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JURNAL AQLAM – Journal of and Plurality –Volume 5, Nomor 2, Juli – Desember 2020

CULTURAL DAKWAH AND MUSLIM MOVEMENTS IN THE IN THE TWENTIETH AND TWENTY-FIRST CENTURIES

Mark Woodward Center for the Study of and Conflict Arizona State University [email protected]

Abstract: There have been Muslims in what is now the United States since tens of thousands were brought as slaves in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Very few maintained their Muslim identities because the harsh conditions of slavery. Revitalization movements relying on Muslim symbolism emerged in the early . They were primarily concerned with the struggle against and oppression. The Moorish Science Temple of American and the are the two most important of these movement. The haj was a transformative experience for Nation of Islam leaders Malcom X and . Realization that Islam is an inclusive faith that does not condone racism led both of them towards mainstream and for to Sufi religious pluralism.1

Keywords: Nation of Islam, Moorish Science Temple, Revitalization Movement, Malcom X, Muhammad Ali

Abstract: Sejarah Islam di Amerika sudah berakar sejak abad ke 18 dan awal 19, ketika belasan ribu budak dari Afrika dibawa ke wilayah yang sekarang bernama Amerika Serikat. Sangat sedikit di antara mereka yang mempertahankan identitasnya sebagai Muslim mengingat kondisi perbudakan yang sangat kejam dan tidak memungkinkan. Di awal abad 20, muncul-lah gerakan revitalisasi Islam. Utamanya, mereka berkonsentrasi pada gerakan perlawanan terhadap rasisme dan penindasan. The Moorish Science Temple of American dan the Nation of Islam adalah dua kelompok terpenting gerakan perlawanan tersebut. Perjalanan haji memberikan pengalaman transformatif bagi pimpinan kedua kelompok gerakan tersebut, yaitu Malcom X dan Muhammad Ali. Pemahaman Islam yang inklusif yang tidak sejalan dengan rasisme mendekatkan mereka dengan ajaran-ajaran mainstream Islam sunni, dan (terutama) Muhamad Ali yang condong ke pluralisme ajaran kaum Sufi.

Kata Kunci: Nation of islam, Moorish Science Temple, Gerakan revitalisasi, Malcom X, Muhammad Ali

1 This paper is based on library research on personal observations in and Mississippi in the American South.

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Cultural Dakwah The term dakwah generally approach to dakwah as opposed to the refers to efforts to bring people to style practiced by some Salafi groups Islam, when used in reference to non- that equates conversion to Islam, or Muslims or to deepen the faith of strengthening the faith, with the those who are already Muslims and adoption of Arab cultural styles and convince them to be more observant. practices.3 In Indonesia, the term “cultural dakwah” often refers to efforts to In this paper, I use the term in conduct dakwah within narrative and a somewhat different way. In symbolic frames defined in terms of societies where Islam is virtually local cultures. The Wali Songo (Nine unknown or practiced by minuscule Saints) who were instrumental in minorities cultural dakwah operates establishing Islam as the religion of at societal as well as personal levels. It Java are often mentioned as frames Islam -- as a socio-religious practitioners of cultural dakwah. category -- in ways that makes it less Wayang (shadow plays) are among foreign. It defines Muslim identities -- the techniques that they used.2 The not as something foreign and logic of cultural dakwah is that is that potentially threatening, but as a people are more likely to accept Islam natural sub-variety of societal when it is presented in terms of identity. This is a sociological process familiar narratives and symbols. that establishes conditions in which more conventional forms of dakwah are possible. I will be concerned with the history of cultural dakwah in the United States, especially among African . I argue that the establishment of Muslim identities began well in advance of the spread of mainstream Islamic teachings among people who consider themselves to be Muslims and were accepted as such by News Paper Account of Dakwah in the United States 1922 the larger American public. African Indonesia’s largest Muslim American Muslim communities began organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah endorse this 3 Daniels, Timothy (2009). Islamic spectrum in Java. Burlington: Ashgate, Suprato 2 Van Dijk, Kees (1998) “Dakwah and (2009) “Kultutal Dakwah Muhammadiyah: Indigenous Culture: The Dissemination of Antara Pembaruan dan Pembaruan, el- Islam.” Bijdragen Tot De Taal-, Land- En Harakah; Woodward, Mark (2017) “Resisting Volkenkunde; Woodward, Mark (2018) “Islam Salafism and the Arabization of Indonesian Nusantara: A Symbolic and Semantic Islam: A Contemporary Indonesian Didactic Analyses,” Heritage of Islam Nusantara: Tale by Komaruddin Hidayat,” Contemporary International Journal of Religious Literature Islam. and Heritage.

