Tuesday, July 15, 2008
To Whom It May Concern:
Greetings in the matchless name of the Son of God and Savior of the World, Jesus Christ. As many of you know, my speaking engagement schedule contains on it a forthcoming TV appearance in Omaha, NE on Wednes. 08-13-2008.
The television show is called “Real Spit”. It is a show that discusses political, social, economic, and spiritual issues in the “black” community.
As has been advertised all around the city of Omaha, the purpose of my appearance was to debate Terry Muhammad. Mr. Muhammad is one of the most visible and vocal leaders of the Nation of Islam in that part of the country. He has read my now out-of-print booklet, “Nation of Ignorance” and had some criticisms of it.
It was his decision to accept my open challenge to any Nation of Islam leader to debate and defend their religion in a public forum, an open challenge that has stood unaccepted for nearly a decade. While I have tangled via email with the likes of Professor Griff of the rap group Public Enemy as well as ignorant and dishonest “talking head” Reuben Muhammad, whenever I have issued a challenge to have a public verbal exchange they have always run away.
I applaud Terry Muhammad for being the first Nation of Islam leader with backbone enough to accept the challenge to be a man and defend his beliefs in front of the audience that he wants to reach. I was looking forward to this debate. The host of “Real Spit” Samuel Hunter spent two months preparing his audience for this exchange. The emails and feedback he was getting were proof that there was a buzz in the community. It was a highly anticipated event.
But while a high ranking Nation of Islam leader is the big fish in their own little local pond, one fact still remains to be true. In the grand scheme of the Nation of Islam’s hierarchal structure, he is just a puppet. He is the mouthpiece whose only function is to preach and advance the image and the agenda of Louis Farrakhan. The headquarters calls the shots. They control what you can and cannot say. They control what forums you can and cannot appear at.
I have received word that Mr. Muhammad has heard back from his superiors at the Nation of Islam headquarters in Chicago, IL and he has been denied permission to participate in a debate with me.
I wish to make it clear that Mr. Muhammad was willing. Thus, this cannot be viewed by the public as any kind of cowardice on his part. He is bound by the system within which he must work. The decision was made from higher up than he is.
I feel that this act of cowardice on the part of the Nation of Islam has tragic results. First and foremost, the people have been robbed of what was sure to be an exchange of ideas for the ages. They have been cheated out of seeing two sides of a story talking about and wrestling with larger-than-life issues. They have had their ability to make a truly educated decision about the Nation of Islam stolen from them. And all of this has been done to them by the organization which claims to have a mission of helping them.
I have to publicly ask the question of: Why? Why has the Nation of Islam made such a frantic move to suppress this dialogue? What do they have to gain by desperately seeking to prevent discussion from taking place in front of the people? What do they have to lose if the debate goes on as originally agreed upon?
Someone is working an angle.
The unofficial answer I have heard 2nd hand is that they do not want anything said which will harm Baraq Obama’s chances of winning the Presidency in the 2008 election. It is a nice political answer. But I believe it is a smokescreen.
I receive this cheap excuse as code for, “We don’t want to be confronted, refuted, and embarrassed on television. The issues raised in Shanley’s ‘NATION OF IGNORANCE’ booklet are too irrefutable to be rationally answered”. If this were a sport, they have essentially forced Mr. Muhammad to forfeit.
It is my prayer that the community sees this maneuver for what it really is. I am hoping that someone sees this action of the Nation of Islam’s leadership as one more layer of the sheep skin having been removed from the wolf. This is a wolf that has been chewing the “black” community alive for nearly a century.
I, being a Christian minister, do not have a headquarters that dictates to me about what I can and cannot say. No one suppresses my right to exercise my duty of defending Christianity wherever and whenever the opportunity arises. I am not bought and sold by any earthly political party or candidate. That being the case, I will still appear on the TV show. I guess I will just have more time to rip the Nation of Islam apart without opposition.
Between now and then, I am told that Mr. Muhammad will issue an official written statement in which he will state what parts of my booklet he disagrees with and why. I have already heard one or two of his objections, and they are weak and pathetic. But I will not address them until after he has first had the opportunity to articulate them in his own words. The statement he will issue will no doubt need the pre-approval of the Nation of Islam headquarters before it sees the light of day. So it will be edited and watered down.
