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.

History

NOI: 1930-1975

The original Nation of Islam was founded in the U.S. in 1930 by Wallace Fard Muhammad (1877, 1891 or 1893- 1934?), whom NOI adherents believe to be God incarnate.

Related Topics:
U.S. - Wallace Fard Muhammad - 1877 - 1891 - 1893 - 1934

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One of Fard's first disciples was Elijah Poole, whose name Fard later changed to Elijah Muhammad (1897-1975). Elijah Muhammad began preaching that W.F. Muhammad was literally God in person.

Related Topics:
Elijah Muhammad - 1897 - 1975 - God

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Elijah Muhammad was born in Georgia, but later moved to Detroit, where he came into contact with Fard Muhammad through his wife Clara Muhammad and accepted his teachings. He eventually traveled the country, setting up mosques, and named them according to his sequence of arrival. In New York to this day, the mosque there is still referred to as Mosque No. 7, because it was the seventh mosque Elijah Muhammad visited. Over time, Elijah Muhammad's followers spread his teachings, from streets and meeting halls to correctional institutions.

Related Topics:
Georgia - Detroit - Mosque - New York - Street - Correctional institutions

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One of the Nation of Islam's core beliefs is that the "so-called American Negro" has been miseducated by public schools with the express intent of preserving a system of white domination. Highly critical of the facilities and quality of education available in the nation's public schools, which were segregated at the time, the NOI established an independent, parochial school in various cities, calling each one the University of Islam. This move led to confrontations with the authorities. In Detroit in 1934, a squad of police officers raided the NOI school and arrested 12 teachers for "contributing to the delinquency of minors". Because students were not enrolled in a state-accredited school, legally, they were considered truant. According to reports, Nation of Islam members demonstrated for the teachers' release, asserting their support of the NOI private school in front of Detroit Police headquarters. (Desiree Cooper, Helping turn a sect into a nation, Detroit Free Press, March 31, 2005)

Related Topics:
March 31 - 2005

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Commenting on the confrontation and the Nation of Islam's decision to set up independent schools, Elijah Muhammad said:

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:In Detroit, Michigan, where we were first attacked outright by the Police Department in April, 1934, we were also unarmed. There were no deaths on the part of the Believers, however. They fought back against the policemen who attacked them for no just cause whatsoever but that they wanted our Muslim children to go to their schools. We refused to let children take their first courses in the public schools, although the high school children in their upper teens could do so. But let us shape our children first. (Elijah Muhammed, Message to the Blackman in America, Muhammad's Temple No. 2, 1965)

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One follower who was to become one of his most well-known adherents was Malcolm Little, later to become known as Malcolm X. While serving a prison sentence for robbery, Malcolm was introduced to the Nation of Islam by his brother Philbert. Upon his release from prison in 1952, Little joined the Nation of Islam and, in the custom of the Nation, became known as Malcolm X. NOI doctrine explains that because in mathematics the 'X' represents an unknown variable, followers use it to represent their lost, unknown African surnames. The followers accept this 'X' as a symbol of the rejection of their slave names and the absence of a "proper" Muslim name. Eventually, the 'X' is replaced with an Arabic name more descriptive of a person's personality and character. Eventually, Malcolm X took the name El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.

Related Topics:
Malcolm X - Mathematics - Variable - Slave name

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1955 brought the arrival of future NOI leader Louis Eugene Walcott, later to be known as Louis Farrakhan. A calypso singer and violinist, Walcott first became acquainted with the teachings of Elijah Muhammad after attending the NOI's annual Saviours' Day convention in Chicago. Walcott accepted Elijah Muhammad's teachings that day and became "Louis X" before years later being renamed "Louis Farrakhan" by Muhammad. After the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, Farrakhan became imam of Mosque No. 7 and the official spokesman for the Nation. In the wake of a doctrinal schism in the organization after Elijah Muhammad's death ten years later, Farrakhan would become the leading voice of a "purist" faction, which sought to adhere to Muhammad's teachings and the black nationalist dogma.

