This article is part of the Religious Freedom Reframed series, which is exploring perspectives on religious freedom that have historically been left out of public discourse, as well as implications for individuals, institutions, and society overall. In this series, authors will use a public justice framework to explore narratives that are traditionally left out of the conversation on religious freedom. This series is designed to introduce fresh perspectives, feature new voices, and examine historical and present injustices in the application of religious freedom. The Center for Public Justice, a Christian faith-based organization with a strong commitment to religious freedom, has intentionally invited authors from diverse faith traditions and perspectives on religious freedom to share their insights and experiences of religious freedom in the United States.
BY IMAM TALIB SHAREEF, BROTHER ALBERT, ISMAIL ROYER, AND CHELSEA LANGSTON BOMBINO
The Nation’s Mosque, also known as Masjid Muhammad, is the oldest Muslim community in the Nation’s Capital and the first Mosque to be built by descendants of enslaved Africans in America. Nation’s Mosque also serves as a hub and catalyst for a large network of African American-led Mosques and Islamic social services across the country. This Nation’s Mosque network particularly demonstrates three strengths, grounded in a distinctive spiritual framework of love of neighbor. First, these communities reflect a deep commitment to work with public officials and public policy. Second, these communities reflect a developed understanding of governance and nonprofit practices. Third, these communities understand the importance of cultivating religious literacy in the general citizenry by communicating the legacy of Imam Warith Deen Mohammed. This interview with Imam Talib Shareef, Brother Albert, and Ismail Royer, conducted by Chelsea Langston Bombino, sheds light on the past, present, and future of this distinct African American Muslim faith community and its innate focus on love across difference, based on the dignity of every human person.
CLB: Imam Talib, Brother Albert and Ismail, can you tell us about the life, legacy, and Ministry of Imam W.D. Mohammed and how that is connected to the work you all are doing right now through the Nation's Mosque.
Imam Talib Shareef (ITS): Imam Mohammed’s community is connected with and related to the struggle in America to see their humanity free, and we're speaking about descendants of enslaved Africans right now. We saw a movement in America for freedom, and the Islamic factor came in with the movements of Noble Drew Ali, Marcus Garvey, and a few others. But the strongest movement was Imam Mohammed’s father’s movement. His name was Elijah Muhammad. Elijah was someone that only had a third-grade education. He grew up in the South and was exposed to deep horrific acts of oppression, racism, segregation, numerous lynching and murders, and just outright severe mistreatment, and he just looked at that, the struggles of African Americans in America - for freedom, justice, and equality.
So, Elijah Muhammad built upon the foundation of his teacher Fard Muhammad (The original founder of the Nation of Islam, before turning it over to Elijah, had looked at and integrated the different movements that I mentioned earlier into his mystical teachings). Elijah built upon those teachings and put things together trying to help. Imam Mohammed, Elijah’s son, was born into this movement. So, Imam Mohammed never was a Christian like most of us were, even though his father was the son of a Baptist preacher. This movement was about social reform and dignity for African American peoples, to bring them into the freedom, justice, and equality that they’d been denied. And although he gave his son W.D. the entire Holy Qur’an, Elijah Muhammad didn't really know Islam, other than what he was taught by his teacher, Fard. I want to reiterate that all he had was a third-grade education and knew nothing about Islam and the Qur’an before meeting Fard. He was taught and did have much of the high principles of Islam, such as rejecting drugs, rejecting alcohol, rejecting criminal activity, rejecting abusing women, etc. – all these negative things that African Americans had in their communities. He once said that his job was to clean the people up, to get them to clean up their life, and that the one to come after him (referring to his son, W.D.) would teach them the universal religion of Islam.
When Imam Mohammed became leader, he transitioned the community from the nationalistic hybrid Islam to universal Islam. He took the followers of Elijah from a small circle of self and nationalism to a broader circle of oneness and humanity. And his focus was on getting us and getting the world to see what it is and what it means to be a human being, connected to your Creator and your created purpose. So, he called himself the Muslim American Spokesman for Human Salvation. And he used the word ‘human’ more than any other word available in the English language. And so, our work, as followers of his legacy, is really to focus on helping humanity. So, we are more focused on our common human identity as a human family than we are even on our religious identity as Muslims. The human identity for us is stronger and is really the Muslim identity.
