Ebony S. Muhammad (EM): I understand that you’ve read the article written by Kwame Rose regarding the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan‘s interview on the Breakfast Club and the subject of women covering and the issue of rape.
LaShonda Muhammad (LM): Yes ma’am.
EM: What were your initial thoughts after reading that article?
LM: My initial words were that he took the Minister’s comments out of context. That was disheartening, because I heard the entire Breakfast Club interview. As a woman who works within women’s rights and have for the past 27 years, I listened carefully toward that question.
I objectively read his article to hear his concern. The allegation, which of course is a serious allegation, to basically promote that women can be raped based on their clothing is a gross negligence of what the Minister’s words were and the way that he relayed it. I don’t know how he, Kwame Rose, received that understanding after listening to the same interview that I listened to. So yes ma’am I did read it, and it wasn’t consistent with what I heard on the Breakfast Club.
EM: What do you think is behind the words written by Kwame Rose and those who think like him regarding Minister Farrakhan?
LM: I think that we always have to listen out for several factors. There is ignorance among our people that we have to always be aware of. We have to continue to educate ourselves and our community, to elevate our thinking and our understanding. Next, we have to always be aware of the “hidden hand”. We have to be aware of those who want to portray Minister Farrakhan in a negative light. Some will take his words, which historically the media has done on a consistent basis, and will contort his words, will misconstrue his words and will put it back out to get a certain rise out of the community in which he has safely served.
I looked from both standpoints, and I believe I hear a level of ignorance as well as a hidden agenda with it. As a Black woman it is my duty to stand up and be able to say how Minister Farrakhan has impacted my life. As a woman, now into my 40s, the way that he has impacted me and my quality of living and my life as a result of having his guidance, I had to share some words of this mis-portrayal of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.
As a Black woman and as a woman who is striving to live up to the Scripture as it relates to modesty, I have to be able to speak and share the importance of what Minister Farrakhan is sharing with us as women. As Kwame Rose put in his article, Minister Farrakhan said that we are sacred vessels. Therefore, if we are sacred vessels, what sacred vessel would walk around looking like a prostitute or looking like a woman in a strip club? When we have this kind of mis-education of women and our modesty and how we dress, then we have to continue to come out and educate.
My personal desire is to be pleasing to God. Not to be pleasing to man! I like to dress, I love fashion. When I go out, I like to look nice. However, I’m not striving to look nice for men. I’m not striving to look nice for people. I’m striving to look nice for myself. I’m striving to look nice for that which will be pleasing in God’s sight. So to say to a woman or to mis-portray that interview as Minister Farrakhan gave us, where we are saying that “no one wakes up and gets dressed with the intent of being raped nor should we begin to teach young girls to be ashamed of their natural bodily growth”, Minister Farrakhan NEVER said that a young girl should be ashamed of her natural bodily growth NOR did he say because a woman is dressed scantily clad that gives anyone the right to rape her! Absolutely not!
What he did remind us of as women is of OUR responsibility. This is for those of us who want to strive to be pleasing in the eyesight of God. If that is our goal and if that is our desire, we have to go and look into what Scripture says. We have to be able to go and say, “Okay, what does God want and desire of me, and am I in harmony with that?” When we go against God’s words, then we know there are consequence and repercussions that take place such as a man lusting after us. Now certainly we can’t control what’s in the mind of a sick man or someone who is viewing our body and lusting after that, but we do have a responsibility as women not to incite that if in fact we are striving to be in accordance with what the Word says.
I was looking over a few Scriptures that came to me that confirmed I was on the right path when striving to be modest and striving to go out into the world appropriately in order to be pleasing in the eyesight of God. In 1 Timothy 2:9-10 it says, “Likewise that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but what is proper for women who profess Godliness with good works”. See that puts the responsibility back on us, because God is saying that we should go out in respectable apparel. So I think that alone shows the author of this article, Kwame Rose, if Minister Farrakhan, who is a Spiritual Leader, is guiding women to be able to be in harmony and in tune with God’s Word, that we have a responsibility as women to obey God and obey those Commandments that He has put on us.
As women we have a responsibility. That is what I got from that Scripture where it puts it back on us. That’s what Minister Farrakhan, in my humble opinion, was doing. He wasn’t justifying the madness of men who suffer that kind of sickness. Minister Farrakhan has been one of the greatest champions in helping to clean up Black men; Black men that were out doing those kinds of activities. He has cleaned them up. He has taught them back to their origins as gods, so as a result of that there are countless numbers of men who would say to brother Kwame Rose, “He [Minister Farrakhan] has helped me to clear up my misunderstanding of how I look and view a woman when she is walking scantily clad”. So Minister Farrakhan has NEVER justified a man to rape a woman because of the way she is dressed. He is putting the responsibility back to us as women of God that it is our duty to follow God’s Commandments. So for those sick men who are out there, we’re not giving them bait in order to try to go from there with their inappropriate misunderstanding to rape or cause violent harm to us.
EM: Yes ma’am! Thank you.
My last question is: You are a member of the National Security Team for the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan along with a number of other women. Why is he worthy to protect with your life?
