NATION OF ISLAM

The Nation of Islam in concept was founded in the teachings of Master Fard Muhammad in 1930 with the lectures of this urban trader to the "so-called Negro" community in Detroit, Michigan. At the center of these lectures was the teaching that a large number of Africans enslaved in the Americas were Muslims and that Islam was the "true religion" of these people. With knowledge of their Islamic heritage, clean living, and a demand for freedom, justice, and equality, these Muslims would regain their humanity that had been lost in slavery. In practice, the Nation of Islam was cemented as a religious community under the leadership and guidance of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad by 1934.

Members of the Nation of Islam believe in "the One God whose proper name is Allah, in the Holy Qur?an and in the Scriptures of all the Prophets of God," according to Elijah Muhammad (Message of the Blackman, 1965). Initially there was a belief in a mental resurrection of the dead to which has been added the Islamic belief in the Day of Judgment. Concurrent with these beliefs the leadership aims at the reformation of the character of the African-American community. As with all Muslims, members refrain from drinking alcohol, gambling, and eating pork. Additionally, they avoid narcotics, cigarettes, slang, and profanity and use language that encourages courtesy and good manners.

Malcolm X was a member of the Nation of Islam from 1952 until his ouster in 1964. Malcolm X was known as a charismatic national spokesman for the Nation of Islam. His unauthorized comments on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy precipitated his ouster. Pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, inspired him to permanently leave the Nation of Islam to become an orthodox Sunni Muslim. Warith Deen Muhammad inherited the leadership of the Nation of Islam upon the death of his father, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, in 1975. He moved the majority of the community from a black nationalist philosophy into orthodox Sunni Islam. Since that time he has become a well-respected leader in American Islam. In the 1990s Louis Farrakhan led the Nation of Islam toward stricter observance of Islamic rituals and practice. In the twenty-first century this development complements a continuing focus on the plight of African Americans.

See alsoFarrakhan, Louis ; Malcolm X ; Muhammad, Elijah ; Muhammad, Warith Deen ; United States, Islam in the .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Muhammad, Elijah. The Message to the Blackman. Chicago: Muhammad's Temple No. 2, 1965.

Muhammad, Elijah. How to Eat to Live. Chicago: Muhammad's Temple No. 2, 1972.

Essien-Udom, E. U. Black Nationalism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962.

Aminah Beverly McCloud