Transcripts

SPEAKER 1: Even in the original nation of Islam days, we always remained relatively small because we as an African-American population, which we mainly attracted, the African-American community in Minneapolis did not suffer some of the same adverse economic and social effects in Minneapolis and the Twin Cities area as we're faced in other Cities such as Detroit, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Washington, DC, and other places where we have larger followings.

SPEAKER 2: How does the philosophy that your group, the followers of Elijah Muhammad, how does that differ from the Farrakhan philosophy?

SPEAKER 1: It differs greatly in a number of respects. One is that Elijah Muhammad really stressed more the emphasis on the African-American man and woman, or the African-American people being more responsible for our own behavior, both as group and as an individual, and not to look so much at blaming others for our predicament as to do something about it. It's really interesting that the focus has more so been on arousing the emotional responses of finding convenient scapegoats, ie, the Jews and others that Minister Farrakhan and his people use as a tactic to try to attract crowds.

The other difference between the original nation of Islam and the present-day so-called nation of Islam is the fact that they utilize more so the entertainment genre to attract people to their format or to their forums, much like Michael Jackson or some other big entertainer would. They can get 20,000, 100,000 200,000 people to come out, but there's no lasting effect.

SPEAKER 1: So that's why it appears that they have such a large following in this country?

SPEAKER 2: Minister Farrakhan was an entertainer before he came into the Nation of Islam. He was one of the best known entertainers in the Nation of Islam in the early 1950s. He was known as Calypso Jean. And he's still good at it today. He still knows how to attract an audience in that way today.

SPEAKER 1: Do you think the media has any real understanding of the differences between your group, say, and the Farrakhan group and what Muslims in this country actually stand for?

SPEAKER 2: I think the media has very, very limited understanding of the differences. I think a lot of it is due to the fact that, again, we're not good at entertainment. And we really don't have a lot of controversial things to say because Islam, as a religion that represents a billion people in the world, is not, in that sense, a controversial religion. It's a very stable religion.

SPEAKER 1: One thing I was struck with today, apparently a couple of Jewish leaders in California, were quoted as saying that while they abhor the shooting of Farrakhan's former aide, his philosophy, his very rhetoric encourages this kind of behavior, and that it shouldn't come as a great surprise.

SPEAKER 2: No more of a surprise than the shooting of the former Rabbi Meir, late Rabbi Meir Kahane. When you advocate things that are totally outside the context of your religion under the guise of religion, in which the same way Khalid did and the same way Kahane did. You're always going to find another extremist who will take you up on that.