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Nation of Islam

LEADER: Louis Farrakhan

USUAL AREA OF OPERATION: United States

OVERVIEW

Based in Chicago, Illinois, the Nation of Islam acts as a religious and social organization with a goal of representing the interests of black men and women, both in the United States and around the world, through an ideology that is linked to Islam. The group ascribes divinity to its founder, Wallace Fard Muhammad, who founded the movement in 1930 and is referred to by adherents of the movement as "the Master."

The stated goals of the movement are to enhance the spiritual, mental, social, and economic positions of the black race. Positions attributed to the group have been perceived as defamatory speech against Caucasians and claims that the Nation of Islam is an anti-white and anti-Semitic organization. The group openly suggests that the original race was black and that whites are a historical and social aberration.

HISTORY

Wallace Fard Muhammad founded the Nation of Islam in 1930 as a loose gathering of African Americans who were suffering the effects of the Depression in Detroit, Michigan. Fard Muhammad taught that a war between the races was imminent and that the black people had to find their sense of purpose, which had been robbed from them by the Caucasians. Espousing the belief that Christianity was a religion of the slave owners, which had been forced upon the blacks, Fard Muhammad taught that Islam was the true religion of the black race.

In 1934, Muhammad disappeared from Detroit under mysterious circumstances and was never seen again. One of Muhammad's first students was Elijah Poole, who had had his name changed by his teacher to Elijah Muhammad. Upon the disappearance of Fard Muhammad, Elijah assumed the head of the Nation of Islam movement and taught that Fard Muhammad was a divine figure who has been since accepted as a holy figure within the movement, with his birthday celebrated as "Savior's Day."

Elijah Muhammad traveled across the United States spreading the messages of the Nation of Islam and setting up mosques. His teachings would become increasingly widespread over time, with his followers continuing the outreach. The messages were spreading from inner city streets to larger conference halls and having a strong impact in prisons all over the United States.

It was in prison while he was serving a sentence for robbery that one of the movement's most well-known followers, Malcolm Little, was introduced to the Nation of Islam in 1952. Renamed Malcolm X, he would become one of the most vocal spokespeople for the Nation of Islam until the time of his assassination in 1965.

In 1955, Louis Farrakhan, who would assume the role of leader of the organization, was introduced to the teachings of Elijah Muhammad. Following the assassination of Malcolm X, Farrakhan would assume the role of spokesperson for the Nation of Islam and has become one of the strong advocates for black nationalism.

In February 1975, Elijah Muhammad died and the leadership of the Nation of Islam placed his son W.D. Wallace Muhammad in the position of Supreme Minister. W.D., much to the objection of many members of the group, advocated a more moderate approach in regard to their relationship with other ethnic groups and tried to move the Nation of Islam closer to the teachings of mainstream Islam. He renamed the group the Muslim American Society and was publicly involved in reaching out to whites and other Muslim groups and opposed many of his father's views on religion and the need for black separatism.

Farrakhan, who was one of the fiercest opponents to the new stream of thought being advocated by W.D., made the decision in 1976 to distance himself from, rather than create a complete break within, the organization. In 1978, after viewing the continued changes brought on by W.D., Farrakhan decided to recreate the original Nation of Islam movement as it was taught by Elijah Muhammad. In 1979, the movement established its newspaper, The Final Call, which continues to be produced today.

The public influence of the Nation of Islam continued to grow with one of the movement's greatest accomplishments coming in 1995 with the Million Man March to Washington D.C., which was designed to be a public display of black influence in American society and which organizers claimed was the biggest public activist gathering in American history.

In October 2005, the Nation of Islam marked the anniversary of the Million Man March with another gathering in Washington D.C., entitled the Millions More Movement, to further strengthen the role of black identity in the greater society.

