NOI Captain Dennis Muhammad brings message of vigilance to the area
Captain Dennis Muhammad and local organization member Richard Chubb. – Photos by S. Hale
by Jazmine Otey
“It’s an old saying that goes like this ‘it’s not what someone calls you, it’s what you answer to,’ we have to begin to change our own reality,” states Dennis Muhammad, CEO and Founder of Peace Keepers Global Initiative, (PKI).
On Tuesday evening, July 11, an event was held at the headquarters of a PKI spinoff local organization known as PeaceMakers, headquatered on 24th St. & Melrose Ave. Shawn Hunter, an area community activist who heads the group, founded the local organization.
Muhammad, as event keynote speaker, discussed a plan of action that could be implemented through the local PeaceMakers that conceptionally is designed to preclude problems of gun violence within the African American community and therefore foster a higher level of peace in the valley.
According to Roanoke Police Chief Tim Jones concerning a march held in May, phone calls regarding shootings have risen nearly 90% since 2016. During the march, Mayor Sherman Lea called for “60 days of no violence.” But unfortunately, on June 15, 17-year-old Nick Lee was shot to death in Northwest and on July 9, another 17-year-old was shot on Orange Ave. NW. Muhammad believes PKI could very well help with the issues of violence in Roanoke.
“I want to encourage Roanoke citizens and there’s no one organization that has the solution to curve it but I would like to introduce to them the great work that the Peacemakers are doing and how important it is to understand what they’re doing and to unite and become a peace maker in their own community,” Muhammad stated.
PKI has over 29 chapters including one in London, England. The group enables a person of any background to join given that ultimately, in the end, no matter the race or religion, everyone wants peace.
Muhammad was not only the personal security for Nation of Islam (NOI) leader Minister Louis Farrakhan for over 39 years but he was also trained by the Muslim leader and stood alongside him at the historic first Million Man March in 1995.
Muhammad states, that PKI was originally created as a derivative of the Million Man March so that what was achieved during the march, hailed by some as the largest public gatherings in American history–wouldn’t be in vain.
After undergoing a PKI training in Washington D.C, Hunter has advanced the local organization greatly in little over a year, his main goal being to establish unity within the Black community not through force but through acts of peace.
“We feel that men in particular have a duty to protect our women, children, and the elderly and right now we are failing them given that we are bringing so much conflict to the community,” Hunter expressed “We need to come together and do what we need to do as men.”
Muhammad also expressed his belief of self-hatred being one of the main sources of African American violence against one another–an issue rooting back to slavery. He explains that many African Americans are victims of self-hatred either consciously or subconsciously, and that self-hatred is the number one root reason as to why we (Blacks) can’t unite as a people.
“We have been traumatized in our 400 year journey and we have never overcome the psychological effects,” Muhammad states “No one has ever done a case study of the effects that 379 years of physical slavery has had on Black people. What kind of repercussions could that have on the people and how many generations will it take to get them back to normal?”
Following the wise words of Muhammad, a man of faith and action who joined Hunter as both led event attendees, including members of city council and RCPS as well as other concerned citizens who canvased various areas of the city’s northwest quadrant with an anti-violence incentive.
“All around America and particularly the Black community there is a sense of hopelessness,” Muhammad concludes “What we strive to do today is to shoot in the veins of our people a Message of Hope.”
