On Thursday, Imam W. Deen Mohammed II officially addressed the recent uprisings, racism, and the killings of George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks. His remarks were made while making a presentation to the United States Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO). 

Mohammed is the son of late Muslim American leader, Imam W. Deen Mohammed. He currently serves as president of The Mosque Cares | Ministry of Imam W. Deen Mohammed.

Here is the full text of his address:

As Salaamu Alaikum, my name is WarithuDeen Mohammed II.

I am the Grandson of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the son of Imam WarithuDeen Mohammed.

We thank Allah for you and the opportunity to address this Blessed Body of Believers.

We would like to first communicate that Our Leader is Muhammad the Prophet (PBUH), as is he is your leader. We Love The Prophet as you Love the Prophet, and we are doing our best to follow his excellent example. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) not only liberated Arabia, and the rest of the world, he is also responsible for our liberation. He is truly a Mercy to all the worlds.

We are one Muslim community, one Muslim Family, and we see ourselves as a member of this family. We see you as our brothers and our sisters who love us and share our sensitivities as human beings. Together we possess power, power to influence, and power to take action. These current times mandate that we Muslims unite and lead the fight for justice; this is why we are here. This is why the USCMO exists.

The gravity of events across the country have rippled around the world capturing this moment in history regarding race and equity, particularly with American law enforcement magnifying the racial disparities in the justice system pertaining to Blacks in America. The recent police murders of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta were viewed on media worldwide, leading to peaceful protests and uprisings globally that continue since their deaths. Race superiority and systemic racism are a global pandemic, a carcass that reeks and still lingers in the nose of our society.

The current visuals in the media may alarm you, but imagine, our Muslim community in America began nearly 100 years ago in the early 1930's. During a time where it was commonplace or normal to see black people beat, lynched, shot, murdered, tortured by police, the Klan, and any other white person that felt like doing so. Throughout all of that oppression, our leadership developed and produced one of the greatest social reformers of our time in the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, whose language and sincerity penetrated the wickedness of the era. This language and sincerity was elevated and continued through the leadership of Imam W. Deen Mohammed, which has birthed and united us with you here today. Allah has preserved us then, and Allah will preserve us now.

Though we feel pain, we must continue to follow our best intentions. We must be led by our intellect and not our emotions. Popular culture, at times, acts as a hypnotism or drug that has us following the herd or behaving like cattle, as mentioned in scripture. This behavior to follow the crowd leads to degeneracy and takes us away from our good intentions. Racism is a scheme of shaitan, and we are obligated to fight those schemes. We are confident in this fight, as Allah has provided us with ample means to defeat those very schemes.

I'm speaking to you representing a people that were created by white supremacy during chattel slavery. We were bred to be slaves that are controlled and manipulated. Imam Mohammed said that we were put into a machine designed to make a slave, he said they believed they were making a slave. They reduced us to a status lower than animals. But the human soul belongs to Allah alone, and it's impossible for them to take something that belongs to Allah, and Allah not restore that thing back to its rightful place. We feel now that we are not those same people that were on those plantations. We are a new people!

I state the obvious in saying that these brutal and cruel things that we're hearing and seeing, these acts of callousness and coldness are extremes. These extremes being perpetrated by a group, a system an institution that sees itself bigger than what it actually is the false notion of "White Supremacy," which translates to "White Divinity." The falsehood of "White Supremacy" and "White Divinity" is a powerful indoctrination which is propagated/practiced throughout our highest courts, academic institutions, and our houses of worship.

We must remove these images that portray divine and divorce ourselves from these harmful psychological and emotional ties. We must look at injustice and speak to injustice. The injustice that is going on plays on our lower nature, our passions, our want to be loved, to be respected, and to want justice. We have the moral high ground, so our enemies want us to make the mistake of responding to the emotional pain and hurt that we feel.

We love and respect our nation as do the best of its citizens. We are human beings that are in the pursuit of human rights and decency. Before we put on any uniform, or any title, before we go out and identify as black, white, or whoever, we're human beings first. This is our position. This is our appeal to your humanity. We are not looking for a pat on the back or for any approval. We are looking for understanding. We want to strengthen the bonds of trust between us.

This common bond of humanity that we share is exemplified in our love for Muhammad The Prophet (PBUH). He speaks to us; he was a natural man. That's what made Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) great, because he was human, not because he was closer to God or more saintly, or anything, but because he was one that was good enough in his nature that he pointed out his own faults when Allah spoke to him. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) made it known that he made mistakes, that he's a human being, first and foremost.

I believe there will come a time when the word human will become synonymous with Muslim.

Allah is with this movement. He's leading it. When George Floyd was saying he can't breathe — that brother, his mortal life had been taken from him. It is Allah that breathes life, that made us human. So I think the message that came out to all of humanity is a message that the human soul and the human life and death belongs to Allah alone. That's the message I get from him saying I can't breathe. When he called on his mother, I feel that he was calling on the Ummah of humanity, the family of mankind.

I feel that was the Angel speaking through him; the Angel was telling us don't mourn the loss of him because he is not dead. His soul is not lost. It's not lost because it belongs to Allah, George Floyd, and Rayshard Brooks are members of the family of Adam. They're members of the human family. It's going to be the human family that should stand up to redeem them, and that is going to help them. George Floyd was calling for help. He knew his mother wasn't going to come and snatch that man off his back.

I think he was calling on us to help him.

Thank You,

Imam W. Deen Mohammed II