Why Islam is my choice — Page 114
114 And my wife was with me at the time, and we went into their place, and we sat down. And we heard this sermon about black supremacy. “The black man is the best man. He was the first man. The white man is the devil, he is from the Yakub, Satan. They didn’t know what Yakub was. He can’t be a Muslim because they are openly people. That he can never be a Muslim. ” So black people are better than white people, this is what he taught. W: Who was the person saying this? R: I don’t remember who the person was, but he was one of the ministers. They had a temple in Cincinnati at the time and he was one of the ministers. And then they played some military song, “Fight Muslims / Fight for your own / Fight for the nation / Fight for your own. ” You want to fight? Fight what? I’m supposed to be in a place of God. I couldn’t accept this. In my bringing up, my family—I am grateful to God for this aspect of them, my family—because they taught us that we were made better than any other people but they also taught us that no other people are any better than us. I went to school. The first school I went to was all African American. And the second neighborhood we moved to was a mixed neighborhood. This is when I began seeing signs like “white only” and all. And I went to a mixed school. I am only using that term. I don’t believe in black and white. I use that term because those are the terms they used in those days. Well, when I went to that school, I saw what their schoolwork was like, what their alphabets were like. And I learned that when you grow up in an American school, you had to fight, because if you don’t, people would run all over you. You maintained your hierarchy by how well you could handle yourself. And I also had that experience with the so-called white people. And they weren’t superior in that respect either. I also knew what the other side was like, too. I lived in a neighborhood of African Americans. I knew what they were like, too. I knew