Racial and Ethnic Politics

Nation of Islam

Founded:  by Elijah Muhammad in Detroit in 1931

after he meets Master W.D. Fard

Fard, described by Alex Haley in Autobiography of Malcolm X

as “half black and half white.  He was made in this way to enable him to be accepted by the black people in America, and to lead them, while at the same time he was enabled to move undiscovered among the white people, so that he could understand and judge the enemy of the blacks” (167).

Teachings of Elijah Muhammad (as told in Haley, 164)

Black people the original inhabitants of the earth

They founded the holy city of Mecca

among this race were 24 wise scientists

One of the scientists, at odds with the rest, created an “especially strong tribe of Shabazz, from which America’s Negroes, so-called, descended.”

Around 6,600 years ago, an upstart “big-headed” scientist named Mr. Yakub becomes dissatisfied with life, preaches and rabble rousing on the streets of Mecca, exiled to island of Patmos with 59,999 of his followers

There he proceeds to genectically engineer as “race of white devils” to thwart the aspirations of the black race

it took 200 years to eradicate the black race on Patmos, another 200 to create the brown race, another 200 to create the red race, another 200 to create the yellow race, and another 200 to create the white race (166).

“On the island of Patmos was nothing but these blond, pale-skinned, cold-blue-eyed devils – savages, nude and shameless; hairy, like animals, they walked on all fours and they lived in trees.”

600 more years passed before they rejoined the black race on the mainland

From there, they were driven by the black race to live as savages in caves in Europe for 2000 years

Then, “Allah raised up Moses to civilize them” (167); it was written they would rule the world for 6000 years. (i.e., written in the lost Books of Moses)

At that time, the original black race would give birth to “one whose wisdom, knowledge, and power would be infinite” (167) (Fard?, Muhammad?)

Then the devilish race would destroy itself, and the black race would again have dominion over the earth

Practices:

praying to Mecca five times a day; eating no pork; abstaining from liquor and cigarettes; abstinence from sex before marriage; fidelity in marriage.

Aims:

to build the character of black people, especially black men. to foster in them a strong sense of racial pride and solidarity; of moral rectitude; of responsibility to their community, to their wives and children.

Recruitment to NOI/Islam in prison

while Malcolm X and many others were recruited in prison in the 1960s, Hasan finds that converst to NOI are a minority among Muslim converts in American prisons today

Like Malcolm, many converts to NOI eventually repudiate the racist beliefs of NOI and embrace traditional Islamic beliefs, mainly Sunni

She finds that

there were 300,000 – 400,000 Muslims in American prisons in 1985 with

35,000 new converts each year (1991)

This comprises roughly 8% of the American Muslim population

According to Jan Muhammad Diwan, a Pakistani immigrant who works in American prisons distributing skull caps, prayer rugs, Q’urans, etc., 80-85% of the Muslims in prison converted in prison and demand for Islamic materials is consistently growing (76)

He, along with Abdul Raouf Nasir, aruge that NOI converts are small minority of converts to Islam in CA prisons today and that many of these take shahada eventually.

Hasan cites research finding that the rate of recidivism among converts to Islam is lower than for any other group (77)

Success story:  Najee Ali, former ganster

founded HOPE – Helping Oppressed People Everywhere”

clothes and feeds hundreds of homeless in South Central weekly