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JURNAL AQLAM – Journal of Islam and Plurality –Volume 5, Nomor 2, Juli – Desember 2020 as revitalization movements dedicated Islam in the United States - A Brief to the struggle against racism and History poverty. They viewed the construction of a distinctive African American There have been Muslims in religious identity as an essential what is now the United States since th component of this process. Only later the 17 century. A handful came from did members of the community adopt North Africa voluntarily, but most more mainstream Sunni beliefs and were brought as slaves from West practices, often as the result of Africa. As many as 30% of the six to participation in the Haj. This, in turn, seven million Africans brought to has contributed to the development of American as slaves before this most a still emerging distinctively pernicious form of human trafficking “American” Muslim identity that was abolished in 1808 may have been 4 transcends cultural and ethnic Muslims. distinctions and those between African-American Muslims are nativized (meaning groups who came known to have fought on both sides of th th to North American in the 17 and 18 the against the centuries) and more recent British (1775-1781) and in the War of immigrants. 1812, again against the British.5 The I begin with a brief overview of Founding Fathers of the United States the in the United State had a favorable impression of Islam. and an account of the social Perhaps because George Washington, characteristics of the American Thomas Jefferson and others were Muslim community in the early 20th Enlightenment Deists, who believed in century. From there I to God, but were not Christians, they accounts of two early African were inclined towards pluralism and 6 American Muslim movements: The tolerance. President Jefferson (1743- Moorish Science Temple of America 1809) hosted the first Iftar dinner in and the Nation of Islam and five of the the White House in 1805. This most prominent African American tradition was not renewed until Muslim leaders: Prophet Noble Drew President Clinton (1946-) hosted one Ali (1886-1929) of the Moorish in 1996. Benjamin Franklin (1706- Science Temple, Wallace Fard 1790) planned an inter-faith chapel Muhammad (1877-1934) and Mohamed (1897-1975) of the Nation 4 Ghanea Bassiri, Kambiz (2010) A of Islam who were concerned with History of Islam in America: From the New constructing an African American World to the New World Order, Cambridge: Muslim alternative to White Christian Cambridge University Press. 5 identity and (1925-1965) Curtis, Edward (2010) Encyclopedia of Muslim-American History, New York: Facts and Muhammad Ali (1942-2016) who on File. moved the community in the direction 6 Miller, William (2003). The First of mainstream Sunni Islam, and Liberty: America's Foundation in Religious in the case of Muhammad Ali. Freedom, Washington D.C., Georgetown University Press.

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JURNAL AQLAM – Journal of Islam and Plurality –Volume 5, Nomor 2, Juli – Desember 2020 and wrote that: "… even if the Mufti of from either Islam or Indigenous Constantinople were to send a African . rapidly missionary to preach sank deep roots in African American Mohammedanism to us, he would find culture. The African-American Muslim a pulpit at his service." 7 communities that emerged beginning in the 1920s are New Religious Very few records survive Movements, not reversion to a dimly about the lives, religious beliefs and remembered Islam. practices of the earliest American Muslims. It is, however, that some accomplished Muslim scholars were brought to the United States as slaves. Bilali Muhammad (died 1857) was the imam of a community of at least 80 Muslim slaves on a plantation in Georgia.8 He was fluent in and familiar with , Shari’ah, and . He composed an Arabic language Malaki legal text based on the Risala of ibn Abu Zayd that was in common use in Islamic schools in Text Written by Bilali Muhammad in the West Africa at the time. 9 Bilal’s Early Nineteenth Century synopsis was written entirely from memory. It is preserved in the library Beginning in the second half of of the University of Georgia.10 the nineteenth century there was a trickle of Muslim immigration from The social conditions of slavery the Ottoman Empire, especially from were such that these early Muslim Lebanon. The first in the communities did not survive. The United States was constructed by majority of African-American Lebanese immigrants in Ross North converted to Protestant Christianity Dakota, a tiny town (population 2010, 97) located in a remote corner of the

11 7 Waldman, Steven (2006) “Farmers Great Plains in 1929. The mosque and the Faithful,” Washington Monthly. fell into disrepair and was 8 Diouf, Sylviane (1998). Servants of reconstructed in the 1970s. : African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas. New York: State University of New York Press. 9 Abdullah ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani (922-996) was one of the leading scholars of the time. For a translation of this text see: Kennedy, Joseph (1992). The Risala: Treatise on Law of 'Abdallah Ibn-Abi-Zayd Al- Qayrawani (922-996): An Annotated Translation. London: Islamic Education Trust. 10 Abdullah al-Ahari, Muhammad. 11 Koszegi, Michael and Melton, (2010) Bilali Muhammad Muslim Jurisprudist Gordon (1992). Islam in North America: A in Antebellum Georgia. CreateSpace Sourcebook. New York: Garland Publishing. Independent Publishing Platform.

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Iranian. Approximately 15% are from African, Eastern European or Southeast Asian backgrounds. Approximately 25% are African- Americans.12 African American Islam -- From New Religious Movements to Mainstream Sunni Islam

The growth of African American Muslim communities can only be understood in the context of the political and economic conditions Ross North Dakota Mosque -- Circa 1930 in which they originated. The abolition of slavery in 1865 changed, but only marginally improved, conditions of life for . Political compromises designed to aid the reincorporation of southern states into the union at the end of the Civil War (1861-1865) led to the reformulation rather than elimination of the conditions of servitude African Americans endured. They were emancipated, but denied basic Ross North Dakota Mosque -- Contemporary rights. 13 Most continued to live in Image conditions of poverty and oppression Substantial immigration from in the rural South. The abolition of the , North Africa and slavery did not lead to land reform, South Asia began after the Second economic or political empowerment. World War when what was essentially Slavery was replaced by a system of a “white only” immigration policy debt bondage known as “share ended. Today there are approximately

