Nation of Islam

The Nation of Islam (NOI) is a religious and socio-political organization founded in the United States by Wallace Fard Muhammad in 1930 with a declared aim of "resurrecting" the spiritual, mental, social and economic condition of the black man and woman of America and the world.

Actions and programs

The NOI has a "Do for self" philosophy, which resulted in the NOI owning and operating hundreds of businesses nationwide, employing thousands of people. The NOI has purchased and now operates food industry services, bakeries and restaurants. It owns a large amounts of farmland in Georgia, USA. It owns and operates hair care shops. Some of these business ventures have been success stories. Others have been criticised as Amway-style marketing schemes that have not benefited most of their employees.

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The NOI has worked to clean up drug addicts, reform prostitutes, and keep black youth out of gangs. It has helped some newly released ex-convicts make a new start and stay out of jail.

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In The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin wrote:

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:"Elijah Muhammad has been able to do what generations of welfare workers and committees and resolutions and reports and housing projects and playgrounds have failed to do: to heal and redeem drunkards and junkies, to convert people who have come out of prison and to keep them out, to make men chaste and women virtuous, and to invest both the male and the female with pride and a serenity that hang about them like an unfailing light. He has done all these things, which our Christian church has spectacularly failed to do." (James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time, Vintage International, 1963)

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During the 1980s crack cocaine epidemic, The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development employed several private firms run by members of the Nation of Islam to provide security in housing projects in black neighborhoods. The Anti-Defamation League was successful in lobbying congress to sever the HUD contracts.http://www.polyconomics.com/searchbase/03-03-98.html

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