Discovery IX: TEI Interview with Attorney Malik Zulu Shabazz, National Chairman of the New Black Panther Party

Discovery Series IX: TEI Exclusive Interview With Attorney Malik Zulu Shabazz

Malik Zulu Shabazz

The fiery national chairman of the New Black Panther Party, Attorney Malik Zulu Shabazz sat with TEI Executive Director Ashahed M. Muhammad for an exclusive interview, presenting him to the public for the first time to deliver his thoughts on the death of his mentor Dr. Khallid Abdul Muhammad and to share his views on the current state of the Hip Hop Nation, the fight for Palestinian Rights and the Movement for Reparations.

Ashahed M. Muhammad (AMM): I’ve noticed that your leadership cadre consists of Muslims, members of the Nation of Gods and Earths (5 Percenters) Pan-Africanists, traditional African religions. Is it difficult sometimes merging the different belief systems in a unified movement like that and how have you been able to do so in your leadership of the New Black Panther Party?

Malik Zulu Shabazz (MZS): Well, Minister Khallid Abdul Muhammad, in his brilliance, gave us a universal teaching and Minister Khallid Muhammad was able to attract gang members, was able to attract nationalists, Pan-Africanists and those from a variety of backgrounds. So, I, as one of his students, have been able in the New Black Panther Party, to attract gang members, have been able to attract college students, have been able to attract nationalists, Pan-Africanists, 5 Percenters and generally those who are in the sphere of Islam.

Today, in the New Black Panther Party, there are many who follow Islam, or many who are in some way connected to Islam. We love Brother Huey Newton. We love the Panthers of the 1960s but the New Black Panther Party, by and large, reads and studies the Teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and we respect the leadership of Minister Louis Farrakhan.

NATION OF ISLAM

AMM: Now, how did you feel when your mentor (Khallid Abdul Muhammad) died?

MZS: I was beyond hurt. I was devastated. I was crushed. I was almost disoriented to a degree because we never expected Khallid Abdul Muhammad to leave us. He was so strong. He was so beautiful. He was so brilliant. The only thing that saved me was immediately following up on his work. By working hard to keep his organization together, I was able to busy myself. Minister Farrakhan sent me a letter saying the only way, in essence, that I could deal with this is by getting busy doing his work. This is how I was able to personally survive, instead of becoming self-destructive.

AMM: Now, I’d like to discuss some of the issues affecting the Black community specifically and get your thoughts on, for example, the current movement for reparations. It appears to be picking up steam, organizational structure, organizational entities seem to be coming into place, actually forming a mass movement that a majority of Black people, regardless of socio-economic status or ideology, can actually unify and come to grips with. Can you talk to us about your feelings on the current movement for reparations?

MZS: The movement for reparations today has been given a great boost by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, who has teamed up with Dr. Conrad Worrill who has assembled a network of reparations activists, leaders, thinkers and scholars and has concretized this in the NDABA Movement. The Reparations Movement is picking up steam. You have Bob Brown, who has brilliant scholarship and a legal thrust. You have other attorneys like Lionel Jean Baptiste and others who are pushing on the legal front. You have activists in the streets and again, with Minister Farrakhan lending his direct support to the Reparations Movement, we bear witness that he is giving a new momentum and a new thrust to the movement that, of course, will be highlighted at the Million Man March 10-year anniversary.

We expect the Reparations Movement to gain a great, great boost on this October at the Million Man March 10-year anniversary and once again, I consistently say it, Minister Farrakhan is a leader amongst leaders and all of the leaders in the Reparations Movement respect him. And I know that Minister Louis Farrakhan is going to push and allow a platform for reparations at this march and I guarantee you, the history of the movement will be changed by what is going on now and what will take place this October.

AMM: Now, we’re going to hit very briefly, the educational system. You mentioned college students. You know we have a lot of college students who have now become active. You and I, we are contemporaries or peers, we’re in the same age range. The things that turned us on to the Teachings in the early ‘90s, the music, the spirit is kind of coming back now and I want you to talk about -- and I’m sure you’re no stranger to this book The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews. I want you to talk to us about that book, because it seems to always come up whenever there is someone talking about Black freedom and independence and understanding the true horrors of the slave trade.

