Hate Group: The Nation Of Islam

IN 1974, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad completed a 40 year period (1934-1974). The year 1934 , represents the time in which he was left on his own by Master Fard Muhammad. The completion of this period climaxed a historic Saviors’ Day address, when he spoke on “The Black God.”

In 1961 James Baldwin met Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam movement at the time. The time Baldwin spent within the Christian Church prior to his meeting with Elijah helped him analyze what the Nation of Islam did for people. It allowed him to notice that everyone needed a gimmick to keep them out of the ghetto, “and it does not matter what the gimmick is” (Baldwin 301). Baldwin realized that the Christian Church was his gimmick, so the Nation of Islam would never do for him what the Christian Church had already done. Plus, some of the beliefs of the Nation of Islam were a little far fetched. The Nation of Islam did not function as a very credible religion during its

The chapter then outlines how the nation of islam disputed political propaganda and the goals set by civil rights leaders, bills, and votes. They believed in renewing black pride and dignity. The nation of islam is very appealing because it assured black people a sense of identity. Carson describes the influence of the nation of islam as Dignity racial pride hope.Lewis Michaux- garvey activist

As many as 6,000,000 African Americans traveled to the North to find work during the Great Migration, but once they got there they were only met with rejection. Northern companies refused to hire black men and women, and once the Great Depression hit things only got worse. The black body in America was dejected and broken. On July 4th, 1930 Wallace Fard Muhammad announced his mission to “restore and to resurrect His lost and found people”, and in doing so gave birth to the Nation of Islam (“NOI History”). Fard’s black Islamic movement in America was created to teach the lost black people who were captured and sold as slaves “a thorough Knowledge of God and of themselves, and to put them on the road to Self-Independence” (“NOI History”). Fard declared that Christianity was merely a slave religion forced upon blacks by their masters and persuaded many African Americans to “return to the Islam of their African ancestors”(“Nation of Islam”). The NOI was a political and religious movement to help the poor blacks in big cities. The Nation of Islam called for a "Black nation" and a separation between white people and people of color (Myers 64). The NOI was not concerned with integration, but rather with separation and the restoration they believed the white men owed

“I began thinking about the fact that I stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the Negro community. One is a force of complacency, made up in part of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, are so drained of self-respect and a sense of ‘somebodiness’ that they have adjusted to segregation; and in part of a few middle class Negroes who, because of a degree of academic and economic security and because in some ways they profit by segregation, have become insensitive to the problems of the masses. The other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation, the largest and best-known being Elijah Muhammad’s Muslim movement. Nourished by the Negro’s frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination, this movement is made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incorrigible ‘devil’”.

The Nation of Islam strongly disagreed and forbade its members and especially Malcolm X from taking part in the political scene (Litwack pg 7). Malcolm knew that if the black population continued to act as a separate community while also avoiding political action, they would never achieve equality. The Nation of Islam strongly disagreed and forbade its members and especially Malcolm X from taking part in the political scene (Litwack, pg 7).  These differing viewpoints and the growing jealousy of Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm’s mentor and leader of the Nation of Islam, were the fundamental reasons not only for him leaving the Nation of Islam but for the entire tone of  “the Ballot or the Bullet” speech (Haley, pg 1).

The number of hate crimes against Muslims in the United States went up after the 9/11 attacks and it remains a huge problem today. According to Disha, “the numbers of anti-Muslim hate crimes

The Nation of Islam’s answer to the issue of unfair treatment of Blacks in America is best depicted by Wright in his essay, “[w]hite people had come to lead, as well as control, much of the movement for civil rights. Malcolm X, against this state of affairs, demanded that organizations for black men’s improvement – like those of the Jews by Jews and Irish by Irish – be black supported and black led” (Wright 105). The Nation of Islam felt

Malcolm studied the teachings of the leader of the Black Muslims, Elijah Muhammad, who advocated an independent black state. The Nation of Islam was based on a theology adapted from several models: traditional Islamic teachings principles of Black Nationalism, and economic self-help programs that addressed the needs of African Americans living in urban ghettoes. Unlike traditional Islam, which rejects all forms of racism, the Nation of Islam declared that whites were the "devil by nature," and that God was black. However, the Black Muslims predicted that in the near future a Great War would take place in which whites would be destroyed and black people would rule the world through the benevolence of Allah, their creator. To prepare for this new order, the Nation of Islam stressed personal self-restraint, opposed the use of drugs and alcohol, and organized economic self-help enterprises that eventually included farms, food stores, restaurants, and small businesses.

