Nation of Islam

Nation of Islam Splinter group of the BLACK MUSLIM MOVEMENT, formed in 1985 by the radical African-American preacher Louis Farrakhan (1933– ) who trained as a teacher and was converted to Islam by MALCOLM X. The Nation of Islam was the original name of the Black Muslims (disbanded in 1985 by the son of their founder Elijah Muhammad) and was adopted by Farrakhan to proclaim his group's adherence to the ideals of the movement, in particular Black separatism. In common with the original organization, the Nation of Islam has gained a reputation for instilling discipline and purpose in its members and working to rid the African-American community of exploitation through crime and drug abuse. In 1995, a “million-man” march on Washington, DC, was attended by around 400,000 supporters.

Farrakhan has been accused of fomenting racial hatred. In particular, his alleged ANTISEMITISM led to him being banned from entering Britain in 1986 and from Israel in 1997.

Nation of Islam (USA) An Islamic sect also known as the Black Muslims. It was founded in Detroit, Michigan, in 1930 by the enigmatic Wallace D. Fard. Fard's disciple, Elijah Poole, succeeded him as head of the organization under the name of Elijah Muhammad, proclaiming the doctrine that Fard was in fact the form in which Allah (God) entered North America. The movement rejected Christianity (Elijah had formerly been a Baptist minister) in favour of Black pride in an African and Islamic identity. It proclaimed that White people were, by nature, evil, and that a Black God was the source of all life and power in the cosmos. It also promulgated the separation of the virtuous Black race from intrinsically evil Whites by means of territorial separation in North America or by emigration to Africa.

By the 1960s tensions were evident in the Black Muslim movement, exemplified by the struggle between Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan. Upon the death of Elijah Muhammad in 1975, Farrakhan led a schismatic group with the title Nation of Islam, which is the organization known by that name today. Following a programme of self-discipline, racial separation, and traditional Black Muslim beliefs as the key to the resolution of crisis in the Black communities of America's inner cities, Farrakhan had accumulated thousands of followers and supporters by the 1990s, though his reputation amongst non-African Americans was extensively undermined by his anti-Semitism, close financial and ideological links to Gaddafi, violent anti-White rhetoric, and views which some characterized as misogynist. In 1995 Farrakhan's Nation of Islam organized the Million Man March on Washington, which attracted the greatest number of African American marchers since 1963.