boundaries as to what he wanted to be. He had a wide range of interests. He was at first into swimming, but he had a passion for flying. He went to a local air hanger, Meigs Field, here in Chicago where he met a Mr. Stovall. These are stories I would hear, growing up that he would tell, and my grandmother would tell. He said, one day, that he wanted to fly. For us, in the Nation of Islam, he was a student at Muhammad University of Islam where we focus on science and technology in engineering and hard sciences. It was supported deeply so he began to first, save his money. It was part of the heritage of our family. If you wanted, you had to show you really wanted it by putting in the work to do it. He started by cleaning stables on the west side of Chicago where he learned how to ride horses. He was an expert in riding horses. Literally, my uncles, his brothers would tell stories of how he could make a horse dance.

Int: In Chicago? [Both laugh]

SM: He was literally shoveling horse manure which took his way through flight school. At a young age, coming out of fifteen going into sixteen he became a pilot. He earned his license flying and then later he achieved a degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Americas in Mexico. He then dedicated his life to the development through business working for his father, Jabir Herbert Muhammad. These were businesses established by the Nation of Islam. Jabir, his father, was one who opened our first studio for photography. Much of the photography was used in our national newspaper, Muhammad Speaks and publications. He then opened The Bakery where the bean pie was established. He then opened the newspaper, Muhammad Speaks. A lot of this established the trust of his father, Elijah Muhammad to manage other businesses in the Nation of Islam. My dad was really in The Bakery. We would hear stories about how long the hours he would work as a young man in The Bakery. That primed him to be one of the grandchildren of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was very close to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. He became a personal aide at that time. After he earned his license, he was being groomed by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad as a close person aide, security handler and that kind of thing.

Int (8:42): Your grandfather was the fight manager for Muhammad Ali? Could you tell us a little about that?

SM (8:54): Yes, Main Bout is the name of the company he started. He began managing Muhammad Ali on the direction of Elijah Muhammad. At that time, it was a Muhammad, Sultan 3

very closed area for black people to be in the field of management, particularly in the fight business which was run by Italian Mafia. You have your Joe Louis stories in all of this.

When Muhammad Ali announced he would become a member of the Nation of Islam after winning the heavyweight championship, is when his management began to be picked up by the Nation of Islam, out of protecting him from, what we would call, the worldly aspects of the sport and the fight business. Jabir Herbert Muhammad was his fight manager but really his personal manager and confident throughout his fight career and afterwards. They were very, very close and in the beginning, this liberation from The Louisville, there was a group of investors that were managing Muhammad Ali at the time. It was a difficult process to get him from that management group. I forget the exact name, but I think they were the Louisville Management group and they were a group of rich individuals who focused on sponsorship, small payments here and there in that mix of athletes who were being paid very low amounts of money for their work. In liberating him from this, he began to earn some of the highest purses, they call it in the fight business, of any athlete in any arena. Herbert Muhammad at that time, they didn’t know who he was meaning the general fight industry did not know who this individual was.

One of the historical backgrounds of that is they mentioned that whoever is managing Ali, they refused to call him Ali. At the time he was Cassius Clay. They would shoot out their kneecaps. There was a news story that moved through the media. At that time, the Nation of Islam was growing heavily, it was very strong and influential in the community. Those were the kind of psychological games that would be played, some of them very real, others psychological games but once the word was established that this is the son of Elijah Muhammad, Herbert Muhammed. I think the newspaper article ran, “The Mafia who are threatening my son, let them know they have knee caps too.” This was the verbal warfare that was going on. It showed that at the time how many athletes were being exploited in the fight game. It was through Jabir Herbert Muhammed that we now see how any athlete is able to make millions and millions of dollars from the fight industry. He was one of the first independent black fight management companies and managers. I think Time magazine named him Manager of the Year. Now, Alhamdulillah, Praise be to God, inducted in the Hall Of Fame in this area. It is an important history of Chicago, even though they were both born in different cities, he settled here. Chicago is like the second home to Muhammad Ali. His training gym was here in Chicago in Hyde Park.

