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.

Beliefs and theology

The official beliefs as stated by the Nation of Islam have been outlined in books, documents and articles published by the organization as well as speeches by Elijah Muhammed, Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan and other ministers. Many of Elijah Muhammad's teachings may be found in "Message to the Blackman in America" and "The True History of Jesus as Taught by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad" (Chicago: Coalition for the Remembrance of Elijah, 1992). Many of Malcolm's X's teachings of NOI theology are in his "The End of White World Supremacy", while a later more critical discussion of those beliefs can be found in his "The Autobiography of Malcolm X", co-written with Alex Haley.

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Passed down via lessons written in 1930 from W. Fard Muhammad and Elijah Muhammad, the Nation of Islam continues to teach its followers that the present world society is segmented into three distinct categories. They teach that from a general perspective, 85% of the world's people of all races and faiths are the "deaf, dumb and blind" masses of the people who "are easily led in the wrong direction and hard to lead in the right direction". These 85% of the masses are said to be constantly manipulated by 10% of the people who are referred to as "the rich slave-makers" (mental and otherwise) of the masses of the people. Those 10% rich "slave-makers" manipulate the 85% masses of the people through ignorance, the skillful use of religious doctrine and the mass media.

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The third group referred to as the 5% "poor righteous teachers" of the people of world (from a general perspective) who know the truth of the manipulation of the 85% masses of the people by the 10% and that 5% "righteous teachers" are at constant struggle and war with 10% in an effort to reach and "free the minds" of the masses of the people.

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Black experience of slavery was Bible prophecy

The NOI teaches that black people constitute a nation and that through the institution of the Atlantic slave trade they were systematically denied knowledge of their past history, language, culture and religion and in effect lost control of their lives. Central to this doctrine, NOI theology asserts that black people's experience of slavery was the fulfillment of Bible prophecy and therefore, black people are the seed of Abraham referred to in the Bible, in Genesis 15:13,14:

Related Topics:
Atlantic slave trade - Abraham - Genesis

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:Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge and afterward shall they come out with great substance.

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And Acts 7:6:

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:And God spoke on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years. And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.

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Relations with Whites

The Nation of Islam teaches that black people were the original humans. Louis Farrakhan has stated that "White people are potential humans…they haven’t evolved yet." (Philadelphia Inquirer, 3/18/00).

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:The Black man is the original man. From him came all brown, yellow, red and black people. By using a special method of birth control law the Black man was able to produce the white race. This method of birth control was developed by a black scientist known as Yakub, who envisioned making and teaching a nation of people who would be diametrically opposed to the original people. A Race of people who would one day rule the original people and the earth for a period of 6000 years. Yakub promised his followers that he would graft a nation from his own people, and he would teach them how to rule his people, through a system of tricks and lies whereby they use deceit to divide and conquer, and break the unity of the darker people, put one brother against another and then act as mediators and rule both sides. (Elijah Muhammad, Message to the Blackman in America, Muhammad's Temple No. 2, 1965 & Dorothy Blake Fardan, Yakub & The Origins Of White Supremacy, Lushena Books, 2001)

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In an interview on NBC's Meet the Press, Louis Farrakhan said the following in response to host Tim Russert's question on the Nation of Islam's teachings on race:

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:"You know, it's not unreal to believe that white people—who genetically cannot produce yellow, brown or black—had a black origin. The scholars and scientists of this world agree that the origin of man and mankind started in Africa and that the first parent of the world was black. The Qur'an says that God created Adam out of black mud and fashioned him into shape. So if white people came from the original people, the black people, what is the process by which you came to life? That is not a silly question. That is a scientific question with a scientific answer. It doesn't suggest that we are superior or that you are inferior. It suggests, however, that your birth or your origin is from the black people of this earth; superiority and inferiority is determined by our righteousness and not by our color." FCN/NBC, 1997

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Pressed by Russert on whether he agreed with Elijah Muhammad's preaching that whites are blue-eyed devils, Farrakhan responded:

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:"Well, you have not been saints in the way you have acted toward the darker peoples of the world and toward even your own people. But, in truth, Mr. Russert, any human being who gives themself over to the doing of evil could be considered a devil. In the Bible, in the Book of Revelation, it talks about the fall of Babylon. It says Babylon is fallen because she has become the habitation of devils. We believe that that ancient Babylon is a symbol of a modern Babylon which is America."

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While Malcolm X was a member of the Nation of Islam he also preached that black people were genetically superior to white people. He later repudiated this belief.