We're involved in a lot of work trying to help human beings. Imam Mohammed grew up in an environment that supported Islamic nationalism, but he was never a person that supported nationalism. His father gave him the Holy Qur’an early on and told him to stick to that and don’t deviate from it. His father also got him a teacher to teach him how to read the Qur’an in its classical language, the Arabic language. In doing this, Imam Mohammed began to see things that connected his contemporary life to human life going back to Adam. He made the connection that we are members of the Abrahamic faiths and are not to be seen as having a religion separate from Christianity and Judaism. That we share prophets and that Almighty God did not send prophets and messengers to disagree with each other. They are all in harmony with each other advancing the way of the Creator for mankind on earth. For us, this was a new way of seeing. When we look at the core, Imam Mohammed was able to help us to see, it's like a child that's pure and innocent, seeing things for the first time.
“Our work, as followers of his legacy, is really to focus on helping humanity. ”
So, our faith community tries to look at the Qur’an, the way Imam Mohammed did. And he saw some things with fresh eyes, in the context of the 20th century. He saw that many Muslims were stuck in their own narrow mindsets, were affected by colonization, troubled by Western advancements, and couldn’t see the religious reforms needed to take place. In this time that we're living in now, the legacy of Imam Mohammed has helped us to reconnect our life with the excellence of human life and how to understand the basic and higher universal concepts of Al-Islam. So, we are really engaged in trying to help people embrace our shared identity as humans and to value our intrinsic nature to live together peacefully and intelligently based on what we read in the Qur’an and study of the life example of Prophet Muhammed.
How is the life and ministry of W.D. Mohammed specifically connected to the Nation's Mosque as a historic institution in D.C., and then also to your own journey as a man and leader of the Nation’s Mosque?
ITS: Yes, both of those are very connected. Imam Mohammed assumed leadership over our national Islamic community, which our mosque was a part of and subsequently came under his leadership. Our community, being the oldest Islamic community in the nation’s capital, built the first community mosque from the ground up in the nation’s capital. This was also, uniquely, not just a local mosque but a part of a national community, a national movement, upon a national aspiration representing the life and struggle of Islam and a people in America, and as such is called The Nation’s Mosque, essentially “made in America.” We are the first community in America's history to have built a mosque with these dynamics. There's no mosque built that came before that has these dynamics that I just described to you. The Nation’s Mosque was the first built by descendants of enslaved Africans in our nation, and according to the American Islamic Heritage Museum, it’s the first to be built in America by all American citizens. Imam Mohammed transitioned his father’s nationalist, separationist vision of Islam into the broader circle of universal Islam, which is where we are today.
Now, how do I come in? Although my conversion to Islam occurred in Wilmington, NC, under the same teachings as Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali, I kind of grew up at The Nation’s Mosque. After joining the military in my last teen years or as a young adult, I moved to D.C. and became a member. Of note, what inspired me to go into the military was Imam W.D. Mohammed. He picked up the American flag. There was no Imam in America's history that physically picked up the American flag and pushed patriotism before Imam Mohammed. He was called, not by himself, but by others, “America's Imam.” Others called him that because of what they saw him do. In 1992, we facilitated him and Muhammad Ali going to the Pentagon, a first in America’s history. And Imam Mohammed spoke and was received by the top generals at that time. Again, it had never taken place before, an Imam hosted at the Pentagon. But it happened that year. After leaving the Pentagon, Imam Mohammed went to Congress and became the first Muslim to open a session of the U.S. Senate.
