Nation of Islam
The Nation of Islam (NOI) is a religious and political organization founded in the United States by Wallace Fard Muhammad in 1930. A black nationalist organization, the NOI focuses its attention on the African diaspora, especially on African Americans. While describing itself as Islamic, its religious tenets, while phrased in Islamic terminology, differ considerably from mainstream Islamic traditions. Scholars of religion characterize it as a new religious movement. It operates as a centralized and hierarchical organization.
Not to be confused with Islamic state or Islamic State.Abbreviation
The Nation teaches that there has been a succession of mortal gods, each a black man named Allah, of whom Fard Muhammad is the most recent. It claims that the first Allah created the earliest humans, the Arabic-speaking, dark-skinned Tribe of Shabazz, whose members possessed inner divinity and from whom all people of color are descended. It maintains that a scientist named Yakub then created the white race. The whites lacked inner divinity, and were intrinsically violent; they overthrew the Tribe of Shabazz and achieved global dominance. Setting itself against the white-dominated society of the United States, the NOI campaigns for the creation of an independent African-American nation-state, and calls for African Americans to be economically self-sufficient and separatist. A millenarian tradition, it maintains that Fard Muhammad will soon return aboard a spaceship, the "Mother Plane" or "Mother Ship", to wipe out the white race and establish a utopia. Members worship in buildings called mosques or temples. Practitioners are expected to live disciplined lives, adhering to strict dress codes, specific dietary requirements, and patriarchal gender roles.
Wallace Fard Muhammad established the Nation of Islam in Detroit. He drew on various sources, including Noble Drew Ali's Moorish Science Temple of America, black nationalist trends like Garveyism, and black-oriented forms of Freemasonry. After Fard Muhammad disappeared in 1934, the leadership of the NOI was assumed by Elijah Muhammad. He expanded the NOI's teachings and declared Fard Muhammad to be the latest Allah. Attracting growing attention in the late 1950s and 1960s, the NOI's influence expanded through high-profile members such as the black nationalist, activist Malcolm X and the boxer Muhammad Ali. Deeming it a threat to domestic security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation worked to undermine the group. Following Elijah Muhammad's death in 1975, his son Warith Deen Mohammed took over the organization, moving it towards Sunni Islam and renaming it the World Community of Islam in the West. Members seeking to retain Elijah Muhammad's teachings re-established the Nation of Islam under Louis Farrakhan's leadership in 1977. Farrakhan has continued to develop the NOI's beliefs, for instance by drawing connections with Dianetics, and expanding its economic and agricultural operations.
Based in the United States, the Nation of Islam has also established a presence abroad, with membership open only to people of color. In 2007, it was estimated to have 50,000 members. The Nation has proven to be particularly successful at converting prisoners. The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League have characterized it as a black supremacist hate group that promotes racism towards white people, antisemitism, and anti-LGBT rhetoric. Muslim critics accuse it of promoting teachings that are not authentically Islamic.
Organization[edit]
Leadership and financing[edit]
Family ties are an important element of the NOI's senior ranks; various members of Elijah Muhammad's family were for instance married to members of Farrakhan's family.[361]
As of 2020, the Nation consisted of ten ministries: for Spiritual Development, Agriculture, Education, Information, Health, Trade and Commerce, Defense, Justice, Arts and Culture, and Science and Technology.[102] It also established a shadow ministry, forming the prototype for the governance of the future state it hopes to lead.[362]
The Fruit of Islam (FOI) is a group of men within the NOI. FOI members are trained in military protocol, wrestling, boxing, and judo.[179] They are tasked with protecting NOI leaders, temples, and other NOI property and are expected to strictly follow NOI rules.[179] The Nation has also established Muslim Girls' Training for women, teaching them domestic skills, self defense tactics, and other life skills.[179]
The NOI says that its finances come primarily from donations and its businesses.[363] At the start of the 1960s, it was reported that members were expected to donate a set part of their earnings to the group each year; as of 1952, this reportedly constituted a third of a member's annual income.[193] In 1976, Wallace Muhammad estimated the Nation's net worth to be $46 million, although revealed it had a severe cash flow problem, owed millions in back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service, and was making a loss with its agricultural operations.[364] Although the Nation does not reveal the extent of its financial resources,[365] in the 1990s its assets were estimated to total $80,000,000.[366]
Press and media[edit]
From its early days, the Nation used print media to promote its ideas, including the magazines Muhammad Speaks (1961–75) and The Final Call.[367] Muhammad Speaks included contributions not only from Nation members, but also from leftist and progressive writers in the African American community.[368] Members were encouraged to sell these magazines on street corners or sometimes door-to-door in African-American-majority areas.[369] These sellers were given sales quotas to fulfil and were sometimes punished if they failed to meet them.[370] The Nation's first magazine aimed at women, Righteous Living, appeared in the early 1990s.[371] As well as running shows on radio stations,[372] and distributing videos,[373] the Nation has also established websites and a presence across many social media outlets.[374]
