We Must Make Our Communities a Safe and Decent Place to Live - Henry Muhammad

Safety is not just policing, it is discipline, love, and systems that actually work. We’re joined by Brother Henry Mohammed from the Nation of Islam, straight out of Brooklyn, to talk about what it really takes to make our communities a safe and decent place to live. He walks us through the moment the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad stopped feeling like history and started reading like a blueprint for right now, from the streets to the workplace to the family home.

We get practical about self-discipline and why fasting and “How to Eat to Live” are not just about diet, they’re about mastering appetite, breaking harmful habits, and building the emotional control that reduces conflict. From there we dig into freedom, justice, and equality as lived principles, plus the “do for self” mindset: keeping Black spending power in the neighborhood through Black-owned businesses, trades, and community cooperation that turns survival into stability.

We also tackle gang violence and youth “beef” culture, the need for real conflict resolution centers, and how self-hatred shows up in the language we normalize. Henry speaks on narrative control through media and drugs, and why rebuilding must include education, legal support, and open community spaces for mediation and family healing. If you care about community safety, economic empowerment, and rebuilding the Black family, hit play, share this with someone on your block, and subscribe, rate, and leave a review so more people can find the conversation.

Transcript

Welcome And How To Support

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Peace world, how you doing? This is your brother Mikey Fever. Welcome to another episode of NYP Talk Show, the coolest platform within the conscious space. Don't forget to comment, like, share, and subscribe. We got super chats. We got merchandise on the website. So go over there, get familiar, get involved in the movement, show that love, spread that love and peace to you guys all again. I'm happy to see those who are in the chat, those who are just logging in, welcome aboard. It's a beautiful Sunday. And we got a great show for you. Tonight we have Brother Henry Mohammed from the Nation of Islam. And he will be talking about uh let's see again, we must make our communities a safe and decent place to live. Brother Henry Mohammed, welcome aboard, my brother.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Yes, sir. Thank you, brother. Sheikham Salam. It's good to be here with you, brother Mikey Fever. Um, I'm I'm, you know, honored to be on the show and to be open to it. And so I look forward to us having a good evening tonight, brother.

From Brooklyn Streets To Study

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Oh, definitely, definitely, man. It's an honor to have you on here, you know. Um peace to all. You know, people are they saw a roll in now. But yeah, peace to all, man. Peace to the nation of Islam. Peace, Nicole. Welcome aboard sister. Yeah, brother. So tell tell us Wesley. I mean say Wesley. I'll see. I'm thinking of the Henry Mohammed, man. Yes, sir. Um first and foremost, tell us tell us where you're from, brother. Give us a bit of your background. What state? Where you from? How did you get involved with the teaching?

SPEAKER_02 1:47

Oh, brother, yes, sir. I'm um, yeah, I'm straight out of New York, Brooklyn, New York, that is. Um yeah, you know, yes, sir. Yes, sir. And um and my involvement with the teachings um was basically uh I can say in a nutshell, based off of life experiences. And I think we all go through them. At a certain point in our lives, we get to a certain age where we're kind of tired of doing the same thing over and over again, you know what I mean? And when they're dealing with the hanging out and this dad, after a while, you already know it by heart. You know what I mean? I'm you know, my um my beginnings was always on Nostran Avenue, so that Crown Heights Best Star area is where I basically came up at, you know, and then you know, moving throughout around Brooklyn. But at a certain point, with the way things were flowing, you just get sick and tired, you know, of doing things over and over again. And at that point, started searching for, you know, just more knowledge and reading certain books, not even realizing that I was on a journey, you know what I mean? And somewhere along the line with that kind of search, you know, I started running into people who was have of having knowledge outside of what is known in the main circles of American education and whatnot. And people just started putting me on to things. And then I started hearing about the teaching of Honor Balaji Muhammad from a brother that I had um known for a long time, but I didn't know him from this knowledge base. You know what I'm saying? Knew him from those circles in the underworld, you know, out in the street and whatnot, and happened to be working together, and he um we were at a job, and I was kind of complaining about the way this white woman was dealing with us as our supervisor. And you know, you can be talking to somebody and you're just venting, and not really to get no response, but everything I was venting about, he was giving me an answer to about their nature and this, that, and I'm like, wait, I just stopped like, brother, how you know all of this? Yeah, and then the brother started telling me about the honorable Elijah Muhammad, teachings of the nation of Islam, and you know, from there it it went, it spun off from there.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

I started questioning him.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

I think the brother's connection a book, two books.

SPEAKER_02 4:09

I guess he got tired of questioning him, so he gave me two books to read. And that those books were Our Savior Has Arrived and Uh How to Eat to Live. And then from there I just was I was on my journey.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Yes. So prior before we get out of the show, people we was talking about the neighborhood, and he said Nostren, Crown Heights area. There's a bookstore, Crown Heights Best Sky. There's a bookstore that those in Brooklyn who are very familiar with that are part of the Nation of Islam or other school of thoughts. It was on Nostren, like a few blocks from Fulton, the brother Jabril used to run that store. And it's funny, I used to go to that store too to get my books, you know. Yes. Go in there, chop it up with Jabril. Like I'll buy a book and end up staying there for like three hours. He's just talking and listening to the lectures. Um lectures and Elijah Muhammad stuff. And this is you know, I was not a member of the Nation of Islam, but it felt like home because the brothers would see you there, they would impart some knowledge with you. So very beautiful, very beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

Yeah, brother. And we're thankful to brother um Jabril and what he was doing with respect for life and whatnot, because that became a beacon light on Nostan Avenue for many of our people. And just, you know, if no one came in the store, no matter what time of the day or night it was, you had the big screen with Minister Farrakhar's messages playing. You could stand right out front and just look through the window and see all that, or walk in and get involved with some dialogue, purchase some items. And so, yes, brother, you know, that that was a blessing to have that. We was very sad when it got to the point that it had to shut down, you know. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