In the 20th century, a major driving force of the black nationalist movement was the creation of black-oriented religions that fueled enmity and hatred against whites, the foremost of which was the Nation of Islam, or the NOI. The NOI was formed in the 1930s by a Detroit peddler named W.D Fard. Fard influenced a young,

The Nation of Islam was founded by Wali Farad in Detroit, Michigan in 1930. While Farad is credited with the foundation, most of the teachings came from a different movement. It evolved from the Moorish Temple of Science founded by Timothy Drew (Source 1). Drew preached that Islam was the correct faith for African Americans. Drew also preached that African Americans were superior to Caucasians. The Nation of Islam, along with being a religious movement, was a movement for change. They wanted to raise awareness and create racial pride within the African American community (Source 1). The Nation of Islam wanted to improve the lives of African Americans, however, how they wanted to achieve that improvement was unacceptable.

In the novel The Fire Next Time Baldwin address the Nation of Islam and its effect on the civil rights movement. The Nation of Islam was a religious movement in the mid-1900s, led by Elijah Muhammad. The religion focused on Black power and taught ideas such as white people are the devil and black people are the original person. Second in command, Malcolm X, was a key figure in the movement and arguably led The Nation of Islam as a political movement. Malcolm X believed in taking control of one’s life; consequently, “Malcolm X’s message was that blacks should accept themselves as they are rather than trying to emulate white people and assimilate into European culture” (Jahn). His ideas of taking matters into one’s own hands and enough waiting around resonated with many and allowed Nation of Islam movement to grow.

Although the majority of black people in America do not consider themselves members of the NOI, the group still attempts to represent all black people. And, because of the strong messages of strength, unity, and betterment of the black race, the NOI reaches the hearts and minds of many blacks as a driving social force, even if they don¹t consider it their religion. Another major way the NOI impacts race relations is through the strong seemingly racist beliefs that are inherent to its theology. The NOI has always been open about its views. Not only have they always taught that the white man is the devil, but they believe that the battle of Armageddon will consist of a holy war between Islam and Christianity of which Islam will be the victors, representing the victory of black people over white people. (1) Jews are referred to as "great enemies" for no particular reason. The NOI has been viewed as a strongly anti-Semitic organization since the early eighties. (4) I think the NOI theology can best be understood as an example of power-conflict theory. First of all, the NOI is strongly against cultural assimilation for American blacks. They believe that black people should exist entirely apart from American (white) culture. Elijah Muhammed, an early and extremely powerful leader who is now viewed as a deified human clearly taught against assimilation. (1) Since whites were inherently created as an evil and

Right now, there are many active hate groups in the United States such as the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazi, Skinheads, Christian identity, Black Separatists, etc. These hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan, which is one of America’s oldest and more feared, use violence and move above the law to promote their different causes. Another example is a group called Christian Identity, who describes a religion that is fundamentally racist and anti-Semitic; and other are the Black Separatist groups, who are organizations whose ideologies include tenets of racially based hatred. Because of the information gathered by the Intelligence Project from hate groups’ publications, citizen’s reports, law enforcement agencies,

On September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists who were members of the Islamic terrorist organization named al-Qaeda, hijacked four commercial airplanes and committed suicide attacks against the United States. Two of the planes were ran into the towers of the World Trade Center (Twin Towers) in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside of Washington, D.C. The fourth plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. The attacks resulted in mass death and destruction, triggering the United States initiatives to fight terrorism and defend our country. Over 3,000 people were killed during the attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., among these people were more than 400 police officers and 300 firefighters, these heros lost their lives