Sermons on Islam Anger Black Muslims

Pastor Frederick K.C. Price, the Los Angeles “prosperity preacher” who commands one of the nation’s largest predominantly black congregations, is distorting Islam in an inflammatory series of sermons and setting off conflict between African American Muslims and Christians, area Muslims charge.

Price, concerned that racism among Christians has turned off blacks and sent growing numbers to Islam, began his controversial sermons contrasting the two religions about five months ago. The sermons have been broadcast to a national audience of 33 million on his Sunday morning worship show, “Ever Increasing Faith.”

Among other things, Muslims say, Price is mixing up the racist ideology of Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam (God is black, the devil is white) with the egalitarian message of orthodox Islam now followed by the majority of black Muslims.

Price, critics say, has also offended Muslims by saying that Allah and the Christian God are different. This violates one of Islam’s pillar beliefs in one God and the validity of all prophets of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths, said Imam Saadiq Saafir, religious head of Masjid Ibaadillah in South-Central Los Angeles.

The ensuing national furor has touched off brawls between black Muslims and Christians in prison, affected interfaith projects in the inner city and fueled family divisions, said Muslim activist Imam Najee Ali.

“We view this as a massive campaign of hate,” said Saafir. “We demand him to stop misrepresenting Islam. . . . The people deserve to hear about Islam from Muslims,” Saafir said.

Price, in a statement, questioned whether critics had actually listened sequentially to all 23 sermons on Islam and Christianity. “If they have, it will answer every one of their allegations and prove each allegation unfounded,” the statement said.

Saafir said he has all 23, but has listened so far to about 15. “The more you hear, the madder you get,” he said.

But Price has made clear delineations between the ideologies of orthodox Islam and the Nation of Islam, said spokeswoman Corliss Williford. In preparation for the lectures, she said, he read the Koran and 4,000 pages of hadith, or written accounts, of the life of the prophet Muhammad.

“He respects everyone and their right to their own beliefs,” said Angela Evans, president of Price’s 18,000-member Crenshaw Christian Center. But, she said, Price believes that his sermon series, which began in 1997 as a look at racism in the Christian church, is an “assignment from God.”

Evans also said Price would probably not accede to demands for a forum to allow Muslims to explain their own religion to his audience.

Southern California’s Muslim establishment, with more than 40 congregations, plans to hold a news conference on the controversy Friday and a demonstration Sunday at Price’s 10,100-seat FaithDome on Vermont Avenue.

The Muslim controversy is the latest to arise from Price’s sermon series, “Race, Religion and Racism.” In the past year, the preacher has taken on an unidentified white Southern minister who was taped telling his flock not to allow children to date interracially.

Driven by a sense of what he calls “holy anger,” Price has also taken on the Mormons and what he called racist comments appearing in the “Dake Annotated Reference Bible.” The publishers apologized for the comments, which they had in fact revised.

His bold treatment of the controversial topic has caused some stations to cancel his program.

“I’m concerned because the racism in the church and in this nation historically has turned a lot of black men sour on Christianity,” Price told the black news magazine Emerge. “So they are leaving and have left Christianity because they perceive Christianity as the white man’s religion. It appears that Islam may be the black man’s religion.”

Saafir and Ali said they converted to Islam in part because it did not carry the image of a white God that Christianity does in the form of Jesus Christ.

Young African Americans are attracted by the “unity, structure and discipline” of Islam, Saafir said. The communal practice of praying five times daily or fasting during the month of Ramadan builds a strong kinship that offers a positive alternative to the brotherhood of gangs, Ali said.

African Americans account for about 10% of the 200,000 Muslims in Los Angeles County, Saafir said. Eight of the area’s 40-plus mosques serve predominantly African American congregations.

Ali, who converted to Islam in 1992 while in prison, said he has received calls from Muslim inmates in Atlanta, Tehachapi and elsewhere reporting that Price’s show had touched off prison conflicts with Christians.

He also said Price’s remarks have imperiled such projects as a petition drive for a child safety law stemming from the 1997 murder of 7-year-old Sherrice Iverson in a Las Vegas casino restroom. Ali said several Christians have refused to cooperate in the petition drive, led by Project Islamic HOPE, because “Price had warned them against Muslims,” Ali said.

In his own family, Ali added, his Christian grandmother is now actively trying to turn his daughter against Islam, because she is panicked that “her grandbaby is going to hell.”

“I blame [Price] for creating division in the African American community that is very serious now,” Ali said.