Nation of Islam in the Light of Elijah Muhammad
In 1961 James Baldwin met Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam movement at the time. Baldwin’s experience within the Christian Church prior to his meeting with Elijah helped him analyze the Nation of Islam. This also allowed him to draw parallels between the Nation of Islam movement and the Christian Church. How James Baldwin understood the way the Christian Church worked, and a close look at the Nation of Islam, brings to light the credibility of organized religions.
In 1930 Wallace D. Fard gave birth to the Nation of Islam movement. He began in Detroit going door to door preaching to black families about his remedy for their problems. He tried replacing their beliefs with his own, for solving their problems. Fard had three main ideas that laid the foundation for his “remedy”. He wanted black separatism, everyone to know that white men are evil (which was not hard for African Americans to believe since the idea already lived within their minds), and to show the inadequacy of Christianity to African Americans. During this period Fard recruited Elijah Poole, changed Elijah’s name to Elijah Muhammad and developed him into his Chief Minister. With the mysterious disappearance of Fard in 1934, Elijah took over the movement. Elijah was born in Sandersville, Georgia in 1897 as the seventh of twelve children. He barely finished the third grade before dropping out to work in the fields to help support his family (Muhammad 1+). During his childhood Elijah witnessed a lynching right before his eyes; different accounts vary on whom he actually saw lynched. In Baldwin’s account in “Down at the Cross,” he says he saw his father lynched befo...
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According to Wallace Fard, “Christianity was the white man’s religion.” Do to this thought; Fard founded the Nation Of Islam in the 1930s. It was believed that Christianity was forced upon the African Americans during slavery. Members of the Nation of Islam worship Allah as their God, and
The Nation of Islam, which Malcolm X was an important member of, is not a religious organization as the name suggests but rather an organization whose goal was to make the lives of African Americans better instead of actually teaching the proper ethics of Islam. One of the main objectives of this organization was Black Nationalism, through which Black leaders can control the areas where there is a majority of African Americans. This cause was greatl...
Ibn Munqidh, Usama. "From Memoirs." McNeill, William and Marilyn Robinson Waldman. The Islamic World. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1973. 184-206.
Elijah Muhammad, son of a sharecropper, was born into poverty in Sandersville, Georgia, on October 7, 1897 (biography.com). After moving to Detroit in 1923, he met W. D. Fard, founder of the black separatist movement Nation of Islam (biography.com). Muhammad became Fard’s successor from 1934-75 and was known for his controversial preaching (biography.com). Muhammad faced many challenges during his life span. He declared that Fard had been an incarnation of Allah and that he himself was now Allah’s messenger (biography.com). For forty-one year’s Muhammad spread the word of the Nation of Islam, slowly but steadily attracting new members (biography.com). Muhammad built the religion from a small fringe group into a large and complex organization that attracted controversy along with its new prominence (biography.com).
Born in Georgia, the leader of the Nation of Islam was a man named Elijah Muhammad. He has often been portrayed as a saint by his peers, but during World War II, Elijah Muhammad expressed support for Japan, on the basis of its being a nonwhite country, and was jailed for sedition. On August 24, 1946 Muhammad was released from prison in Milan, Michigan. According to the journal named The Black Scholar by Claude Clegg, Muhammad’s time at Milan had done more for him than ever before and after his release, Muhammad had unquestionably become “the premier martyr of the Muslims” (Clegg 49). From his speeches on the radio and in newspapers, Muhammad was also thought of by many people as a fierce man, one of thes...
Doak, Robin. Empire of the Islamic World. Rev. ed. West 31st Street, NY: Chelsea House, 2009.
Malcolm set everything in motion when he converted to the Nation of Islam, an African American movement that combined elements of Islam with Black Nationalism. While in prison, his siblings persuaded him to write to the Nation’s leader, Elijah Muhammad. X was uneasy at first, but came around shortly. Malcolm wrote Muhammad a one-page letter each day in curiosity about the Nation of Islam. Muhammad replied as the “Messenger of Allah” welcoming Malcolm into the “true knowledge” (Haley 195). Before X’s release in nineteen fifty-two, he went under an intense self-educated program by reading books in the prison library, and even memorizing an entire dictionary. He also sharpened his forensic skills by participating in debate classes. When Malcolm was released from prison he had his first official visit with Muhammad in Chicago, he devoted his life to the Muslim ministry. Soon Malcolm began traveling and preaching with other ministers. He picked up their techniques and devoured their knowledge. Malcolm quickly rose in the Nation of Islam ranks becoming minister of Temple number eleven in Boston and Muhammad’s most effective recruiter and spokesman. Soon after, X was rewarded minister of Temple number seven in Harlem, New York, the largest and most prestigious after the Chicago Headquarters and eventually named the National Representative of the Nation of Islam, second in rank behind Muhammad himself. Under X’s lieutenancy the nation claimed a membership of five-hundred thousand, as the numbers grew X’s teachings began to change; he wanted to make a vast difference. He spread the glorious history of African Americans. He urged the Nation to become more active in the civil rights protest instead of being a critic on the side. X articulated the Nation’s racial doctrines of evil
Baldwin was given the opportunity to become an influential figure in the Nation of Islam movement, he rejected Elijah Muhammed's offer. He was totally against the belief that the movement held. Baldwin says, "love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and we know we cannot live within." (95) Whites cannot love because they fear "to be judged by those who are not white.".