3.3 million Muslims in the United 12 These figures are approximate and States or about one percent of the are based on surveys by the Pew Research population. Islam is growing at a Center and the US Department of State. The faster pace than other religions due to United States census bureau does not collect immigration, conversion and higher information about religion. It collects on rudimentary data about ethnicity. than average birth rates. The http://www.pewresearch.org/fact- American Muslim community is tank/2016/01/06/a-new-estimate-of-the-u- ethnically and religiously diverse. s-muslim-population/ Approximately 34% of American http://www.pewresearch.org/2007/05/22/ Muslims come from South Asian muslim-americans-middle-class-and-mostly- mainstream/ (Bangladesh, , ) 13 Gates, Louis (2019) Stony the Road: backgrounds, 26% are Arab or Reconstruction, , and the Rise of Jim Crow, New York: Penguin

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JURNAL AQLAM – Journal of Islam and Plurality –Volume 5, Nomor 2, Juli – Desember 2020 cropping” under which former slaves and voting rights acts in the mid and their descendants worked the .15 fields of their former masters for a portion of the crop, usually 30% to Increasing demands for labor 50%. Share croppers were required in the industrial north during the First to purchase necessities of life from World War sparked the “Great stores owned by land owners meaning Migration” to northern cities including 16 that most were perpetually in debt. New York, and . The economic conditions African Between 1910 and 1930 more than American sharecroppers endured 1.5 million African-Americans moved were similar to those of Javanese north. Conditions for in the industrial peasants under the Dutch Cultivation north were not good. African System. 14 Americans continued to suffer from discrimination and lived in segregated There was strict racial communities where education and segregation similar to that in South employment opportunities were Africa under the Apartheid system. limited, but conditions were certainly African American could not vote, better than in the Jim Crow South. attended segregated and markedly Migrants also confronted problems of inferior schools. They also endured social dislocation and of adapting to innumerable forms of symbolic urban social environments. 17 domination. Restaurants, hotels, Conditions were, however, sufficiently hospitals and even public toilets were better to allow for the unfettered strictly segregated. What passed for growth of a wide variety of social “justice” for African Americans movements, institutions and accused of crimes was brutal. organizations that aspired to Protesting or attempting to cross the economically, politically and “color line” led to beating, torture and religiously empower African murdered by hooded white vigilantes Americans. known as the . This system, known as “Jim Crow,” endured Many of these, like the until the passage of US federal civil National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP founded 1909) were secular

14 Wayne, Michael (1983) The 15 Blackmon, Douglas (2008). Slavery Reshaping of Plantation Society: The Natchez by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black District, 1860-1880. Baton Rouge: Louisiana Americans from the Civil War to World War II. State University Press; Davis, Allison and New York: Doubleday Gardner, Burleigh 2009) Deep South: A Social 16 Wilkerson, Isabel (2010). The Anthropological Study of Caste and Class. Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of Columbia: University of South Carolina Press. America's Great Migration. New York: Random Cultivation System and its consequences for House. Javanese peasants see: Fasseur, Cornelius 17 Kiser, Clyde (1932). Sea Island to (1994). The of Colonial Exploitation: City: A Study of St. Helena Islanders in Java, The Dutch, and the Cultivation System. and Other Urban Centers, New York: Columbia Ithaca: Cornell University Southeast Asia University Press. Program.

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JURNAL AQLAM – Journal of Islam and Plurality –Volume 5, Nomor 2, Juli – Desember 2020 reform movements. Others were They aim to re-establish a pristine and social movements deeply rooted in the more just social order or to build an . Still others had entirely new one. 20 Revitalization separatist, African American movements are widely distributed in nationalist aspirations calling for time, geographic, cultural and repatriation to West Africa. Marcus religious space. Examples include the Garvey (1887-1940) was among the American Indian Ghost Dance most influential African American Movement that sought to vanquish nationalists. He was a Jamaican born white settlers, medieval German public intellectual, politician, peasant rebellions based on entrepreneur and advocate of Pan- Anabaptist Christianity that sought to Africanism. He was an enormously reconfigure society along egalitarian popular and controversial figure who lines, Javanese ratu adil movements advocated strengthening ties between predicting the coming of a just king Africans and African-Americans and and contemporary Islamist severing ties with movements seeking to restore the and Europeans. He founded the United .21 They occur at times of Improvement Association economic, cultural and or religious (UNIA) in 1914 and subsequently crisis and are common responses to declared himself to be president of the colonialism. Empire of Africa.18 Still others turned to Islam in efforts to construct new African-American Muslim African American personal and Movements 19 collective identities. Two factors contributed the Many of the movements have development of African-American the characteristic of what Anthony Muslim movements in the early Wallace terms revitalization twentieth century. One was the movements. Wallace describes these emphasis the Black Church placed on movements as: "deliberate, organized, theodicy or the theological conscious effort by members of a explanation of oppression rather than group to create a new culture." struggling against it. Another was the Revitalization movements seek to arrival of the Ahmadiyah dai Dr. Mufti abolish existing social structures, Muhammad Sadiq in 1921. power configurations and the symbolic systems legitimizing them. 20 Wallace, Anthony (1956). "Revitalization Movements," American 18 Ewing, Adam (2014). The Age of Anthropologist. Garvey: How a Jamaican Activist Created a 21 La Barre, Weston (1990). Ghost Mass Movement and Changed Global Black Dance: The Origins of Religion, Denver: Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Waveland Press; Wunderli, Robert (1992). 19 Eyerman, Ron (2001) Cultural Peasant Fires. The Drummer of Niklashausen, Trauma, Slavery and the Formation of African Indianapolis: University of Indiana Press; van American Identity, Cambridge: Cambridge der Kroef, Justus (1959) “Javanese Messianic University Press; Sullivan, Patrick (2010) Lift Expectations: Their Origin and Cultural Every Voice: The NAACP and the Making of the Context,” Comparative Studies in Society and , New York: The New History. Press.

