Nation Of Islam Research Paper

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

Elijah Muhammad rose from poverty to become the controversial, charismatic leader of the black separatist group The Nation of Islam. To this day, now under the direction of Minister Louis Farrakhan, the NOI has maintained a consistent record of racism and anti-Semitism under the guise of instilling African-Americans with a sense of empowerment. Charismatic ministers of "the Honorable Elijah Muhammad" campaign black pride, economic self-help, and moral uplift attracted large numbers of blacks to the Muslim movement, leading to the establishment of NOI temples throughout the country.

Malcolm X, one of the most influential leaders in the Black community, transformed American values with his unfiltered statements and his determination for Black liberty and power. However, his controversial solutions concerned many, as he expressed comments that seemed intimidating, twisted, and somewhat vengeful, even though he contained honest intentions within his heart. He held many violent undertones in which made the white-folk very uncomfortable. In addition, his words caused the violent rebellions and delegitimized Martin Luther King’s non-violent resistance as a philosophy for the fool. People had claimed he was a racial segregationist, as he believed in all whites to be “devils.” He was asked questions like did he advocate violent methods to obtain liberty for blacks, as he supported Africans Rifle Clubs, and he inspired many clubs for creating violent Clubs. As Malcolm once said, “There is no such thing as a non-violent revolution.” In contrast, Malcolm denied these allegations of promoting violence, and his point of view shows the reason how and why the blacks had reacted in that manner. Later, however, Malcolm X did follow the “Honorable Elijah Mohammed,” and had always followed and believed in him. He followed the doctrines of how whites was “inherently” evil,” and could not enter Mecca, due to their skin color. Not only had that he criticized all whites for the problem of the blacks. He also called the whites on their guilty nature, so justifying the

The Nation of Islam believed and followed certain ideas during the reign of Elijah Muhammad. They pushed toward black separation from the “white” United States. James Baldwin and both articles written by Peter Kihss noted that they wanted the United States to hand over four or five southern states as reparations from slavery. The movement’s beliefs on creation stated African Americans existed seventy-eight trillion years ago, when a black God created himself from a single atom, which formed itself from nothing. Elijah claimed, a council of twenty-four black deities ruled over the universe for the past sixty-six trillion years. Twenty-three existed as Scientists and the twenty-fourth as God or Allah over the others, who was created here on earth. These Scientists determined the history of the word in advance, and every twenty-five thousand years, each God that came after the other God made a new civilization. His

The civilization and nation of Islam grew as an excessive empire and the religion grew as fast as the empire. Also some of their methods and practices were getting people to believe in their god which helped establish their empire.

The NOI grew slowly and spread throughout various cities -- however, its membership was very small, for the most part, considered an obscure religion, and did not attract much attention. However, this began to change when a NOI minister named Malcolm X became involved; he revitalized and headed mosques in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York.

On October 7, 1897 in Sandersville, Georgia, a woman named Marie Poole gave birth to a boy who she named Elijah. Elijah’s parents were sharecroppers, and this father was a Baptist minister (Black Supremacists, 25). After an eighth grade education, in 1931, Elijah Poole moved to Detroit where, he says, he met “Allah in person”. This was a man named Fard Muhammad—“The first and only man born in Mecca who came to America for the express purpose of teaching the so-called Negro” (Mr. Muhammad Speaks, 103). Elijah studied under Fard Muhammad, after which, he acquired a new title and sense of purpose. Since then, Elijah referred to himself as “Elijah Muhammad, the messenger of Allah, to the Lost-Found Nation of

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).

But, no – the man who came into the room was small and slender, really very delicately put together, with a thin face, large, warm eyes, and a most winning smile” (Baldwin 323). Muhammad was a regular man that merely exuded confidence. He had a powerful air around him, because he meant every single word that escaped his mouth. As superior to the Islam movement, Muhammad helped integrate the movement’s demand within as many black communities as he could. He started out with implementing a grocery store in a nearby black community with nothing but Muslim employees. Then slowly came a restaurant and a bakery. Muhammad was well on his way to proving to blacks that they could accomplish their own needs without having “to demand [anything of] the white devil or resort to him” (Clegg 50). According to a New York Times article written by Peter Kihss from March 1, 1961, the movements demand was simply “Separation, not integration… land of our own” (Kihss-Negro Extremist Groups). The black nation of Islam wanted four or five states to be turned over as payment for 300 years of slave labor. This way blacks could more establish themselves as independent and wanting their own states proves that the Muslims wanted to be politically separated as well.

The Nation of Islam empowered many blacks in a time and place where the concept of power was used to oppress. Christianity being a white man’s religion in the eyes of the oppressed, Islam was used in America as a tool for confirmation of beauty. The reminder of inner beauty for the people of color caused substantial growth and powerful movement that impacted American history for generations. The same principles that hoped to empower and give freedom towards African Americans is the same principles that continue to mask the beauty of the Muslim woman. How can two oppressed groups of people, blacks and woman, find two very different outcomes when practicing the Islam faith? Recognizing the differences between the Nation of Islam and the other sects of Islam faith, there is still a center focus on self identity and living into that mold. For some, that means taking back what has been taken away from them, freedom. For others, it continues to mean denying inner desires for something greater than following social norms.

Muslims in America faced several difficulties as they tried to gain racial equality and religious freedom. When they entered America and began to form an Islam religion there was a vastly larger number of white Christians than there were Muslims, and as a result, one of the difficulties they faced was that they were outnumbered by other religions. Because of the Islam religion being outnumbered by other religions, there was much less knowledge on their religion than there was on Christianity, leading to them being a minority compared to white Christians. As a result of this, there were not as many organizations that helped to increase the number of Islam presence in America. One of the organizations that was developed to help the Islam religion in America was the creation of the Moorish Science Temple, which Noble Drew Ali founded because "African Americans were descended from the

Since its founding in 1930, the Nation of Islam has grown into one of the wealthiest and best-known organizations in black America, offering numerous programs and events designed to uplift African Americans. Nonetheless, its bizarre theology of innate black superiority over whites, a belief system vehemently and consistently rejected by mainstream Muslims, and the deeply racist,

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

This community was a mostly nonviolent protesting group that, as Malcolm X said: “under any means necessary”. The Black Muslim would recruit from jail, but you needed to clean up your act and try to benefit the black Muslim community. Malcolm X ranked up very quickly in this group because he was a very well-spoken person and would often give speeches to convince others to join this community. Unlike Malcolm X Martin Luther King Jr stayed with his father’s religion, and Martin later even became a Baptist minister. Martin would often refer to his religion, and say that this is not how god intended this world to be. He would even on his last speech refer to the promise land that god

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