I was I was hurt because you know, I still want to get my steamed fish, come back around and all day, man. Like 2002, I go in through, like hanging out, and we were like, like, I put that down, let's go inside there, let's go kick with the brother, and he would have some documentaries for us. So we would fireball documentary, then Jabrillion talking, and it's it was cool, man. Yes, yes, man. Yeah. So that's you know, so you got involved in the teachings, and it and as you said, like there's a point in life where you get sick and tired of being sick and tired. Yes, sir. Yes, sir, knowledge. Because you we always feel like something is not right, like you know it's not like coincidence, he's like, something is just not right with the way our people are forced to live in these, you know, in these conditions, and right to get out, get out of that paradox of like what's going on.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Yeah, and and especially, you know, brother Mikey, when you when you get to the point where you see what's going on, but your knowledge is limited on how to describe it, you know, and it's like, okay, then there's there's a need for a higher level of knowledge, and staying in the same circle wasn't bringing that, but you know, everybody had their different walk, you know, and for me, it was more to the point, you know, coming up in the average home life and everything is good, you know, and we on the block, we doing what we're doing, but then after a while, you know, you start getting challenged with the street life, you know, and the institution of the street starts challenging things that, you know, you've been used to that you know may be right, but the temptation is there to go in this direction. And then that's when you start opening up to a whole nother broader aspect of what may be called the underworld or whatever, but it's all life going on, not realizing that this stuff is being set up like this for us to fall into those different traps. And after a while, man, you you deal with it a certain amount of time. You start seeing people getting, you know, killed, you're seeing people getting knocked off, you're seeing everyday working people, you're noticing everyday working people getting involved with things, and then heavy drugs start coming into the neighborhood. So, you know, my coming up was at the height or the beginning of the crack era. So to see that and what it what the toll that it took among us, and then you know, being involved with some of that on different aspects of it, you know, you start saying, you know, I'm getting sick and tired of seeing what's going on here. There got to be a better way of life, you know. And this when these these valleys of decisions start coming into mind, and you know, I messed up in school, maybe I should join the armed forces, or maybe I should do this, or maybe I should do that. And I don't want to go to jail, and I don't want to do this, and you know, and then, you know, by the grace of God, somebody's coming with some knowledge. And sometimes we may frown on it, but that knowledge be that opening door to help us really balance out what we've been looking at and what we've been thinking about and open us up more. Yeah, so I was fortunate enough to when that knowledge came, I started holding on to it.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Okay, so you said the books were the How to Eat the Live and How Save It Have Arrived, yes, sir, by the honorable Elijah Muhammad. I don't really know, praise you know, peace be onto him. So when these books they impact your life, when you first read them, like how did you feel like after like reading that first page or that first?

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Oh brother, well, you know, it it really opened me up. I mean, to the point whereas I'm reading this book, and the brother who had introduced it to me was telling me about the honorable Laj Muhammad, told me that he had died and so forth. So, as I'm reading the book, this is in, you know, like 1988. Okay. The copyright is 1974. The brothers telling me the man died in 75. He's dropping so much wisdom in the book that's speaking into my present life that I kept going back to look at the copyright and say, when did he write this? Because this is like, you know, fresh happening right now. And then certain things that was just over my head at the time as it pertained to the white man, as it pertained to religion, as it pertained to, you know, truth versus lies. And it was just blowing me away. So I was finding myself highlighting the whole book. I had to get a new one. Then with the book How to Eat to Live, that just was just opening me up to diet and what I'm putting in my system, and yeah, and as well as reading where he's talking about how following this kind of diet, you know, you can reverse your age process and how God is teaching how to live to be 120, 150 years old. So that made me go back to the copyright. Like, when did he write this?

unknown 10:29

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

1960. What? This been out that long, and I didn't know nothing about it. Then I'm asking myself, well, how could this man write about this and write about what God is teaching him on how to live to be 100, 120, 150, and then he died. So that was blowing me away, you know, because that was a puzzling part. Like I'm not understanding that, but I was so stuck in the book, I said, Let me read more and more and more. So it was that. And that was that was my my initial response. And from that time until now, I read through those books at least once a month.

Fasting And Self-Discipline For Safety

SPEAKER_00 11:05

Got you. So Elijah Muhammad, as we know it, came with um is it safe to say this, a self- uh a style of Islam that works for the black man here in North America, right? Okay, yeah. So then with him imparting that wisdom upon the people was for them to, you know, do for self, uplift yourself by the bootstrap, stop waiting, not to wait for a savior to come save you, as far as like, you know, the white Jesus and how religion may have felt the people, but this is something new I'm bringing to you that's considered self-salvation. Right? So I'm glad you said that you you brought up the how to eat the live, because you know, we know within our communities, uh, it's not only like the physical violence that inflicts our people and the violence amongst ourselves, it's also which our diet our dietary laws as well. Yes. Like we don't get the best the best of the food. So with that because you know, slavery still continues in our kitchen. Oh, yes, without a doubt. You know, if our kitchen, how we eat, you know, drink, you know, over drink, you know, smoking the tobacco products, the marijuana, the crack, as you mentioned earlier, came to our communities and just and decimated many lives. Yes, sir. Well, the first question I'm gonna ask, being answered how to eat the live and other books, you know, that you read, is how does self-discipline contribute to community safety?