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The Black Church confronted Ahmadiyah Dakwah in the United the problem of why a just God would States allow the types of suffering the African-American community faced.22 Dr. Why would a benevolent God allow (1872-1957) was among the first dai people he loves to suffer so much? A to come to the United States. He was related question is: “Is God actually a from British India and was a close racist?” A detailed exposition of the companion of range of answers the Black Church (1835-1908) the founder of the had to these questions is beyond the Ahmadiyah movement. scope of this paper. Most affirm basic He traveled to the United Christian teachings. One in Kingdom in 1917 where he continued encapsulated in the expression: “The his preaching and writing activities. heavier the cross, the greater the After two and a half years he was sent crown.” This is an otherworldly to the United States to establish a new theodicy promising rewards in heaven Ahmadiyah mission. Immigration for those who suffer, but remain firm authorities detained him when he in their faith, in this world. There are arrived in New York because they also social theodicies building on the feared that he might preach polygamy. concept of the “.” One By the time he was released two example is that at the time of months later he had converted twenty the Jews were God’s people, but that of his fellow prisoners to Islam. He this mandate passed to Christians, and traveled extensively during this stay finally to African-American Christians in the United States and made more because of the evil of slavery. than a thousand converts. Nathaniel Paul (1793-1839) put it this way: "slavery has been your curse, but it shall become your rejoicing." 23 There are many other examples. The idea of Africa also exerted a strong pull on the imaginations of African- American religious thinkers and secular Black Nationalists. Islam entered into African-American discourse because it was understood as an African religion. Dr. Mufti Muhammad Sadiq Sadiq and subsequent Ahmadiyah dai concentrated their 22 Warnock, Raphael (2014). The Divided Mind of the Black Church. , efforts on the African-American Piety and Public Witness New York: New York community because they judged, University Press. correctly, that their message of racial 23 Steward, Austin (1856/1969). equality would be appealing. He Twenty-Two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a established his headquarters in the Free Man: Embracing a Correspondence of Several Years. New York: Negro Universities predominantly African-American Press. south side of Chicago and by the time

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JURNAL AQLAM – Journal of Islam and Plurality –Volume 5, Nomor 2, Juli – Desember 2020 he left the United States in 1925 he official position is that it was founded had made more than a thousand in Newark in 1913, prior converts.24 Dr. Mufti Muhammad Sadiq’s arrival in the United States. It was not officially Sadiq’s message of racial incorporated until 1925 in Chicago, equality and the universalist and anti- which was also the location of the colonialist themes in Ahmadiyah headquarters of the Ahmadiyah discourse attracted the attention of Movement. Academic studies point to Garvey’s UNIA. In 1923 Sadiq gave a more complex origins.27 series of five lectures at UNIA meetings that resulted in at least forty MTSA teachings and conversions. He clearly understood symbolism are eclectic, combining the importance of cultural dakwah, elements of Islamic, Masonic and selecting themes that resonated with African-American nationalist the concerns of African-Americans traditions. Masonic movements are and downplaying those centering on not in any sense Islamic, but make intra-Islamic debates. extensive use of Muslim and Middle Eastern symbols and costumes. They African-American Muslim are highly secretive, so little is known Revitalization Movements publically about their ritual practices. In the late nineteenth and early Ahmadiyah was soon eclipsed twentieth centuries they were in both size and visibility by extremely popular in the United movements that focused more on States, including among African constructing new religious identities Americans. The Shriners had the than on doctrinal matters. Two of the greatest influence on MTSA. most important of these are the Moorish Science Temple of America The Ancient Arabic Order of and the Nation of Islam. Analytically the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine they can be understood as “Local (Shriners) is a Masonic organization ,” and simultaneously as “New established in New York in 1870. It Religious Movements.”25 relies heavily on Arab, Ottoman and Islamic symbolism. Meeting halls were The Moorish Science Temple of originally called or temples, America the first to be established was named The origins of The Moorish the “ Temple.” Shriners wear Science Temple of American (MTSA) Ottoman style Fezzes at public events. are obscure. 26 The organization’s African American Masons formed a similar group, the Ancient Egyptian

24 Dhost Muhammad Shahid (2016). Science Temple and the Nation of Islam," in: "Mufti Muhammad Sadiq: Founder of Haddad, Yvonne and Esposito, John (eds.) Muslim Mission in the United (2000). Muslims on the Americanization Path? States of America," . New York: Oxford University Press. 25 Woodward, Mark (2011). Java, 27 Bowen, Patrick (2011). “Abdul Indonesia and Islam, New York: Springer. Hamid Suleiman and the Origins of the 26 Ernest, Allen (2000). "Identity and Moorish Science Temple,” Journal of Race, Destiny: The Formative Views of the Moorish Ethnicity and Religion.