MZS: I absolutely endorse The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews Volume I, and I’m just waiting on Volume II. I teach on college campuses. I just came from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and there was a big controversy in my coming, alleging that I’m an Anti-Semite, alleging that I’m a racist. So, when I came to the campus, I laid out all my books, books that we never receive on these college campuses because we’re being mis-educated as Dr. Carter G. Woodson has told us. So, I brought with me, The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams. I brought with me The African Origin of Civilization by Cheik Anta Diop, Message to the Blackman by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, a book that we must read. Black Studies by Maulana Karenga. But I also, for the Zionists, for those who are opposing us, I brought The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, because it quotes Jewish Rabbis, Jewish writers, Jewish scholars about how the “Jews” were involved in the slave trade. I said “Jews” because a real Jew would not be involved in the slave trade.

The Book of Exodus says that “He who stealeth a man and selleth a man and if he be caught with that man in his hands, he would surely be put to death. So, no real Jew would be involved in slavery. No real Jew would write in a Talmud that Black people are the cursed seed of Ham and that they are doomed to be cursed for the rest of their days and doomed to be slaves. So, I love this book. I loved the book The Jewish Onslaught by Dr. Tony Martin who has been persecuted for telling the truth.

So, we must engage in scholarship and the college students today are being blinded to the reality of Black contributions to history. They’re being blinded to the negative impact of whites on Blacks historically and presently and we must take to these college campuses.

The Nation of Islam ministers must take to the college campuses and all of our leaders must now go after the college student. It also appears that when you go after the college student, the enemy is really upset when you go after these particular individuals, because they are very powerful. I met Minister Louis Farrakhan on my college campus and it absolutely changed my life. We need an educated class of Black people but they must come in contact with the truth and not just be swallowed up by corporate America .

AMM: I think it was Melvin Salberg and Abraham Foxman (of the ADL) in ’94 when they sent that letter out to all the campuses and their presidents saying that a virus of anti-Semitism had struck and to stop letting the different speakers who had an idea in their mind to teach liberation

MZS: Well, the college campus is supposedly an environment, an intense environment, for diversity, an environment for free speech, an environment for debate of the widest range of ideas and conclusions. But yet, the Anti-Defamation League and Abraham Foxman are the #1 stiflers, the #1 opponents of free debate and free speech. If, what Minister Louis Farrakhan, if what Malik Zulu Shabazz, if what the Nation of Islam, the New Black Panther Party, others who are teaching, Dr. Leonard Jeffries, Brother Ashra Kwesi, if what we’re teaching is racism – which it is not – but if it is then you let the student come out and decide whether it is the rubbish of racism or whether it is the reality of truth.

You see, those who say they are Jews and are not, are absolutely in fear today, of a message that will come to the student that will expose their involvement in their crimes, historically and presently against Black people. Just white people in general are in fear of Black people really knowing their history and really knowing the involvement of white people in destroying us, destroying and robbing us of our name, our language, our religion, our culture, our God.

They give us multiculturalism, which means, let us have a mutual respect for each other but let us not criticize each other. But how can we learn Black history without understanding that the #1 opponent in Black history has been white racism and white attacks on Black people. So, they don’t want us to know anything other than what they’re teaching us today. So, again, we have to fight on these college campuses.

"The New Black Panther Party stands in 100% solidarity with the Palestinian people.

As you know, we’re strong opponents of Zionism.   We’re strong opponents of the U.S. policy of strictly supporting Israel . We find no legal or legitimate basis, really for the existence of the Zionist state.

The current negotiation process, to us, is a negotiation by force. It is a potential settlement based on the gun of the Israeli at the head of the oppressed Palestinians. I say to the Palestinian people to continue to stand up and continue to resist and never forget the blood of the martyrs that went before them."