Int (14:25): With all that background growing up as a child, how was it growing up with that legacy, with that history in your community?

SM: When you are in it, it is day-to-day life. My father, I want to say, I didn’t learn from him until much later in life that he was the youngest black pilot in America at that time. Those were things I learned later. What I noticed and Muhammad, Sultan 4

felt most from him was his self-determination. This was a man who had an insatiable desire and curiosity for knowledge. Whatever area he decided he was going to go into, he perfected it. It wasn’t hard for me to see that throughout his life, he was focused. In swimming he was a life guard, scuba diving, he was an equestrian, pilot. (laughs) Later he dedicated his life to the study of Islam. In that he became a scholar in his right. Historically, under the leadership of Imam W.D. Mohammed, became one of the first Imam’s in the movement after the transition in 1975.

(16:07) Growing up in that, it was like being part of something much larger that self. It gave me a sense of a national identity that was part of American identity, but we have our own flag. We literally had blocks where there was the barber shop, the school, the restaurant. I remember as a child, I remember whether I was visiting grandparents in Pittsburgh, here in Chicago or on the road when we visited other cities. There were literally entire communities. I felt that in many ways, I had a national identity that made me feel part of a larger society within America. I think that in many ways, when you are negotiating with your peers. Summers, I would go to different cities with my mom. Mom and Dad separated at a young age. Mom went to the west coast. Dad stayed here in Chicago. In seeing the differences, it would sometimes feel like a migrant experience. You didn’t quite have the cultural upbringing and average experience of many of my peers. Like Muhammed Ali, he felt like an uncle, he was that close to the family. Elijah Muhammad, Herbert Muhammed, these figures were strong figures in my life. The women in my life my mother and my grandmother were very accomplished people. Writing, they were very strong in shaping the culture of our community.

One of the things I consistently remember growing up is we had our own farms. Opening up a cabinet in our home, we had your beans, your string beans from our own farms. We had a sense of being self-sustained. To this day, it makes it clear for me that sense that my father had as a young man that there is nothing really stopping you in your determination to be yourself but yourself. Yes, there is opposition, there are those who want to whisper things in your ears to make you feel less than you are In society, but we were inoculated from that kind of whispers. It is very inspirational and was then to see you will accomplish what you will. It has been a blessing to reflect on that but growing up in it, you take things for granted. At first it is this is what it is and then it is ok, there is a larger society here that we are part of and we have been engaged with in some degree or another. It serves as a foundation to let you know there are no barriers that you should look at that could hold us back from full self-expression. I think that is one of the largest take-aways from growing up in that.

Int (20:47): You mentioned that your mother went to the west coast and you were back and forth from the west coast and Chicago. Can you compare, I don’t want to say compare, the different and the same experiences. What were they / What neighborhood were you in Chicago?

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SM: I was born here in Chicago, literally in the home of the Honorable Elijah Mohammad. My father was born in the home of the Honorable Elijah Mohammad. I was born in Hyde Park at 4847 South Woodlawn.

Int: You memorized it?

SM: Yes, I memorized it because it was where the Honorable Elijah Mohammad lived, and it was where he would have his followers from around the country sent him letters. It was published in all his books. Four eight four seven is how it was referred to because the community had a lot of properties in Hyde Park. We began to refer to the different locations by the number of the address. So, 4847 was stamped. That was Hyde Park, growing up in Hyde Park at that time, mostly during the summers I would come. We would flip, I would spend the school year in Chicago. It was based on whatever parents were doing in their professional or personal lives at the time. The difference I want to say is that in Chicago there was a deeper experience of day to day operational, things you see a community doing whether it is planning to purchase properties, whether it is revitalization of certain communities, this or that. There is always a strong national community sensibility when coming to Chicago. In the language of our community headquarters where much of the national thrust was planned out and actually being implemented.

