Nation of Islam: history and ideology

Nation of Islam was originally a group known as the Black Muslims (Nation pp). This splinter group is faithful to the Black Muslims' original principles led by Louis Farrakhan (Nation pp). Members strive to improve their social and religious position in society, and the group has won praise for its work in deprived areas (Nation pp). However, its reputation has been tarnished by Farrakhan's anti-Semitic and anti-white beliefs (Nation pp). The group demonstrated its political strength by organizing the 'Million Man March' in October 1995, a march that consisted of approximately 400,000 black men in Washington, D.C. (Nation pp).

Although Wallace Fard is officially credited with founding the Nation of Islam, much of the doctrine and beliefs of the NOI are rooted in the teachings of Noble Drew Ali and his Moorish Holy Temple of Science (Religious pp). The basis of Drew's teachings held that African-Americans were of Islamic heritage and therefore should be referred to as 'Moors' (Religious pp). He taught that Islam, not Christianity was the original, and therefore the correct faith of African-Americans (Religious pp). Drew also taught that the terms 'Negro and Black' signified death and 'Colored' signified something painted, therefore the terms Asiatic, Moor or Moorish-American must be used (Religious pp). Moreover, Drew "taught that salvation was found by discovering national origin and refusing to be called Negro, Black, Colored, Ethiopian, etc. (Religious pp). He also instilled the idea of Moorish superiority over the white race and continued teaching until his mysterious death in 1929 (Religious pp). After his death, the group split into numerous fractions. On one side was John Given who believed himself to be the reincarnation of Noble Drew and on the other was Wallace Fard who also believe himself to be the reincarnation of Drew (Religious pp). The group who follwed Givens became the Morish Americans of the Moorish Temple of Science based in Chicago, and the other group followed Fard and became The Nation of Islam (Religious pp).

The Nation of Islam is also known as the World Community of Al-Islam in the West, American Muslim Mission, The Nation of Peace, the Black Muslim Movement, and NOI (Religious pp). Its founder was born as Wallace Dodd Fard, but is also known as Wali Farad or Wali Farad Muhammad, in 1891 (Religious pp). According to FBI files, Fard's birthplace was Portland, Oregon, however other sources cite New Zealand, while Fard himself and his followers claim he was born in Mecca (Religious pp).

The group was founded in 1930 in Detroit, Michigan and uses the holy text 'Qur'an' (Religious pp). The Nation of Islam's roots can be traced to the early part of the 20th century with the emergence of black militant groups, however, for the most part, the NOI surfaced as a social movement, "a large organized group of people committed to collective goals and ideals to preserve or change the existing political economic structure and human relationships in a society" (Religious pp). The Nation of Islam is a specific type of movement because it is designed for winning black converts as well as focusing on black socioeconomic issues (Religious pp).

Although Farad believed Islam to be the natural religion for Africans, he did not emphasize the traditional 'five pillars' of the faith, but rather focused on explaining the historical oppression of the black race (Birth pp). This mythology includes the claims that black people, as members of the tribe of Shabazz, were the original human race and came to the Earth 66 trillion years ago and white people were the result of an experiment performed by the deranged black scientist Yakub 6,000 years ago (Birth pp).

In 1957 former calypso singer Louis X, born Louis Eugene Walcott in New York, later known as Louis Farrakhan, becomes leader of the Temple 11 in Boston (Birth pp). Farrakhan emphasized the need for strong families and black economic empowerment and addressed issues such as education, morality, the media and the white conspiracy against the black race (Birth pp).

Members of the Nation of Islam believe that the Jews control the mass communication and claim the Jewish communities own much of the television and radio stations (Religious pp). The book titled 'The Secret Relationship between Blacks and Jews' written by the Historical Research Department of the Nation of Islam, explores its distrust and animosity towards the Jewish Community, emphasizing the main idea that Jews have been directly linked to participating in and perpetuating the slave trade (Religious pp).

Their idea of black racial superiority and whites as evil is contradictory to the teachings of racial equality found in Orthodox Islam, and although the name of this group tends to infer that they are part of the Orthodox Islam religion, there are significant differences (Religious pp). Two doctrines that are in flagrant contrast to orthodox Islamic ideals are that the NOI insist that blacks must separate themselves from the abhorrent and doomed race and believe that it is the manifest destiny of the Black Nation to inherit the earth (Religious pp).

One great difference between members of the NOI and Orthodox Muslims is their perspective on the Our'an (Religious pp). Orthodox Muslims believe that it was Allah's last revelation to mankind and that this occurred between the years of 610 and 632 CE (Religious pp). The Nation of Islam teachings on the subject are contradictory: they state that they believe in the Qur'an and the writings of all the prophets of God, yet they also state that they believe that they are the original nation, the writers of the Bible and the Qur'an, and the creators of history (Religious pp).