The Nation of Islam is a religious group that was founded in Detroit, Michigan by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad in July 1930 in the belief that Allah will bring about a universal government of peace. Its aims have remained constant: to resurrect the spiritual, mental, social and economic conditions of America’s Black men and women. Its practice has been less consistent and as such, the organization has been dogged with criticism, scandal and controversy.
The NOI teaches that W.D Fard Muhammad is both the “Messiah” of Christianity and the Mahdi of Islam. Upon creating the NOI in 1930, he chose to identify all blacks as “Asiatic”, a message that struck a chord among American Blacks who had migrated north to escape racial oppression and rural poverty.
Fighting For an Independent Black Muslim Nation
In 1934, under mysterious circumstances, W.D. Fard suddenly disappeared and was replaced as NOI leader by one of his disciples Elijah Muhammad. He led the organization from 1935 to 1975 and fought for a separate black nation on the U.S. mainland, one that would be economically, politically, and spiritually self-sufficient and separate from white society.
Under his leadership, the NOI engaged in economic ventures, built schools, and rapidly grew in popularity thanks to its strict moral discipline, religious observance, and apparent ability to redeem those who were “beyond hope.”
Elijah Muhammad took the theories surrounding the NOI’s original founder one stage further, claiming that Fard was actually Allah, the reincarnation of Jesus, the prophet the world had been waiting for, (for the last 2,000 years), and the Son of Man. Urging Muslims to resist fighting against Fascism, Elijah Muhammad openly favored the Japanese as Asiatic heroes resisting white oppression. He was arrested in 1942 for refusing to register for the military draft.
Among the more controversial beliefs that Elijah Muhammad disseminated and published in his 1965 book Message to the Blackman in America, was his theory that Allah had originally created the black race before all others. He elaborated on this by insisting that white men were created 6,000 years ago by a renegade black scientist named Yakub.
Forging Ties
By the time Elijah Muhammad died in 1975, there were 75 NOI centers across America. In 1975, his son, Warith Deen Mohammed was made Supreme Minister of the Nation of Islam but he had a slightly different take on things to his father: He rejected the notion that W.D. Fard as God on earth, accepted Whites as worshippers and forged closer ties with mainstream Muslim communities in an attempt to bring the Nation of Islam closer into Sunni Islam. Warith Deen also introduced the Five Pillars of Islam into the organization’s theology.
Malcolm X: From Prodige to Exile
Warith Deen’s protagé was none other Malcolm X. Convicted of robbery in 1946, Malcolm converted to NOI in 1947, assumed a new name, and, upon his parole in 1952, began working for Muhammad as an organizer. While a member of the Nation of Islam, until 1964, Malcolm X vociferously (and charismatically) preached that black people were genetically superior to white people but were dominated by a system of white supremacy.
Following his 1964 hajj to Mecca, Malcolm rejected his own notion that all whites were evil, and this change of heart caused friction between him Muhammad. To add insult to injury, in the same year Malcolm publicly revealed that Muhammad had impregnated several of his teenage secretaries and two of Muhammad’s secretaries eventually filed paternity suits against him. Not surprisingly, Malcolm was suspended as leader of the Harlem Mosque and was replaced by Louis Farrakhan, who has been the NOI’s leader since 1978.
Muhammad, Michael and Snoop
In the year that Malcolm was suspended, Muhammad Ali joined the NOI, but converted become a Sunni in 1975, claiming to have been inspired by Warith Deen Muhammad’s shift towards Sunni Islam.
In 2003, The Final Call, the Nation of Islam’s magazine reported that Luis Farrakhan had “seen a lot of spirituality” in Michael Jackson, a comment that was fiercely retracted by the NOI.
In 2009, it was revealed that Snoop Dogg was a member of the Nation of Islam. On March 1, 2009, he made an appearance at the Nation of Islam’s Annual Saviors Day convention, where he praised Louis Farrakhan, donated $1000 and declared he was a member of the Nation of Islam, but declined to give the date on which he joined.
Today, The Nation of Islam’s National Center and headquarters is located in Chicago, Illinois, and is also home to its flagship Mosque No. 2, Mosque Maryam.
“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.” Louis Farakkan.
