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The Nation of Islam, abbreviated NOI, is an African American political and religious movement, founded in Detroit, Michigan, United States, by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad on July 4, 1930. Its stated goals are to improve the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of African Americans in the United States and all of humanity. Critics have described the organization as being black supremacist and antisemitic. The Southern Poverty Law Center tracks the NOI as a hate group. Its official newspaper is The Final Call. In 2007, the core membership was estimated to be between 20,000 and 50,000.
Fard disappeared in June 1934. His successor Elijah Muhammad established places of worship (called temples or mosques), a school named Muhammad University of Islam, farms, and real estate holdings in the United States and abroad. The Nation has long been a strong advocate of African-American businesses.
There were a number of splits and splinter groups during Elijah Muhammad's leadership, most notably the departure of senior leader Malcolm X to become a Sunni Muslim. After Elijah Muhammad's death in 1975, his son, Warith Deen Mohammed, changed the name of the organization to "World Community of Islam in the West" (and twice more after that), and attempted to convert it to a mainstream Sunni Muslim ideology.
In 1977, Louis
Farrakhan rejected Warith Deen Mohammed's leadership and re-established the
Nation of Islam on the original model. He took over the Nation of Islam's
headquarters temple, Mosque Maryam (Mosque #2) in Chicago, Illinois.
Since 2010, under Farrakhan, members have been strongly encouraged to study Dianetics,
and the Nation claims it has trained 1,055 auditors.
History
The NOI was founded in Detroit in 1930,
by Wallace Fard Muhammad, also known as W. D.
Fard Muhammad. His goal, according to the Nation of Islam, was to "teach
the downtrodden and defenseless Black people a thorough Knowledge of God and of
themselves, and to put them on the road to Self-Independence with a superior
culture and higher civilization than they had previously experienced." According
to the NOI, Fard chose Elijah Muhammad to be his assistant in 1931.
According to Muhammad, Fard trained him daily for nine months, then less
frequently for about two years. In May 1933, shortly after naming Elijah
Muhammad Minister of Islam, Fard disappeared without notifying his followers or
designating a successor. In the wake of Fard's disappearance, several potential
leaders emerged. Muhammad asserted that Fard had selected him to be his
successor and trained him "day and night" for three years. He argued
that Fard was God incarnate, and that Fard had revealed this to him alone.
Muhammad established a newspaper, The
Final Call to Islam, initially referring to Fard as a prophet and later
as Almighty God. He prevailed over his rivals as leader.
 |
|---|
Wallace Fard Muhammad
| |
|---|---|
Nation of Islam portrait
| |
| Leader of the Nation of Islam | |
| In office 1930–1934 | |
| Succeeded by | Elijah Muhammad |
| Personal details | |
| Born | February 26 (reportedly), c. 1877 Unknown |
| Died | Disappeared in 1934 (aged 56–57) |
| Occupation | Religious and political activist |
| a. Birth dates attributed to Fard include 1877, 1891, and 1893; the Nation of Islam celebrates February 26, 1877. | |
In 1942, during World War II, Elijah Muhammad was convicted of violating the Selective Service Act and jailed. Many other Nation of Islam members were similarly charged, as NOI opposed serving in the United States military. Upon his release in 1946, Elijah Muhammad slowly built up the membership of his movement through recruitment in the postwar decades. His program called for the establishment of a separate nation for black Americans and the adoption of a religion based on the worship of Allah and on the belief that blacks were his chosen people.
During this time, the Nation of Islam attracted Malcolm Little. While in prison in Boston for burglary from 1946 to 1952, Little joined the Nation of Islam. He was influenced by his brother, Reginald, who had become a member in Detroit. Little quit smoking, gambling and eating pork, in keeping with the Nation's practices and dietary restrictions. He spent long hours reading books in the prison library. He sharpened his oratory skills by participating in debating classes. Following Nation tradition, Elijah Muhammad ordered him to replace his surname, "Little", with an "X", a custom among Nation of Islam followers who considered their surnames to have been imposed by white slaveholders after their African names were taken from them.