Whereas, with mom on the west coast, she chose to live a simple life that allowed me to understand what that thread of the impact that the Nation of Islam had on the broader society. I went to public school on the west coast. In of itself at that time growing up as a Muslim, subtle name issues would come up. (Both laugh) “What is your name?” Then, coming home to Chicago it was not an issue. It was like being on the outer rim of the community. Impact when I went to the west coast was still very strong. I want to say, principles were maintained in my up-bringing there as well that allowed me to navigate new communities that I had not necessarily been exposed to at a younger age or even identify where those points were that engaged the broader community as a young person in Chicago. Of course, the weather was better on the west coast growing up in Los Angeles. It was where I felt a different type of individuality. I want to say in the community that helped me to see the broader sense of what the community was able to do in terms of impact in society.

(25:55) You would run across in Los Angeles many folks that were in the industry. My mom was and is a writer, she was in the realm of the arts and culture. Growing up, art and culture particularly coming up in the age of hip-hop. Those principles of self-identity. The struggle of the black community. These things were being expressed in the music at the time. It was a way to observe the broader impact of the Nation of Islam and the community I grew up in from a distance.

Int (25:45): Was it in LA with your mom that you experienced the industry. Was she a writer? What did she do? Muhammad, Sultan 6

SM: She was a poet, writer. She started and wrote articles for Muhammad Speaks. She was born in the Nation of Islam as I was, but she was among the first generation of children born in the Nation of Islam. Everyone, as I mentioned, my father worked in the bakery. Everyone found some means of work that was not quote “work” but mission-oriented expression. Hers was writing. My dad was flying and serving the community and education later in life. I want to say that is much of how folks at that time began to carve their way out. To me, what is now called Black Excellence as a frame of expressing black accomplishment was something that was a normative for me. Seeing mom as a strong, respected writer, seeing dad as a strong, respected community leader, seeing granddad whose accomplishments are many and known outside of the circle of our community life. It was always a sense of ‘this is what we do’. We establish standards and we break barriers. It was going back and forth between the cities, in each city you were always able to find yourself even though there may have been a distance in proximity. The reach of the community was always visible, whether it was a bean pie or as simple as a local restaurant that the community ran. We were also connected with the broader Islamic community. That was a time in life where I began to see, okay, this is the Muslim movement of the Nation of Islam. I was aware of a broader community of Muslims that most cases in the experiences in Chicago, there were folks who were visiting who were delegates from other countries or were leadership from local communities. In Los Angeles I was able to have more contact through public school. I had more of a day to day living with other Muslim communities that allowed me to explore and understand the world of Islam outside of America.

Int (30:50): You were in public school in LA, were you in public school in Chicago as well?

SM: In Chicago I was always in private school. I was in our own schools, our own institutions: Muhammad University of Islam and later, Clara Muhammad School. Also, Clara Muhammad School in Washington, DC when my father was appointed as an Imam under Imam Warith Deen Mohammed’s community in Washington DC. Later in life, our family moved to Washington, DC. where he was resident Imam at now masjid Muhammad also then mosque number four.

Int: You experienced west coast, Chicago Midwest, east coast. Were there similarities in these cities, the community in each city, the neighborhoods, the schooling?

SM (32:01): It was a great experience for me at a young age being able to move around in this manner because of the national community ties. Yes, there were differences in the communities from region to region which I always thought was cool. Folks use to think my parents were in the military. “You must be military, you are talking about this city, that city. You move around a lot” I’d say, “No, we just have a big family and a large community.” It gave me Muhammad, Sultan 7

experiences that I want to say allowed me a very broad sense of self. It did not necessarily make me feel I was born here or there. I always felt like a child of the Nation, not a particular city or locale. That in itself, growing up with peers was always an interesting conversation. “Where are you from? Where do you live?” It was nice to have stories. When you are in Chicago, LA is cool. When you are in LA, they ask, ”What is going on in Chicago that is so attractive?” It was always great to have other experiences to share with friends and peers, different experiences growing up. I always felt like I was able to relate to anyone. (laughs) There was always some kind of experience that I could relate to.

Int: There was always the Nation community in Chicago. In LA and Chicago, did you see that they mirrored the cities?

