QUESTION: I have read in your book [Democracy, Civic Virtue, and Islam: The Muslim-American Jihad Against Extremism] where you make reference to the term "Bilalian." I have read on this Facebook page where you have used the term several times. I think many people are interested in your use of the term. Please explain.
IMAM EARL ABDULMALIK MOHAMMED: It is for the ear and the hearing, if you follow that reasoning to its conclusion. It is scientific, and it is also a sophisticated designation of a people, a formal description chosen by that people, and not imposed on them by the orchestrators and schemers who attempt to manipulate and direct the progressive spirit of human beings and human groups for their selfish, devilish interests. It comes at the conclusion and as the result of deep reflection on what the whites of America did in acting on a corrupted religious understanding and language that propagated the double-false narratives of:
a) the Bible's "Ham," the son of Noah, being cursed, and in turn allowing for a religious justification of slavery and pathway for enabling the artificial categories and institutions of "Nigger," "Colored," "Negro," "Black," and most recently, "Shit-hole Countries" (meaning in fact, "Shit-hole People");
b) the artificial notion that whites are the genetically-superior God-race.
As more opportunities develop for us to address this confusing race-language environment we live in now in America, we can help the non-Muslim members of our race who are in tremendous intellectual and spiritual pain because they were duped to believe that their achievements in America would make them immune to the assault of such white supremacist language and ambitions. 'Bilalian' calls to them and says clearly that the only lasting immunity to all oppressive schemes is taqwa: a free-thinking intellect that embraces no Master or Purpose except for G'd, what He approves, and the spiritual and social institutions that follow.
'Bilalian' describes a level of ascension for a people who have outlasted and survived racist lies, a rise of the human soul to reject any deflated or inflated notion of their worth, or of what their relationships should be with other races. It says a people who have overcome the indignities of oppression due to race, and have been awakened to the secretive language of falsehoods and the schemes which gave birth to that oppression. It calls to the value that is to be drawn from the human distinctions and variations G'd fashioned and intended for the family of humans, without digesting any irrational or immoral race-pride.
In fact, our religion, al-Islam, in its beauty and purity condemns any racist or race supremacy idea. Our religion in its purity resists association with hyped-up racial appeals or preaching as a call to human freedom, or justice, or equality. Bilalian doesn't say race, it says consciousness, though it is associated with the black people, former slaves of America who embraced al-Islam and have since built an Islamic tradition in America. This is what we must demonstrate to Americans at this time, and what we must speak into the ears of this world that has been also affected by the same devilish schemes.
As followers of Muhammed the Prophet we have embraced an identity that represents the finest example of how to expose and defeat the lie that white is superior to black, or black superior to white. It says a people who have discarded 'the politics of race' in favor of an eternal claim on the human type, and that which G'd intended and wants for the human type in its spiritual destiny in heaven and its social destiny on the earth, while feeling absolutely comfortable and happy with nappy hair, thick lips, broad noses, black (and all shades of brown) skin and living proudly and productively in predominantly African-American neighborhoods and communities. Bilalian says spiritual, social, political, educational, cultural, and economic institutional establishments.
The history of slavery and Jim Crow and now this confused-language period wants possession of the flesh, and the spirit, and the destiny of the black people in America. The weapon of white supremacist logic targets a 'black' people for abuse according to conclusions drawn from a racist, narrow reading of Scripture and myth, and to usurp the value of a human life beyond its own recognition. Those that trade in these schemes cannot possess our bodies in the same way they were once possessed in slavery. It is the mind and natural urge for independent progress that the enemies want to occupy and direct.
Bilalians, by definition, will always resist to be occupied or directed by any force or influence, other than that which complies with the highest regard for G'd's authority. Islamic history (even in light of the attempts to obscure it) records Bilal's embrace of an enlightened awareness of his created and inherent worth in spite of the oppressive circumstances he was forced to endure as a slave. It was because of Muhammed's call to his soul and his mind that he freed himself of slavery's command of his self-esteem, self-interests, and self-determination.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed, leader of the guided tradition, called us Bilalian for the first time. He taught his people well and he trained the next leader in the precise use of his language. He would have expected that his educated following would one day stand upon his knowledge, and choose to call themselves 'Bilalian'. And with a true grasp of its meaning, and a determination to invite all people to understand and embrace why he preferred it for us, they would invite all races of people, all Americans, away from the oppression and falsehoods of racial myth to a recognition and embrace of the beautiful and complete human picture and identity that G'd created for Adam and his descendants.
January 31, 2018