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Arabic Order in 1893. The Shriners both Abdul Hamid Suleiman and Dr. and other Masonic organizations were Sadiq. Photographs of early MTSA extremely influential in the African gatherings include men wearing American community at the turn of Shriner style Fezzes. Sadiq is know to the twentieth century.28 have considered African-American Masonic groups to be an important Bowen reports that in the mission field and to have converted an 1920’s rudimentary knowledge of unknown number of Black Masons. Islam and Shriner rites and symbols taught that African- were fused in the formation of African Americans were descendants of American social/religious movements Moroccan Muslims and referred to his that identified themselves as Muslim. followers as “.” He forged a One example of this fusion was Abdul specific identity for them -- Moorish Hamid Suleiman who made wildly by nationality and Muslim by religion inaccurate claims about relationships and issued Moorish Nationality Cards. between Islam and Free Masonry. He His theology drew on a variety of claimed that he was: “a Mohammedan esoteric sources and focused on self- by birth, Master of the Koran, having empowerment through mystical pilgrimaged to Mecca three times and knowledge. They are included in a thus become an Eminent High Priest Holy Book known as the Circle Seven and head of all Masonic degrees in Koran. Portions of this book are drawn Mecca,” preached that the leaders of from the Qur’an, Rosicrucian and Muslim countries were Shriners, that esoteric Christian sources. Drew Ali the Qur’an was written in 410 BCE and wrote others himself.31 that he had worn a New York Shriners Fez for fifteen years while serving as a He preached racial pride and High Priest in Mecca. 29 This is an collective self-improvement, offered example of the myth building process hope and a new identity to people Claude Levi Strauss termed bricolage who were still suffering from the through which mythemes of diverse degradation of slavery. He rejected origin are fused together as a coherent labels such as black, colored and whole.30 negro and demanded that his followers reclaim their ancestral Noble Drew Ali (Timothy Drew Moorish identity. He was not a racist 1886-1929), the recognized founder and urged people of all races to love of MTSA, may have been influenced by one another. Nor was he a black separatist like Garvey. He worked 28 Walker, Corey (2008). A Noble closely with white Chicago politicians. Fight: African American and the Struggle for Democracy in America. Urbana: University of Press. 29 Bowen, Patrick (2011) “Abdul 31 Nance, Susan. (2002) "Mystery of Hamid Suleiman and the Origins of the the Moorish Science Temple: Southern Blacks Moorish Science Temple,” Journal of Race, and American Alternative Spirituality in Ethnicity and Religion. 1920s Chicago" Religion and American 30 Levi Strauss, Claude (1966). The Culture: A Journal of Interpretation. Savage Mind, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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American flags are often displayed at story or from Mecca according to MSTA events. another. He preached that are devils and that if African Americans return to Islam, Allah will overthrow the oppressive white system, and return them to their original home.33

Moorish Science Temple of America, National Convention 1928 Noble Drew Ali, Front Row Center, Dressed in White MSTA is an example of cultural dakwah in which Islam and Muslim symbols are tools for advancing social and cultural agendas. Nonetheless, members strongly identify as Muslims. Fard Muhammad vanished Membership peaked at approximately without a trace in 1934. His pupil and 30,000 in the 1930s and has steadily designated successor was Elijah declined since that time. This can be Muhammad (1897-1975). He was the attributed to factionalism and to the son of sharecroppers and had worked rise of the more militant Nation of as one himself. His worldview was Islam. profoundly shaped by the violence he witnessed as a young man. He saw The Nation of Islam three black men lynched by whites before he was twenty years old. He is The Nation of Islam was quoted as saying: "I seen enough of founded by Wallace Fard Muhammad the white man's brutality to last me (1877-1934) when his attempt to take 26,000 years."34 His enthusiasm for control of MSTA after Ali’s death Fard Muhammad’s message of failed. Very little is known about him empowerment and religious other than that he claimed to have independence is not difficult to been born in Mecca and to be a understand. of Noble Drew Ali.32 He taught that African Americans the received original humans and descendants of instructions and teachings from Fard the lost , who had Muhammad that were to become the been stolen from their home in either

Africa according to one version of the 33 Lee, Martha (1996) The Nation of Islam: An American Millenarian Movement, 32 Polk, Andrew (2020) “The Best Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. Knower: Mythmaking, Fard Muhammad, and 34 Clegg, Claude (1998). An Original the Lost-Found Nation of Islam,” International Man: The Life and Times of Elijah Muhammad, Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society. New York: St. Martin's Griffin.

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JURNAL AQLAM – Journal of Islam and Plurality –Volume 5, Nomor 2, Juli – Desember 2020 core of the Nation of Islam’s ideology preaching and writings Elijah and theology.35 He transformed the Muhammad referenced the as Nation of Islam from a local to a much as the Qur’an. This is another national organization. Under his example of cultural dakwah because leadership, and despite his exclusivist, the Bible is the scripture that African racist ideology, it came to have a Americans are most familiar with. He significant voice in American politics. also referenced traditional African He taught that Fard Muhammad was American Christian musical traditions. an incarnation of Allah, the Messiah Like many modernist Muslim and the Madhi and does not seem to intellectuals, he also spoke of the have been troubled by the seeming congruity of Islamic teachings and contradiction. Lewis Farrakhan, the modern science.37 current leader of the Nation of Islam explained that Elijah Muhammad told him that:

