A Call to Let Go of Hatred

Among the judges, attorneys and Police Department brass who recently gathered to honor Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks, one man stood out as a puzzle: Tony Muhammad, Western regional minister of the Nation of Islam.

Yes, that Nation, those hard-talking advocates of Islam and black nationalism notorious for four decades of bad blood with law enforcement. These are the guys who took on 75 LAPD officers in a 1962 shootout that left one Nation member dead and 22 police and Muslims injured. A portrait hangs in the lobby of their Vermont Avenue mosque of Oliver X. Beasley, a member killed by sheriff’s deputies in another shootout in 1990.

Yet Muhammad came to the party, celebrating Parks’ 37 years of service, as a welcome guest. He thanked the chief for building bridges with his members in a joint fight against crime. “For the first time in history, there has been healing between the Nation of Islam and the Los Angeles Police Department,” Muhammad declared to the audience.

Healing is not a word usually associated with the Nation of Islam or its fiery leader, Louis Farrakhan. Among many African Americans, the Nation has long been respected as a positive force: clean-cut Muslims in suit and bow tie helping gang members get right, preaching a message of black pride and self-sufficiency. Outside the black community, however, the Nation has just as long been mistrusted as a militant, separatist, race-baiting, Jew-hating sect of radical--and unorthodox--Muslims.

But when Farrakhan kicks off the organization’s annual meeting at the Los Angeles Convention Center today--the first time the massive event will be held outside his Chicago-area home base--the refrain of healing will be everywhere.

It is in the World Saviours’ Day convention’s theme: “Healing the Wounds to Bring About a Universal Family.” It is in the convention’s workshops--”Healing the Wounds Among the Children of Abraham,” for instance--and the wide call for people of all races and religions to attend the convention, which is expected to draw more than 20,000.

Farrakhan, 69, a skilled musician, will begin the five-day convention tonight with a Beethoven violin concerto at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts--”a healing piece for humanity,” as Muhammad describes it. The concert will pay tribute to Farrakhan’s musical idol, Jascha Heifetz--a Jew--along with Farrakhan’s mother and two of the Nation of Islam’s founders.

“This country is evolving, and we have to evolve, too, and let some of the pain of the past go,” Muhammad said, “because hate that grows in you will kill you.”

Some skeptics doubt Farrakhan can cut loose his extensive baggage of race-baiting to pursue a path of genuine healing.

Vibert L. White Jr., a former Nation member and author of “Inside the Nation of Islam,” said Farrakhan’s peace gestures in the last decade have turned out to be more show than substance--whether to Jews or orthodox Sunni Muslims, who regard the Nation’s theology as heretical to authentic Islamic doctrine. Reconciliation is the only way the Nation can survive, since black separatism no longer sells in the African American community, White said.

Aminah McCloud, an Islamic studies professor at DePaul University in Chicago, said Farrakhan began reaching out to whites, Latinos, Catholics and Protestants in his home base more than a decade ago, but that such overtures had drawn little notice nationally.

Whether or not Farrakhan can convince his critics, Muhammad is clearly reshaping the Nation’s image in Los Angeles. “A brilliant, thoughtful and effective leader,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca calls him.

The 44-year-old Atlanta native was one of the Nation of Islam’s rising stars, serving as an evangelist in the South when Farrakhan picked him nearly seven years ago to resuscitate the faltering movement in Los Angeles. According to Muhammad, Farrakhan told him that God had blessed him with the power to unify people, and instructed him to begin building broad coalitions with politicians, law enforcement and the crazy quilt of ethnic and religious communities here.

The outreach may be as much tactical as heartfelt. White said that people were leaving the Nation “in droves” because of theological doubts, harsh treatment and questions over financial management. In Los Angeles, Muhammad Mosque No. 27 boasted 3,000 active members in its heyday, according to members at the time; today Tony Muhammad said there are 500 to 1,000 core members, although he said thousands remain affiliated.

Muhammad said reconciliation has always been the organization’s goal, pointing to its original statement of beliefs calling for a “universal government of peace wherein we can all live in peace together.” In the days of Jim Crow laws and public lynchings, he said, peace was a pipe dream, white folks were devils and injustice had to be fought viciously. Now, he said, America has mellowed and the Nation must too.

Farrakhan, at a speech in Los Angeles 18 months ago, said his near-fatal bout of prostate cancer had added further impetus to seek healing not only for blacks but all people.

At least in Los Angeles, Nation members no longer overtly call for a separatist state, although that demand remains in their national newspaper, Final Call. Muhammad said a separatist state was only desired if America remained intolerably unjust but, because of improvements, “We can coexist.”