SM: As far as the Nation of Islam was concerned. There was always a national thrust with programmatic initiatives that were coming from national headquarters, there was a mirroring. There were certain things, small things would be different because of the weather seasonally. Certain products that the Nation of Islam established may have been more accented on the west coast than they were in Chicago. A fish sandwich, for example would be emphasized for whatever reason. We are more astute of demographics, fish was selling better in Los Angeles than the bean pie in the northeast coast, the Midwest. Sometimes, just the feeling of the Muslim communities there. It was just culturally. It was always edifying to see another nuance of expression where it wasn’t a template, rigid expression. There was always a framework that you were in that allowed you to express your regional or city individuality. I keep going to the bean pie because the bean pie, whether there was a national bean pie contest. The bean pie on the west coast has its own particular manifestation, the bean pie up in Detroit had its own manifestation. You had a competition and flavors. This one was more custard, this one was more bean flavored. Each one had their signature. The foundation was always the navy bean or fish which was in context. Food that we ate that was outside of the normative hot dog and burger because of the dietary code particularly at that time Halal or kosher. What we would consider permissible to eat among Muslims was not widely available. Things like fish and vegetarian meals were primarily our diet. The beauty was we had foundational framework that you could see. The sisters would cook the bean soup a little different in Detroit, the west coast or Pittsburgh than it was in say, Chicago. Then you have from household to household there were varieties which was always cool to me. A world of tasty food that expressed ourselves from city to city.

Int: (38:04) You are currently now the national Imam for the Nation of Islam. Can you tell me what led up to that? This is the first ever position of a national Imam. Can you tell about that?

SM: Leading up to that, it was really simple. In the year 2000 there was a major reconciliation in the community of differences in ideology and philosophy Muhammad, Sultan 8

between Imam Warith Deen Mohammed and Minister Farrakhan. The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, over many years reestablished the Nation of Islam after 1975. There were community differences, but his children are married into our family. My first cousins are his grandchildren. At least three or four of my aunts and uncles are married into the Farrakhan family or conversely, married into the Mohammad family. Although there were some ideological differences, I never really felt that until much later as an adult when these things began to have a fuller meaning. For me, it was auntie going to Minister Farrakhan’s home. He is also like an uncle like Mohammad Ali, very strong well-known figures. That really did not take hold for me in terms of these differences until the mid-eighties when my father began to work heavily as an Imam in the Imam Warith Mohammed’s community. That was my rearing so there was a mind-set of a progression or a continuation in this transition post 1975 that brought us into what Imam Warith Mohammed called the World Community of Islam. That was an experience that allowed us to see another aspect that we had not been exposed to before 1975. So, leading up, those differences. One was more of an international work that was pushing for the mainstreaming of the community into the world of Islam. Whereas, with Minister Farrakhan, there was a need that was identified that still had to satisfy in terms of the social identity of our people coming into Islam for the first time that the structure of the Nation of Islam could be nurtured. These were difference that I would hear growing up in mostly discourse. We never had any issues with territory.

(42:33)` One of the famous things we would always say that not even a bloody nose occurred during this situation. The reason this was part of the discussion is there was a lot of antagonism from external communities that tried to keep us apart. I can say that from observing as a young person. There were just new people coming around. In year 2000, which was for me a full circle or the coming together of these two opposites in my rearing. The reconciliation between ------Muhammad and W.D. Mohammed. I use the word, reconciliation based on the framework of discourse. These were brothers, they had high respect for each other. They maintained relations, they were extended family themselves. This public reconciliation occurred in the year 2000 here in Chicago at one of our Saviours’ Day convention. It was a turning point for me to see the unification of the communities. There was an emphasis that began to be placed on the universality of the mission of the Nation of Islam, at that time by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Not long before that there was an international convention, an Islamic convention where hundreds of leaders, the scholars of the Islamic world came to Chicago for our conference. These were precursors. Once that occurred, I could clearly see the hand in glove. The hand shaking the other. The embrace between the two, there was a healing that was occurring. Not only a healing but a sense that what we accomplished and what we sacrificed for prior to 1975, through the narratives and histories of our parents that we heard coming up.