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:Thoughtful white people know they are inferior to black people. Even Eastland knows it. Anyone who has studied the genetic phase of biology knows that white is considered recessive and black is considered dominant (The Playboy Interview: Malcolm X, interviewed by Alex Haley, Playboy Magazine, May 1963)

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Beliefs about God and creation

The Nation of Islam teaches that the universe was created seventy-eight trillion years ago. At this time the first God was self-created on this planet, Earth. "He was the only One in the whole entire dark Universe. He had to wait until the atom of life produced brains to think what He needed. How long was that? I don't know, Brothers. But He was a Black man, a Black man! (Our Saviour Has Arrived)

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In contrast to the beliefs of all other monotheistic faiths, Elijah Muhammed taught that the original physical manifestation of God in man died however the essence of God is infinite. Since then our entire universe has been ruled by a council of twenty four black scientists, the head scientist being known as Allah or the Supreme Being. (Elijah Muhammed, Message to the Blackman in America)

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One god would come after another, and every 25,000 years these successive gods would create a new civilization. These gods themselves were finite, and would eventually die however their infinite essence or spirit is ever-living and does not pass away. Elijah Muhammed writes "Allah . . . taught me that there are not any gods Who live forever. Their wisdom and work may live six thousand or twenty-five thousand years, but the actual individual may have died within a hundred or two hundred years, or the longest that we have a record of, around a thousand years." (Muhammad, Our Saviour p.96)

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There have been a succession of gods, each a black man, and in our current time the Supreme God incarnate is W.D. Fard. Fard disappeared in 1933, but is believed to be still alive, and will return with a final holy book.

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The Mother Plane

Elijah Muhammad taught about a belief in the "Mother Plane", a UFO. This plane is linked to the visions seen by the prophet Ezekiel in the Book of Ezekiel, in the Hebrew Bible. Louis Farrakhan commenting on this teaching said the following:

Related Topics:
Ezekiel - Book of Ezekiel - Hebrew Bible

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:"The Honorable Elijah Muhammad told us of a giant Motherplane that is made like the universe, spheres within spheres. White people call them unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Ezekiel, in the Old Testament, saw a wheel that looked like a cloud by day but a pillar of fire by night. The Hon. Elijah Muhammad said that that wheel was built on the island of Nippon, which is now called Japan, by some of the original scientists. It took 15 billion dollars in gold at that time to build it. It is made of the toughest steel. America does not yet know the composition of the steel used to make an instrument like it. It is a circular plane, and the Bible says that it never makes turns. Because of its circular nature it can stop and travel in all directions at speeds of thousands of miles per hour. He said there are 1,500 small wheels in this mother wheel which is a half mile by a half mile (800 by 800 m). This Mother Wheel is like a small human built planet. Each one of these small planes carry three bombs.

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:"The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said these planes were used to set up mountains on the earth. The Qur'an says it like this: We have raised mountains on the earth lest it convulse with you. How do you raise a mountain, and what is the purpose of a mountain? Have you ever tried to balance a tire? You use weights to keep the tire balanced. That's how the earth is balanced, with mountain ranges. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that we have a type of bomb that, when it strikes the earth a drill on it is timed to go into the earth and explode at the height that you wish the mountain to be. If you wish to take the mountain up a mile (1.6 km), you time the drill to go a mile (1.6 km) in and then explode. The bombs these planes have are timed to go one mile (1.6 km) down and bring up a mountain one mile (1.6 km) high, but it will destroy everything within a 50 square mile (130 km²) radius. The white man writes in his above top secret memos of the UFOs. He sees them around his military installations like they are spying.

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:"That Mother Wheel is a dreadful looking thing. White folks are making movies now to make these planes look like fiction, but it is based on something real. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that Mother Plane is so powerful that with sound reverberating in he atmosphere, just with a sound, she can crumble buildings."

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::Minister Louis Farrakhan, The Divine Destruction of America: Can She Avert It?, FCN, 1996

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Mythmaking and history

Like many religions, the NOI teaches its adherents its theology and beliefs through sermons, lectures, and in-house publications (such as newspapers.) Like many religions, the method in which NOI teachers develop and teach their beliefs is not in accord with modern critical historical methods.The first book analyzing the Nation of Islam was The Black Muslims in America (1961) by C. Eric Lincoln. He describes how religious services use myths and over-generalizations to indoctrinate NOI adherents.

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:Often the minister reads passages from well-known historical’ sociological or anthropological works and finds in them inconspicuous references to the Black Man’s true history in the world.... Occasionally the minister chides the audience for its skepticism: "I know you don't believe me because I happen to be a Black Man. Well, you can look it up in a book I’m going to tell you about that was written by a white man." He then reads off references which his hearers are challenged to check for themselves. A single documented statement, however, may become the basis of a wide range of generalized non-sequiturs.The fact that a North Carolina slaveholder had an Arabic-speaking Moslem slave of unusual mathematical ability may be offered as evidence that all slaves brought to America were Moslem, Arabic-speaking and learned. Similarly, historical facts may be indiscriminately mingled with myths and countermyths (The Black Muslims in America, pp. 120-121)

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Legend of the 1975 death/ disappearance of Elijah Muhammad

Members of the Nation of Islam have long held that Elijah Muhammad did not die, but instead escaped a death plot, was restored to health, and is aboard "that huge wheel-like plane that is even now flying over our heads." Among Muhammad's passengers on the so-called "Mother Wheel" is the mysterious figure named W.D. Fard, a light-skinned man who Muhammad said came from the Middle East and told him he was Allah. Farrakhan's followers believe that Muhammad is "the Last Messenger of Allah" and will soon return and lead them to redemption.{{fn|1}}

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