The Role of A Visionary & The Role of A Worker F/ Berve Muhammad

Ebony S. Muhammad (EM): As the Student National Secretary, and as an attorney, how do you view your assignment as the manifestation of the New World? In what ways are you employing something that has never been seen before?

Berve Muhammad (BM): That’s a very good question. I would start by saying that the appointment of me as the Student National Secretary is something new and different. Each of us has our own personality, our own objective that we’re trying to achieve; therefore, the appointment of this role is something new. There’s a difference in style and that’s something new. To that extent, it’s really was the Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan who furthered what the Hon. Elijah Muhammad was saying by appointing someone different, and that goes for anyone who is new on a post.

To this particular question that you’re asking me, I wouldn’t say that it was me that brought anything new versus the Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan who saw something in me to appoint me as the Student National Secretary to offer that which he saw himself. Therefore, my role is to simply be me. My role is to simply do what it is I was already doing before that attracted the Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan as the idea; it was really his idea. In fact, the way that it came about was that I invited him down to my law firm in December 2008, and when he came to the office he liked what he saw. We, my staff and I, had a vision for the law firm, and it was to have 25 more law firms throughout the state by the year 2025. One of the programs that we had that we were already using in the law firm would serve as the foundation for the Nation’s Program. I literally took the idea that I had for my law firm and offered it to the Nation, which was I wanted to be able to sit in Chicago and see all of the cases that were taking place throughout the state in the law firm. I wanted to see where the lawyers were in the progression of the cases and were we completing cases in the average amount of time that we thought certain cases should close. I wanted to be able to do that from Chicago, therefore, that is in effect the basis for the Nation’s Program; to be able to sit in Chicago and see what’s going on, at least statistically, in each city in our Nation.

The credit for that is due to Allah. The Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan trusts me from my law firm to put me on this post and allowing me to do that which I was already doing. I just see it as what Allah had already given me to express for the betterment of the Nation.

EM: Yes sir you are most certainly doing that.

BM: All praise is due to Allah.

EM: Minister Farrakhan recently discussed The Three Year Economic Program that was designed by the Hon. Elijah Muhammad this past Saviours’ Day. He made it very clear that this was open to the general public to encourage their participation, and he reiterated that this program is not exclusive the Nation of Islam. He described how this program could assist in creating jobs would ultimately aid us to be financially independent.

From where you stand, how can we overcome the obstacles or barriers that may be hindering us as a people in bringing The Three Year Economic Program into its fullness; the five cents a day that would result in generating billions of dollars within three years?

BM: The one thing that we have to appreciate is that the Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan is not only divinely guided but he’s a visionary for the Nation of Islam and for the entire world. The visionary’s role is to present the vision, but it is the rest of us who are the workers that have to go to work after that vision. I think at times we would hear him express a desire of his which is the continuation of the program of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, yet, we expect him to be the one to work it as well. I would offer that the Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan has done his job, which is a clear delivery of the message and also a clear delivery and rebuilding of the Mission of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, but it is on us who claim to be his disciples and the disciples of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad to bring to bring to the table what we can offer in the fruition of what it is he is desiring.

Jesus, who was among his disciples, would speak to them and on one account they would say to him, “Well show us the Father”, and Jesus is looking around saying to them, “Have I not been around you all these days?” We too are asking, “Brother Farrakhan, what should we do next?” And he is saying to us, “Have I not expressed to you what it is that we need to be about?” I would offer that it has nothing to do with the Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan, than it does with us who are under the sound of his voice who should get up and begin to work that which he is putting out there.

EM: This makes me think of the call out that Minister Farrakhan did a while back for urban planners, attorneys, engineers and others in bringing about this vision.

BM: The Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan is not going to hinder a plan that is sound, that’s well thought out, that’s supported, particularly if it’s going to help bring about his desire, which is to put some weight behind The Three Economic Program by the Hon. Elijah Muhammad. He is looking for those with the education and those with the experience and the training who can say, “I know what you’re talking about”, or “I have an idea of what you’re talking about. Here are some achievable, reasonable steps that can be taken to help bring about what it is you desire.”

EM: Yes sir.

He also brought up in the subject of separation and distinguished it from segregation. He mentioned the Chinese, Jews and other groups who have enclaves within the cities they reside in where they generate money and resources among themselves. He stated his strong desire for the Black community to have the same. What do you believe it would look like? Can you paint a picture for those who may not be able to conceptualize such a vision?

BM: We have not yet seen this in our lifetime, possibly our parents’ generation. He mentioned this at Berkley, and he talked about how things were prior to desegregation; the flourishing Black business offices, Black grocery stores, Black law firms, doctor offices and Black schools and that was because our people could not go anywhere else. To that extent, that would have been the last time or era in which we would have seen these enclaves that were thriving and prosperous where Black people supported Black owned, businesses because that was all they could support.

Yes there are some Black businesses today, not nearly as many as there were back in the 50’s, be nevertheless, we have a few. The mentality of the people is much different now. We’re decades now with the ability to go Downtown or go to this restaurant or move into this part of town. Therefore, decades of that kind of mentality has caused the deterioration in the spirit of supporting your own; that sense of pride came along with supporting “Ms. Anne’s store” that’s around the corner and she lives in the same building that you live in. It’s going to take, candidly, the further fall of America for our people to realize that we don’t have a future, as the Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan has said, in hoping that America succeeds. If we haven’t gotten that kind of realization up to now then it’s going to take the weather, it’s going to take the destruction of the economy to help us further understand that we don’t have the option anymore to decide whether or not we want to support our own.

EM: Thank you very much for your thought provoking words. May Allah bless us in fulfilling this vision willingly.

BM: Thank you.