Source: Detroit Free Press

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060223/NEWS05/602230507

On February 23, 2006 the Detroit Free Press reported, "Imam W. Deen Mohammed of Chicago, the most prominent African-American leader in mainline Islam, is calling for a special gathering of African Americans at Detroit's Cobo Hall Riverfront Ballroom at 1 p.m. Sunday. The unusual request that only African Americans attend his free 90-minute lecture, which is expected to draw about 2,500 people, will give Mohammed a chance to speak frankly about issues unique to the experience of black Americans, said his assistant in metro Detroit, H. Daniel Mujahid... For decades, Mohammed has crisscrossed the country, urging African-American Muslims to distance themselves from the black separatist teachings of the Nation of Islam, an American group organized by his father, Elijah Muhammad, in Detroit in the 1930s. In recent years, Mohammed also has encouraged interfaith partnerships. He occasionally travels from Chicago to Detroit to deliver talks, often inviting a broad diversity of people. The unusual appeal this week is not a reversal of that commitment, Mujahid said. In fact, Mohammed is likely to use the occasion to talk in blunt terms about how far he has moved from his father's teachings."