The Messiah did not live 2,000 years ago. of 2,000 years ago was a prophet. The Messiah is more than a prophet. He is a man in whom is the Indwelling Spirit, Wisdom, Knowledge and Power of Allah (God), Himself. 36 This is classic bricolage. He also believed himself to be the messenger of God. He required his followers to adhere to a modified Elijah Muhammad version of the : The Elijah Muhammad was an confession of faith; prayer; fasting; African American Nationalist. He alms giving and pilgrimage to Mecca. rejected ’s call for Originally prayer did not conform reverse migration to Africa, the with mainstream Muslim practice and prospect for which became fasting could be conducted in increasingly unrealistic. He called for December to help wean converts from the establishment of an independent traditional Christmas celebrations. African American nation in North Over time Nation of Islam ritual America unless the white practice has come to resemble that of establishment was willing to ensure mainstream Muslims more closely. It justice and equality. He was also an also forbids gambling, eating pork, entrepreneur and built a business drinking alcohol and smoking. In his empire including farms, retail stores, restaurants, banks, trucking and air 35 Berg, Herbert (2009). Elijah Muhammad and Islam. New York: New York transport companies to serve the University Press. 36 Farrakhan, Lewis (2009). “The Greatness of Master Fard Muhammad,” The 37 Muhammad, Elijah (1965) Message Final Call, July 13, 2009. to the Blackman in America, Chicago: Secretarius MEMPS Publications.

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Nation of Islam and the larger African thought they knew, came from the American community. 1962 film “Lawrence of Arabia” and the 1960 Zionist epic “Exodus.” The His emphasis on African first romanticized Saudi Arabian tribal American independence and self- culture, and had little to say about reliance allowed him to engage in Islam. The second demonized dialog with white supremacist and also had little to say about Islam. groups. 38 They differed on nearly everything except the belief that and white people should not live together. While this contravenes the most basic Islamic teachings about race, the accommodation appeared to make sense given the intensity of racial tension in the United States at the time. Most Muslims would consider Elijah Muhammad’s teachings to be highly unorthodox. He expanded on Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali the religious claims of his In the African American predecessors while retaining and community, it was nearly taken for intensifying their emphasis on the granted that Islam was what the struggle to liberate African Americans. Nation of Islam said it was. As Islam was an identity to aid in this knowledge of Islam and the Middle struggle. Increasingly the eclectic East increased there were moves teachings of Elijah Muhammad came towards mainstream Sunni Islam and to be regarded as scripture. Because new varieties of cultural and he and his followers believe Wallace conventional dakwah. Conventional Fard Muhammad to be Allah, his dakwah was largely internal, focusing speech obtained the same ontological on reshaping the beliefs and practices status as the Qur’an. The Nation of of the Nation of Islam, The Moorish Islam now has between twenty and Science Temple of America and other fifty thousand members. identity based Muslim movements. Cultural dakwah came to focus on Moving Towards the Mainstream - integrating Islam and Muslims into the Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali mainstream of American society and In the 1960s the American culture. public was remarkably uninformed Perhaps the two most about Islam. Much of what people important figures in both conventional and cultural dakwah in 38 Lee, Martin. (2002). “Strange the United States in the second half of Bedfellows: Some American Black Muslims the twentieth century were Malcolm X Make Common Cause with Domestic Neo- Nazis and Foreign Muslim Extremists.” and Muhammad Ali. Both came to Intelligence Report. Islam through the Nation of Islam, and

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JURNAL AQLAM – Journal of Islam and Plurality –Volume 5, Nomor 2, Juli – Desember 2020 subsequently left it for a more United States. It opened his eyes to the inclusive Sunni Islam that was not racially inclusivist teachings and rooted in African American identity ethnic diversity of Islam. He came to politics. see Islam not as an African American religion, but as a world religion. After Malcolm X (1925-1965) was completing the haj Malcolm change born as Malcolm Little. His father was his name again, this time to El- a Baptist minister and a supporter of Malik El-Shabazz. Marcus Garvey. He was murdered by white supremacists in 1931. Malcolm was imprisoned for burglary between 1946 and 1952. He spent his time in prison reading voraciously and was introduced to the teachings of the Nation of Islam by his bother Reginald.39 He joined the movement and changed his surname to X in keeping with Nation of Islam practice. Upon his release from prison, he became one of the movements most active and successful dai. He used print, radio and television as well as Malcolm X personal appearances to spread the His transformation is apparent message. Between 1952 and 1963 he in a letter that he wrote after founded many mosques and increased completing the haj. I have reproduced membership in the Nation of Islam a substantial portion of it here from approximately 500 to 30,000.40 because of the power of the message and because it speaks of a He became a media sensation fundamental change in his views of and rapidly eclipsed his mentor Elijah race, religion and identity. Many Muhammad as the public voice of the Muslims describe the haj as a Nation of Islam. He grew seriously transformative experience. This was dismayed with the organization upon certainly the case for Malcolm X. In his learning of Elijah Muhammad’s case personal transformation had extramarital affairs in 1963. He left profound social and political the Nation of Islam the following year consequences. and founded the Muslim Mosque, Inc. His 1964 pilgrimage to Mecca was a It is one of the most significant personal revelation and a turning texts, not only of African American point in the history of Islam in the Islam, but also of Islam in the United States in general. It is both conventional and cultural dakwah. 39 X, Malcolm (1964). The Malcom X was especially taken with Autobiography of Malcolm X, New York: Random House. the ways in which Islam rejects racism 40 Marable, Manning (2011). Malcolm and the stark contrast between X. A Life of Reinvention. New York: Viking. Muslim inclusivism and white

