Africana Islamic Studies THE AFRICANA EXPERIENCE AND CRITICAL LEADERSHIP STUDIES Series Editors: Abul Pitre, PhD North Carolina A&T State University Comfort Okpala, PhD North Carolina A&T State University Through interdisciplinary scholarship, this book series explores the experi- ences of people of African descent in the United States and abroad. This series covers a wide range of areas that include but are not limited to the following: history, political science, education, science, health care, sociol- ogy, cultural studies, religious studies, psychology, hip-hop, anthropology, literature, and leadership studies. With the addition of leadership studies, this series breaks new ground, as there is a dearth of scholarship in leadership studies as it relates to the Africana experience. The critical leadership studies component of this series allows for interdisciplinary, critical leadership dis- course in the Africana experience, offering scholars an outlet to produce new scholarship that is engaging, innovative, and transformative. Scholars across disciplines are invited to submit their manuscripts for review in this timely series, which seeks to provide cutting edge knowledge that can address the societal challenges facing Africana communities. Titles in this Series Survival of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Making it Happen Edited by Edward Fort Engaging the Diaspora: Migration and African Families Edited by Pauline Ada Uwakweh, Jerono P. Rotich, and Comfort O. Okpala Africana Islamic Studies Edited by James L. Conyers and Abul Pitre Africana Islamic Studies Edited by James L. Conyers Jr. and Abul Pitre LEXINGTON BOOKS Lanham • Boulder • New York • London Published by Lexington Books An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB Copyright © 2016 by Lexington Books All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Conyers, James L., editor. | Pitre, Abul, editor. Title: Africana Islamic studies / edited by James L. Conyers and Abdul Pitre. Description: Lanham, Md. : Lexington Books, [2015] | Series: The Africana experience and critical leadership studies | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2015047368 (print) | LCCN 2015048346 (ebook) | ISBN 9780739173442 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780739173459 (Electronic) Subjects: LCSH: Black Muslims. | Nation of Islam (Chicago, Ill.) | Elijah Muhammad, 1897-1975. | X, Malcolm, 1925-1965. | Islam—United States—History. Classification: LCC BP222 .A37 2015 (print) | LCC BP222 (ebook) | DDC 297.8/7—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015047368 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America Contents Introduction vii Abul Pitre 1 “Raising Her Voice”: Writings by, for, and about Women in Muhammad Speaks Newspaper, 1961–1975 1 Bayyinah S. Jeffries 2 Take Two: Nation of Islam Women Fifty Years after Civil Rights 29 C. S’thembile West 3 Elijah Muhammad, Multicultural Education, Critical White Studies, and Critical Pedagogy 43 Abul Pitre 4 Bismillah—Message to the Blackman Revisited: Being and Power 59 Jinaki Abdullah 5 The Nation of Islam: A Historiography of Pan Africanist Thought and Intellectualism 77 James L. Conyers Jr. 6 Understanding Elijah Muhammad: An Intellectual Biography of Elijah Muhammad 101 Malachi Crawford 7 The Peculiar Institution: The Depiction of Slavery in Steven Barnes’s Lion’s Blood and Zulu Heart 111 Rebecca Hankins v vi Contents 8 Islam in the Africana Literary Tradition 117 Christel N. Temple 9 Martin L. King Jr. and Malcolm X 131 Charles Allen 10 Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of Islam: Separatism, Regendering, and a Secular Approach to Black Power after Malcolm X (1965–1975) 141 Ula Taylor 11 “My Malcolm”: Self-Reliance and African American Cultural Expression 163 Toya Conston and Emile Koenig 12 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the Modernist and Minister Malcolm X the Postmodernist?: An Analysis of Perspectives and Justice 175 Kelly Jacobs Bibliography 187 Index 201 About the Contributors 205 Introduction Abul Pitre On September 11, 2001, Islam became a topic of discussion worldwide. Shocked by the horror of the events that took place in New York, the Ameri- can populace began to seek more understanding about Islam and Muslims. The aftermath of September 11 also, however, brought to light the vast ignorance that most of have of the faith. Islam is not a new phenomenon in American life and in fact has played a major role in shaping