Malcolm X rose rapidly to become a minister and national spokesperson for the NOI. He is largely credited with the group's dramatic increase in membership between the early 1950s and early 1960s (from 500 to 25,000 by one estimate; from 1,200 to 50,000 or 75,000 by another). In March 1964, Malcolm X left the Nation due to disagreements with Elijah Muhammad; among other things, Malcolm X cited his interest in working with other civil rights leaders, saying that Muhammad had prevented him from doing so in the past. Later, Malcolm X also said Muhammad had engaged in extramarital affairs with young Nation secretaries—a serious violation of Nation teachings. On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was shot and killed while giving a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights, New York. In March 1966, three NOI members were convicted of assassinating Malcolm X.
In 1955, Louis Wolcott joined the Nation of Islam. Following custom, he also replaced his surname with an "X". He was given his new name, "Farrakhan", by Elijah Muhammad. In 1965, following the assassination of Malcolm X, Farrakhan emerged as the protege of Malcolm. Like his predecessor, Farrakhan was a dynamic, charismatic leader and a powerful speaker with the ability to appeal to the African American masses.
At the time of Elijah Muhammad's death in 1975, there were 75 NOI centers across America.] The Nation's leadership chose Wallace Muhammad, also known as Warith Deen Mohammad, the fifth of Elijah's sons—not Farrakhan—as the new Supreme Minister. At the time, Nation of Islam was founded upon the principles of self-reliance and black supremacy, a belief that mainstream Muslims consider heretical. He shunned his father's theology and black pride views, forging closer ties with mainstream Muslim communities in an attempt to transition the Nation of Islam into orthodoxy more similar to Sunni Islam. Under W. D. Mohammed's leadership, the Nation of Islam decentralized into many bodies of followers led by many different leaders. This made it hard to track the exact number of NOI members, but it is estimated to have been in the tens of thousands.
In 1977, Farrakhan resigned from
Wallace Muhammad's reformed organization. He worked to rebuild the Nation of
Islam upon the original foundation established by Wallace Fard Muhammad and
Elijah Muhammad. Farrakhan traveled across America speaking in cities to gain
new followers. Over time, Farrakhan regained many of the Nation of Islam's
original properties. There are now mosques and study groups in over 120
American cities attributed to Farrakhan's work as a leader.
In 1995, the Nation of Islam
sponsored the Million Man March in Washington, D.C. to promote African
American unity and family values. Estimates of the number of marchers were
between 400,000 and 840,000. Under Farrakhan's leadership, the Nation of Islam
tried to redefine the standard "black male stereotype" of drug and
gang violence. Meanwhile, the Nation continued to promote social reform in African
American communities according to its traditional goals of self-reliance and
economic independence.
Under Farrakhan's leadership, the
Nation was one of the fastest-growing political movements in the country.
Foreign branches of the Nation were formed in Ghana, London, Paris, and the Caribbean islands. In order to strengthen
the international influence of the Nation, Farrakhan attempted to establish
relations with Muslim countries. He was diagnosed with prostate
cancer in 1991 and had a near-death experience in 2000 due to complications.
After that, Farrakhan toned down the politics of the NOI and attempted to
strengthen its relations with other minority communities, including Native Americans, Hispanics, and
On May 8, 2010, Farrakhan publicly
announced his embrace of Dianetics and has actively encouraged Nation of Islam
members to undergo auditing from the Church of Scientology.
Since the announcement in 2010, the
Nation of Islam has hosted its own Dianetics courses and its own graduation
ceremonies. At the third such ceremony, which was held on Saviors’ Day 2013, it
was announced that nearly 8500 members of the organization had undergone
Dianetics auditing. The organization announced it had graduated 1,055 auditors
and had delivered 82,424 hours of auditing. The graduation ceremony was
certified by the Church of Scientology, and the Nation of Islam members
received certification. The ceremony was attended by Shane Woodruff,
vice-president of the Church of Scientology's Celebrity Centre International. He
stated that, "[t]he unfolding story of the Nation of Islam and Dianetics
is bold, [i]t is determined and it is absolutely committed to restoring freedom
and wiping hell from the face of this planet."