Related Topics:
Louis Farrakhan - Calypso - Singer - Violinist - Saviours' Day - Imam

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One day after Elijah Muhammad's death in February, 1975, the succession of his son Wallace was approved unanimously during the annual Savior's Day celebrations February 26. Wallace Muhammad had been suspended from the NOI for "dissident views" and ideological rifts with his father over religious doctrine, but had been restored to the organization by 1974. http://www.pbs.org/thisfarbyfaith/people/warith_deen_mohammed.html

Related Topics:
1975 - Savior's Day - February 26

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Muslim American Society: 1975

When W.D. (Wallace) Muhammad was installed as Supreme Minister of the Nation of Islam in 1975, he immediately began to reformulate his father's beliefs and practices to bring NOI closer to mainstream Sunni Islam. He renamed his organization a number of times, settling on the Muslim American Society, and many of his followers assimilated into mainstream Islam. Wallace Muhammad publicly shunned his father's theology and black separatist views, accepted whites as fellow worshipers and attempted to forge closer ties with mainstream Muslim communities in the US. Wallace later changed his own name to Warith Deen Muhammad.

Related Topics:
1975 - Sunni Islam - Muslim American Society - Islam - Warith Deen Muhammad

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A new NOI: 1978

At the outset of Wallace Muhammad's leadership of the Nation, many members were disturbed at the movement's new, moderate direction; and a minority of them years later formed more doctrinaire splinter groups. The most important of these was Louis Farrakhan, who, in a 1990 interview with Emerge Magazine, expressed his disillusionment with the changes and decided to "quietly walk away" from the organization in 1976, rather than cause a schism among the membership. In 1978, after wrestling with the changes and consequent dismantling of the NOI, Farrakhan and his supporters decided to rebuild the original Nation of Islam upon the foundation established by W. Fard Muhammad and Elijah Muhammad.

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In 1979, the Nation of Islam's newspaper, Muhammad Speaks was reestablished by Farrakhan under the name, The Final Call.

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In 1981, Farrakhan publicly announced the restoration of the Nation of Islam and went forward with Elijah Muhammad's teachings.

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In 1988 the resurgent Nation of Islam repurchased its former flagship mosque and headquarters in Chicago and dedicated it as Mosque Maryam, the "National Center for the Re-training and Re-education of the Black Man and Woman of America and the World".

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In October 1994, a 2,000-member delegation from the United States traveled to Accra, Ghana, for the Nation of Islam's first International Saviours' Day convention on the African continent. Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings officially opened and closed the five-day convention.

Related Topics:
1994 - Ghana - Jerry Rawlings

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In December 1997, the Nation of Islam sponsored a world tour referred to as the World Friendship Tour III. http://worldfriendshiptour.noi.org/ A delegation of Muslim and Christian clergy from America, led by Minister Louis Farrakhan, visited the Caribbean and almost 40 countries, as well, including Canada, Mali, South Africa, South Korea, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Russia, Arabia, Libya, Cuba, Egypt and the Philippines. Using the themes of the Million Man March held two years earlier, Farrakhan declared the mission of the tour to "spread the message of atonement, reconciliation and responsibility."

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The Million Man March: 1995

In 1995 Farrakhan convened what his followers say was the largest march in U.S. history, the Million Man March.

Related Topics:
1995 - Million Man March

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Reconciliation: 2000

Marking 70 years since the Nation of Islam was founded in America, in 2000 Imam Warith Deen Muhammad and Minister Louis Farrakhan publicly embraced and declared unity and reconciliation at the annual Saviours' Day convention.

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In comments to the audience, Imam Warith Deen Muhammad said:

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"Dear Muslim brothers and sisters, it is not difficult for Minister Farrakhan and Wallace D. Mohammed to embrace each other. That’s easy for us. When I first met him in the early ’50s, I liked him on first sight, and I became his friend and his brother. And I have not stopped being his friend and his brother. Maybe he has not understood ..., but I have always been his friend and his brother. For me, this is too big a cause for our personal problems and differences. Allah-u Akbar ("God is great"). FCN, 02/25/2000

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Farrakhan and Muhammad have continued to promote unity between their communities with prayer services and joint projects. FCN, 02-26-2002

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Millions More Movement: 2005

10 years after the historic Million Man March, Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan and diverse coalition of Black leaders announced plans to launch The Millions More Movement in commemoration of the 10th Anniversary of the Million Man March. Plans called for a mass march on Washington, D.C. on October 15, 2005 to galvanize public support for the movement's goals. MillionsMoreMovement.com, 05-02-2005

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