THEBLACKSCHOLAR The Nation of Islam: 1930-1996 Religious Heterodoxy and Nationalist Tradition: The Continuing Evolution of the Nation of Islam by Ernest Allen, Jr. NE OF THE MORE PROFOUND cultural and Islamic community with substantive ties to a O political phenomena of the late twenti- larger international community of religious eth century has been the religious conversion adherents. In October 1976 the NOI became of approximately one million African Ameri- the World Community of al-Islam in the West cans to Islam.' Encroaching upon a domain (WCIW) ; in its final incarnation, lasting over which Christianity held virtual sway for from May 1980 through May 1985, the orga- one and a half centuries, this recent turn of nization was known as the American Muslim events owes most of its influence to an organi- Mission (AMM), after which time it disband- zation known as the Nation of Islam (NOI) .2 ed. Today the work of Wallace Muhammad The NOI - both the original group and its - who now goes by the name of Warith offshoots - offers an intriguing example of a Deen Mohammed - is primarily evangelical, religious-oriented nationalist movement his constituency comprised basically of which, over a period of six decades, has come African American Muslims who regularly to embrace traditional Islam in halting and attend some 200 plus masjids throughout the contradictory ways. At times this embrace has United States . Within Islamic circles at home been direct and deliberate; at other times and abroad, Imam Mohammed's voice car- more indirect and pragmatic, in order that ries considerable influence; within the secu- central aims might be more effectively pur- lar world he rarely has been heard from in sued . Minor organizational discontinuities recent years, save for occasional interviews in aside, the NOI has proved to be the largest the press. Politically conservative and entre- and longest-lived institutionalized nationalist preneurially inclined, Imam Mohammed's movement among blacks in the United States, secular views correspond with the most far outstripping the widespread appeal and reserved elements of the black middle-class, influence of Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro its business-oriented strata in particular. The Improvement Association which flourished political outlooks of his followers, however, during World War I and the immediate post- appear to follow diverse paths. war years. With the passing of its supreme leader, ERE THAT THE ONLY STORY TO TELL, it Elijah Muhammad, in early 1975, the Nation would be a remarkable one, indeed . of Islam reached a fundamental divide. Pro- AfricanW Americans now constitute the largest pelled by Mr. Muhammad's son, Wallace, the single "ethnic bloc" within a religious com- NOI quickly underwent fundamental munity comprised of millions of Muslims, changes in structure and belief, as well as in both immigrant and native-born, residing in name. From a large sect preaching nominal the United States. However, in 1978 the pic- Islam the group rapidly evolved into a Sunni ture was further complicated by the splinter- Page 2 THE BLACK SCHOLAR VOLUME 26, NO. 3-4 ing off of a new formation from the ranks of Lost Found Nation of Islam, the United the transformed NOI - then known as the Nation of Islam, and the Detroit-based WCIW. Distressed with the sweeping changes Nation of Islam also draw upon the "econom- in doctrine and organizational structure as ically challenged," the latter two groups, espe- well as the loss of economic empire amassed cially, take pride in preserving venerable NOI under the old group, Minister Louis Far- orthodoxy against any doctrinal or ritualistic rakhan led thousands of dissatisfied follow- changes, apostasies for which they occasional- ers into a newly constituted Nation of Islam. ly chastise Minister Farrakhan. Initially criti- Nor was Farrakhan the only defector. By cal of Farrakhan, the LFNOI, for its part, has far the most capable and charismatic leader sought a rapprochement with the NOI to emerge during the NOI/WCIW/AMM leader, with no reported success thus far.' transition period, he nonetheless has distant Without question, the principal "competi- rivals among others dissatisfied with the tion" for members on the African American course set by Warith Deen Mohammed . Islamic front now rests between the con- These include Silis Muhammad, who along stituencies represented by Warith Deen with Abu Koss subsequently established the Mohammed and Louis Farrakhan. The prima- Lost-Found Nation of Islam (LFNOI), based ry difference between the two, however, lies in in Atlanta; Brother Solomon (a.k.a. Royall X the realm of religious orthodoxy, social-class Jenkins) and his spokesperson, former NOI constituency, corresponding degree of mili- secretary Abass Rassoull, whose