ATH: Islam, Race and Genetics Imam Mohammed(ra) Cincinnati 1995

"We believe that we are children of our ancestors and we are families of our ancestors. We're tribes of our common ancestors. This is what we believe! So, we're nations of our common ancestors, but we're not races! We don't believe that. We don't have that kind of meaning. We believe that our common ancestor is best understood as our common humanity, that God created our common humanity...So, we want to know something about this internal body that wants more and more excellence, that is supported by an aim-an aim in nature to be and express the best that is in me; the best capabilities; the best potential. That's what I want to know more about! I want to know more about my humanity! And that's what I believe that ancestor is a type of. The ancestor is a type of our common humanity that God created, that God wants in each of us. And if we build or generate our life upon that common ground, or common soil of our humanity, we will all have legitimate children-legitimate children of our ancestor! Our culture will be a legitimate culture! Our race consciousness will be legitimate race consciousness! Our ethnicity will be a legitimate ethnicity! But, if we don't do that, we come here looking strange to our original humanity..." Imam W. D. Mohammed(ra) at the  University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (February 1995)