SPEAKER_02 12:27

Repeat that again. How does self-disciplined contribute to community safety? Oh, it's it plays a big part in our community safety. Um learning to discipline ourselves, uh, which was of course um one of the things for me in coming into this teaching, that you know, you already have certain habits. I'm just speaking from self that you was already practicing and whatnot. Some of them was good, some of them wasn't, some of them you didn't even know wasn't good until you got a higher knowledge. And so one of the first things that helped with the self-discipline from the teaching of Honorable Laj Mohammed in How to Eat to Live, which is both dealing with spiritual and physical, was fasting.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 13:12

Learning how to fast, learning how to go without eating, and from a concentrated um effort. And when you're doing it from a concentrated effort, you find that it's your mind over the matter. Your body is the matter, but the mind, which is in your brain that's controlling this matter, you start getting more of a focus with that. And my reasoning with that was okay, going from eating three meals a day or four meals a day to eating one meal a day with nothing in between. That's a concentrated effort. And at first, someone would say, Well, I could never do that, but I started thinking about all the times that I would be so busy running the street and hanging out that I would go through a whole day without eating. You know what I mean? So it was like I was already doing stuff like that, not even knowing it, because I'm busy chasing stuff.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

But realizing, you know, and I don't know the different errors, but I remember days going throughout the whole day and just having a 25 cent juice and a bag of Bonton potato chips, and that held me down for the whole day. So, what would it be like for me not to have a meal until a certain hour of the day? And, you know, doing that wasn't just as simple as me staying on my own, I'm gonna do it. Being with other like minds that was striving to do it gave more strength for me to do it until I was able to walk on my own with it. So, with that being said, that kind of discipline helped me to understand how to discipline myself against other things. That if I can go throughout the day 24 hours and only eat once and don't eat again for 24 more hours, the more I started doing that and getting into a practice of that and realizing that it takes 21 days to change old habits into new ones, after three weeks to a month of me doing that, I said, okay, well man, I can quit smoking. If I use the same analogy of concept as I did with going without food and I need food to live, what am I doing with this cigarette? You know, am I in control of myself or is the cigarette in control of me? Because by me going without food was showing that how I can master control of myself.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

The appetite.

SPEAKER_02 15:28

And then from there just started going on and on down the line in terms of dealing with other things that were of a habit that I may have felt was controlling me and me not controlling it. And that, of course, you know, added with that was the knowledge, brother Mikey, you know, fever, because the knowledge was really understanding who I am, which is coming from Don Balaj Muhammad, that you are the original man. Of course, you come from the originator, and the original man is Asiatic black man, make or owner, cream of the planet of God of the universe. So saying it sounded good, but okay, how do I live that?

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 16:08

You know, how do I take control to show that I am in control of the force and power of my own body, my own life? And it started with fasting, got true, beautiful, and understanding the power of fasting.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

The power of fasting, the power of discipline, yes, and the knowledge of self. So these are these important pillars and factors, right? And in being that we talk about our communities, we got into you know a bit of the diet diet dietary laws of how to eat to live, because it's important. You gotta know how to what to eat, what to consume, yes, sir, body in order to live a life of longevity. You know, as far as the teaching of knowledge of self, we see within our communities, right, what's taking place with among the group, the gang violence, yes sir, the um prostitution, being exploited by outside influences as well. Yes, sir. How can we and I say this carefully because I don't want people to get offended, and I'm saying this not as authoritative figure, not seeking converts, but how can the teachings of the honorable Elijah Muhammad be implemented into our communities to make it a better place?

SPEAKER_02 17:17

Okay, that's a um great question. I'm glad you asked that. Well, you know, brother, the the tour that we're embarking on in Brooklyn right now is um inspired by divine instructions coming from the Honorable Minister Louis Firecon that we got at our Savior's Day meeting back in um February when we were in Detroit. And this was through the message from the National Assistant Minister to Minister Farrakhan, Brother Ishmael Mohammed. And that message was we must make our community a decent and safe place to live. Now, in response to your question in regards to doing that, Islam, under the teachings of the most honorable Audit Muhammad, is under the principles of freedom, justice, and equality.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 18:06

In all actuality, freedom, justice, and equality under Islam from his teaching is really the principles of love. You know? And so if I love God and I love myself, then the more I love myself, the more I love God. And the more I love myself, then anybody that self-love makes me look at others that are from self. My brothers and sisters that got a nose like my nose, lips like my lips, hair like my hair, I gotta love them.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

Of course.

SPEAKER_02 18:37

I gotta be able to love them before I start showing love for anybody outside of myself. So your mother becomes my aunt, you know? Your sister becomes my niece. Your daughter, your daughter becomes my niece, your sister is my sister. And the more that that's practiced, then the more I wanna be able to show the uh freedom, justice, and equalities of that person. Well, we can't be give people freedom if we're not willing to let them express themselves and through the expression of themselves, they, you know, be able to share knowledge. But in sharing knowledge, we're getting knowledge back from them. And as we converse like that, then their minds are opening up to be more free in their expression. And so that allows them to, you and me, and anyone we come across, to be able to each one teach one, and as each one teach one, and we act on the knowledge we have, then we are justified in expressing ourselves because now with the freedom of the mind comes the justice. And in justice, there's fair dealing. So I treat you the way I want to be treated. And I don't want to see anyone in the community not being treated with the justice that they deserve. Then with the justice, now we have freedom, we have justice. The equality is that we we're on an equal footing, and we're practicing that in our in our lifestyle. So, how are we practicing that? We're keeping God at the head of it all. And if we're keeping God at the head of it all based off of God's laws and God's ways, then we're using the knowledge of God and we're submitting ourselves to that knowledge and living according to that knowledge. Islam is submission. So if we remove the label and just deal with the meaning, you know, then it's dealing with righteousness. And my nature and your nature is righteousness. I don't know no black people or anybody in human society that's being real with themselves, that if they're really identifying themselves with God, in the nature of themselves, they want to do the right thing.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 20:41

Because it's righteousness, it's right in our nature, you know, and so when we understand that about one another, even anytime we do something wrong, and it could be done wrong, can be done based off of circumstances and conditions, and we just didn't see another way. So we had to move that way. But if the circumstance was changed and the condition was different, they would have said, I wouldn't have done that. You see? So then we know at the root of them is righteousness. And if we're just willing to live right, then whatever's blocking us from living right, let's get together and get it out the way so that we can be more at peace. Because when we have righteousness, when we have freedom, when we have justice, when we have equality, then we're at peace with ourselves. And Islam is peace. So when you mentioned earlier about, you know, the teachings of Muhammad and the way he brought Islam, it's being brought to us based off of the condition that the black man and woman of America has been put in. We ain't grow up in the East. We ain't grow up in those areas where there was righteousness from birth and until death. No, we've been brought in under oppression because we are people that come from a background where our ancestors were kidnapped and brought here in the holder slave ships and made to be the bearers of other people for over. 310 years in chattel slavery and really 400 years of when you add Jim Crow 100 years of Jim Crow laws, and then the past 71 years of broken promises through voter registration and all these other so-called civil rights, we still are not free because our minds have been locked down other under another man's mind.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