Beliefs
and theology
The main belief of the NOI and its
followers is that there is no other God but Allah. They teach that their
founder, Master Fard Muhammad is the Mahdi. The official
beliefs of the NOI have been outlined in books, documents, and articles
published by the organization, and in speeches by Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X,
Farrakhan, and other ministers. Many of Elijah Muhammad's teachings may be
found in Message to the Blackman in America.
Written lessons from 1930 to 1934
were passed from W. Fard Muhammad to his student, Elijah Muhammad. These were
collected and entitled The Supreme Wisdom. The NOI continues to teach
its followers that the present world society is segmented into three distinct
categories. They teach that from a general perspective, 85% of the population
are the "deaf, dumb and blind" masses of the people who "are
easily led in the wrong direction and hard to lead in the right
direction". Those 85% of the masses are said to be manipulated by 10% of
the people. Those 10% rich "slave-makers" are said to manipulate the
85% masses of the people through ignorance, the skillful use of religious
doctrine, and the mass media. The third group is referred to as the 5%
"poor righteous teachers" of the people of the world, who know the
truth of the manipulation of the 85% masses of the people by the 10%. The 5%
"righteous teachers" are at constant struggle and war with the 10% to
reach and "free the minds" of the masses of the people.
Official
platform
Members of the Nation of Islam, San
Francisco, California, 1994
An official Nation of Islam platform
referred to as "The Muslim Program" was written by Elijah Muhammad in
his book Message to the Blackman in America (1965). The itemized
platform contains two sections; "What The Muslims Want", consisting
of 10 points; and "What The Muslims Believe", consisting of 12
points.
Cosmology
Elijah Muhammad once said that the Moon was once a part of the Earth, and that the Earth
is over 76 trillion years old.[44]
The entire land mass on the Earth was called "Asia". This was, Elijah
Muhammad claimed, long before Adam.
Elijah Muhammad declared that Black People in America are descendants of the
Asian black nation and of the tribe of Shabazz. He writes on page 31 of his
book, "Message to the Blackman in America", "...who is this
tribe of Shabazz? Originally, they were the tribe who came with the earth (or
this part) 66 trillion years ago when a great explosion on our planet divided
it into two parts. One we call earth and the other moon. This was done by one
of our scientists, God, who wanted the people to speak one language, one
dialect for all, but was unable to bring this about."
Separatism
In an April 13, 1997, interview on NBC's Meet
the Press, Tim Russert asked Farrakhan to explain the Nation of
Islam's view on separation:
Tim Russert: "Once a week, on
the back page [of your newspaper] is The Muslim Program, 'What the
Muslims Want' [written in 1965]. The first is in terms of territory, 'Since we cannot
get along with them in peace and equality, we believe our contributions to this
land and the suffering forced upon us by white America justifies our demand for
complete separation in a state or territory of our own.' Is that your view in
1997, a separate state for Black Americans?"
Minister Louis Farrakhan:
"First, the program starts with number one. That is number four. The first
part of that program is that we want freedom, a full and complete freedom. The
second is, we want justice. We want equal justice under the law, and we want
justice applied equally to all, regardless of race or class or color. And the
third is that we want equality. We want equal membership in society with the
best in civilized society. If we can get that within the political, economic,
social system of America, there's no need for point number four. But if we
cannot get along in peace after giving America 400 years of our service and
sweat and labor, then, of course, separation would be the solution to our race
problem."
Teachings
on race
Wallace Fard Muhammad taught
that the original peoples of the world were black and that white
people were a race of "devils" created by a scientist named Yakub (the Biblical and Qur'anic Jacob) on the Greek
island of Patmos.
According to the supreme wisdom lessons, Fard taught that whites were devils
because of a culture of lies and murder that Yakub instituted on the island to
ensure the creation of his new people. Fard taught that Yakub established a
secret eugenics
policy among the ruling class on the island. They were to kill all dark babies
at birth and lie to the parents about the child's fate. Further, they were to
ensure that lighter-skinned children thrived in society. This policy encouraged
a general preference for light skin. It was necessary to allow the process of
grafting or making of a lighter-skinned race of people who would be different.