American jurisprudence. However, the light of Islam and the role that it has played in American life has been underplayed. Some of the first Africans to arrive in the United States to be made slaves were Muslims. Herbert Berg writes, “Many Africans who made the Middle Passage were Muslims. The story of how their religion was all but extin- guished in the United States is a remarkable one.”1 During a sixty-four-year period these Muslims were stripped of their religion and culture, creating what was termed a “Negro.” Negro comes from the word necro and when the c is genuflected it becomes g. Negro means someone who has been made dead, someone who has lost the knowledge of self, like an amnesia victim. Akbar (2003) writes, “Negro comes from the same origin as ‘necro’ and ‘nekro’ [translation: “dead”].2 In Greek there is no difference between these words. Some wise and devious white scholar knew what he was saying when he decided to call Black people Negro (or “Necro”). “The necro refers to a mentally, socially and culturally dead person.”3 The majority of Blacks brought to the United States were forced to separate from their traditional re- ligious beliefs with the majority being made Christians. Berg cogently writes, “The vast majority of slaves were stripped of their names, their religion, and their culture.”4 The presence of Islam in America does not only include the first Africans who were involuntarily brought to American shores. The early writers of the vii viii Introduction Declaration of Independence along with those shaping the American consti- tution were students of Islam. They studied Islam in secret societies. A visit to the George Washington shrine reveals the names of numerous Muslim countries. Tynnetta Muhammad disclosed that Islam influenced the American founding fathers and paved the way for them to create the U.S. Constitution, which was based on principles they learned from their study of Islam.5 These founding fathers never acknowledged Islam but studied it in their secret societies. In places like the Masonic order the students are tasked with moving through various degrees and once reaching the 33rd degree are given a Holy Quran. What is contained in the Holy Quran? It contains the highest knowledge that if studied properly catapults the student into spiritual science. Here spiritual science means a knowledge that is supreme in helping the reader of its contents to observe or see new realities. In addition, it is a book of light containing more than knowledge—it awakens the student to the inner voice, awakening the divine essence in human beings. Thus Islam has been a carefully guarded secret by those who rule the masses. September 11 cast a veil over Islam that made it look obscene; it became America’s worst nightmare. Most Americans knew only a little about Islam through persons like Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan. However, one of the greatest leaders in American history was Elijah Muhammad. Born in Sand- ersville, Georgia, Muhammad was a rural farm boy who moved north after witnessing firsthand the lynching of Blacks along with other atrocities.6 Say- ing that he had seen enough of the White man’s brutality to last him 26,000 years,7 he moved to Detroit in the 1930s to seek better living conditions. In Detroit he met Wallace D. Fard, whom he believed to be the long- awaited returned Christ. He studied with Fard from 1931 to 1935 and, along with Fard, established the Nation of Islam during this period. When his teacher departed, he left Elijah with the task of raising Blacks in America to a new level of consciousness. The Nation of Islam under the leadership of Elijah Muhammad flourished, especially during the tumultuous 1950s and 1960s. Black consciousness was being raised, and several of Muhammad’s students began to gain national at- tention. One of those most recognized is Malcolm X an eighth-grade dropout who had been arrested for larceny. While serving time Malcolm began study- ing Islam under the teachings of Elijah Muhammad. After leaving prison he became a national spokesperson for the Nation of Islam and was later cata- pulted into the national spotlight. In 1959, Mike Wallace and Louis Lomax aired a documentary titled “The Hate That Hate Produced,” which was promoted on national news. The documentary sought to frame the Nation of Islam as a hate group. This image was later reinforced when the FBI began to place news editorials in papers Introduction ix that painted the Nation of Islam