And stripped of your identity, strip of yourself, your language. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

Yes, sir. So all of that has to be re-established in us in order for us to have a decent and safe community. You know, so I think that's the way that I would you know answer that question. Because we can go on and on, but brother, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

Listen, this is yes sir, man. Yes, sir. All right, I appreciate that. Definitely, because we know we're here to hear. What systems can be um implemented to create this safe haven for our people? Like, you know, I know you guys are doing community work and everything else, right? But you know, there's always gonna be some kind of resistance from those of course who um who don't understand. And as I was talking earlier before we got on, some will hear the name Islam and they'd be like, I don't associate with that, I'm Christian, or I'm this and that. But they they they are um how should I say, stigmatized or blinded by the title of Islam, but they don't hear that the information that's being dropped on them. How what systems can we do? Can we implement for that?

SPEAKER_02 23:23

Well, the thing is when we start dealing with the um the found the principles of freedom, justice, and equality, it doesn't exclude anybody based off of what your faith may be, what label you may be under, because equality is for all. So, for instance, just to give an example, coming into our communities, you know, and the the uniqueness about the black community is that you can have you can find over almost every facet of ideology among the black community, of course. You know, and so but in the word community, the root is unity. So we find a way to unite on the common denominator. We're dealing with mathematics. So when we start dealing with the common denominator, what we all have in common, we all black. That's that's common.

SPEAKER_01 24:17

We all be able to do that.

SPEAKER_02 24:19

We're all suffering in our communities. That's common. And one, if one out of 20 is not suffering, that means we still all suffering, bro. You know what I'm saying? Because we can't add one cubic inch to our height, nor can we step through the earth. So if there's one in the community that's doing very well financially and everything else, he's not the uh um the picture of the whole community. Because if if there's 20 others or 19 others that's suffering, then we need to lend what we have as that 1% to other 19. So when we start talking about dealing with a system among us as a community, we understand that when we look in our communities, there's a lot of money, a lot of financial power that we have. But that financial power is not being held within the community, even though we're spending money in a lot of stores around in our communities. Talk about it. But those stores are from the from the outside coming in. So we're really kind of colonized because the people who run the stores that we're spending money with and they're providing us a service. I'm not saying they're wrong for providing us a service, but the service that they're providing for us, they're not giving anything back to help the community. And nobody said that they have to. But suppose we use the monies we have in our community to open our own stores, to give ourselves the same service.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

You know, there's nothing wrong with that. So, in that system, we're talking about doing for self. And when we talk about doing for self, that means that we're making sure that all of us are able to eat. All of us are able to survive and be able to live. That if there's a gas station in the community, why there's not a gas station that's run by us since it's in our community? If there's a cleaners in the community, why the community, the cleaners isn't run by us, owned by us since it's in our community. Who's gonna be against that? When you walk into other communities, whether it's Little Italy or it's Chinatown or it's the Jewish community or it's uh Russian community, they have their own stores serving them with their own people, and they don't mind people from other communities coming in, purchasing things, doing that, but at a certain time of night, those people are gonna go about their business because they don't live in that community. This is our community.

Conflict Resolution And Ending Youth Beef

SPEAKER_00 26:41

And we gotta take care of our own. That's a fact. I like how he said, as Elijah Muhammad would say, do for self. Like the first book introduction I got into that. And again, for those who's watching and listening, I'm not a member of the Nation of Islam register, but I always admire their teachings, you know. So he always said do for self. The black man must do for self. And you know, as the teaching say the center of your universe, your family. Mm-hmm. You know, it's it's important because you know, like they say the man leads, but he must be a man that has the let's keep it real, like the test the tescular fortitude. Go against the resistance, must have the knowledge, right, must be disciplined, must be grounded in what he in what he stands for. And I see it now amongst the youth, especially with the gang violence, right? We're quick to say that um the issue is a lack of father in the household. Systemically, you know, a lot of black men were in you know trapped in prison due to the whole crack epidemic and other things that take place. How can I mean what what are the the plans for the nation of Islam, right, to counter this to to try to bring an end to this gang violence amongst the youth, because you know these numbers are increasing by the day. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 28:00

Well, you know, one of the main thing things that has to be done, and the minister has given this to us uh over the years and publicly given it to the black community. We need to have conflict resolution centers. Yes. Conflict resolution. You know, what we notice as a people, and you know, we can analyze ourselves. A lot of our people don't like to deal with conflict resolution. You know, we get into a beef with one another, and it's like we gotta fight. And then after we fight, you know, you know, ain't no talking to each other no more. But these these are things that um come up through the way we were uh um you know raised in our family structure. You know, some of us we raised in our family structure that, you know, when our parents were upset with us, they were just kind of, you know, um for lack of a better spaz out, yeah. Just totally go off on you with a tongue lashing, you know, curse you totally out, then smack you up, yeah, and then tell you, get out of my face, because they don't want to have to see you suffering what they put on you. And then when it came time to deal with that, you know, oh, let's go get some ice cream. This is my way of saying I'm sorry without saying I'm sorry. Exactly. You know, so then the scar is still there, but then there's a certain practice that comes along with that as that child comes up. They start dealing with their the people that they got a disagreement with the same way, exactly, and then that goes into another level because you're realizing that in the midst of that, there's no anger management, there's no handling of how I keep control of my temperament when someone gets me upset, which makes us go back to the antidote with fasting, because now it's to the point whereas no one is is culturing us or teaching us on how to relate to people when we disagree.