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(45:22) These were things that are now being resolved among us internally. That said, I began to shift myself to be more mission oriented as it related to our development as a community and as Muslims here in the west. I have to back track a little bit, after having experienced four years of study in Saudi Arabia. While my father was the Imam in the early eighties through 1990. In that time frame, our family was studying in Riyadh. There I was exposed to an aspect of the quote, ‘the world of Islam’. That experience was deeply informing, and it helped to qualify me for our self-expression as a community with our own experiences here in the west. To see these-two embrace, one who was emphasizing the world community, the other who was emphasizing the growth of our national expression of development into Islam. It was like a dream come true. It was something that was work that my father was deeply involved with as an Imam in the community of Imam Warith Deen Mohammed. He was always trying to bring these two together. Of course, after his passing, to actually see it happening was really a shift for me. The shift was to become more mission oriented in whatever way I could. For me, it was finding ways to bring family together. Finding ways to create spaces where the broader community could interface and as these things grow, it starts out as a little seed and it might not be everyone else’s quote ‘dream come true’. (laughs) This was a phase by phase development where you see the momentum coming from the hearts of these two men in one direction, but you also see certain political things that are brewing in different communities to either support or impede, both were present. I wanted to be one of those who would support because Minister Farrakhan consistently opened the doors of Mosque Maryam to the Imans of Warith Deen Mohammed’s community to come in and teach. Some took that on, but it was not necessarily a deep or long-term engagement. Some came as a relational development to keep the relationship with the community but never too deep.

(49:20) I began later in 2006, I began to work at an institution called CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations here in Chicago. My reason to work with this institution because I felt that number one, in a post 9/11 environment that we as a community of black Americans who had already been receiving and growing up with a lot of this anti-Muslim sentiment on top of racial injustice which I believe are mixed. It was an outlet I felt I could contribute the voice of our community to the struggles of our brothers and sisters that are part of the broader community of Islam in the United States to support the cause because I felt I had experienced my own post-9/11 issue.

(50:43) At that time, as a community in 2006, the Honorable Warith Deen Mohammed, may Allah be pleased with him and have mercy on him, was with us and encouraging his followers to continuingly grow the community by becoming active in other communities as well In other words show what we have to offer from our experiences to others. In that work, it was satisfying in many ways, root cause issues weren’t necessarily, in my opinion, in the framework of what a CARE or NAACP would bring to these Muhammad, Sultan 10

issues weren’t being addressed. The missions of these types of institutions, civil rights organizations do limit, in many ways, the type of deep transformative change that I have been used to growing up, watching literally lives turn around. Hear the stories of my parents and grandparents around.

There was a famous column that would run in Mohammad Speaks, “What has Islam done for me?” It was more about the transformative power of Islam rather than a kind of protest movement. It wasn’t do for self, not necessarily picking out every situation that has occurred of injustice, but to recognize systemic, institutional and structural injustice. For me, there was a deeper need to work in the communities. Which led me to work in an Institution called IMAN, Inner City Muslim Action Network. This is a time when I and my peers were quote, mosque hopping. We would go from one mosque to the other, so I was very familiar with the networks, different communities that were represented here in Chicago. Again, this is adult life here in Chicago. I was able to navigate easily. I was blessed to have relationships with many of the institutional leaders because of the leadership of folks like my grandfather, Herbert Jabir Muhammad, established and founded, he and Mohammed Ali, masjid Al-Faatir on 47th street in Woodlawn right up the street from where I was born. In that framework, it felt very comfortable to move from one institution to the other. With IMAN, there was more of a grass roots organizing framework that allowed you to be, literally in the trenches. During both of these time frames and from that embrace in 2000 on, I was already engaging in part the Nation of Islam. I never felt myself to be not a part of it. It was and is part of my heritage I was still deeply engaged with Imam Warith Deen Mohammed at the time. He encouraged me to continue to interface with the community of the Nation of Islam and other Muslim institutions.