organization tancy, and organizational centralization. The at Camp Springs, Maryland is known as the followers of both tend to associate their eco- United Nation of Islam (UNOI) ; and John nomic successes - and how could they not? Muhammad, younger brother of Elijah, who, - with the righteousness of their respective while maintaining a distance from Farrakhan's spiritual trajectories . And both groups tend organization, has retained the NOI name for towards political conservatism . his Detroit temple.' The Five Percenters, an earlier but structurally amorphous spinoff "Up You Mighty Race": formed in Harlem, New York City in 1964, The Nationalist Legacy of the Universal continue to exert influence not only upon Negro Improvement Association inner-city youth, but college students as well - especially through the medium of rap S A RELIGIOUS-NATIONALIST MOVEMENT, what music. None of these groups have significant- Awere the ideological sources of the NOI's ly contested Farrakhan's leadership. nationalism, the constraints and compulsions Since his break, Louis Farrakhan's NOI by which its political and identity concerns has succeeded in expanding its membership, were given shape? A fundamental duality has reclaiming a portion of the economic hold- tended to beset African American communi- ings of the pre-1975 group, and amassing ties from the late 18th century to this day. On new enterprises as well. Retaining core ele- the one hand, black people have, from the ments of the old doctrine while selectively beginning of the republic, demanded full appropriating additional elements of tradi- social and political rights based upon their pre- tional Islam, the perennially militant NOI - sumed birth-right citizenship status. That status like its predecessor - finds principal sup- having been denied, they have often opted for port among economically dispossessed a political and economic self-determination African Americans, the number of which anchored in the renunciation, implicit or oth- appears to increase with each passing day. erwise, of American civic identity. This latter Doctrinally, the LFNOI devotes considerable tendency has sometimes blossomed into energies to scriptural prophecy, not least of demands for full political autonomy. Given the which is the supposition that Brother difficulties of securing an autonomous territor- Solomon of the LFNOI is identical to King ial base within the United States, however, Solomon of the Bible, whereas the UNOI's African American political nationalism - until overriding concern lies in its reparations the mid-1960s at least - tended to flow largely claims upon the U.S. government . While the through emigrationist channels. THE BLACKSCHOLAR VOLUME 26, NO. 3-4 Page 3 But the material barriers to emigrationism Garvey movement in the 1920s, resurfaced proved at least as great as obtaining self-deter- with neo-Garveyite groups and the original mination on Northamerican soil. From the Nation of Islam in the 1950s, and seems to outset of slavery in the early 17th century to have been put to rest only recently by .Minis- the present, relatively few people of African ter Farrakhan's endorsement of Jesse Jack- descent ever permanently departed the conti- son's presidential campaign in 1984. Gar- nent for other shores. But hard realities failed vey's Universal Negro Improvement to stifle the dreams of political autonomy Association (UNIA), a mass-based Pan- which continued to reverberate among sectors Africanist organization which peaked in the of the African American population . Only mid-1920s, paved the way for a complex with the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting assortment of nationalist groups which fol- Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965 - measures lowed - including the NOI. which enforced the full citizenship status of Although linked to one another by their blacks in the United States for the first time respective quests for self-determination, it since Reconstruction - were the material would be erroneous to assume any overarch- underpinnings of emigrationist utopianism ing ideological connection between Gar- ultimately undermined. (In the wake of veyite and Islamic-oriented nationalisms. For "African independence" these "Back-to-Africa" example, where Garveyism upheld the politi- sentiments were subsequently accorded a coup cal and economic redemption ofAfrica as its de grace as a result of the continent's growing ideological centerpiece, the original Nation social problems .) Nonetheless, despite the of Islam limited its sights to the spiritual and existence today of an unprecedented number material redemption of African Americans. of black elected officials in the American (Indeed, it regarded the African continent as South, as well as a widespread election of a land