The idea was that if the light-skinned people could mate freely with the
dark-skinned people, the population would remain dark-skinned due to the
genetic dominance of the original dark-skinned people. This process took
approximately 600 years to produce a blond-haired, blue-eyed group of people.
As they migrated into the mainland, they were greeted and welcomed by the
indigenous people wherever they went. But according to the supreme wisdom
lessons, they started making trouble among the righteous people, telling lies
and causing confusion and mischief. This is when the ruling class of the Middle
East decided to round up all the troublemakers they could find and march them
out, over the hot desert sands, into the caves and hillsides of Europe. Elijah
claimed that this history is well-known and preserved and is ritualized or
re-enacted within many fraternal organizations and secret societies. Fard
taught that much of the savage ways of white people came from living in the
caves and hillsides of Europe for over 2,000 years without divine revelation or
knowledge of civilization. The writings of Elijah Muhammad advise a student
must learn that the white man is "Yacub's grafted Devil" and
"the Skunk of the planet Earth". The Nation of Islam teaches that black people are the original people, and that all other people come from them. Farrakhan has stated, regarding spiritual ascension, "If you look at the human family—now, I'm talking about black, brown, red, yellow and white—we all seem to be frozen on a subhuman level of existence. In Islam and, I believe, in Christian theology and Jewish theology as well, there are three stages of human development. The first stage is called the animalistic stage of development. But when we submit to animal passions, then we can do evil things to one another in that animalistic stage of development. But when moral consciousness comes and we have a self-accusing spirit, it is then that we become human beings. Right now, we have the potential for humanity, but we have not reached that potential, because we are functioning on the animalistic plane of existence."
The Blackman is the original man.
From him came all brown, yellow, red, and white people. By using a special
method of birth control law, the Blackman was able to produce the white race.
This method of birth control was developed by a Black scientist known as Yakub, who envisioned making and teaching a
nation of people who would be diametrically opposed to the Original People. A
Race of people who would one day rule the original people and the earth for a
period of 6,000 years. Yakub promised his followers that he would graft a
nation from his own people, and he would teach them how to rule his people,
through a system of tricks and lies whereby they use deceit to divide and
conquer, and break the unity of the darker people, put one brother against
another, and then act as mediators and rule both sides.
— Elijah Muhammad.
In an interview on NBC's Meet the
Press, Farrakhan said the following in response to host Tim Russert's
question on the Nation of Islam's teachings on race:
You know, it's not unreal to believe
that white people—who genetically cannot produce yellow, brown or black—had a
Black origin. The scholars and scientists of this world agree that the origin
of man and humankind started in Africa and that the first parent of the world
was black. The Qur'an says that God created Adam out of black mud and fashioned
him into shape. So if white people came from the original people, the Black
people, what is the process by which you came to life? That is not a silly
question. That is a scientific question with a scientific answer. It doesn't
suggest that we are superior or that you are inferior. It suggests, however,
that your birth or your origin is from the black people of this earth:
superiority and inferiority is determined by our righteousness and not by our
color.
Pressed by Russert on whether he
agreed with Elijah Muhammad's preaching that whites are "blue-eyed
devils", Farrakhan responded:
Well, you have not been saints in
the way you have acted toward the darker peoples of the world and toward even
your own people. But, in truth, Mr. Russert, any human being who gives themselves
over to the doing of evil could be considered a devil. In the Bible, in the
"Book of Revelation", it talks about the fall of Babylon. It says
Babylon is fallen because she has become the habitation of devils. We believe
that that ancient Babylon is a symbol of a modern Babylon, which is America.
During the time when Malcolm X was
a member and leader of the Nation of Islam, he preached that black people were
genetically dominant to white people but were dominated by a system of white
supremacy:
Thoughtful white people know they
are inferior to Black people. Even [Senator James] Eastland
knows it. Anyone who has studied the genetic phase of biology knows that white
is considered recessive and black is considered dominant. The entire American
economy is based on white supremacy. Even the religious philosophies white
supremacy. A white Jesus. A white Virgin. White angels. White everything. But a
black Devil, of course. The "Uncle Sam" political foundation is based
on white supremacy, relegating nonwhites to second-class citizenship. It goes
without saying that the social philosophy is strictly white supremacist. And
the educational system perpetuates white supremacy.