SPEAKER_01 30:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

But what's at the root of it? What I find, brother, just from studying self over the years, and it really was brought to my attention first and foremost by the Honorable Mr. Lewis Frau Khan when I was much, much younger, that a lot of my um conflicts that I was having with people of my peers and others in the community, and my attitude was really based out of self-hatred.

SPEAKER_00 30:32

Yo, hold on, brother, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Make sure I got the right one. It's so true. Accountability, look how you view yourself.

SPEAKER_02 30:47

Yes, yes, we gotta look at self first. There's no way in the world that I would be quick, and I don't that's not it's not my language any longer, but when we start calling our brother a nigger, my dog, sister's a bee, she calling herself a bee. That language is what shows how we think. Exactly. So if I'm looking at you a certain way, and we can't say this is a term of endearment when we know or understand a nigga ain't nothing. So if I keep using that language and even using it about myself, then underneath what I'm saying, I ain't really nothing. And this next brother that looks like he ain't nothing. So we cool as long as you doing what I like. But if we if you you press me the wrong way, then I'm gonna show you how I don't care about nothing. Well, it'll be a real but it's really something that I don't like about myself.

unknown 31:48

It's true, it's true, it's true.

SPEAKER_02 31:51

And so that has to be bust up, man. That that kind of mentality, whereas we and now we're finding out over these years, because these things changed throughout the decades, a lot of the beefs that are going on with our youth and gang violence, when you start asking them what's the root of it, most of them can't even tell you where this started at. Don't even know why I'm still beefing. It's just passed down from generation to generation because what happened with my brother, and I remember what happened with my uncle, and I was a little shorty, and I'm come up, and you know we got it, we don't like them dudes, and then it'd be like, but brother, what is the beef still about?

SPEAKER_00 32:29

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 32:30

No one ever really got to the bottom of it.

SPEAKER_00 32:33

No logical, no logic behind it. No, it's emotionally hard.

SPEAKER_02 32:37

Okay. So conflict resolution centers, you have to be have to be developed. And I really, and we know in the nation of Islam that it doesn't mean that we gotta be in some courtroom or something like that. There are too many houses of worship in our communities that are not being opened up to the community for a sense of being able to use to deal with family conflicts, to deal with beefs, to deal with uh marriage relationships. You don't have to be a member of the Mosque for us to sit down and let a brother and sister who's having problems in their marriage, problems in their relationship, and me sit down with you as a student in the ministry and let y'all talk and hear each other out and offer different solutions as it as based out of the foundation of righteousness. You know, whether we put the name Allah on it or not. We know the teacher of the Honorable Laji Muhammad, Master Fad Muhammad, is recognized by us as the son of man. His whole reason for coming was to get the lost sheep of America, the lost sheep, the black man and woman, tribe of Shabbat. That's how we say it. He recognized us all as being righteous by nature. So when he recognized all black people as being righteous by nature, and that righteous label was given Muslim, one who is submitting his will to do the will of God, then for us in the nation of Islam, because I heard you say it a couple of times, I'm not a member of the nation of Islam. We look at all black people as a member of the nation of Islam, whether they recognize it or not, because your nature is righteousness.

SPEAKER_00 34:17

Got you now. I only say I'm glad you said that. That's why I said I'm not registered uh and registered. Yes, sir. I always but I always picked up the books because I always find the books very appealing. And you know, a lot of you know information in there was very pivotal in my upbringing as well.

SPEAKER_02 34:32

Yes, sir.

Media Drugs And Narrative Warfare

SPEAKER_00 34:32

You know, because I um I see it as our communities have been subjected to this because we know the the history of what our people endured around the world. Yes, and who control the narrative, yes, and if they control your education, they control your children. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So therefore, like they always gonna learn about, and I say this a lot. They always let me interject.

SPEAKER_02 34:57

Mr. Farrakhan said this he who controls the diameter of your thinking controls the circumference of your movement.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

Exactly. Exactly, exactly. You're not free to you're not free. Right. Like I heard that speak before something about uh uh you're not free to create if he controls the the bounds. Right. So that's what happens before our community is it's the narrative because you know, I don't want to sound like an old parent, but you know, we see the images of what we see in the rap videos and the lyrics, whatever. Some of these labels who are owned by people that that don't look like you are telling you to do these things. Yes, and to behave as such, like all right, you can do this drilling, you're gonna be this sister that's gonna jump up and down, shake your, you know, your behind on camera. You're gonna talk like this, and the children are beating up. But say if somebody comes out there speaking as you speaking and say, Let's rap about this, because it's one nation of Islam rapper from Brooklyn. I've got I think it's unique, I've got his name, Fair Skin Brother, but he be have he be having had his mixtape. Danique. Danique, yes, Danique.

SPEAKER_01 36:03

Yes, yes, sir, yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00 36:04

He had that one song I always have on repeat was that one shot, what he's saying. And there's a lot of information that he has in there. I'm like, yo, this brother should be out there. Mold the narrative, he won't get that push by screen.

SPEAKER_02 36:17

It's funny because I mean, you know, Danique came right up among us, man. We I've known him ever since he was um back in the backyard playing football and roundup and stuff like that, you know. But the the brother, now I can go on Spotify and punch his name in, and some of his his his uh his pieces will come up. So, you know, I'm thankful to that. You know what I mean? You know, but you're right, brother. You're right. He came up in the era with with Uncle Murder and all of them, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 36:46

Because it's New York, you know.

SPEAKER_02 36:47

So, but but yeah, but but but striving with a positive rap.