When I joined the Air Force it wasn't popular at the time to serve as a Muslim. So, I'm one of the pioneers. We had no Islamic chaplains in the military at that time. It was difficult to be a Muslim. But I was a strong Muslim, very educated and taught Islam as a lay person at the Chapel and pushed for chaplains. The good news is that it was a senior ranking Chaplain that ensured my religious rights were protected and accommodated. He gave me a place to pray safely. He said it was part of the military’s job to protect and defend our country so citizens will be free to practice their religion, and that his job was to ensure that right was protected for those serving. We now have several chaplains. And W.D. Mohammed was the Imam we approached first to speak to the Pentagon in the early 1980s about the chaplaincy, and he did. Eventually, we, his followers, ended up establishing military affiliated organizations to support Muslims in uniform and veterans.
That's wonderful. When did you officially become President and Imam of the Nation’s Mosque?
ITS: That was in 2010. I retired from the military in 2010. And, of course, the Imam that was here at the Nation’s Mosque in 2010 retired the same month that I retired [from the military]. Some of the leaders had been watching me, following my work, and considering me. Again, I kind of grew up in D.C., so they knew me. I was very active in the community. I went through comprehensive Islamic leadership training here, then studying abroad and those kinds of things. And, also in 2010, there were elements of American culture that were trying to vilify Islam. So even in the Congress, you could see this spirit present. And I, having served 30 years in the military, my life was on the line to be sacrificed for the country, my country, America. I just represented many who have done the same thing. Disappointingly, several in the nation were questioning the loyalty of Muslims to the country. And so, the deciding body of The Nation’s Mosque thought that I would be a good example as their leader, their Imam. It was concluded that there wasn’t a person in America, really, that had done the kind of military service that I had done and then served as the Imam of a major mosque. It had never happened, the kind of background that I've had. And the kinds of things that I'd done in the military, participating in six major campaigns, those kinds of things. And then all my records, my military records from the time I went in, to the time I retired, all my reports had mentioned and associated Islam with me, and in a good way. The military actually has references to my faith in my performance reports as the reason for my outstanding performance.
Within Islam, and particularly this vision of W.D. Mohammed’s community of Islam, what are the spiritual principles that support religious freedom? Where within Islamic principles are the notions of religious freedom and how is religious freedom connected to your faith tenants and lived out?
Brother Albert (BA): I mean, only God knows. But I think it was the sincerity of the Imam Mohammed. Now, this sincerity brought individuals like me, who spent the first 20 years of his life under a Baptist minister then came into this faith community. Growing up, in fact, when we had to go to church, there's no question about it. It was, I mean, it was just ritualistic. I had to go to church. I was baptized, I was in the water, all this stuff was going on. And of course, I grew up in the South. And then there was the element of civil unrest when I was a young child. You know, I saw it, I lived with it, I could see the separation of the races in communities. And I still see some of that now, but not like it was in the South 50 years ago.
So, all of that, I think, lends itself to the legacy that W.D. Mohammed left. We understand that a Muslim is one submitting to God. Our faith teaches us that we are connected, we are connected in such a way that you just can't erase it. And I’ve felt throughout my life, I mean, I'm going back, I'm going back to those who came before me. I still go back down South, and when I go, I immediately go to the church, on my mother's side. And why do I go to that church? I walk through the door, all my relatives are buried in the backyard, in the back of the church, including the original woman who came over from Africa. My spiritual ancestor. So, I have a connection. That's the connection now. We're rooted in the life of America: the good, the bad, and the indifferent, the things that have happened, and the progress of beauty itself. So, to be a follower of Islam, for me, is to be rooted in all of that. We're similar yet we're different. We share a common humanity, but a distinct time and place.
A man who is here now still must work through his past, and his people’s past. He's got to work through all of that with sincerity. He must work through it all, starting with his ancestors from Africa. And he must work through what happened in the church, all the way through whatever transpired. I mean, a man goes back, whether it was Jim Crow, whether it was segregation. He’s got to work through all of that. So again, when you look at Imam Mohammed, you have to look at that word sincerity. He pointed us to that sign of humanity.
“Our faith teaches us that we are connected, we are connected in such a way that you just can’t erase it.”
