As Nation of Islam meets, family continues journey of faith
BY CASSANDRA SPRATLING
Detroit FREE PRESS
Feb 25, 2007
In the middle of the living room of their Oak Park home, the Muhammad family spreads rugs with rich, vibrant colors and bold designs. They stand side by side in stocking feet: Stephen Muhammad, 50, his son, Stephen Jr., 11, and his wife, Cherylee, 46, who shares her rug with her mother, Virginia Raines, 62.
Stephen begins by reciting a verse from the Quran. Stephen Jr. then leads the family in prayer. He thanks Allah for his father and mother, his grandmother, who is visiting from Dearborn, and the memory of a deceased grandmother he adored.
The evening prayer is one of five prayers the Muhammad family says daily; either alone or together.
The daily prayers help keep the family connected to Allah and serve as frequent reminders to do his will.
The prayers are also one way that life for the Muhammad family has changed since they joined the Nation of Islam in 1996. They dress and eat differently and worship now at a mosque, not a church.
But in many ways they are just like any other family -- a fact that sometimes gets lost when the national spotlight shines on the Nation of Islam.
That spotlight shines today as thousands pack Detroit's Ford Field for Saviours' Day, an annual holy day of the Nation of Islam. The national leader, Minister Louis Farrakhan, is expected to address a crowd of 65,000 from across the country.
Holding Saviours' Day in Detroit brings the religious denomination home to the city where it was founded in 1930. Families such as the Muhammads also hope it presents an opportunity to educate people about the group, sometimes viewed as mysterious, controversial, anti-Semitic and anti-white.
"Even some black people look at us in the Nation like we're brothers from another planet," says Stephen Muhammad. "We're normal people. The only difference is we're physically everyday trying to live a better, more spiritual life for ourselves, our families and our people."He laughs when he thinks about some of the men he used to hang out with.
"They say, 'Man, you stopped smoking. You stopped drinking. You stopped going to bars. What's wrong with you?' "
Quite the contrary, Muhammad says, they should wonder what's wrong with them, trapped by vices that rob the black community of financial resources and weaken the minds and bodies of its people.
"We're clean, neat, and articulate," he says. "That gives us all something to strive for."
The family, whose last name was then Grady, was attracted to the Nation of Islam following the Million Man March in Washington, D.C., in 1995.
They drove to the march together, but while Stephen Muhammad watched it up close from the national mall, Cherylee, who'd delivered their son six weeks earlier, and their daughter, Kenya, then 9, watched it on television from their hotel room.
Both Stephen and Cherylee were moved by the message that encouraged black men to take a more active role in their families and communities.
Both had been raised as Christians. His early years were spent in an African Methodist Episcopal church. She was raised Baptist.
But at the time they went to the march -- a few months after they married -- they were not actively worshipping anywhere.
They returned determined to be more active in their community and in a religious community, as encouraged that day by Farrakhan.
They began reading about the Nation of Islam.
Within a month, they began attending the Sunday services at Muhammad's Mosque on Wyoming, the Detroit base for the Nation of Islam. Cherylee and Stephen also began attending separate classes for women and men at the mosque.
They were both attracted to the emphasis the Nation places on strong united families and conservative living.
Not all the changes came easily.
Cherylee never returned to her work as a hairdresser after Stephen Jr.'s birth. She decided to stay home to focus on raising their children. It was Kenya who led to the first meeting between Cherylee and Stephen. Kenya, then 5, bumped into Stephen with a grocery cart at a Kroger store. They met as her mom apologized. Kenya is now a 20-year-old college student.
Cherylee believes being home resulted in a stronger relationship with her children, although she recognizes that not all women can afford to make that choice. They rely on her husband's income as an organizational development leader with Ford.
"My daughter and I have a great relationship," Cherylee says. "We didn't have the typical problems parents sometimes have with teenagers -- drugs, alcohol, young men coming in and out the house. I attribute that to being at home and the teaching of the Nation."
So quitting her job wasn't a problem. Being required to cover her hair in public was.
"I was a hairdresser," she says. Her thick hair, which falls past her shoulders, was not only her crowning glory, it was her business. "It was difficult for me at first. My hair was one of the ways I promoted my business."
But she gradually came to believe that fully embracing the teachings of the Nation was more important.
"And once I understood why the covering was necessary, it helped me make the decision," she says. "In Islam, we're taught that you should be modest. Your hair is a part of your beauty, and it should be for your husband."
