Why The Messenger Devotes December
Muhammad Speaks Newspaper
P.O Box 44261
Detroit, MI 48244
Phone: 313-371-7033
E-mail: webmaster@muhammadspeaks.com
Why The Messenger Devotes December
To Fasting And Other Righteous Acts
By Abdul Basit Naeem
Reprinted from the December 13, 1968 edition of Muhammad Speaks
It is an irrefutable fact that the U.S.A. is the world’s most highly
commercialized nation. So dogged and dour is the dollar-demons’ dominance
of nearly every aspect of life there that an average inhabitant of this
subcontinent simply cannot escape the “Systems” powerful impact.
THUS IT IS, for instance, that in spite of the numerous (so-called)
“freedoms” Americans (whites as well as Blacks) claim to enjoy, a vast
majority of them apparently cannot think or act for themselves and, more
often than not, follow many of life’s pursults in direct deference to
Madison Avenue merchandisers’ machinations and whims. The latter it is,
indeed,that induce you to eat what you do at breakfast or dinner time, to
regularly use “your choice brand” of soap or toothpaste, and to prefer
the particular fashion or style of clothing that you wear for work or for
leisure.
The men and women of the U.S. advertising industry, again, forever advise
you on other “necessities of existence,” such as home appliances,
automobiles and annual vacation travel. As a matter of fact, they are
even capable of counseling you in regard to your own funeral
arrangements—to insure that you are accorded a “decent, Christian
burial” after death. The “System’s” media of influence are both
omnifarious and omnipresent: You find them in your daily newspapers and
in the weekly and monthly magazines you receive by mail. You can see them
affixed to storefronts and pasted onto giant billboards that dot the
nation’s highways. They also form an essential and integral part of your
favorite radio and T.V. programs—-for neither could come into being
without those “brief messages” (commercials) from our sponsors.”
ANOTHER CONGRUENT characteristic of same (i.e., the “System’s media) is
that they never cease to prey upon our human emotions, thereby
perpetuating and giving permanence to the vicious cycle of overt
commercialism. However, never is the flagrant and willful exploitation
more manifest than it is in December–that is to say, during the
prolonged, Thanksgiving-to New Year’s Day “holiday season.”
COME DECEMBER, the money-mad Madison Avenue manipulators’ campaign
suddenly gains extraordinary momentum: News papers and magazines begin to
bulge with extra promotional material. Page after page of “holiday”
advertising extols the “incomparable Christian virtue” of gift-giving
(“even unto yourself”). In supermarts and department stores across the
country, phony, mercenary Santas (was there ever a real one?) endeavor to
stimulate sales of toys and other “seasonal” merchandise for their
bosses. “Buy This.”Buy That.” “Buy Now, Pay Later.” “Easy Credit.”
“Convenient Terms Arranged.” “No Down Payment Until February.” These and
countless additional, equally-enticing phrases become common place and
incessantly fill your ears and eyes.
IT GOES without saying, though, that most December doings and goings-on
scarcely relate to the perplexing, fundamental problems that confront the
twenty-five million “Asiatic” (black) inhabitants of this land (American
so-called “Negroes”). Neither the “holiday spirit,” nor, for that matter,
other kinds of (consumer) “spirits” eliminate or alleviate their plight
and suffering. On the contraty, many Black Americans actually contract
additional woes as they succumb to the “System’s” sustained pressure
tactics and sign up for new “holiday” loans. What is perhaps infinitely
worse and wholly unjustified is the fact that much of this foolishness,
extravagance and spending spree is carried on by all parties concerned
ostensibly to commemorate the birth of Jesus of Nazareth—who, as many
eminent historians will attest, wasn’t even born on “Christmas Day”
(December 25) ! The “Devil ‘s deceit and deception” is thus further
perpetrated in December making the month a veritable period of
unprecedented misguidance, misfortune and temptations.
SMALL WONDER, then, that my Muslim brothers and sisters in the wilderness
of North America–that is to say, members of the U.S. “Nation of Islam,”
headed and magnificently guided by the divinely-raised HONORABLE ELIJAH
MUHAMMAD—deem fit to devote the entire month of December to fasting,
abstinence and rededication to the grand and indubitably rigthteous and
most worthy cause of FREEDOM, JUSTICE and EQUALITY for all Black
Americans!
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