                                                              --- Chairman Malik Zulu Shabazz, New Black Panther Party

AMM: The ADL recently on (February 14^th 2005) asked Russell Simmons, the Hip Hop mogul to speak out against and denounce Minister Farrakhan. Get into that a little bit and talk to us about the state of Hip Hop.

MZS: Hip Hop, obviously rap music is reaching millions. We have brilliant brothers. You have 50 Cent, you have Nas, you have Game, you have Kanye West who will appear by video at Saviours' Day. Rap music and Hip Hop is a powerful, powerful, powerful medium. Minister Farrakhan is being recognized at the Source Awards, has respect and connection with the rappers. The enemy will try to again, to stop the rise of our people and break the connection between rap and revolution. It’s alright if we rap about Black women being bitches, being whores. Rap about all of our guns and attacks being used on other Black people. That’s fine, they can sell that all day but if we try to talk about a revolutionary rap, then the ADL and others will call on Russell Simmons to distance himself from Minister Farrakhan.

Why would Abraham Foxman want to separate Russell Simmons from Minister Farrakhan? Because they know if the rappers get a revolutionary message, that if the rappers start to clean up their act and rap revolutionary rap, the game is over. Kanye West represents a small sign of what can be achieved in Hip Hop. Let’s look at the early ‘90s. We were going strong. Public Enemy was on fire, X-Clan was on fire, KRS-one was on fire, Rakim was on fire, all of them. Ice Cube and Death Certificate, Amerikkka'’s Most Wanted was on fire. What was the partial result of that? In 1992 in Los Angeles the Crips and the Bloods called a truce. They were listening to that music. They called a truce and the L.A. rebellion broke out. We don’t call it a riot, we called it a rebellion. A revolution broke out in Los Angeles over the issue of police brutality. Well, when L.A. went up in flames and all of the young people who were listening to rap music and they were out in the streets fighting for that revolution.

Well then, the enemy came back with a strong, strong attack against revolutionary rap. The enemy and those who control the distribution of rap, shut down revolutionary rap and would only fund gangster rap after that. So then, you saw an extreme rise in gangster rap and you saw an elimination in revolutionary rap. And so, today, it seems like we’re coming back again, because in his brilliance, Minister Farrakhan has established a relationship with Russell Simmons and other rappers. And I say to Brother Russell Simmons, I say to the other rappers that don’t let them make you believe that they have more power than you. It is they that need us and we have to eventually get rid of all of them as our distributors.

As far as I’m concerned, we have to seriously move to the point where the Nation of Islam should be producing the rap records and we can distribute our own records. And we don’t have to worry about them because they’re really, to be honest, according to the Lessons, bloodsucking us. They don’t have the talent. They can’t rap. They can’t sing. So, if we’re the talent and we’re producing everything, what’s wrong with us when we can’t put some CDs in some stores? So this is what we must move to. We must be free of them. So I say to all of those, ‘cause the pressure will increase around this Million Man March, stand strong against the lies of old Abraham Foxman.

AMM: Speak to us on the plight of the Palestinian people and their opposition to the oppressive policies of the Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Israeli government.

MZS: The New Black Panther Party stands in 100% solidarity with the Palestinian people. As you know, we’re strong opponents of Zionism. We’re strong opponents of the U.S. policy of strictly supporting Israel . We find no legal or legitimate basis, really for the existence of the Zionist state. The current negotiation process, to us, is a negotiation by force. It is a potential settlement based on the gun of the Israeli at the head of the oppressed Palestinians. I say to the Palestinian people to continue to stand up and continue to resist and never forget the blood of the martyrs that went before them. I’m disappointed, personally, in the weak response of the Arabs to the Palestinian crisis.

You know, if the Muslims or the Arabs would use the power that they have over oil, the power that they have over trade, to deal firmly with Zionism, to deal firmly with the state of Israel, there would be no real Palestinian conflict. It is the weakness of the Muslims and the Arabs that have allowed this problem to continue to exist. So, I pray, to be honest that there’s no more blood of mothers and children that have to be shed in Palestine. I don’t know if they will reach a settlement. Even if they do reach a settlement, that little patch of land in the Gaza strip and a few swatches of land in the West Bank is never true justice. It is only a forced settlement.

