History of the Nation of Islam ~ The US History

At the start of the twenty-first century, the Nation of Islam was the longest lasting black militant and separatist movement in the history of the United States.

Origin

In the summer of 1930, a mysterious peddler appeared in a poor black ghetto of Detroit, Michigan. He was selling raincoats, silks, and other items, but he spoke persuasively about a religion for black people. He referred to himself as Mr. Farrad Mohammed, or sometimes as Mr. Wali Farrad, W. D. Fard, Wallace Fard Muhammad, or Professor Ford, and he was born sometime around 1891. Fard said he was an Islamic prophet and that redemption would come to American blacks only through the religion of Islam. Fard quickly gained a following of a few hundred area residents. He was especially popular among recent black immigrants from the South who were undergoing severe economic hardship. In time, he established Temple No. 1 of the Nation of Islam. His preaching focused on self-knowledge as the path to individual salvation and black liberation. Fard explained that black people were members of the lost Arabic tribe of Shabazz and that they owed no loyalty to a white-dominated country that had enslaved and continuously persecuted them. Fard asserted that blacks were superior to whites, whom he called devils. He called for separation of the races and for an independent black republic within U.S. borders.

Establishing a movement

In Detroit, Fard wrote two manuals for the Nation of Islam movement and established its major organizations: the University of Islam, an unconventional elementary and high school that Muslim children attended instead of public schools; the Muslim Girls Training, to teach female members home economics and how to be a proper Muslim woman; and the Fruit of Islam, consisting of select male members to provide security for Muslim leaders and to enforce the rules. Fard began the practice of substituting X for Nation of Islam members? last names to eliminate their identities as slaves. After converting an estimated eight thousand Detroit blacks to the Nation of Islam, Fard disappeared in late 1933 or 1934. His followers explained the mysterious circumstances of Fard?s disappearance by maintaining that he was Allah (or God) and had returned for a short time to deliver hope to his people.

Elijah Muhammad

Fard?s most trusted officer was Robert Poole, who took the Muslim name Elijah Muhammad (1897?1975). After Fard?s disappearance, there was a struggle for the leadership of the Nation of Islam. Elijah Muhammad split from the Detroit movement and moved his family and followers to Chicago, Illinois, in 1936. There he established Temple of Islam No. 2, which eventually became the national headquarters of the movement. Throughout the 1940s, Muhammad reshaped the Nation of Islam. He firmly established the doctrine that Master Fard was Allah. He also proclaimed that he, the ?Honorable? Elijah Muhammad, knew Allah personally and was his chosen messenger. Under Muhammad?s guidance, the Nation of Islam strove for two major goals: the development of economic independence and the recovery of an acceptable identity for blacks. ?Do for Self ? became the rallying cry of the movement, which encouraged economic self-reliance for individuals and the black community. This required of each individual hard work, avoidance of debt, self-improvement, and a conservative lifestyle. During his forty-one years of leadership, Muhammad and his followers established more than one hundred temples nationwide. They built innumerable grocery stores, restaurants, bakeries, and other small black-owned businesses. The Nation of Islam also became famous for the foods it peddled in black communities to improve the nutrition and physical health of African Americans. It strictly forbade alcohol, drugs, pork, and an unhealthy diet. In the 1960s, the members of the Nation of Islam came to be called Black Muslims. Elijah Muhammad believed that white racism had caused self-hatred among the black community. He felt the only solution to the problem was the formation of a separate black nation. According to Muhammad, the white man is a ?devil by nature,? unable to respect anyone who is not white. He foretold a clash between the forces of good (blacks) and the forces of evil (whites) in the not-too-distant future from which black people would emerge victorious.

Malcolm X converts

In 1947, Malcolm Little, a petty criminal also known as ?Detroit Red,? was serving a prison sentence when his brother told him about the Nation of Islam. Little, like thousands of other African Americans at the time, found in Muhammad?s doctrine an explanation for the injustice and suffering he and his family had faced, as well as a solution to white racism. He converted to Muhammad?s movement and changed his name to Malcolm X (1925?1965). After getting out of prison, Malcolm began organizing Muslim temples throughout the country. He founded the Nation of Islam?s newspaper, Muhammad Speaks, in the basement of his home and initiated the practice of requiring every male member to sell an assigned number of newspapers on the street as a recruiting and fund-raising device. Malcolm X rose rapidly through the ranks and was eventually rewarded with the post of minister of Temple No. 7 in Harlem, New York, the largest and most respected of the temples after the Chicago headquarters. Muhammad recognized Malcolm X?s organizational talents and enormous appeal, and named him national representative of the Nation of Islam, second in rank to himself. Nation of Islam membership soared to an estimated five hundred thousand. Malcolm was a powerful critic of American society, including the African American civil rights movement. He challenged revered civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.?s (1929?1968) struggle for integration (the incorporation of black people into the mainstream society) and his nonviolent methods. Malcolm X felt that the recovery of black self-identity and independence was more important than the right to sit in a restaurant or even to vote. In contrast to King?s nonviolence, Malcolm urged his followers to defend themselves ?by any means possible.? He expressed the pent-up bitterness and rage felt by blacks throughout the country. His views became the basis of the American black power movement of the late 1960s and 1970s.

After Malcolm X

Malcolm X eventually ran into major disputes with Elijah Muhammad.He left the Nation of Islam in March 1964, and was assassinated the following year. Minister Louis X of Boston, Massachusetts, also known as Louis Farrakhan (1933?), replaced Malcolm X as the national representative and the head minister of Temple No. 7. During this period, the Nation of Islam continued to strive for economic independence, acquiring a modern printing press, cattle farms in Georgia and Alabama, and a bank in Chicago. When Muhammad died in 1975, one of his sons, Wallace Deen Muhammad (later Imam Warith Deen Muhammad; 1933?), was named supreme minister of the Nation of Islam. Wallace shocked his followers by declaring that whites should no longer be viewed as devils and that they could join the movement. He began to make radical changes in the doctrines and the structure of the Nation of Islam, moving it in the direction of the orthodox (traditional) Islam religion. The changes introduced by Wallace Deen Muhammad led to a splintering of the movement. In 1978, Farrakhan formed a new group based on the old Nation of Islam. The only major difference between his doctrines and those of Elijah Muhammad was that while Farrakhan did call for economic separation for blacks, he did not call for a separate black nation. Farrakhan was an outspoken leader and ran into considerable controversy by making hateful comments about Jews. Nevertheless, he drew a large following, particularly among poor and disillusioned urban blacks.

The Million Man March and beyond

During the 1990s, Farrakhan sought to broaden the appeal of the Nation of Islam. In 1995, he organized the Million Man March, calling for one million black men to come together in a demonstration of unity in Washington, D.C., with the goal of strengthening the black community. Part of the march?s message was that black men would take up a fight against drug use, unemployment, and violence and at the same time assume responsibility for themselves and their families. Though the march brought positive attention to the Nation of Islam, it also brought increased attention to Farrakhan?s anti-Semitic (anti-Jewish) statements and his refusal to allow black women to participate in the march, causing further controversy and division. In 2000, Farrakhan and Wallace Deen Muhammad reunited theirorganizations.Then in February 2007, an aging Farrakhan stepped down as the Nation of Islam?s long-time leader. It was not immediately clear who would take his place. During the 2000s, many orthodox Muslims had immigrated to the United States, bringing significant worship of traditional Islam to the country. Many orthodox Muslims opposed the Nation of Islam?s unorthodox doctrines, and the Nation of Islam membership dwindled.

Source: UXL

Source: http://theushistory.blogspot.com/2012/09/history-of-nation-of-islam.html

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