After Malcolm X made his pilgrimage to Mecca,
he stated that seeing Muslims of "all colors, from blue-eyed blonds to
black-skinned Africans", interacting as equals led him to see Islam as a
means by which racial problems could be overcome. He credits his evolving views
on Islam and race as a reason for leaving the Nation of Islam and his decision
to convert to
The Nation of Islam teaches that
intermarriage or race mixing should be prohibited. This is point 10 of the
official platforms, "What the Muslims Want", published 1965.
Farrakhan nevertheless stated in the Tim Russert interview:
The mother of the Leader who came to
North America to teach us, Fard Muhammad, His mother was a white woman. His
father was a black man. So, where there is love, love transcends our racial
denomination or ethnicity. Love is the great power of transformation. I don't
think that we can say when two people are in love that they shouldn't marry one
another. But I would prefer that the black man and the black woman marry into
their own kind.
The
Mother Plane and Ezekiel's Wheel
Main article: Ezekiel's
Wheel
Elijah Muhammad taught his followers
about a Mother Plane or Wheel, a UFO that was seen and described in the visions of the prophet Ezekiel in the
"Book of Ezekiel", in the Hebrew Bible.
Now as I looked at the living
creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each
of the four of them. As for the appearance of the wheels and their
construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of beryl. And the four had
the same likeness, their appearance and construction being as it were a wheel
within a wheel. When they went, they went in any of their four directions
without turning as they went. And their rims were tall and awesome, and the
rims of all four were full of eyes all around.
— Ezekiel 1:15–18 (ESV)
Farrakhan, commenting on his
teacher's description said the following:
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad told
us of a giant Mother Plane that is made like the universe, spheres within
spheres. White people call them unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Ezekiel, in
the Old Testament, saw a wheel that looked like a cloud by day but a pillar of
fire by night. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that that wheel was built on
the island of Nippon, which is now called Japan, by some of the Original
scientists. It took $15 billion in gold at that time to build it. It is made of
the toughest steel. America does not yet know the composition of the steel used
to make an instrument like it. It is a circular plane, and the Bible says that
it never makes turns. Because of its circular nature it can stop and travel in
all directions at speeds of thousands of miles per hour. He said there are
1,500 small wheels in this Mother Wheel, which is a half mile by a half mile
[800 m by 800 m]. This Mother Wheel is like a small human-built planet. Each
one of these small planes carry three bombs.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said
these planes were used to set up mountains on the earth. The Qur'an says it
like this: We have raised mountains on the earth lest it convulse with you. How
do you raise a mountain, and what is the purpose of a mountain? Have you ever
tried to balance a tire? You use weights to keep the tire balanced. That's how
the earth is balanced, with mountain ranges. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said
that we have a type of bomb that, when it strikes the earth a drill on it is
timed to go into the earth and explode at the height that you wish the mountain
to be. If you wish to take the mountain up a mile [1.6 km], you time the drill
to go a mile in and then explode. The bombs these planes have are timed to go
one mile down and bring up a mountain one mile high, but it will destroy
everything within a 50-square-mile [130 km²] radius. The white man writes in
his above top-secret memos of the UFOs. He sees them around his military
installations like they are spying.
That Mother Wheel is a
dreadful-looking thing. White folks are making movies now to make these planes
look like fiction, but it is based on something real. The Honorable Elijah
Muhammad said that Mother Plane is so powerful that with sound reverberating in
the atmosphere, just with a sound, she can crumble buildings.
— Louis Farrakhan, The Divine Destruction of America: Can
She Avert It?
Criticism
The first book analyzing the Nation
of Islam was The Black Muslims in America (1961) by C. Eric Lincoln.