AMM: Now, specifically, regarding the New Black Panther Party, when white people see Black men with guns, their ideas on gun control automatically change. They believe in the right to bear arms until they see Black men with guns asserting their right to bear arms. Immediately, their thoughts are modified. That’s perhaps the most controversial characteristic of the Black Panthers that I think everyone is aware of and perhaps the most misunderstood.

MZS: The New Black Panther Party stands firm on our rights for self defense but we are very responsible in asserting our rights for self defense. We believe in our God, first. We don’t believe necessarily that power comes out of the barrel of a gun. That power comes from the Lord of the Worlds, Almighty God, Allah. But we do believe that after what we have been through in this country that we would be naïve not to be able to protect ourselves and our families and to protect where we live, in a manner of self defense. You don’t necessarily see The New Black Panther Party walking out here on the street with guns. We don’t encourage our members to go get illegal weapons and to ride around with them in cars and to carry weapons around everywhere, because we know that this is what the devil wants us to do. He wants to set us up by having illegal weapons in our cars or in our pockets. So, we say obey all laws that don’t conflict with our religion and the law of the United States , according to the 2^nd Amendment and depending on what jurisdiction you’re in, will allow you to register a firearm. In certain states like Texas, they allow us to carry our guns and we’re allowed to carry our guns openly. At different times we do. Where we are allowed to register a firearm in our home, we do, but we must make it clear that the interest of the New Black Panther Party is not on the gun.

The emphasis today on The New Black Panther Party is building an organization that can reach and can rescue Black youth, building an organization that can aid our community. We are not deviating from our assignment to be able to defend ourselves, but our focus is on our God. Our focus is on our organization but we are not going to allow this enemy to believe that he will get away with running rampant and wholesale with his police brutality in the Black community and that somebody is not going to have an answer for them, somewhere. There are many that we can ask to give up their guns, to be honest. The gang members, let’s be honest, they’re not going to give up their guns. There are others in the Black community that are not going to give up their guns, so we’re trying to teach them to stop using the guns on us. If you’re going to have a gun, which we don’t say you have to have, but if you’re going to have one how about defending your community? How about making it safe for the elders and the mothers in the community?

So, our focus is on our God and if we have guns, it’s a deep responsibility that we take very carefully and cautiously. Look at our history since 1989, you haven’t seen us getting shot up and killed. You haven’t seen the police raiding our buildings at headquarters and shooting us up. It is not because we are weak, it is because we’re wise and even though the Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches against carrying weapons and guns, we still take pages of wisdom from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and operating in a way to keep this devil away from us.

AMM: Also, we’ve noticed the improvement in the official news organ of the New Black Panther Party, The New Black Panther Newspaper. Talk to us about the advancements there and your vision for it.

MZS: The New Black Panther Newspaper is our pride and joy, at this moment. We have a distribution of 25,000 and we have a vision of increasing that distribution to 50,000. Our paper sales on the streets for $2 and we’re able to give the seller $1 and this has enabled us to employ young Black men who maybe out of work and enable them to work. It is also enabling us to get our message out, because we know that the white press is not going to print our message fairly and many times the Black press does not do their job, other than The Final Call. The New Black Panther Newspaper is the little brother paper, of The Final Call Newspaper. We study The Final Call. We study how well it’s written, how well it’s edited, how well it’s laid out and it is a model for us on how to develop our paper. So, with The Final Call, our big brother newspaper in the Black community, with The New Black Panther paper in the Black community, it’s going to encourage other organizations to put their papers out and then we will have, as we say in our paper, we will have an information revolution. Because with the newspaper out, as you well know, it reaches many people that we could never reach and it explains our position clearly. So, we’re very happy. We’re encouraging everybody to support The New Black Panther Newspaper and to support The Final Call Newspaper and then we will again, achieve many, many more positive steps towards our mental and physical liberation.

AMM: Attorney Malik Zulu Shabazz, National Chairman of The New Black Panther Party. Thank you for your candid and forthright answers to my questions.

MZS: Thank you Brother Ashahed.

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