He told reporters that the weekend before, when he attended his mosque, a young person told him someone had tried to "recruit" him, but Abdul-Malik said he had never heard of al Qaeda recruiting in his community. He said he told the youth, "You need to alienate yourself from those people. They're saying to you that they're your friend, and that you'll be their confidant, when in reality, they're going to sell you out." In January 2008, Abdul-Malik was trying to establish a nationwide movement of Muslim men to lobby for the new interpretation of Chapter 4, Verse 34 of the Koran. The verse has long interpreted as giving husbands the right to beat their wives as the final step in an escalating series of punishments for being rebellious (following admonishing their wives, and then abandoning them in bed). "That is the linchpin, the fulcrum that justifies domestic violence in the Muslim context," he said. The new interpretation would interpret the verse as calling for women to be obedient to God. In November 2009 Abdul-Malik responded to former Dar al-Hijrah Imam Anwar al-Awlaki's support of the Fort Hood shooter by saying:  Al-Awlaqi ... supported the crime that Hasan committed and said that the US Muslims who opposed the crime have betrayed the Muslim ummah (the community of Muslims worldwide) and are hypocrites. I answer him by saying that he has thus separated himself from the Muslim community in the United States. The holy Koran teaches us that we as US Muslims should enrich the society we live in with humanitarian services, wisdom, teaching God's beautiful verses about love, mercy, and compassion to all mankind. Abdul-Malik went on to say that of those who worshiped at the mosque,  Many of the immigrants focused on the conspiracy theory. Some said that Hasan did not commit the crime but that it was committed by other US military personnel who then killed him and said that he was the one who did it. They are like those who said that the 11 September attacks were not committed by those who committed them and that it too was a "conspiracy." I am one of those whose ancestors came here hundreds of years ago. I am a black American, and I know that "denial" is the explanation of those who cannot explain what they see or hear, especially if they belong to a minority group and are not used to the US way of life. But we black Americans have passed these stages.