Series 2558: Constituent Correspondence, 2000-2003
38608
From: <Formanupac@aol.com>
To: "kay@nwu.org".Net.GOV_MAIL
Created: 10/8/2001 12:34 PM
Subject: report on birthday celebration and a caall to reject Jihad forever!
Message:
For Immediate Release: Contact: James Forman
The Diary of James Forman: Sunday, October 7, 2001, Mailing address: Post
Office Box 21097, Washington, D.C. 20009, Tel: 202-737-2133
Last Thursday, October 4, 2001 some friends of mine organized a reception
to celebrate my seventy third birthday. Profound greetings were presented
from the Mayor of Washington D.C., Anthony B. Williams, the former Mayor of
Washington, D.C., Marion Barry, and the Service Employees International
Union, (SEIU). William A. Pritchett, Assistant to the President of the SEIU,
Andrew Stern, for Public Affairs presented greetings and gifts from the SEIU,
the largest union in the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial
Unions (AFL-CIO). As some of the readers of this diary entry may know, I am
a member of the United Automobile Workers International Union, the National
Writers Union, AFL-CIO.
Council member Jim Graham presented a resolution from the Council of the
District of Columbia, signed by Linda W. Cropp, Chair of the Council and the
Secretary of the Council. In a letter to James Forman, Patricia A. Ford, the
Executive Vice President of the SEIU, wrote: "James, you are one of my
icons. You have not faded or fallen off. You just keep on shining. Your
work lighted a way for me into the struggle for freedom and equality. And
your words keep drawing me along the path to justice."
Bernard Demczuk, Larry Rubin, Julian Bond, and many other friends were
the principal organizers of this birthday celebration. Julian Bond, the
Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People, also presented greetings. Several members of
Julian's class at American University were present for this occasion.
Representatives from the Ambassador of the People's Republic of China were
also in attendance. "Beijing is a sister city to Washington, D.C.," former
Mayor of Washington, DC said to Jim Forman on this occasion.
As I write this diary entry, stepped-up efforts of the U.S. and the
United Nations in Afghanistan through air strikes and the dropping of food
from the air to help feed the people of Afghanistan have commenced. At my
birthday celebration, in my remarks I said: "Our country is at war. Those
of you who are here have the power to greatly aid those who are suffering in
Afghanistan."
Clearly the trump card of the Taliban and some others throughout the
Islamic world is the Jihad call, a call for Moslems throughout the world to
kill non-Moslems in the name of Allah. If this call is honored and not
forever banned from the consciousness of those who say they are Moslems, the
non-Islamic people everywhere face great danger. In my own experiences, I
have said again and again the late Malcolm X may not have done the
African-American people and others any favors by seeking permission from the
World Islamic Council to organize us into the World Community of Al-Islam.
I have personally read a copy of the letter that the late Malcolm X wrote to
the World Islamic Council saying the Afro-American people were ripe for
organizing into Islam and
(Over Please)
-2-
he and his organization were willing to do this, but he did not want to
organize the Afro-American people into the Nation of Islam headed by Elijah
Mohamed. He was seeking permission to organize them into the World Islamic
Council
I have, moreover, visited the office of the Moslem representative of the
World Islamic Council in New York, New York and spoke with the
Representative of the World Islamic Council who authorized the late Malcom
X's trip to Jiddah, Saudi Arabia. In a meeting of some sixty students at
Cornell University when I was a graduate student at Cornell University I had
the occasion to ask Louis Farrakhan what happened when the late Malcolm X
went to Saudi Arabia seeking the permission to organize the Afro-American
people into the World Islamic Council.. Louis Farrakhan responded that it
was his understanding that Malcolm X was given the authority over the West.
In a follow-up question I asked Louis Farrakhan what did he mean by the
West. His response was that whatever comes to my mind when I hear the word
West was the authority that the World Islamic Council gave to the late Malcom
X.
As the armed forces of the United States, Great Britain and other members
of the
United Nations attempt to aid the United Nations to deliver food to the
people of Afghanistan, I certainly hope that no Moslem anywhere in the world
will honor the call now or ever again to kill all non-Moslems wherever they
may be.
Sincerely,
James Forman, President of the Unemployment and Poverty Action Committee and
Publisher of the Black America New Service (BANS).
*B.A. in Public Administration , Roosevelt University, Chicago, Il., 1957
*Teaching Assistant in the Graduate Government Department of Boston
University from
the fall of 1957 to spring of 1958. At Boston University Forman was also
enrolled
the African Studies Program
*Scholarship student to the 1960 Middlebury French Summer School where all
attendees
were required to speak and utilize the French language at all times
for the six week session of the Middlebury French Summer School.
*M.P.S./A.A.A. Master of Professional Studies: African and Afro-American
Affairs
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 1990
*A non-degree student in the Journalism division of Howard University's
Communication Department, specializing in electronic Journalism. James
Forman was also a founding member of Howard University's chapter of Sigma
Delta Chi, the society of Professional Journalists
*Doctor of Philosophy degree in Political History from the Union Institute
located in Cincinnati, Ohio, March , 1982. The Union Institute is accredited
by the North Central l Accrediting Association which also accredits the
University of Chicago and other universities and colleges in the Mid-West.
The end.
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