The Nation now has Latino members--such as Albert X., 25, who said he never even knew the organization was mostly black, because it was portrayed as a movement of unity, discipline and social justice by the African American friend who brought him in. Some practices remain overtly racist: Whites are still barred from attending the Nation’s Sunday services, although Muhammad said they will eventually be admitted after blacks overcome their lingering, deep-seated feelings of inferiority.

Despite such practices, Muhammad manages to disarm outsiders with deference, Southern charm and an ability to talk gangspeak one moment and high finance the next. He asks longtime social activists how he can serve and support their community work, calls gang leaders “giants” and “heads of state,” respects elders with “yes sirs” and “no ma’ams.” He tells prisoners that “the white man is not your greatest enemy. Your greatest enemy is sitting on top of your neck, and that’s ignorance.”

Getting Involved in Local Politics

Under his leadership, Nation members who once rejected the U.S. electoral system as corrupt and racist are now walking precincts for local candidates. Last year, they turned out more than 140 volunteers for San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown. They provided similar help to Los Angeles mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa--rejecting, like many younger African Americans, the traditional black support for then-City Atty. James K. Hahn and his legendary father, the late county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn.

During one campaign day last fall, for instance, Muhammad and Villaraigosa gave each other the thumb’s up before the minister headed out to troll for votes. At a barber shop on Crenshaw Boulevard, Muhammad told voters that Villaraigosa had championed the poor and worked to improve family health care while Hahn had flopped trying to fight street crime with injunctions against gang members.

Muhammad himself ran--and, without campaigning, nearly won--a seat as a delegate to the last Democratic National Convention, initially urged on by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles).

In a demonstration of their new mainstream political strength, Muhammad’s troops managed to beat back a recent effort by the Anti-Defamation League to overturn the Los Angeles City Council’s waiver of the $30,000 Convention Center fee for the Nation of Islam.

The Nation of Islam was historically insular, separatist and overtly hostile to outsiders. Today, when community volunteer Cynthia “Sister” Mendenhall needs to feed someone, Muhammad brings by fish and vegetables. When she needs security at a funeral or football game, Muhammad sends his Fruit of Islam forces.

“Every time I call him, he comes,” said Mendenhall, a black Christian who said she had no relations with the Nation of Islam before Muhammad arrived and was taught growing up not to socialize with its members.

Nation members are finally reconciling with followers of Imam W.D. Muhammad, son of the founder of the Black Muslims, Elijah Muhammad. After Elijah Muhammad’s death in 1975, the son rejected the movement’s belief that his father’s teacher, W. Fard Muhammad, was the messiah and moved the organization into mainstream Sunni Islam. Farrakhan broke away and reestablished the Nation of Islam with its original beliefs in Los Angeles in 1977: This week’s convention will mark the 25th anniversary of that event.

The two Muslim leaders publicly reconciled two years ago. Although they have not bridged their theological differences, Imam Muhammad will lead the convention’s Friday prayer. The two movements have cooperated on prison ministry efforts and took a joint tour through seven state prisons last year. At Solano prison in Vacaville, for instance, Tony Muhammad urged the mostly black inmates at his meeting to reconcile with their brown brothers, join the peace movement breaking out among gangs and hit the books for a better future.

Reaching Out to Other Communities

Muhammad has also forged ties beyond the black community. He has participated in sweat lodges with Native Americans. He has celebrated Cinco de Mayo with Latinos and the Lunar New Year with Chinese. He said, “I love a lot of young whites” he meets because they feel remorse for the sins of their fathers against blacks.

So far, Muhammad has not made headway in healing Farrakhan’s most fractured relationship--that with Jews. But Muhammad said he wants to try. Last week, Muhammad met for the first time with Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center to convey Farrakhan’s desire for dialogue and a visit to the Museum of Tolerance--where Farrakhan’s own picture is exhibited as a specimen of intolerance.

Among other things, Farrakhan has alleged that there was Jewish participation in the slave trade and claimed that Jews dominate the media and financial worlds. He is most reviled by Jews for statements calling Judaism a “dirty religion” and saying Hitler was “a great man,” although Farrakhan said the quotes were taken out of context.

Both sides described the 80-minute meeting as a cordial exchange roaming across topics ranging from baseball to Farrakhan.

But Cooper and the center’s dean, Rabbi Marvin Hier, say they will not meet with Farrakhan until he apologizes for his offenses against Jews in a public forum, such as a news conference or published commentary.

Cooper said other Jews had met with Farrakhan over the last few years, but most felt “had” when the Muslim leader subsequently made statements that offended them. In 1996, according to Hier, the World Jewish Congress met with Farrakhan to start a rapprochement but ended the efforts when he offended them the next day by comparing the plight of Iraqi children to those who suffered in the Holocaust.

