Jermaine says Islam would have saved MJ25/06/2010 08:40:00
June 25, 2010 - On the anniversary of Michael Jackson’s untimely death aged 50, the King of Pop’s older brother and fellow member of The Jackson Five, Jermaine Jackson, speaks to BBC World Service. Highlights include Jermaine’s thoughts on how Islam might have saved his brother, how Michael was misunderstood by the media and on keeping the legacy of the Jackson family alive.
On Islam having the power to save Michael JacksonJermaine Jackson: I always felt that I was his protector.
Ed Butler: Why do you say that?
JJ: I felt that
if Michael would have embraced Islam he would still be here today and I say that for many reasons. Why? Because when you are 100 per cent clear in your mind as to who you are and what you are and why you are and everybody around you, then things change in a way that’s better for you. It’s just having that strength.
God is so powerful. He was studying. He was reading a lot of books, because I brought him books from Saudi Arabia. I brought him books from Bahrain. I was the one who originally put him in Bahrain because I wanted him to get out of America because it was having a cherry-picking time on my brother.
EB: But he wasn’t willing to convert was he?
JJ:
Not that he wasn’t willing to convert. All of his security became Muslims because he trusted Islam, because these are people who would lay their lives down and also who were trying to be the best kind of human beings they could possibly be not for Michael Jackson, for Allah. So having those people around, you knew that you would be protected because it is protection from God.
Michael was most concerned about children around the world going to bed without food. He would talk about it. And he was concerned about our planet, what we are doing to this planet because of greed. And that was his whole thing to bring an awareness. He was doing these things before the Al Gores, and global warming-ists, he was on it. And he sung about it. He did videos about it. Spent millions and millions and millions of dollars on videos just to show the world for three minutes, look at what we are doing.
There is your answer. Michael did not convert to Islam but he did study it extensivelyOn Michael’s child molestation charges and the posthumous adoration he should have received in lifeEB: Did you ever believe the child molestation charges brought against him?
JJ: Do you believe them?
EB: Well they were certainly discounted in court.
JJ: He was cleared on all counts.
The child Jordan Chandler came and said he had never touched him. His father committed suicide. And that’s what I mean about the media to attack my brother and to shame him around the world because of something that they know he did not do. And still a lot of people don’t want to believe it. The love that they are giving my brother now he is dead, is the love they should have shown him when he was alive.
The FBI investigated my brother for 17 years and found nothing. And then they just vindicated him after his death. So that’s the BS that America does. It’s bullshit. And I will say they clearly should have given him that when he was alive. That would have made him feel better within his heart.
Jordan Chandler recanted?
I don't think the FBI is really involved.On life after Michael and being the Jackson family ‘rock’EB: What’s it been like since Michael’s passing?
JJ: It’s been tough. There aren’t no words to describe the feeling. It’s a feeling that one would only know once they experience it. We are just learning to live with it. We’ll never get over it and it’s very tough.
EB: Do you miss him?
JJ: I miss him very, very much because
we’ve been so connected throughout our lives, since the very beginning. We share a history that’s just unbelievable, from childhood all the way up to adult age. And what comes to mind is the memories of the tours and music and even before that, us just around the house, going to elementary school and things like that, it’s amazing.
Healing comes from performing the songs, accepting awards on his behalf, doing tributes and things like that because it’s just something that you can’t explain. You have to just remember all the good memories and all the things that he did
and that he’s still doing and inspiring through his music and
through his whole belief in trying to make this world a one-ness. That was his message in his music and his belief. That was his wake up.
Present tense.
One-ness, we are all connected. Another Part of MeEB: You were there talking to the media on the day he died in Los Angeles. You were described as a “rock” to the family. Is that a role you recognise?
JJ: I don’t really look at it like that. I just step forward and take charge. I don’t like hearing things that are not true about my family, it disturbs me quite a bit and I just have to say something and I have to let the world know that’s not who we are, this is who we are. And when the media takes a left-turn then I have to get them back on track.
On visiting Michael’s body in the morgue and how the media only understood him after deathEB: Shortly after he died you spoke movingly about going to visit his body in the morgue. And you said at the time “I thought all about what they put him through”. Who are they?
JJ: The media,
the conspiracy, there are always people out to get you in your life when you are successful. My description of Hollywood is a beautiful woman with a sore on the side of her face and if you kiss her you will get infected. That’s Hollywood. And they smile in your face and they mean something else. Everybody that pats you on your back is not your friend. And they understood Michael after he was gone, they didn’t understand him while he was here.
On protecting Michael’s legacy and that of the Jackson familyEB: Do you see your role now as protecting Michael’s legacy?
JJ: Not just my responsibility, the whole entire family’s. Jackie’s, Rebbie’s, Tito’s, Marlon’s, Randy’s, Janet’s, La Toya’s, myself. It’s all of our role, to keep not just his legacy alive but the whole entire Jackson family. Because we are a family first, before all of this music and success. We’re family. We were a family before that, even if that goes away we will continue to be a family.
Jermaine on his unborn daughters and naming his son ‘Jermajesty’EB: You have seven kids yourself now, having lots of kids seems to run in the Jackson tradition.
JJ:
Well there's seven, and I'm having two more girls. The reason being is because I have six boys and one girl now, so when I have two more girls I'll be just like my father - three girls and six boys.
EB: Have you planned names for them yet?
JJ:
Mecca and Medina.Having TWINS?EB: No J's this time? You have six Js. Jermaine Junior, you've got a Jermajesty.
JJ: Yes. He's the nine year old. ...But there is Jermaine Junior, Jeremy, Jourdynn, Jaimy, Jaafar and Jermajesty, and my daughter Autumn, who is the one girl.
EB: How did you come up with a name like Jermajesty? It’s extraordinary.
JJ: Jermajesty’s name came from not knowing what I’m going to name him and it’s part of my name which is J-E-R-M-A and instead of going I-N-E, I just said Jermajesty. And when I named him I didn’t think it was going to do anything but the media jumped on it. But the name was made up. I didn’t want him to have a nickname like Jerm or something so I said call him his name, Jermajesty, that’s his name, Jermajesty
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LoginMecca is a city in Saudi Arabia, and
the holiest meeting site in Islam, closely followed by Medina. Every year, millions of Muslims perform the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca walking
seven times around the Kaaba and more than 13 million people visit Mecca annually.
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LoginMedina is a city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, and serves as the capital of the Al Madinah Province.
It is the second holiest city in Islam, and the burial place of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad and it is historically significant for being his home after the Hijrah.
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LoginThe Kaaba is a cube-shaped building in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and is the most sacred site in Islam.[2] The building predates Islam, and, according to Islamic tradition, the first building at the site was built by Abraham. The building has a mosque built around it, the Masjid al-Haram. All Muslims around the world face the Kaaba during prayers, no matter where they are.
One of the Five Pillars of Islam requires every Muslim to perform the Hajj pilgrimage at least once in his or her lifetime if they are able to do so. Multiple parts of the Hajj require pilgrims to walk seven times around the Kaaba in a counter-clockwise direction (as viewed from above). This circumambulation, the Tawaf, is also performed by pilgrims during the Umrah (lesser pilgrimage). However, the most dramatic times are during the Hajj, when about three million (officially) pilgrims simultaneously gather to circle the building on the same day
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