By 2008 when Imam Warith Deen Mohammed passed, I want to say it was a shock to all of us. We hate to use the phrase, it was untimely in many ways. It was Abdullah, the will of God. For this time to meet us in terms of us to meet his passing because it was really a shock. He was in good health. There was no sense that he was deteriorating. He had public addresses days before his passing. At that time, I was deeply engaged with IMAN, Inner City Muslim Action Network. At that point, I felt a deeper calling even though IMAN was doing great work as CAIR is doing great work. There was a sense for me to become more deeply engaged in my roots, what formed me. I could see for a need in our communities for us to bring our diverse Muslim communities, particularly in Chicago at that time, together. From mosque hopping where we would literally sample pools of our Chicago community in terms of culturally, philosophically, ideologically from the Imam’s in the communities in Chicago. I always wanted a place or space where we could seemingly come together, not seemingly but in a deep way where there was true interaction and sharing that would allow us to be a stronger unit as a Muslim community in its diversity.

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(57:49) During this time from 2006 to 2008, I am working at these two institutions. Prior to that in 2000, I began to engage the Nation of Islam and become more active and what we call a registered Muslim with the Nation of Islam. I began to teach on the call that the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan that he had made particularly to Anwar Mohammed’s community beginners Arabic, Quran, through enrichment programs at Muhammed University Islamic School and through FOI classes. FOI meaning the Fruit of Islam, the training of men in the Nation of Islam. Manhood training classes which is integrated with the broad civilization training within the framework of Islam. To begin to teach Quran, Sola which was nothing new in the Nation of Islam which made my work easy.

The first prayer book published by the Nation of Islam was written by the Honorable Elijah Mohammed and published in 1959 for Muhammed University Islamic School. During that time from 1998 to 2000 and on was when I began to deeply study the ideology, philosophy and the work of the Honorable Elijah Mohammed in a way that I had not when growing up. Growing up it was experiential. It was influenced from narratives, history and examples of transformed lives round me. Now to work and be a part of the transformative process. What was this process that developed this new kind of person that is most often depicted in Malcolm X where you see a man who has gone through what he has gone through under the repressive societal issues that we face in America as a people to transform into this dynamic leader for justice, equality and freedom not only for our people here but international issues that are affecting Palestinians, that are affecting the colonized nations of the world that are Muslim.

There was always international thought and international solidarity that was there and I looked for in our communities on the ground here in Chicago that I felt needed to be threaded together in a way that would allow us to confront not only the issues that we were facing from a civil rights perspective and even a legislative perspective in terms of community organizing and how we change the laws and impact society on an institutional level. The deeper need that I came to see in younger Muslims where it was hurtful to see it among brothers and sisters that were from immigrant families that began to disassociate themselves with Islam or tried to assimilate in a way to hide their Islam. You would see a trend of sisters removing their head pieces or you would hear working at CAIR, you would hear these stories daily. This is the work of the Council of American Islamic Relations to deal with these individual issues that Muslims are confronted with from teenage girls having their head pieces pulled off in schools or harassed by police, on and on. You can make these connections quickly to the black experience and I saw a trend of a sense of identity that began to be deliberately erased by my brothers and sisters. I was reared to be completely unapologetic about who you are. To then begin to see a sickness. I use that word, sickness, in a manner that reflects a broader, I hate to use these kinds of words but hegemony, that are being put upon people to create what is now dubbed as good and bad Muslim. I would point to this as Muhammad, Sultan 12

a safe black person and this is a scary black person. (both laugh) These things were in negotiating what someone would describe as different identities: Muslim, black, bringing these together, what does that mean? Now I see this type of issue coming up in a way with new generations of Muslims that was just hurtful in many ways. As the Nation of Islam under the leadership of Minister Farrakhan had taken on a broader universal aim. This is where I felt I could do the community justice. I transitioned from IMAN, Inner City Muslim Action Network, to full time teacher at Mohammed University of Islam. I became a Quran teacher again, Islamic sciences, all the fundamentals of Islamic education. Particularly Quranic Arabic, I want to say that has been the primary focus to deepen the knowledge of our community on a generational level into Quranic Arabic. In that process, you are able to unpack a lot of these seemingly ideological differences that are imposed by different schools of thought whether theological or based on practice of different schools of thought.

