Black Muslim reformer resigns his top post

Christian Century, Sept 20, 2003

W. Deen Mohammed, a reformist spiritual leader of African-American Muslims for a quarter-century, announced his resignation as leader of the American Society of Muslims during the national group's convention in Chicago on the Labor Day weekend.

Mohammed, who will turn 70 in October, plans to continue to advise and represent African-American Muslims and direct his ministry, The Mosque Cares, but will no longer lead the society, which is the main organization representing his movement. The son of Elijah Muhammad who died in 1975, Deen Mohammed rejected the black-separatist premise of his father's Nation of Islam and steered many of its mosques into Muslim orthodoxy. Louis Farrakhan became leader in 1978 of the remnant Nation of Islam.

Mohammed privately informed his movement's imams, or prayer leaders, on August 30 that he would resign. Speaking to the convention the next day, he said, "I don't know about you, but when I told the imams about my resignation yesterday, a big burden went off my back."

His national representative, Imam Earl Abduhnalik Mohammed, insisted that while he may be cutting back in some ways, Deen Mohammed would continue to be the spiritual leader of the movement. "No force of nature, no spirit, no influence, no person, no group cart ever separate me from Imam W. Deen Mohammed," he said.

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Deen Mohammed said he is stepping down partly because of frustration with local leaders that lack religious training and leadership qualities. "American Society of Muslim leaders don't support me, but the followers do," he said. "I have tried over the last ten to 12 years to encourage them to get more religious education, hut I have made no progress. They want their followers just to obey them, but not question them or right their wrongs."

The organization's predecessor sect, the Nation of Islam, was founded by Wallace D. Fard, who was accorded divine status. Successor Elijah Muhammad was called a prophet--a tenet that clashed with historic Islam, which calls the seventh-century Prophet Mohammad the last messenger of God. Deen Mohammed's reformist steps helped established cordial relations with the growing number of U.S. Muslims with immigrant backgrounds.

"His greatness came from the fact that he brought African-American Muslims into a deeper understanding of mainstream Islam," said Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, a nationwide group based in Los Angeles.