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Christian American exclusivism. The before seen sincere and true Muslim inclusivism he experienced in brotherhood practiced by all colors Mecca also led him to reject the racism together, irrespective of their color. of the Nation of Islam and to see Islam You may be shocked by these words a path forward for all Americans. coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and I have been blessed to visit the Holy experienced, has forced me to re- City of Mecca. I have made my seven arrange much of my thought-patterns circuits around the Ka'ba, led by a previously held, and to toss aside young Mutawaf named Muhammad. I some of my previous conclusions. drank water from the well of the Zam This was not too difficult for me. Zam. I ran seven times back and forth Despite my firm convictions, I have between the hills of Mt. Al-Safa and always been a man who tries to face Al-Marwah. I have prayed in the facts, and to accept the reality of life ancient city of Mina, and I have as new experience and new prayed on Mt. Arafat.41 knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which is There were tens of thousands of necessary to the flexibility that must pilgrims, from all over the world. go hand in hand with every form of They were of all colors, from blue- intelligent search for truth. eyed blonds to black-skinned Africans. But we were all During the past eleven days, here in participating in the same ritual, the , I have eaten from displaying a spirit of unity and the same plate, drunk from the same brotherhood that my experiences in glass, and slept in the same bed (or on America had led me to believe never the same rug) --while praying to the could exist between the white and same God--with fellow Muslims, non-white.42 whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, America needs to understand Islam, and whose skin was the whitest of because this is the one religion that white. 44And in the words and in the erases from its society the race actions in the deeds of the 'white' problem. Throughout my travels in Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that the Muslim world, I have met, talked I felt among the black African to, and even eaten with people who in Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan, and Ghana. America would have been considered 'white'--but the 'white' attitude was We were truly all the same removed from their minds by the (brothers)--because their belief in religion of Islam. 43 I have never one God had removed the white from their minds, the white from their behavior, and the white from their 41 This reflects a mainstream view of attitude. the haj. It, and the remainder of the letter, are free of the religious eclecticism typical of the Nation of Islam.

42 It is interesting to note that it was restaurants were strictly segregated. ritual practice rather than reasoned argument Attempts to integrate them were among the that leads to Malcolm’s transformation. first symbolic acts undertaken by the Civil 43 This is cultural dakwah. It is a call Rights movement at the time when Malcolm for America to understand Islam even if most wrote. Americans do not embrace it. The reference to 44 Nation of Islam theology holds that eating together must be understood in light of blonde hair and blue eyes are ugly and American segregation. Generally speaking satanic.

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I could see from this, that perhaps if Never have I been so highly honored. white Americans could accept the Never have I been made to feel more Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, humble and unworthy. Who would they could accept in reality the believe the blessings that have been Oneness of Man--and cease to heaped upon an American Negro? A measure, and hinder, and harm few nights ago, a man who would be others in terms of their 'differences' called in America a 'white' man, a in color.45 United Nations diplomat, an ambassador, a companion of kings, With racism plaguing America like an gave me his hotel suite, his bed. ... incurable cancer, the so-called Never would I have even thought of “Christian” white American heart dreaming that I would ever be a should be more receptive to a proven recipient of such honors--honors that solution to such a destructive in America would be bestowed upon problem. Perhaps it could be in time a King--not a Negro.47 to save America from imminent disaster--the same destruction All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of brought upon Germany by racism all the Worlds. that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves. Sincerely, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz Each hour here in the Holy Land (Malcolm X) enables me to have greater spiritual insights into what is happening in In this letter Malcolm X America between black and white. continues to see Islam as an The American Negro never can be blamed for his racial animosities--he alternative to American racism, but in is only reacting to four hundred years a very different way than he had of the conscious racism of the previously. The Nation of Islam saw American whites. But as racism leads Islam as African American cultural America up the suicide path, I do property. Malcolm X now saw it as a believe, from the experiences that I have had with them, that the whites religious alternative that could bring of the younger generation, in the black and white Americans together. colleges and universities, will see the handwriting on the walls and many of Malcolm X lost none of his zeal them will turn to the spiritual path of for furthering the cause of African truth--the only way left to America to Americans, but came to link their ward off the disaster that racism cause and those of the people of the inevitably must lead to.46 developing world, especially in Africa. He was among the first to suggest that the term civil rights be replaced with 45 This is a dakwah of hope. It human rights. expresses sentiments similar to those of Christian Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Malcom X’s dream of large numbers of white Americans accepting Islam has yet to be realized. in the Civil Rights movement. American hotels were strictly segregated at the time Malcolm 46 Malcolm’s expression of hope for wrote. young white Americans is another indication 47 Roberts, Randy and Smith, Johnny of the depth of his transformation. It is also (2016). Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship important to note that white college students Between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X, New and Christian clergy played important roles York: Basic Books.