Lincoln describes the use of doctrines during religious services:
Often the minister reads passages
from well-known historical, sociological, or anthropological works, and finds
in them inconspicuous references to the black man's true history in the
world ... Occasionally the minister chides the audience for its
skepticism: "I know you don't believe me because I happen to be a black
man. Well, you can look it up in a book I'm going to tell you about that was
written by a white man." He then reads off references that his hearers are
challenged to check.
Relation
with Church of Scientology
In recent years, the embrace of Dianetics
under Farrakhan has drawn much criticism that the Nation of Islam is becoming
too close to the Church of Scientology and the ideas of its
founder L. Ron Hubbard, whom Farrakhan has said he respects.
Farrakhan has praised Hubbard, saying he was "exceedingly valuable to
every Caucasian person on this Earth". Of followers of Scientology, he
stated "You can still be a Christian; you just won't be a devil Christian.
You'll still be a Jew, but you won't be a satanic Jew!" NOI Sister
Charlene Muhammad, a correspondent for NOI's newspaper The
Final Call, received the "Dianetics Auditor of the Year"
Award 2018. In her acceptance speech she thanked, in order, Minister Louis
Farrakhan, David Miscavige (leader of the Church of
Scientology), and “most of all, L. Ron Hubbard.”
Seditious
influence
In the 1930s Japanese national Satokata Takahashi allegedly promised financial
aid and military assistance to African Americans in Detroit if they
"joined a war against the white race". In 1938 the FBI charged that
Nakane had an influential presence within the NOI, speaking as a guest at temples
in Chicago and Detroit. A poster was removed from a raid of Muhammad's Chicago
home that was a copy of a poster removed from Detroit headquarters of
Takahashi. The poster was entitled "Calling the Four Winds". There
were images of four guns, each titled "Asia" and they had barrels
pointing to the center of the poster, which had an image of the United States.
"Calling the Four Winds" is the title of a speech written by
Takahashi's wife. Muhammad engaged in the use of various names to elude federal
authorities because they were monitoring Black Muslims for sedition and failure
to register for the draft. He used names such as Elijah Karriem, Elijah Evans,
Gulam Bogans, Mr. Muck Muck, and Muhammad Rasoul. Muhammad went to prison from
1942–1946 for influencing his followers not to register.
Antisemitism
Main article: Nation of Islam and antisemitism
According to the Anti-Defamation League, the Nation of Islam
"has maintained a consistent record of anti-Semitism and racism since its
founding in the 1930s."
The Nation of Islam has repeatedly
denied charges of anti-Semitism. Farrakhan has stated, "The ADL ...
uses the term 'anti-Semitism' to stifle all criticism of Zionism and the
Zionist policies of the State of Israel and also to stifle all legitimate
criticism of the errant behavior of some Jewish people toward the non-Jewish
population of the earth." However, NOI officials and outlets including
Farrakhan have also been accused of repeatedly using anti-semitic and homophobic
rhetoric, including saying, "It's the wicked Jews, the false Jews, that
are promoting lesbianism, homosexuality. It's the wicked Jews, false Jews, that
make it a crime for you to preach the word of God, then they call you
homophobic!"
Regarding condemnation for having referred
to Adolf
Hitler as being a "great man", Farrakhan has said, "I have
throughout my life referred to Hitler as a wicked man, yet, the national news
media insists that I called him a 'great man', with the implied inference that
'great' means 'good'. However, I did refer to him as 'wickedly great', in the
same sense that Genghis Khan stands out in history."
David W. Leinweber of Emory
University asserts that the Nation of Islam engages in revisionist and
antisemitic interpretations of the Holocaust
and that they exaggerate the role of Jews in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Leinweber and others use
the original statements of Farrakhan and others as the basis for their
evaluation.
NOI Health Minister Abdul Alim
Muhammad has accused Jewish doctors of injecting Blacks with the AIDS virus.
Anti-Asian
sentiment
Jeffery Muhammad, the Nation of
Islam's longtime leader in Dallas, Texas, stated:
They [Asian-American merchants in
black neighborhoods] are just the latest in a long line of people who have come
to this country—like Jews, Italians, Indians and now Asians—who have sucked the
blood of and exploited the black community.
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