About

HOW IT BEGAN…

By Jesse Muhammad

On Friday, March 25, 2011, Minister Farrakhan was in Jackson, Mississippi to speak at the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement Conference on the campus of Jackson State University. A few hours before his keynote address, I was invited to Minister Farrakhan’s hotel suite to sit in on a meeting with a medical examiner who was connected to a hanging death cases that I was covering at that time for The Final Call newspaper. This was my second time ever being a guest in his hotel suite.

After a brief dialogue, Minister Farrakhan thanked the doctor as he was escorted from the room, but to my surprise and nervousness, he requested that I stay back. He and I discussed the doctor’s words, and the cases; and he asked me about how the conference was going thus far at Jackson State. Then, the conversation shifted to The Nation of Islam’s online presence.

Minister Farrakhan expressed to me how much he enjoys hearing feedback. Although he said, “The internet really isn’t my thing,” he asked me to share some of the things I had been reading online regarding his latest messages. As I spoke, his face lit up with that amazing smile. The only two brothers on security in the room bore witness to some of the things I was sharing in regards to his impact on the social media platforms of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Then Minister Farrakhan asked:

“So, we have a great online presence for The Nation (of Islam) and The Final Call?”

I replied, “Yes sir! The only things we’re missing is an official Twitter account for the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.”

And he said,

“Well, set it up brother.”

Although I heard him clearly, I said, “Sir?” and he said again:

“Set it up brother. And if anyone asks you ‘Who gave you authorization?’ you tell them I did.”

In that split second I thought about the story he has recounted many times of when he first said he wanted to “take a million men to Washington, D.C.” for what would become the historic 1995 Million Man March. He said he “saw” the words go out of his mouth – and wanted to snatch them back; but, it was “too late.” Though excited, I felt the same way about this forthcoming Official Louis Farrakhan Twitter account. However, he gave me an order, I followed it, and five days later I launched and started managing his Twitter account.

Minister Farrakhan loved the idea of responding to questions from people all over the globe, so he and I agreed that he would call me once a month to answer each questions posted by his Twitter followers, and I would transcribe them, and post the responses.

But here is one important fact to mention:

He NEVER wanted to know the questions in advance. 

Why? With sincerity in his tone, he told me during a phone conversation:

“I love the spontaneity of seeing how Allah uses me as His instrument in feeding the people. When I go back and read the responses He give me for the people, I am amazed myself; I am in awe that Allah would use an insignificant person like myself. And I thank Him so much…I thank Him so much for allowing me to be an instrument of His Will for the good of not only my people, Black people but for the good of all who would accept it.”

I would then send him responses back from his Twitter followers, and it increased his excitement. While he admittedly did not understand all of the technical jargon regarding what it take to post to Twitter which was irrelevant to me; yet, he said:

“I want to use every avenue possible by which to spread the Teachings of my Father, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.”

Within the first few months, our phone conversations began to double in order for him to answer more questions. And the more questions he answered, the more people submitted them because they could tell that The Wisdom within those tweets was The Voice of Farrakhan.

This was the genesis of the #AskFarrakhan hashtag: An online chat unlike any other!

[The above is an excerpt taken from the introduction “One the Witness Stand” by Brother Jesse Muhammad featured in Volume 1 of The Teachings 2.0: The Twitter Sayings of The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.]