My father was a follower of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when they met in Charleston. Dr. King espoused some of the same spiritual basic building blocks as Imam Mohammed. We [followers of Imam Mohammed] engage with Muslims throughout the world. There have been over 40 nationalities that come to follow Imam Mohammed, and we agreed to embrace them as brothers and sisters. So, the spiritual principles are not different. It's just that the distinct political and cultural environments created differences. But these differences are helping us and propelling us to see humanity free because we know what we've experienced throughout the world.
We are not different, but time and place have made us different. We are as different as the difference of our fingerprints. Even twins born of the same mother have different fingerprints, right? And we each have different environments that are forming us and making us, all towards the purpose of getting on the same path towards setting humanity free. That is the paradox.
ITS: Chelsea, you asked Brother Albert about religious freedom, and he told you his story, which was both personal and communal. That is what religious freedom is for us, personal and communal, service and citizenship. It is wrapped up deeply in the context of our story as descendants of enslaved Africans, as Muslims, as Americans, and as humans.
There are three things that you should see even from listening to our story in terms of what highlights religious freedom. First, as a people, we were denied the freedom of our choice in terms of religion, because of slavery and its aftermath. Our people — our descendants — were generally forced to become Christians in the country. So, again, when we were permitted religion, it was only Christianity, and not that there’s something wrong with Christianity, it’s just that we didn’t have the freedom of choice. Most of those [African Americans] who embraced Islam early on in America, coming out of Christian families, their Christian families rejected them because of their choice. So, families rejected them not because they were bad, just because they chose a religion other than that of their parents.
And then the second thing was, and I alluded to this earlier, Imam Mohammed was able to see from the Quran that all Abrahamic faiths are there in the sacred texts. Christians are there, Jews are there, etc. But we all go back to Adam. And Imam Mohammed saw that when Adam was created, that Almighty God gave Adam the freedom of choice to come back to him to find him in a way that satisfies Adam’s soul. Adam used his free will to find God. And no one is supposed to take that from anyone else, that freedom God put in Adam when he was created. And that is why Imam Mohammed helped us understand what it means to be human, and the freedoms needed to live and come into that humanity. In America, we claim in our founding document these truths to be self-evident: that all are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, so that no one is supposed to force anyone else to believe in his version of the Creator.
And finally, the third thing about religious freedom in the context of our community: The Creator gave all of us life and freedom to seek Him and come to know Him through different paths and people like prophets, messengers, etc. The Creator created us with religious freedom as part of our shared humanity.
So, in America now, we see denial of religious freedom even happening in many families where if you choose another religion, then your family may reject you. But now we also see the denial of religious freedom as a public movement in America. There's Islamophobia, antisemitism, and other similar movements. We are denying people the very thing we, as a nation, are supposed to stand up for. One of the reasons why The Nation's Mosque was dedicated on December 10th is because that's the day the United Nations issued the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Freedom of religion is one of those rights and we were denied it as a people, along with having at some point in our history been denied all those rights. Also, the choice to dedicate the Mosque on that day was a statement to say that we're going to be advocates for all those rights in that declaration, which are aspirations of every human soul.
Thank you for showing us the intersections between racial equity and religious freedom through sharing about the particular experiences of W.D Mohammed followers.
Ismail Royer (IR): Well, definitely it's appropriate that Talib Shareef and Brother Albert went first and spoke. Mostly what I would just add, as Brother Albert said, we have different experiences and different backgrounds. Some American Muslims are descended from immigrants, particularly from the Middle East. Some are white American converts to Islam. And then African American Muslims have their own experience.
My own experience as a convert coming from a white American background is that I converted to Islam from having spoken with and meeting personally a member of W.D. Mohammed’s congregation in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1992. We met at a Denny's at like three o'clock in the morning. And he was wearing a kufi. And a friend of mine and I had been reading some books on civil rights history, and so we were discussing those, and Brother Fard called us over to his table. He just wanted to talk with us and it happened to be during Ramadan, and I didn't know that but he was trying to finish his meal before the sun came up, he had just gotten off work. And that started a friendship which continues to this day. We wound up actually getting an apartment together, we moved in together. I was an atheist at the time, I was into, like socialism and anarchism and stuff. And he used to debate with me all night long, we'd be debating about religion and belief in God and he gave me a copy of the Qur’an to read and he told me you have to wash your hands before you touch it.