(1:06:47) I know this has been a long way to get to the point of background as to what led to national Imam. I had no idea I was on that path, I was focused on being an educator at schools on a national level, Mohammed University of Islam. In 2012 at one of our mosque meetings, Minister Farrakhan called me up during one of his messages to the community and our nation in a web cast across the country. He jokingly said, “Sultan, it looks like we have something in our words called charges, in our law. Our law is basically the code of Islam principles. I thought, “What is this? I didn’t do anything, I don’t think.” [Laughs] He said, “Come on up, we have something that needs to be looked at. Some charges on you.” I thought, “Oh, no.” He acknowledged the work I was doing in the communities, the work I was doing in the school and schools across the country in our national system. He asked, “I thought about, I have something on my mind for some time. I want to ask you if you will serve as the Imam of Mosque Maryam?” I am shocked. I did not know what it was about. First of all, I had no inkling that he would institute a new post in that manner. Not only in that manner, it was not historically part of the leadership construct of the Nation of Islam in those words, We have always had ministers. If we look at Iman Warith Deen Mohammed in his later years, he began to identify his work as the ministry of Iman Warith Deen Mohammed. Language environment is critical in terms of understanding the development of the Nation of Islam. Our masjids or mosques even in that masjid means mosques were called temples in the early days. It is more of a Judaic framework. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad specifically told members that these are spaces and places where you come to learn in the temple. But, he had shared with Minister Farrakhan when the mosque number seven was rededicated after some reverberation. There was a need there. He said it like this in a thank you to Elijah Mohammed for helping to refurbish the mosque , “Oh, brother, that is not the mosque. I will build you a membar and it well have three steps.” Minister Farrakhan, in levity would say, “I knew what a mini-bar was, but I did not know what a membar was.” I later found out and studied that membar are the three steps that the Prophet Muhammed, Peace be upon Muhammad, Sultan 13

Him, had built for delivering a futbah. Many times, we hear these things from master teachers among us that are bringing you stage by stage along. We don’t fully process what the significance of this. There was Jummah already. It had been established for many years in the Nation of Islam, but it was ministers giving the futbah. The futbah is the weekly sermon given by the teacher or Imam, prayer leader or leader of the masjid. I was shocked, I can’t tell you the rush of thoughts that came. But, I knew it was the way to actually move forward. Minister Farrakhan had seen something, not only seen something of a need but saw a way that we could begin to develop the community. We began to take those next steps that were necessary and in our development by institutionalizing through this framework of Imam.

The ministry is still part of what an Imam is in the Nation of Islam. It is not a separate class or anything like that. It is an expansion of the understanding of what the role of minister is in terms of the spiritual and practical application of Islamic practices throughout the community.

Int (1:13:40): I am going to take a step back with two questions. You mentioned that you had your own 9/11 experiences. Can you elaborate more on that as well as the connection of Islamophobia as well as black experience because you experienced both things. Can you elaborate more about that?

SM: My personal post 9/11 experiences always seemed to have a root in what was common to me as a black male growing up in a society that, particularly in Los Angeles at that time. It was driving while black. Then it became, flying while Muslim. I began to have experiences in my flying around as I mentioned earlier. I fly around based on family and community are spread around fairly often. From long checks and interviews, where are you from? It was disturbing to have to begin to self-identify in a way I had not needed to in the past. What I thought was oddly enough, I would be stopped and questioned by authorities, “Where are you from?” I said, “Chicago.” “Where are you really from?” [Said louder and with emphasis] “Chicago! My father is from Chicago, my grandfather is from Detroit. I don’t know what else you want me to tell you.” “Wait a minute, aren’t you Pakistani an?” “No, I am obviously a black man.” [Both laugh]. It became such an issue consistently that it was just an annoyance. I understood and still understand the need for security and for a vigilance to not allow something so abhorrent to occur again. At the same time, it was easy to see that there was a profile and those were most of my post 9/11 experiences. Being questioned on routine travel, searches, to the point my personal accounts were frozen and monitored. I could not wire money. This was a time when you did not have cash apps. (laughs) You know, Western Union, forget about it, I would have to write letters to the State department to release funds. I think what was- an-annoyance, we are talking about $500, $1000 we are not talking about a lot of money. They would treat us as, “ this is a lot of money to transfer”. This kind of scrutiny for being Muslim. I would say for just having a Muslim name. Folks would say, “Put your middle name in there, it will help”. There are a lot of Sultan Muhammad around the planet. It seems your name is Muhammad, Sultan 14