SPEAKER_00 36:52

Exactly. So that's why I say it's important. Like, you know, I always give respect to the Nation of Islam, you know what I'm saying? Despite like controversial things like that, I always be like, you know what? They came at a time where our people needed a sense of identity and community. Because honestly, right now, we in our community have been turned into a malfunctioning savage-like condition where ignorance is praised more, yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 37:22

You know that there we can't leave out the um the chemical and biological warfare that has been practiced on our communities ever since we've been here. So when we start getting into the whole drug culture and the weed and the loud and the this and the that, that's adding to what is needed to extinguish the mindset of the knowledge that has been coming through the honorable, coming through Dr. Ben, coming through different heroes and she rows that's been among us. You know, there was a statement that the Honorable Laji Muhammad made in this book, Message to the Black Man, and he talked about this guy named that was in Congress back in uh 1832, Virginia House of uh of delegation, and they was arguing uh over a way to get to to the so-called Negro. And they said his name was Henry Berry, to look him up. He said, We have just about cut off every aspect of light to get into the Negro's mind. If we could just extinguish his power to see the light, our future would be secure. And really, when you start thinking about people being that devious to be thinking, now you know 1832, that Virginia House of Delegates, there was no black people in that Virginia house. These are all white people thinking like this.

SPEAKER_00 39:01

Of course.

SPEAKER_02 39:02

Talking about how they have cut off every avenue of light, meaning every avenue of knowledge to get to us, and then wanted to extinguish our capability of being able to see the light so that they can have a good future. Brother, what would what would be the capability to stop a black man whose nature is God from being able to see the light? It's GitHub, bruh. It's liquor, it's that loud, it's that weed, it's that smoking and that drinking. And I know there's some on the line that will hear this right now. If you're dealing with that, you're saying, gee, he don't know what he's talking about. I used to smoke weed, I wouldn't be that one that'd be talking about, but the stuff they're putting in it, bro.

SPEAKER_00 39:44

Not natural.

SPEAKER_02 39:45

When we start talking about chemical and biological warfare, every avenue that they can think of to come and against us to slow us down, stop us from being able to grow and develop to what we what our ancestors used to be and are. They know who we are, but many of us refuse to believe who we are. You know, and so that is something that you know, if when you know this and you have this kind of knowledge, and you have this kind of teaching, it brings out the militant propensity in you. It makes you want to roar like a lion.

Building Legal Education Health Systems

SPEAKER_00 40:26

I see that. I see that. It also discourages that self-hate, um, that self-hate. Oh, without a second, my brother beloved. Hold on a second. Somebody said, Creative of balance. Thank you for the super chat, says, as we overstand the principles presented by the honorable Elijah Muhammad, was there ever a mandate to have a legal team to assist the people who may come onto issues and their rights are being violated? With their rights being violated, pardon me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:54

Yes, and through through the um uh millions more movement, the minister came up with nine ministries, and one of those ministries is the Ministry of Justice, you know, and so yes, the legal team is there, but the thing that we have to do is that legal team has to be uh uh expanded in our communities. So now going right back to, and I'm glad they asked that question, because going right back to, you know, the system that has to be used to make our communities a decent and safe place to live, when we're coming, when we unite on the principle of freedom, justice, and equality, when we unite on the principle of unity and being a community, meaning we got a common interest. And we want to unify on that, then we need to come together and be able to identify with those who have the different skills, those who are lawyers from the black community, those who are apprentices from the black community, those who are uh uh um electricians, those who are carpenters, those who are plumbers, and be able to unite those who are educators, those who are doctors, those who are nurses, and unite under the principle of wanting to unify and make our community more decent and a safe place to live. Under those principles, then each of us that come together can head up committees of people that are willing to learn and help on those bases for the betterment of our community. This is happening in small groups. We need it to be happening in different cells in each area. You got Bedford Stevenson, you got Crown Height, you got Eastern York, you got Brownsville, you got Fort Green, you got Clinton Hills, you got Red Hook. Those areas, in every one of those areas, brother, when we start doing the math on how many black youth are there, how what's the educational system like there, what's the finances there, how much of people have or what's the spending power of the people there? There are people that already calculated that way before us as a people, and they're coming in and they're snatching that from us.

SPEAKER_00 43:02

The black dollar.

SPEAKER_02 43:04

Yes, and not only the black dollar, the black mind. And so we have minds. Think about it. The educational system in our communities is is really messed up. But there's a lot of black teachers there. Yeah, you see, and if we could come in and help to remove the obstacles in the way as well as help with those educators that want to see a better curriculum and have in their mind to produce a better curriculum, but based off of the politics from the from the superintendent on down through the principals, they're not able to deal with their curriculum the way that they want to. And we come in as a community and demand better for our children. And let the ones that have love for education and love for our babies teach. Otherwise, we do away with the school and make our own school. We can take over that. And it doesn't even have to be nothing violent at all. The only violent Will be about his righteousness and us sticking together for the love of our own. In the Nation of Islam, we have Muhammad University of Islam. It's small groups of small groups of mothers and fathers that have come together under the teachers of Honor Blash Muhammad and want to educate our babies and want to make sure it, you know, that we're giving them the right education with supreme wisdom, supreme knowledge, supreme understanding, but the academia and bringing it up in a foundation and circle of love. You know, we all grew up our play play arts with babysitting us for our mother and this that, but it was an atmosphere of love. But when you got an atmosphere of love like that and got people around making sure we're checking one another to make sure everybody's treated the right way and the education is there, you find our babies becoming more expressive. They're not afraid to speak up. They're not afraid to take leadership roles. They're following behind those who are parents that's leading in the way of example. And of course, we're we're uh we're not perfect with it, but we have a perfect foundation. We just gotta discipline ourselves according to the foundation and the structure and keep building. The honorable Elijah Muhammad set up a good structure. Minister Farrakhan, his chief disciple, set up a very good structure. And what we have in the nation of Islam is a microcosm of the macrocosm that will make up all for the 40 to 50 million of us that live in the United States of America. It's our time.