It took more drastic circumstances to get Stephen to do something else the Nation preaches -- adopt a diet that forbids pork and nuts, and advises against white sugar, white flour and white rice.
He followed the diet at home, but at lunchtime he was tempted by some of his old favorites.
"I have to admit I craved sugar and I love peanuts," he says.
That was until late last year when their daughter became ill at college. Kenya was experiencing frequent headaches, stomachaches, muscle spasms and other pains so severe she had to take a semester off. Doctors could find no explanation.
But a holistic doctor, also a member of the Nation, determined that her sickness was caused primarily by veering from the Muslim diet. Her body was rebelling.
"In college, you're always trying to eat fast and quick, so I was drinking a lot of pop, eating candy and other junk and a ton of fast food, pizza and McDonald's," Kenya says.
After returning to a strict Muslim diet and taking vitamins and minerals prescribed by the doctor, she fully recovered. "I especially have to stay away from sugar, wheat and soy," she says.
Her almost immediate recovery solidified her dad's respect for the diet.
"Until that happened, my wife was more meticulous than me," he says. "Now, she doesn't have to tell me. I stay away from the wrong foods myself."
Watching Cherylee and Stephen and their children led Cherylee's mother, Virginia Raines, to begin worshipping with the Nation as well. She's in the process of converting to Islam.
Stephen had always been a gentle, caring man, Raines says. But after he became a Muslim she observed an even closer relationship between her daughter and son-in-law. She began to admire the family's devotion to each other and to Islam.
"I saw a togetherness and closeness, a glow in them," she says. "And it makes me feel good to hear young men and women speaking so politely, 'Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir.' You know what else, I'm not worried about anyone hitting me upside my head or snatching my purse if one of the brothers is around."
Men in the Nation are known for protecting their women and children -- by any means necessary -- a phrase popularized by the late Malcolm X.
Some teachings of Malcolm, Elijah Muhammad and Farrakhan have come under heavy criticism -- none of which deters this family.
Both Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation for about 40 years, and Malcolm X referred to whites as devils -- though Malcolm later left the Nation and denounced some of its teachings.
"That was appropriate for the time," Stephen says. "A devil is defined as one who cannot keep his evil to himself. If you look at some of the actions of some whites at the time, that word would probably be appropriate. But I know there are some whites who are very good, upstanding people, and I know some who have been evil, just like I know some black people who have been good, upstanding people and some who have been evil."
The family believes Farrakhan has been erroneously and deliberately portrayed as someone who teaches hate.
"When I talk to someone and they have a negative view of the minister, I know immediately they have not heard the minister speak a speech in its entirety," he says. "The minister is full of love for his people."
"There are people who make a whole lot of money off black people smoking, drinking, pornography and guns. When you get involved in the Nation you put all that down," he says.
Cherylee and Stephen say they especially appreciate the positive impact they believe the Nation has had on their children.
Kenya is a junior studying communications at Purdue University. She recalls her childhood as a bit difficult because she was different. "I couldn't wear shorts in the summer. I couldn't go to certain parties. When I was younger, I was kind of embarrassed to tell my friends why I couldn't do what they could do," she says. "As I got older and more knowledgeable I became more secure in my own beliefs."
Stephen Jr. is an honors student at Ferndale Middle School, which his parents attribute largely to the work ethic taught at the mosque and reinforced at home. Father and son frequently go door-to-door together, each neatly dressed in suit and tie, teaching people about the Nation of Islam.
On his own, Stephen Jr., began calling people in their subdivision to encourage them to buy tickets to Saviours' Day.
Stephen Jr. says he's happy and proud to be a member of the Nation of Islam. He knows there are many things some of his friends do that he cannot, but he doesn't mind. He doesn't eat fast food, wear baggy low-slung pants, listen to rap music or watch videos with derogatory lyrics. There are many celebrations he doesn't participate in, such as Easter pageants and Halloween, that are difficult because so many classroom activities are centered on them.
"They always think I'm a Jehovah's Witness until I explain it," Stephen Jr. says. "They think I'm not in the in-crowd, but I feel fine about that. I just do my work."
Stephen's parents closely monitor his use of computers, as well.
"I think the Nation allows you to not expose your children to so many adult things, so you can allow them to be children, not little adults," Stephen says.
"In Islam, family is the most important thing, second only to God."
Contact CASSANDRA SPRATLING at 313-223-4580 or cspratling@freepress.com.
Editor,
Islam-watch.org