Chapter - Reply to a Judge
On November 8, 1963, according to the Chicago Tribune newspaper, Federal Judge F. Ryan Duffy ruled that the Black Muslim "sect" is not a religion but is rather racist and has for its objective the overthrow of the white race. He further charged the believers of Islam inside prison walls as having a impressive history of inciting riots and violence.
I asked Judge Duffy to prove his charges. This is not true. In 1943, I was sent to the Federal Penitentiary in Milan, Michigan, for nothing other than to be kept out of the public and from teaching my people the truth during the war between America, Germany, and Japan. This war came to a halt in 1945 when America dropped an atomic bomb on Japan. And the following year, in August, 1946, I was released on what the institution called "good time" for being a model prisoner who was obedient to the prison rules and laws.
In the year 1942-43, according to reports, there were nearly a hundred of my followers sentenced to prison terms of from 1 to 5 years for refusing to take part in the war between America, Japan and Germany because of our peaceful stand and the principle belief and practice in Islam, which is peace.
The very dominant idea in Islam is the making of peace and not war; our refusing to go armed is our proof that we want peace. We felt that we had no right to take part in a war with nonbelievers of Islam who have always denied us justice and equal rights; and if we were going to be examples of peace and righteousness (as Allah has chosen us to be), we felt we had no right to join hands with the murderers of people or to help murder those who have done us no wrong. What would justify such actions? Let the truth answer.
Judge Duffy listened to an appeal made by a new convert to Islam who is serving a 200-year sentence, charged with slaying two Chicago men in 1951. (He should be given credit for his desire to be a Muslim). The appeal was asking for the freedom of obtaining publications and reading material distributed by the Black Muslims, including the Holy Qur'an.
According to the rules and laws of the prison -- before we Muslims began to be imprisoned -- all religious believers, regardless to their religion and God, were permitted access to their books and visits by their religious teachers. This freedom is written in the Constitution for everyone, but when we were imprisoned that freedom was denied us and us alone. And this is the freedom that is guaranteed in the American Constitution. A person is free to criticize anyone he wants, even if it is the Congress or President of the United States of America.
But while the Constitution of America was being written, our fathers were slaves, and we, today, are merely free slaves who do not have the knowledge of self and have not registered with Allah and His religion, the Nation of Islam.
When I was admitted into Cook County jail in Chicago, I wanted the Holy Qur'an, too, but I was denied having it, though it is not a "sect's Bible." It is the religious scriptures and guide for the Muslim world, recognized universally as the last revelation given to the world. And the Holy Qur'an has been the Holy book and scripture for all Muslims for the past 1,381 years.
We are not an organization; we are a world. I use the same Holy Qur'an that all Muslims use; the book that is universally recognized as being 100 per cent true. And such scholar and U.S. Judge as F. Ryan Duffy calls it a "sect's book."
One of the officers, who was a very fine man, tried in vain to persuade the warden in the Cook County jail to allow me to have my Holy Qur'an as other religious believers were receiving theirs in prison. But this same officer came back and told me that the warden said "That is what we put them in prison for, and to let us read the Bible, ha, ha, ha."
They do not even want to hear the truth of the Bible; for there is no paradise in it for them. According to their own Bible that they wish all black people to read, when carefully understood, Genesis to Revelation teaches that they were an appointed people for hell fire from the beginning of their creation. I am ready to prove this with any scholar or scientist. They hated Judge Rutherford for his interpretation of the Bible which condemned the church and its father, the Pope of Rome.
The Chicago Tribune also quoted Judge Duffy as saying that a social study showed that the Black Muslim movement, despite its pretext of a religious facade, is an organization that has for its objective the overthrow of the white race. But when have the so-called Negroes in America been classified as social members in the white American society; even in Christianity, not to think of social equality and human relationship?
The so-called Negroes have never been equally recognized members in anything in America as far as the white man is concerned. Nor even in their prisons are they recognized equally with the white race.
How can he or anyone put us under social study when there is no social equality between whites and so-called Negroes? This gradually brewing revolution is to reclaim our respect as human beings and equal members in the civilized society of the nations of earth. Isn't it true that this is what the fight going on in the South today is for; where poor, so-called Negroes are being beaten, shot down and bombed in even those churches that the white man permits them to have because they want to be recognized as equal members in the society or order of the American white people?
We have turned to our God, Allah, and His religion, Islam, and our own people, where there is no such thing as distinction. We want to be separated from our open enemies, the slave-masters' children, who desire nothing more than to mistreat us.
When have we, the Muslims, ever received justice under the Constitution of America? Not one time in the courts of America, a country and people that hate the religion of Islam because it demands freedom, justice and equality for black people.
The greatest racists that have ever lived on our Planet Earth are the white people. We only ask for the privilege of being ourselves, seeking to restore brotherly love and respect among our people who have been divided, robbed and spoiled by the American whites.
Judge Duffy has now openly spoken his hatred for any justice coming to us who have turned to do righteousness, which is the fulfillment of the prophecy which reads: "Ye, truth faileth; and judgement is turned away backward and justice standeth afar off [for the so-called Negroes] for truth is fallen in the streets and equity cannot enter. He that departed from evil maketh himself a prey: and the Lord {Master Fard Muhammad] saw it and it displeased Him that there was no judgement [justice]" (Isa. 59:15).
Blessed are the so-called Negroes that depart from the evil and filthy doings of this American white man. How happy they are who seek refuge in Allah and are believers.