Unity Across Faiths With Real Equality

SPEAKER_00 45:36

Talk about it. I'm glad you I was about to every question I'm about to ask you, you basically um answered right there. So it's important like to be in control of our education, the narrative, the images that are portrayed about our people reaching out to the youth. And I'm glad you mentioned that. You know, there are a lot of other um too many uh I'm gonna keep it real. There are too many churches within the black community that I don't see do as much as outreach programs. And I'm not knocking you, but I could go to Brownsville and I'll see like six churches on one sidewalk. You know what I'm saying? I'd be like, all right, what's being done for the community? You know, why your doors are not open? You know, as you said in your gospel, come as you are. But if somebody crossed the street and not dress a certain way, you reject them. You get what I'm saying? And you're telling them to bow down. You tell them to bow down to uh Johnny come lately image. You get what I'm saying? It doesn't represent them, and they feel downtrodden, you know, as it is already. So I'm glad that you see you spoke on that part. And as far as like the the education for the youth and our people, the literacy and everything else, and marriage counseling and um since the the the community itself, family the family structure, it's very important to have that because it takes a village to raise the children, and believe it or not, even the elders themselves are children in a sense as well. You know what I'm saying? It's important to have you know each each each person has each other's back. So you said that in the with the Muhammad University, which is important, but um you said it's it's it's a it's a coalition of mothers and fathers, parents that came together to create um a system to educate their children, right? Yes, yes, and you know, being that you know we hear other people, I don't want to say their names, but there's brothers out there who claim to want to open up a school and you know, people years and you guys already have a school going, right? Right. But with the tools that we have now, we have technology, we don't need to have a physical school sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 47:31

Right, sometimes, yeah, you know, and you know, every facet that we could use to make sure education is being spread, we should strive to use it. But why not, brother, brother Mikey, you know, Mikey Fever, when we start thinking about this, all these schools we got in our community, yeah, why not take them over?

SPEAKER_00 47:54

We can.

SPEAKER_02 47:56

What's gonna stop the government or anyone from from us, stop us from taking over what's ours? If we take our children out, then the school ain't getting no funding and doing anything. But if we make a demand, but it has to start with unity, you know, it has to start with us uniting. And that uniting meaning that we have to be able to deal with one another and start producing brotherhood and sisterhood. Everybody talk about the hood. But what the minister has taught us, when I look at my brother, in that word brother is other. My brother is my other self. And if he's if he's in a worse condition than I, or if he has a bad attitude versus my good attitude, then I get with like minds to help that brother, and we cover him until he gets his thing together. That's the hood of the brotherhood.

SPEAKER_00 48:50

Talk about it.

SPEAKER_02 48:51

The covering is people coming together with like minds and the knowledge to help one who's down, lift them up. And no matter how long it takes, we'll wrangle with that. If he wants to get right, we'll help him get right. If she wants to get right, we'll help them get right. But if you don't want to get right, after an example of the system has been put before you, then you're gonna stand out there on your own.

SPEAKER_00 49:16

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 49:18

We're not gonna discredit you. And what I was trying to say earlier, if we get together like this, and let's just say we open our own hospital, it's not the hospital of the nation of Islam. And if you are uh Metunetta or if you are five percent or if you are uh uh a Mason or if you are a Christian or back, you can't come into that hospital. That's not equality.

SPEAKER_00 49:40

Talk about it, talk about it.

SPEAKER_02 49:41

We're not dealing with pre-just and equality that's on the level of you gotta be black and you gotta be of this mindset, that then that would be niggerism.

SPEAKER_00 49:49

Talk about it.

SPEAKER_02 49:50

There's a lot of that going on out here, and that is not what Minister Famicon is raising us to be. No, we want to show the love of God to our people, but in righteousness, and we're not gonna be against you if you have another foundation of knowledge which you follow, but as long as you're doing it in a way where you're not trying to push it over on somebody else, and if they don't accept it, you're casting them out, and that's not right.

unknown 50:16

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 50:17

Because if I know that three plus one is four, but you were taught two plus two is four, what's the common denominator? We get learned how to get to four, exactly. So if you see God as as Yahweh and I see Him as Allah, the main thing you're looking at is Supreme Being. Okay, what's the principles under that supreme being? It's Satan that has come in between to divide and conquer to cause us to be looking at these things the same thing from a different way, and then taking that that that's my way and that's not your way. No, we ain't with that, brother. I'm glad all that has to change.

Family Breakdown Welfare Traps Healing

SPEAKER_00 50:52

I brother, I hear the sincerity when you speak, man. I'm like, and I'm I'm inspired to hear you speak, man. It's very beautiful. Oh praise you to go along. And I'm I'm glad you said that because you know the family structure is what's needed within the black community, because you don't have a lot of like parents giving up on their children, parents that are neglecting the other parent to get back, especially during the separations. We see that a lot where parents are chosen as pawns and not knowing that that child, you're you're inflicting uh pain on that child. Yes, sir. Again, because we don't we don't know how to deal with conflict resolution, emotional intelligence, it's the ego in the way, and then you're being told by outsiders how to behave in such ways, so then these children grow angry, misguided. They don't know what it is from a father's perspective, they may not love is from a mother's a motherly perspective. Yes, sir. Behaving that sad, you know, get what I'm saying? Uncultivated seed.

SPEAKER_02 51:46

And it's by design. Yeah, that that that's the thing about it. You know, it's by design. You know, we we know that we every one of us that are parents, we have our responsibility to our children. And where the children may have gone off course or whatever, as long as they was under our care and we didn't do what we were supposed to do, some of what they did to bring repercussions on themselves is our fault. And we're not going to be able to get away from that. But we're not here to go ahead and bash the parent in the sense of um where where they're at fault at. We know that a lot of this has been by design based off of circumstances and conditions, lack of knowledge, being deaf, dumb, and blind, that when you get into those hardcore things that's coming against you as a parent, coming against you as a family, when your family is broken up. Just think about this, brother. This is this always gets to me. But for decades, this kind of thing has been practiced, what I'm about to say. Here it is, no one has been teaching us how to discipline ourselves against the forces of nature that comes up in us as young people when we start getting into puberty and start growing hair in different places, and hormones is moving a certain way, and the attracting power of male and female is coming into play, and no one is is really giving guidance and discipline on that. So then we get involved with one another and someone gets pregnant. We're not prepared to take care of no baby, we're not prepared to really raise no baby, but now it's it's on our plate. And then the next thing we're being told by some of our own parents is you got to go down to welfare. Because you got to get on the system, and then you go down to welfare, and when you get down there, you can't let them know you got a man in order for you to get your benefits. A psychological thing is being set up right then and there. Yep. Because you know you got Ray Sean is at home, you know, Booby is at home, and you had to lie to these people in order for you to get whatever you're gonna get, whether whatever kind of benefits is gonna be, so that you can survive to take care of your baby. And then when you and you and Ray Sean have some beef with one another and there's no conflict resolution, get out of my house. You ain't no man anyway. Who told you he wasn't a man? Because you had to go down there and tell them you ain't got a man, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:14

So psychological.