coming up on this list consistently. This was a time George Bush was in office, so we had alerts, the orange, the red. There were these national alerts that were also a backdrop to a sense of anxiety. You are watching the news, and something occurs, and you say, “I pray it is not a Muslim who did this or that.” It became clear for me that there was a clear establishment of a new underclass in America. A new type of, I hate to use the word, a new type of black experience that was occurring. When I say that, I mean that if you are non-white in America, you have to struggle to reconcile your roots. Historically, whether they are from Muslim nations, Islamic nations in the east. This struggle to live a hyphenated identity became apparent. Growing up with a strong identity and roots as a black male in and with the heritage of the Nation of Islam, the structure of racism was easy to see. That along with my wife she was literally spat on at a bus stop traveling here in Chicago. Thank God I was not present. It was these situations that were personal. Delays in the airport were minor. It is not minor to have someone spitting in your wife’s face, telling her to go back to where you came from. She is from Chicago and a heritage of an indigenous person.

(1:20:55) To see the impact on people, the thousands that were rounded up, many of their names we don’t know and won’t know. Again, a new reality of post 9/11 that was in place. These were some of the initial reason I decided to professionally move into civil rights with CAIR, move into activism with IMAN. Those experiences in those two institutions which did not exist prior to 9/11. These are institutions that began to be developed by Muslim immigrants to combat anti-Muslim sentiment. But growing up with strong institutions like the Nation of Islam and seeing the impact and legacy of civil rights and human rights movements of our own community. It became evident that it would be outside of character for me to ignore. I found a way to contribute my voice in that manner and to those institutions in a deeper way, Now through the Nation of Islam to contribute a voice to some of these group issues. Actually, be behind these injustices that are targeting nationalities and races and people on their religious identities. I want to say it is a time for reflection for many of us. Unfortunately, many thought there would be a waning of this over ten years, over a period of time. [Both laugh] And now, we are in the Trump era. There is a sense that we have to get to the root issues that impact and confront them. I feel that as a nation and as a people, we have to confront and have dialogue. We have to find ways to insulate ourselves from these injustices without becoming insulated from the broader community in terms of engagement and the shaping of the face of America.

Int: To wrap up, what does your faith mean to you?

SM: My faith for me represents an acknowledgement of self. We are taught in Islam that we are all born Muslim. It is our societies and communities that shape us into something other than that original self or original nature that we are born in. It is the social constructs that over time have developed tribes and nations which are needed. We are taught that having tribes and Muhammad, Sultan 15

nations are God’s will for the purpose of us becoming closer and understanding and becoming familiar with one another. Being a Muslim, my faith means to me I am connected to the world. I am connected to who I am without nationalist, racial or sectarian boundaries. I thank God for this religion, Islam, which is I feel, and I was taught is the nature of self from which we find ourselves linked to all expression of faith. We are taught in Islam that Abraham was neither a Christian nor a Jew and therefore Muhammed, peace be upon Him, is a reclamation of all faith traditions and that we now as a people who self-identify as Muslim have to begin to break those same mental chains of nationality, racism and classism that we suffer from as well as Muslim communities. We have to break those chains and it is in those struggles that we face in our diverse spaces and places that will ultimately unite us. it is a blessing to be able to have such a world view that is inclusive yet still maintains our self-determinism to be who we are.

Int: Thank you.

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