LM: Wow…The Minister is so worthy to defend and protect with my life, because of what he has given to me. Something that is so precious. He has given me a knowledge of who I am. He has given me the opportunity to know God. As a young teenager, up until that point of hearing Minister Farrakhan, I had no understanding, I had no conviction, I had no communion with God. Once I heard the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s words, he transformed my life right there as a high school student. The thing that I was encouraged to do, the thing that was culturally accepted, once I heard his strength it gave me strength to realize that I don’t have to go that way. Even though this world tells me, as a Black woman, that I am defined by their standards by how big my behind is or how big my breasts are or how great my body is or how long my hair is or my skin complexion; once I heard the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan I knew that the way God made me was 100% RIGHT! It has allowed me to accept all of my beauty and all of my flaws. It has allowed me to realize that the greatest way I can serve my life is in service to God. When I heard those words that Minister Farrakhan has given to me, it watered my soul so much that it has allowed me to live a life of peace; not a life without trials because that is ordained by God. He has given me the mass to be able to overcome what some of us as a people had to endure and had to overcome in order to get closer to God.
Therefore, a man who has really given me my spiritual life is a man who is worthy of me to be able to give my physical life to protect him. Why? Because I’m one individual who God didn’t put the Message in to go and deliver to millions of people, but He did give the message to him. So as a result of that, my one life to be able to protect millions of lives means that I’m as close to God. I’m striving to be self-LESS in trying to take away my desire for my life and think about the lives of my people, think about the lives of others, to think about the ancestors who lost their lives so that I could be here and have a better quality of life. So it is my duty to be able to protect that which God has given to us as a vehicle and a vessel to help save millions of people from this downtrodden existence that this world constantly promotes to us as good.
Minster Farrakhan continues to show me and share with us that we can stand up in this wicked society, and that we are able to be women and men of God, and we can help to establish God’s Kingdom on Earth! It is through our submission, it is through our righteousness, it is through our sincere belief and desire that will help to rid the wickedness out of this world.
I might not see it in this physical life, but if I can help my children’s children, well then I’ve done my part when and if I have to give my life. I pray to Almighty God, Allah, that I would not hesitate if that became a reality for me. And if I had to give my life, it’s not about me. It is truly about my 9-year-old daughter and her future children and her future children and so on and so forth, that I would be able to be self-less enough to realize that I was able to give a little piece in helping to destroy Satan and bring down his wicked kingdom and help establish Godliness. Well then guess what? I will give my life, but not without a fight! I’m going to strive to do the best I can to sustain my life, but I will give it for such a worthy cause without, Insha’Allah, hesitation for a man who has given life to me and so many millions of others.
So I’m grateful for that vessel that God has given to us in the person of the Honorable Minster Louis Farrakhan! I pray for his continued success. He is a wise man. See this is why it’s so dangerous with what brother Kwame Rose has written, because this is an 83-year-young Servant of God. We should be VERY mindful with how we handle him and that we should not misinterpret his words. He was very clear with what he gave us as good guidance to help so many women to avoid being raped as a result of learning more about how they should be pleasing in the eyesight of God. How could that cause something negative as opposed to a positive outcome? That’s when you know God is involved with it when it produces a positive outcome.
So what I’m saying to brother Kwame is as a Black woman that’s now well-dressed, when I go out there are still some men who will try to come and talk to me, as a well-dressed respectable woman. So imagine, and I know before I became a Muslim and was dressing with short pants and tight skirts, the amount of attention a woman gets from a man when she is dressed in that manner.
When a man sees a woman who is at least respectful, I find that or at least being on this side of a woman striving to be modest, that they are much more mindful of the way they come to us versus when I was a young teenager and the way they were so aggressive towards us. It was because they felt as though, “Hey if you’re putting it out there you must want something”. Well we know that it shouldn’t equate to that in the mind of a sane man. A sane man would not think like that, but a man who is NOT of his sane mind would say, “Well she’s dressed like she’s offering it to me”. Therefore, the best thing to do to be pleasing in the eyesight of God, is cover yourself and dress modestly. Preserve what God has blessed you with, your adornments, for that man who will take it to that Godly level in marriage.
That’s what Minister Farrakhan has given to me as a Black woman here in the hells of North America. He has given me that kind of wonderful guidance that I can now share with my 9-year-old daughter.
My biological sister was mishandled and fondled by a family friend as a result of this insane mind or this man who certainly had a grave misunderstanding. However, my sister as a younger woman was very built and had a beautiful shape and body. My mother would always tell her, especially when men folk would come around, “Be mindful to put on proper clothing and go cover yourself”. My sister who is now mature and has been able to articulate and share with her young nieces the importance of modesty and covering yourself, because here is a family friend…she certainly had no responsibility for his sickness. I don’t care what she had on. HOWEVER, as a result of her beautiful body and forming so young, it tempted him with his insanity to then go and, unfortunately, molest her at a young age.
So now one of the plights that she has taken on is to be able to share with other young women the importance of their modesty, the importance of covering, the importance of not giving a man, with insanity, more ammunition to further that insanity. She took responsibility. Yes we certainly blame him for what he did, but she took responsibility – not what he did to her but to continue a good message to women. As a Godly woman it is our responsibility of covering ourselves and not allowing those kind of sick men to have ammunition to try to hurt us in their ignorance and grave misunderstanding.
That’s in tune with what Minster Farrakhan has given us and as a result of that, I strive to live my life by that and I strive to teach my daughter that. What negativity could come out of a woman trying to please God and cover and be in align with what the Scriptures of the Bible and Holy Quran has given to us?
Therefore, I would advise my brother Kwame to go and really look carefully into his (Minister Farrakhan’s) words, because it could cause women to believe that it’s okay to continue in this manner of dress when it is not okay. It is our duty as women to be respectful of what God’s words are. It is clear in the Scripture, and if we go by God words we don’t have to be tempted by Satan in his world and his worldly desires.
EM: Beautifully and brilliantly said Sis!!! Thank you so much for your time and all of the work to you are putting in for our Nation and for the women!
LM: All Praise Is Due To Allah! Thank you for the honor!