PHILOSOPHY AND TACTICS

The modern-day ideological beliefs followed by adherents of the Nation of Islam have been handed down from the original teachings of Wallace Fard Muhammad and Elijah Muhammad. The basic approach of these teachings in regard to world society is that the world can be divided into three primary groups. The first group, made up by 85% of the world's population, are those ignorant masses being misled by the second group, comprising 10% of the world's population, defined as "the rich slave makers," who rely on manipulation and the ignorance of the masses to control society. The third group is the remaining 5%, the "righteous teachers," who are always at war with the 10% of manipulators in an effort to advance a proper vision for society.

The Nation of Islam approaches slavery as a period of history inflicted upon blacks that caused them to lose independence over their lives. The movement further believes that slavery was in fulfillment of a biblical prophecy that has led adherents of Nation of Islam to recognize themselves as the children of Abraham.

According to the beliefs of the movement, the world was created seventy-eight trillion years ago at which point God was created. God was manifested in man who then died, but the essence of God remains for all time with men with divinity who would live and die, but they have all been black men, with the latest godly figure being Wallace Fard Muhammad.

The teachings of the Nation of Islam are spread through an intricate network of sermons, lectures, and publications, including a highly circulated newspaper called The Final Call and has adapted to modern communication with a high reliance on the Internet. Critics of the movement say that the theologies and teachings of the Nation of Islam are rarely based in any historical fact but rather are myths developed out of excerpts from the scriptures, which are manipulated in ways to allow the religious leaders of the Nation of Islam to attract followers.

In addition to its religious activities, the Nation of Islam is actively involved in the commercial and business sectors of black society in an effort to provide blacks with their own sources of employment, which fits in with the philosophy that the movement has developed about what blacks need to fend for themselves in society. The organization owns food service companies, bakeries, and restaurants, as well as large plots of farmland in the state of Georgia. The group also works on social programs on behalf of the black communities, with drug prevention and rehabilitation programs and anti-gang efforts. The group makes a concerted effort to work with former convicts to rehabilitate them and keep them from returning to prison.

OTHER PERSPECTIVES

As popular as the Nation of Islam has become within much of mainstream African-American society, as a result of its outspoken approach to non-blacks, it is often characterized as a hate group. Its leaders have been identified for making statements specifically negating the rights of existence of other ethnicities.

Both the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which are working against hatred in society, have described the Nation of Islam as a hate group. The Nation of Islam, while maintaining strong working relationships with some leading black Christian leaders, including Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton, has been openly critical of Christianity, claiming that it was involved in enslaving and subjugating blacks. Many of the black Christian leaders have advanced a position that the advancement of brotherhood of the black race by the Nation of Islam is reason enough to put aside the differences that exist so that they could work towards that common goal.

The more controversial comments that have emerged from leaders of the Nation of Islam have come in regard to their perceptions of Jews. Jewish groups have fiercely criticized a statement by Louis Farrakhan in which he said that Adolf Hitler was a great man. The Nation of Islam has also publicly suggested that wealthy Jews were involved in financing Nazi Germany. Jews who work in black communities have been described by the Nation of Islam as "blood suckers" for profiting without investing in the welfare of black communities. In a book published by the Nation of Islam in 1991, the group said that Jews were responsible for anti-Semitism and had been racist toward blacks. The book, which was presented as a history of the relationship between Jews and blacks, was accepted as a factual representation of that history by followers of the Nation of Islam.

SUMMARY

The Nation of Islam movement, while not adhered to by many blacks in the United States, has a strong influence on many African Americans and has stood at the center of some of the black community's largest public events—most notably the Million Man March in 1995.

Even as it has continued to exert influence, the group has adhered to a position of separatism for blacks from white society. Through the leadership of Louis Farrakhan, it has been criticized as a group that promotes an agenda of hatred toward Caucasians, who are blamed by the movement for the problems faced by blacks in society. The group has played a major role in advancing their particular form of Islam within the African-American community.

SOURCES

Books

Tsoukalas, Steven Malcolm. The Nation of Islam; Understanding the Black Muslims. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Publishing, 2001.

X, Malcolm. The Autobiography of Malcolm X (As Told to Alex Haley). New York: Balantine Publishing Group, 1964.