Nation of Islam

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Nation of Islam

According to accounts of the origins of the Nation of Islam (NOI), in the 1930s in "Paradise Valley" in Detroit, a silk peddler named W. D. Fard began to explain to small groups of Americans of African descent their history.

The Nation of Islam emerged on the American scene in 1931—the Depression years, at the time of the demise of the Garvey Movement and of the inaction of the black church. It arose in an era when the number of Ku Klux Klan members was increasing, immigrants were competing for jobs, and segregation was the social order. Even though it was known for political ideology and rhetoric against white racism, the NOI laid a firm religious foundation. Elijah Muhammad, the inheritor of the nascent movement of W. D. Fard, wanted to lift the "so-called Negro" out of the deteriorating social circumstances that segregation and the absence of jobs were creating. Using both the Bible and the Qur'an as sources, he wove a cosmology that included themes such as the union of God and humanity—God in man (black); the notion that thought transcends both time and space; heaven and hell as being on Earth; and a final judgment. The original homeland was Mecca, Arabia, not Africa; and above all, God's name was Allah.

The goal of reconstruction was achieved, but the Nation of Islam was very much aware of "mainstream" Islam in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s, and of its emphasis on the Arab or Indian worlds, with the result that mainstream Islam demonstrated little interest in the problems of Americans of African descent. The central focus of the NOI was to reorient the spiritual vision of the black community away from peace in the hereafter to an understanding of God's favor and support for justice in the here and now, and to promote a united front of black men.

The "Ten-Point Program" underscored the difficulties of the black community in its emphasis on justice and equality for the "so-called Negro." Sustaining this program is a belief system that has twelve "testimonies" in which mainstream Islamic beliefs are expanded to focus on the plight of Americans of African descent. These include belief that judgment will first take place in the United States; belief that Muslims should not participate in wars; belief that black women should be protected and respected as other women are; and belief that Allah (God) appeared in the person of W. D. Fard in July 1930.

The Nation of Islam, under the guidance of Elijah Muhammad, used this belief system to encourage its followers to abandon their slave surnames, pool their resources, make neighborhoods safe, build factories, purchase and run farms, and, in effect, build an economic system. Knowledge of self (black people's history), Arabic, math, science, and English formed the core of the NOI educational system. Without self-discipline, however, the economic and education systems would have no foundation.

Self-discipline plus abstinence from alcohol and drugs, a strict dietary regimen of one meal daily, and cooperative buying led the NOI into prosperity. Modest dress and behavior and sex segregation coupled with self-reliance and a sense of mutual responsibility formed the moral pillars of the community. The community kept itself from the mass consumerism and debt of Christmas by fasting from sunrise to sunset during the month of December. The apparent success of this regimen of self-help, austerity, and commitment was seen in the NOI's rapid expansion.

By the 1960s it was clear that the only written reference to a black theology on the American scene was the one articulated by the Nation of Islam. Also by the 1960s, the FBI's campaign to destroy the NOI surpassed the intensity of its surveillance of any other single group in the United States. The Nation of Islam won the hearts and total commitment of many, including Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, and Louis Farrakhan. It also won the total commitment of J. Edgar Hoover and his FBI to its surveillance. The fiery rhetoric of Malcolm X and the apparent unwillingness of the government to cease police brutality against the nonviolent civil rights movement brought even more Americans of African descent into the NOI. The year 1963 saw the assassination of Malcolm X and internal strife, and the position of national spokesman for the NOI went to Louis X, later to be known as Louis Farrakhan.

Elijah Muhammad died on February 25, 1975, at the age of seventy-seven, leaving behind him a wealthy organization with national recognition. His son Wallace Muhammad became the elected leader of the NOI. Wallace Muhammad immediately began what was almost a complete dismantling of the philosophies and beliefs of the NOI that did not comport with mainstream Islam. Three years later the NOI had a new name, the World Community of Islam in the West. This symbol of a decisive new direction for the NOI caused the departure of its national spokesman, Louis Farrakhan, who launched what is now the largest of the splinter groups from the World Community of Islam in the West; he named it the Nation of Islam in 1979. Presenting a strong challenge to the black church, Farrakhan revived the theme of black unity by espousing the mainstream Muslim understandings of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism "as more or less expressions of the One True Faith." On June 13, 1993, a Christian pastor delivered the keynote address at Mosque Maryam for the first time. Despite his reputation in the Jewish community as an anti-Semite and his refusal to tame his rhetoric on the alleged misdeeds of that community, Farrakhan gave a musical performance for a Jewish audience in 1993. The Million Man March to Washington, in part sponsored by the NOI, was one outcome of the attempts of leaders of many black communities toward black unity.

The Nation of Islam at this time is working on several fronts. It has moved decisively into the political arena, not choosing sides but educating black voters and getting out the vote. It is also moving, cautiously, to engage mainstream Islam on its own terms. Women are now ministers, with some degree of support. The NOI is also involved in a number of interreligious dialogues and in rebuilding its economic bases.