SPEAKER_02 54:15

And we don't even look at that psychological craziness, and I'm not to say that this so-called man may be out of his mind. I'm not saying that, but where did that come from? I mean, brother, when we start thinking about it, who really taught us how to love? Man, because our colonizers, the enemy did not bring us here to become a family. No, didn't we was a family in Africa before they snatched us, they brought us here to break us up as a family, use us as merchandise, and then for 300 years deny us, and then another hundred years of Jim Crow laws. So there's there's deep-rooted psychological factors that's there that needs to be uprooted. And what we're finding is people are even profiting off of that off your pain now.

SPEAKER_00 55:08

Yo, I see it every day, brother. I see it every day. They profit off your pain, they profit off your pain. I see how things are taking place, even within the community. I see it every day. I see a sister going on the streets with a stroller, like you struggling everything, you never see the father around. Either he's lost or if you put it down to circumstances, he had to go out there and hustle to try to do what he got to do to feed his family. Because you because we can't tell a man how to eat if we find him another way to eat. That's right. So he's gonna do what he has to do, knowing that you know that way it's not the you know the most best way, but he's doing that, he's doing his best at the moment, right? Right, and he's behind the walls, and she's yeah, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 55:47

So the condition, the condition is bad. I mean, it's so bad when we spell it out, it'll make a brass monkey cry. But we believe under the teachings of Anna Balaj Muhammad and the guidance of menace of Arakan, we got a solution. We got a solution, and I can't say that the solution is not foolproof because I'm a product of that solution. I got eight children, eight grandchildren, none of them ever been locked up, none of them get high, and we all grew up in the hood and based off of leading them with this teaching. And I know that I'm not the only one out there like that. People that have knowledge of self and are moving with different ideologies of knowledge that are really sincere about the love for themselves and their family have been battling in the midst of chaos and not even being affected by it.

SPEAKER_00 56:37

I want to say this to you, brother. You don't like a grandfather of eight, man, or a father of eight. You look mighty young. You look like that.

SPEAKER_02 56:45

Thank you for that, brother. Thank you for that. But yes, you know, eight children, eight grandchildren.

SPEAKER_00 56:51

This is so this is such a deep conversation because we we can't we didn't even scratch the surface yet. Because this is like it comes in so many layers to what plagues our people. Yes, you know, we've seen people making strides and success, but there's more to it. Because I always say, you know, you will always have that survivor's guilt in the sense that you know I find a way to maneuver through this, but my people are still going through this, and how can I put them right? So we gotta do like a part two of this show, if you if you forward, because this is there's a lot more we have to, you know, dissect and get to. And we gotta see.

Brooklyn Tour And Restoration Plaza Invite

SPEAKER_02 57:28

Yeah, brother, I'm I'm open and I'm available, brother. Mikey fever. Look, look what we're doing, man. You know, we're striving as a as a mosque in Brooklyn, the People's Republic of Brooklyn. Mohammed Moss7C, as you know, brother, we're gonna take this message. We must make our community a decent and safe place to live. We're striving to get into every section of Brooklyn of Brooklyn that we can get into to galvanize, inspire, motivate, and bring this knowledge to our people and help them to come together. Not to do it for you, to help you do it yourself, but we're gonna be at Restoration Plaza on next Sunday, uh uh, April 19th. Doors will open at 10:30 a.m. And we're gonna bring this message, you know, and we're looking to be there, and we want our people from Betford Stufferson at Restoration Plaza, 1365 Fulton Street, be there with us. Be there with us. Bring your relatives, bring your family, bring your loved ones, but most of all, bring yourself. We need our youth to come out, yeah, you know, and we know what the condition is. We don't know it all, but we know enough to know that some of us can't even out of our youth because of the beefs that we have, we can't even go outside of a four-block radius.

SPEAKER_00 58:44

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 58:45

Can I add a sauces before we check out? Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00 58:50

But for for the for the Oheads, for these OGs, I'm gonna sweep to you on your terms that are out here, Mr. You're leading the youth. You need to be disciplined. Because how dare you pass down these beefs to the youth that you got them out there killing one another, and you you just out there giving them misinformation. You're not pulling them aside, tell them not to do the search such and such things, but therefore, some of them people who are above 50 plus online talking about you added on to the situation, right? You added on to the detriment of our communities, and you need to be taken care of.

SPEAKER_02 59:23

Yeah, you know, either either you're gonna be a part of the of the problem or a part of the solution.

SPEAKER_00 59:28

Exactly. My brother Henry Mohammed, thank you for coming out, my beloved brother, tonight, man.

SPEAKER_02 59:33

Brother Mikey Fever, I thank you, brother, for giving me this opportunity to be able to share the airwaves with you, brother. And we look forward to doing more work with you. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00 59:41

You gotta come back, brother. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Thanks to the gods and earth, peace to all my people, Islam to the Moors. Yes, this is NYP. Don't forget to check us out. Comment, like, share, subscribe, support, man, and you know, love one another. That's it. That's the key words to love, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:00

We gotta that's right, yes, sir. So don't forget, Sunday, April 19th, Restoration Plaza, 1365 Fulton Street, 1030 AM. We'll be there live. You can come be with us, brother.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:13

All right, peace. I got you, my brother. All right, peace.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:17

Peace.