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In the short time that remained Muhammad was almost like a father to him El-Hajji Malik El-Shabazz to him. traveled extensively in Africa, Europe the Middle East and the United States Ali publicly announced his to spread this optimistic and indeed conversion and became a spokesman utopian vision of Islam. His days were for the Nation of Islam in 1964. At the numbered. Factions within the Nation time, he accepted the movements of Islam had targeted him for teachings about religious intolerance assassination. He was gunned down and racial segregation. Forty years by four of his former comrades on later he explained that: st February 21 1965. The Nation of Islam taught that white people were devils. I don't believe Muhammad Ali (1942-2016) that now. I never really believed that. was born Cassius Clay in Louisville But when I was young, I had seen and Kentucky. He was to become one of heard so many horrible stories about the greatest athletes of the twentieth the white man that this made me stop 48 century. He won an Olympic Gold and listen. Medal in 1960 and was three times When Malcolm X left the Nation heavy weight boxing champion of the of Islam, Muhammad Ali stayed with world and was known as “The it. The two were estranged at the time Greatest.” His power outside the ring of Malcolm X’s death, which Ali later was nearly as great as it was inside. deeply regretted. His experience on He became an influential voice first for the haj in 1972 was similar to Malcolm the Nation of Islam, later for X’s. He left the Nation of Islam in 1975 mainstream Sunni Islam and finally to embrace mainstream Sunni Islam. for Sufism He was also a political In 2005, he became a Sufi after activist supporting civil rights and reading the works of Hazrat Inayat humanitarian causes and opposing Khan (1882-1927), the founder of the militarism. Sufi Order in the West.49 Towards the end of his life Ali said this about Growing up in the Jim Crow religions: south, Ali experienced segregation and racial hatred first hand. He was moved Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams. towards social activism when he was They have different names, but all refused service in a small shop even contain water. Religions have after winning an Olympic Gold Medal. different names but all contain truth. 50 His 1964 conversion to the Nation of Islam was the result the movement’s emphasis on African American racial pride and his friendship with Malcolm 48 Ali, Muhammad (2004). The Soul of X. He first encountered the Nation of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life's Journey, Islam in Chicago in 1959 and began New York: Simon and Schuster. 49 “Muhammad Ali’s New Spiritual attending meetings two years later. He Quest,” beliefnet http://www.post- met Malcolm X in 1962, who quickly gazette.com/local/city/2016/06/09/How- became his spiritual guide. Elijah Muhammad-Ali-made-his-Muslim- pilgrimage/stories/201606090033 50 The Telegraph June 4, 2016.

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Despite, or perhaps partly because, of his prowess as a boxer, Ali strongly opposed war and political violence. In 1967, he refused induction into the United States armed forces because of his opposition to the Vietnam War. This made him a folk hero for Americans who shared his convictions and an arch-villain for those who supported the war. He tied Muhammad Ali – opposition to the war with opposition Wearing a Nation of Islam Uniform to racism stating: Ali understood Islamist My conscience won't let me go shoot violence as being counter to the my brother, or some darker people, principles of Islam. His statements in or some poor hungry people in the response to the September 11, 2001 mud for big powerful America. And attacks New York and more recent shoot them for what? They never Islamist violence center on both his called me nigger, they never lynched me, they didn't put no dogs on me,51 belief that Islam is a they didn't rob me of my nationality, and the damage that they have done to rape and kill my mother and father... cultural dakwah efforts. Shoot them for what? How can I shoot them poor people? Just take me to People say a Muslim caused this jail52. (September 11) destruction. I am angry that the world sees a certain Ali was consistent in his group of Islam followers who caused opposition to violence throughout his this destruction, but they are not real life, a position he linked with his Muslims. They are racist fanatics who call themselves Muslims, permitting Muslim faith. In 1990 personally this murder of thousands. negotiated the release of American hostages in Iraq. He was recognized I am a Muslim and there is nothing by the United Nations as an Islamic about killing innocent Ambassador for Peace in 1998 and people in , San Bernardino, awarded the Medal of Freedom by US or anywhere else in the world. President George W. Bush in 2005. True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so called Islamic Jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion.

We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda. They have alienated many from learning about Islam. True Muslims know or should know 51 This is a reference to the use of that it goes against our religion to dogs to control crowds by American police, try and force Islam on anybody. not to Islamic strictures about canines. 52 Calamur, Krishnadev (2016) “Muhammad Ali and Vietnam,” The Atlantic.

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Muhammad Ali continued his reject racial categorizations could take cultural dakwah efforts until shortly root and grow. before his death on June 3, 2016. In one of his last public statements he Charismatic leaders have been called on American leaders to join in central to this process. Prophet Noble the effort to mainstream Islam in the Drew Ali, Wallace Fard Muhammad United States. and Elijah Mohamed defined Islam as an alternative, assertive African Speaking as someone who has never American identity. Malcolm X and been accused of political correctness, Muhammad Ali moved cultural I believe that our political leaders should use their position to bring dakwah beyond ethnic provincialism. understanding about the religion of They sought to transform African Islam and clarify that these misguided American Islam and bring it into the murderers have perverted people’s global Muslim community. Both views on what Islam really is.53 became international celebrities. To both black and white American and Conclusions global audiences their message, or at Cultural dakwah has been a least part of it, is that there is no prominent feature of African conflict between being Muslim and American Muslim Islam since the time being American. when Dr. Sadiq arrived in the United States in 1921. Linking Islam with African American struggles against injustice and oppression played a vital part in the develop of Muslim identity movements in the African American community. African American Muslim movements like the Moorish Science Temple and the Nation of Islam sought to empower African Americans but retained the racial separateness that was a basic aspect of the larger American cultural system. Establishing the category Islam as an element of the American religious mosaic established social and religious contexts in which more conventional forms of Sunni Islam that

53 Vox Policy and Politics, June 4, 2016. http://www.vox.com/policy-and- politics/2015/12/10/9885616/muhammad- ali-donald-trump-muslims This was nearly certainly an oblique reference to Islamaphobic statements by US President Donald Trump.

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