I will read the letter on the air and answer it point by point. Unfortunately, this is the closest thing to a debate you will get to see between a Christian minister and a representative of the Nation of Islam leadership.
As I have said before, I applaud and respect Mr. Muhammad for his courage and his willingness to be part of the broadcast. I think he is great for that.
But as for the system that calls itself the Nation of Islam, I say shame on you to those who have cowardly blocked Terry Muhammad from representing you on TV. It was foolish to reject the free airtime to reach a predominately “black” audience with your message. It was silly to turn down the opportunity to have one of your top leaders confront a “white devil” who preaches a “white man’s religion” with a “white Jesus” and silence him once and for all. Think of the people that you could have reached.
With or without Terry Muhammad, the show will go on. The difference is that now you (the Nation of Islam) will have no representation at all. At least with this debate there would have been someone there as an ambassador for you and your religion. Instead of one on one, you have created a one on zero situation in which your religion will be ripped to shreds with nobody present to provide a reply. Instead of helping the image of your organization, you have hurt it. There is a month between today and then, and I pray that you reconsider before people begin to wonder what it is that you are hiding.
The Nation of Islam does not want the people on the street to get access to the facts. They do not want to have their spokesmen confronted or cross-examined for fear that the people on the streets might begin to see the truth. They love to send their spokesmen out to speaking engagements at which there are offered no competing viewpoints. But in a comparative dialogue they have too much to lose. So they will not be involved.
They say that silence can be the loudest form of communication. We must receive their silence as them communicating a very loud message: The religious teachings of the Nation of Islam are not capable of a rational, intelligent defense. Its leaders will not be put into a position in which they are made to explain themselves and their teachings in front of the very public they want to reach.
If the behavior of the leadership of the Nation of Islam in keeping this vital information from the people alarms or upsets you, I ask that you contact the Nation of Islam headquarters who disallowed Terry Muhammad the chance to debate me. Voice your opinion.
The Nation of Islam
The Final Call
734 W. 79th Street
Chicago, IL 60620
(773) 602-1230 [Voice]
(866) 602-1230 [Toll Free Voice]
Tell them that you will not contribute one dime, you will not attend one event, and you will not purchase one book, CD, or DVD until they do right by the people and operate in an honest fashion before them. If what they preach and teach is the truth, it ought not be afraid of honest questions and inquiry. If, however, what they preach and teach cannot survive an honest scholastic examination, then it does not deserve to survive at all. But in either event, it is time for the Nation of Islam to stop being cowards. It is time to either put up or shut up.
To the people who were affected by this move of the Nation of Islam, I apologize to you for their actions. Many were looking forward to this one of a kind debate. And I assure you that I will provide you with facts and education when I appear on the show.
To any professing Christians who read the words of this statement and view it as being too harsh or mean, please do not waste either your time nor energy by demanding that I issue any kind of public apology. It is not going to happen. It is not within a Christian world and life view to respond to bullying or intimidation. You will get no such power-trip experience or thrills out of me. What I am doing is your job as well. And because you will not get involved alongside me in the fight against Islam, the Nation of Islam, the Five Percent Nation, etc. I have to work twice as hard on it. Your choice of exalting public relations and social issues as being more important than matters of truth and eternal destiny make you an accessory after the fact of the Nation of Islam’s crimes in the “black” community.
I will not have the blood of my neighbors on my hands because of a failure to speak the truth to them. I will continue confronting the Nation of Islam for Jesus Christ until either I go home to my home in heaven, or the religion goes home to its home in hell.
God has made all people equal, full of meaning, significance, dignity, and worth. Many people fail to see this truth, and as a result members of the human race divide over such external factors as skin color and bloodline. This is a horrible thing that is done. It must be fought, and it must be overcome. Abandoning God in order to throw money at the feet of false prophets is not the answer.
The Nation of Islam has monopolized the attention of the “black” community for nearly a century. During this nearly hundred year stranglehold that its leaders have enjoyed, what has this religion brought to the community? What fruit has it produced? It is garbage. And it is high time that we recognize it for what it is, and toss it into the can in which it belongs.
In the name of the beneficent, the merciful, the honorable - JESUS CHRIST:
Brian James Shanley
Minister & Defender of the Gospel
P.O. Box 2544
Minneapolis, MN 55402
(612) 867-0699