Cooper called Muhammad “charismatic, engaging and open,” but said it was too soon to say whether local ties between Jews and the Nation could be forged. Neither the Wiesenthal Center nor the Anti-Defamation League have turned up any evidence of anti-Semitism from Muhammad, who vigorously defends Farrakhan’s statements about Jews as largely misunderstood.

For his part, Muhammad voiced optimism after the meeting with Cooper. “There were some philosophical differences, but not wide enough to prevent a happy medium by which the two communities can move forward to heal,” he said.

The most startling group of Muhammad’s new friends can be found in law enforcement.

At the Parks reception, Muhammad moved comfortably through the crowd, embracing the chief and LAPD Lt. Fred Booker, who calls the minister “a great role model” for youth. Sheriff Baca counts himself an ally and friend as well, working with Muhammad on gang problems, inmate rehabilitation and other issues.

“He understands better than any Nation of Islam minister I’ve been exposed to the art of conflict resolution,” Baca said.

In response to a court order about five years ago, Baca recalled, his deputies evicted Nation members from an Inglewood building they were renting. Tension was mounting between the two sides, when Muhammad averted possible violence by calling for peaceful compliance with the court order and a meeting with deputies later to discuss their grievances over it.

Several days ago, Muhammad was holed up with 30 representatives from some of the Southland’s most notorious gangs--deadly enemies sharing the only safe zone in town, the Nation of Islam’s Muhammad Mosque No. 27 on Vermont Avenue. The evening’s agenda--to call for peace during the week of the convention--was waylaid when two rival gangs brought in a potentially explosive grievance. One gang had stolen a car belonging to another, ripped off the rims and dumped it back in the enemy’s territory. The aggrieved party was about to retaliate. According to those present, Muhammad coaxed the two sides to avoid violence, brokering a deal to buy new rims as restitution.

Sometimes he does the unorthodox--like the time he invited 10 gang members to learn etiquette at a four-course formal dinner in his home. He said he wanted to teach them how to use a full set of silverware, expose them to fine dining and view firsthand how to treat women graciously. (Muhammad calls his wife, L’Tonya, “Queen”; the couple has two children, Khallid, 13, and Aisha, 11.)

“Minister Tony has opened doors for us major league, and we’re grateful,” said Big Cat, an older member of the notorious Rollin 60s, during a recent drive through his neighborhood. “We got somebody real, and he needs help.”

Indeed, Muhammad has plenty of ideas for change, but not enough money to fund them. He spins out visions of buying up homes for young men with no place to go, calling them “Houses of Knowledge and Discipline.” He imagines buying up his block and building an AIDS treatment clinic, drug rehabilitation center, gang-intervention program, a bank specializing in small loans.

Muhammad is starting to attract financial support for his work from some celebrities, including Magic Johnson, radio host Steve Harvey and record executive Russell Simmons. All three are co-sponsoring the convention; Johnson has donated computers and Harvey helps out with the food drive. Three times a year or so, Harvey said, he sends Muhammad to his Sherman Oaks tailor to keep him in the fine Italian fabrics he favors.

Muhammad owns more than 40 suits, mostly custom designed; some 30 pairs of shoes, mostly from the celebrity shoe store C and E; and 22 hats. He said the taste for quality was cultivated during a career as a real estate executive at a national fast-food restaurant chain, but that most of his clothes today are gifts. After accepting Farrakhan’s call to full-time ministry in Los Angeles, he said, his salary plummeted to $300 a week.

Muhammad was first inspired by Farrakhan in 1985. He said he was cutting up a kilo of cocaine and listening to a friend’s videotape of Farrakhan. At the time, Muhammad said, he was utterly irreligious; he detested the way his mother futilely prayed to a picture of a white Jesus for salvation from poverty. He said he was working as a manager at Eastern Airlines in Atlanta and making five times as much money dealing drugs, which he would wrap around his waist and slip through unchecked by airport security.

In those days, Muhammad, an All-American in football and baseball, was bitter over failing to become a pro athlete after graduating from college in 1983, he said. He was hurt from growing up with a mother who drank in despair over trying to raise 10 children and a father who rarely came around lest the welfare payments stop. Telling the story now, he tears up.

Something about Farrakhan’s voice mesmerized him. He said the Muslim leader was railing against drug dealers as the “new devil of black people,” who nonetheless could rechannel their entrepreneurial energies from community destruction to salvation. Muhammad said he flushed his cocaine down the toilet and joined the Nation the next day.

To talk about his private life openly makes him rare in the circle of top Nation of Islam officials, even as it helps the Nation’s outreach efforts by softening its leaders’ hard edges.

It is part of the healing, Muhammad said. “I want to be open. I am thankful to be open and tell people how I feel and what I feel, so all of us can heal.”