Compare and Contrast Nation of Islam with real Islam. The Islamic religion is referred to as the original faith. Their holy text is the Koran and the followers of the Islamic religion are called Muslims. They worship God and the prophet Muhammad. However, in the early 1900s, a new religion, the Nation of Islam, began.
Race and religion are two concepts in American culture that can really tie people together, or clearly separate them apart. A group forged by strong common roots in both race and religion can be a powerful societal force, if it wants to be. The Nation of Islam is a small but growing religion in America that has become somewhat of a social movement because of its strong and radical ideas on race. In this paper, I will try to explore the beliefs of the Nation of Islam, and the ramifications it could and has had on racial relations in America. The Nation of Islam, or NOI, is a relatively new religion. The first temple of Islam was established in Detroit by Master Fard Muhammed in 1930. Much of the theology was based on the simple facts that: "Allah is god, the white man is the devil, and the so-called Negroes are the Asiatic black people, the cream of the earth."(1) And, in accordance with their bizarre view of creation, involving a mad scientist creating the white race from the black race, the twentieth century represents the time for black people to regain their rightful position as god¹s chosen people. (1) The Nation of Islam was spawned from Orthodox Islam, an age-old religion. However, Orthodox Islam has openly denounced the NOI as a heretic sect for three main reasons: the NOI¹s rejection of the belief in an afterlife, its tendency to view human leaders as deified figures, and its strong racist attitudes. (2) For a brief time, during the seventies, Wallace Deen Muhammed became the leader of the NOI and tried to take it in a new direction, more conforming to "true Islamic beliefs." This group is now called the American Muslim Mission and still exists in small numbers today. (1) ...
...ession altogether. "True Islam taught me that it takes all of the religious, political, economic, psychological, and racial ingredients, or characteristics, to make the Human Family and the Human Society complete." (Haley, 382) His constant growth as a person shows that he was not a mere angry revolutionary who wanted vengeance against whites, but a leader sincerely interested in achieving racial harmony. Because of “disagreement had been in terms of political direction and involvement in the extra-religious struggle for human rights” (Haley, 360) with the Nation of Islam and Elijah Muhammad, he was assassinated. Although he passed away while his struggle for the rights of black people in America was still unfinished, he showed to everyone that the inner willpower is the most important thing. Blacks in America need to overcome self-doubt to self fight for themselves.
In both given articles, “The Roots of Muslim Rage” by Bernard Lewis, and “The Roots of Muslim Rage Revisited” by Nicolaas J.E. van der Zee, argue about the enhancement of the Muslim fundamentalism with different perspectives; however, I believe that Lewis’ view may be quiet misleading to the actual perception. Lewis indicates that Muslim fundamentalism is conceived through the Muslim community’s oppression and dissatisfaction with the West’s political involvement, as well as “Islam is a source of aggression” . In defiance of Lewis’ opinion, the word ‘Islam’ comes from the word peace as well as the will of submission to God. The notion of aggression and violence that Lewis conceptualizes to be the headline of Islam does not have any supporting
In the 1930’s a relationship like this spawned in Detroit, Michigan. Wallace Fard, the leader of a new psuedo-Islamic religion, became acquainted with Robert Poole, a southern migrant with an already growing discontent of self status. Robert Poole saw a rope of faith hanging from Wallace Fard. He became his best friend and in time Fard taught Poole every detail of his Nation of Islam. Fard even declared himself Allah, or God, and disappeared, leaving Robert Poole with a new name and title that would make him the leader of the religious group. Poole’s new name became Elijah Muhammad, meaning the prophet messenger of Allah.
F. Hasan, Asma Gull (2000). American Muslims; The New Generation. New York. The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.