And, you know, in the end, he prayed, he persuaded me. There was one statement that he said to me…we were in a park and there was a bird singing in the park, in the trees, and we were, you know, hanging out talking and he said, ‘Do you see that bird? That bird? The peace that that bird has? It has that peace because it does what God has created it to do, and it submits to God's will. And it doesn't have any choice to do that. But as human beings we have the choice to submit to God's will. And in doing that, we will achieve that peace of that bird and the trees, or we can continue to go against his plan and find chaos and hardship in life.’ And I thought that was so beautiful and so true, you know, and so I realized that I suddenly went from being an atheist to a believer in God in that moment, you know. So it's not really a logical argument, per se, but it's more an argument directed at the heart, to remind the listener. So I converted.
And I would also say that another very strong influence on me was Malcolm X. And W.D. Mohammed, actually is the one who taught Malcolm X about the about Sunni Islam, about orthodox Islam, which was a very, very difficult thing for him to do, and a very wise thing for him to do. W.D. Mohammed at that time, was even then planning on transitioning the community to Sunni Islam and bringing Sunni Islam to America. After becoming Muslim, I spent a lot of time around the community in St. Louis and then in D.C. When I moved to D.C., Brother Amir Mohammed at the Nation's Mosque became a good friend of mine. He has been a mentor since 1996 and we met before he was running the America's Islamic Heritage Museum. So even though I came to Islam through different circumstances than most members of the Nation’s Mosque, I had the religious freedom to live into God’s will and be deeply impacted by the W.D. Mohammed legacy.
Imam Talib Shareef is the President and Imam of the historic Masjid Muhammad, The Nation's Mosque in Washington, DC. He is a Chief Master Sergeant of the United States Air Force after 30 years. He has a MBA, a Diploma from the Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University, and graduated from the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies. He is a student of the late Imam W.D. Mohammed, Muslim-American Spokesman for Humanity. He served as Imam in five U.S. cities and seven military locations around the world. He has received the Kingdom of Morocco's highest Royal Medal for his outstanding interfaith leadership, and has been honored by President Obama at the White House in recognition of his service.
Ismail Royer serves as Director of the Islam and Religious Freedom Action Team for the Religious Freedom Institute. Since converting to Islam in 1992, he has studied religious sciences with traditional Islamic scholars, and spent over a decade working at non-profit Islamic organizations. In June 2003, Royer was indicted for assisting the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET) and pleaded guilty to weapons charges related to the violation of United States neutrality laws. Since his release he has worked with nonprofits to promote peace between faiths. His writing has appeared in publications such as the Washington Post, First Things, Journal of Religion and Society, Public Discourse, Detroit Free Press, Al Jumuah, Muslim Matters, The Catholic Thing, Religion Unplugged, and RealClearReligion. He co-authored an article on Islam in Religious Violence Today: Faith and Conflict in the Modern World (ABC-CLIO, 2020), and is the author of the monograph Pakistan's Blasphemy Law and Non-Muslims (Lamppost Education Initiative, 2018).
Chelsea Langston Bombino is a believer in sacred communities, a wife, and a mother. She serves as a program officer with the Fetzer Institute and a fellow with the Center for Public Justice.
READ MORE FROM THIS SERIES
Introducing Religious Freedom Reframed by Joshua Seiersen and Chelsea Langston Bombino
The Paradox of the Black Church and Religious Freedom by Jacqueline C. Rivers, Ph.D.
Religious Freedom Reframed: A Conversation with the Next Generation by Minister Kerwin Webb
Correcting Blindness in the Religious Freedom Landscape by Joshua Seiersen
Religious Freedom to End Human Trafficking by Rev. Dr. Denise Strothers
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