A Clear Distinction Must Be Made Between The Islam And The Nation Of Islam (NOI). The Former Is A Major Semitic Religion

While The Latter Is A Black Separation Group.

Article A: Early Chronology

Article B: Malcolm X

Article C: The Coming Of Louis Farrakhan

Article D: What Attracts Blacks To The Nation Of Islam

Article E: NOI Belief System

(A) NOI - EARLY CHRONOLOGY

by Pastor Bill Mitchell

1930: Wallace Dard Fard arrives at the Black ghetto of Detroit. To the

black under class, he presents himself as “a merchant from the

holy city of Mecca. He sold silks and hats allegedly imported from

the homeland. Black families invited him to their homes to

become a Muslim teacher – reading to them from the Arabic

edition of the Qur’an.

1930’s: Fard encourages followers to listen to Jehovah’s Witness

president, Judge Joseph Rutherford, who declared, “Religion is

a snare and a racket”. He also encourages the use of JW

literature to teach that the times of the Gentile (i.e., Caucasian)

rule is over (1914) and resurrection of “Negro” had already

occurred. The oppressed Black man would receive the kingdom

in 1936.

1931: Elijah Poole, an unemployed migrant worker from rural Georgia,

and two of his brothers join the movement. An ardent and trusted

follower, Fard renamed him Elijah Muhammad, the “chief minister”

of Islam.

Wallace Fard’s Documents:

The Secret Ritual Of The Nation of Islam

The Teaching For The Lost Found

Nation of Islam In A Mathematical Way

1932: A human sacrifice involving two NOI members (one of them willing) causes Robert Karriem (confessed sacrificer), Wallace D. Fard &

Ugan Ali, an NOI teacher to arrested. Fard tells police, “He is the

Supreme Ruler of the Universe”.

1933: Fard ordered out of Detroit in May and moved to the newly built

Chicago Temple no.2. Arrested again in Chicago.

1934: Fard mysteriously disappears.

1935: Elijah Muhammad takes full rein and teaches Fard was Allah in the

flesh. Moves to Washington D.C.

1942: In September 1942, Elijah Muhammad and his son, Emmanuel

Karriem, were arrested along with many other leaders of black

nationalist groups. Elijah was charged with sedition and failing to

avoid the white man's war; World War II was seen as the first stage

of the Battle of Armageddon, and the ("Asiatic") Japanese were

seen as the heroes of the battle against whites.

When the FBI interrogated Elijah Muhammad in 1942, he replied,

"Allah has taught that blueprints of a plane which carries bombs

was given to the Japanese from the Holy City of Mecca, and that

these blueprints had been there for thousands of years. These

bombs would go into the earth for at least a mile and would throw

up the earth to a distance of one mile, so that it would make a

mountain. I have reminded registered Moslems of this [sic]

teachings."

(Gardell, Mattias. In the Name of Elijah Muhammad: Louis

Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. Durham, N.C.: Duke University

Press, 1996; Pgs. 236-242)

Elijah Muhammad and his son were released from prison in 1946.

The following year Malcolm X would join the Nation of Islam, and his

efforts would catapult it into a national phenomenon.

BASIC TENETS

1. Black America had been deceived by the dominant Caucasian society, a perverse race of “blue-eyed devils” who use the Bible to enslave people. “The white man’s heaven, is the black man’s hell.”

2. The true religion of black people is Islam, their God is Allah and their book is the Holy Qur’an.

3. The god of Christianity is Satan.

4. The Black man is not African or Arabic but Asiatic in origin. Followers were required to give up their surname, or slave name, and he would give them a new name—not an African name, but an Arabic name, such as Sharrieff, Muhammad, or Karriem.

5. According to Elijah Muhammad, Fard taught that black people, individually and as a race are God.

(B) Malcolm X

Malcolm was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1925. Malcolm was the son of Earl Little, an occasional Baptist minister who was killed by a streetcar (or, Malcolm believed, was murdered) when Malcolm was six. Malcolm's mother, Louise, was a light-skinned woman from the West Indies; she never saw or met her father, a white man.

Malcolm's Autobiography tells the story of his upbringing in poverty, the breakup of his family after his mother was institutionalized in Michigan, his move to Boston and his descent into crime, and his conversion to NOI-style Islam in 1948 while in prison in Norfolk, Massachusetts.(1)

Malcolm was introduced to their teachings by two of his brothers, then members of the Detroit Temple. Like other Black Muslims, when Malcolm joined the movement he gave up his slave surname, Little, and took on the name X, signifying the unknown tribal name of his ancestors.

Malcolm's formal education never went beyond the eighth grade, but his studies while in prison more than compensated for this lack. He went on to achieve an influence with both the man on the streets and the media that few men have possessed.

Very quickly, Malcolm became the leading spokesman for (by now) "the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Messenger of Allah." In 1959 a documentary, "The Hate That Hate Produced," was aired on national television, presented by Mike Wallace and Louis Lomax, an in-depth look at the racist movement led by Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X. This documentary created a firestorm of controversy, exposing how white racism had created a black reaction of resentment. A portrayal of the ugly side of Malcolm X appears in the chapter on Black Muslims in the first edition of The Kingdom of the Cults by Walter Martin (1965). However, in the mid-1960s Malcolm X experienced another conversion.

Malcolm, the national spokesman for the Nation of Islam, who told newspaper interviewers to use a stock photo of "Mr. Elijah Muhammad" instead of an on-site photo of Malcolm, found himself slowly becoming disillusioned with Elijah Muhammad. Certain contradictions gnawed at

Malcolm: the incredible teachings about the Mother Plane and "Mr. Yakub" (founder of the white race), the doctrine that white people are irredeemably evil and there is nothing they can do to change. These didn't square well with what Malcolm learned of human history and human nature.(2)

Malcolm discovered that Elijah Muhammad had fathered several children through his secretaries, who were then expelled from the mosque when they became pregnant. Malcolm interviewed three of these women and later questioned Elijah Muhammad privately about these changes. Elijah Muhammad replied, "I'm David. . . . When you read about how David took another man's wife, I'm that David. You read about Noah, who got drunk—that's me. You read about Lot, who went and laid up with his own daughters. I have to fulfill all of those things."(3)

Malcolm had thought that Elijah Muhammad would explain or face up to his moral failures, which were already whispered scandals in Chicago where Elijah lived, as the sins of a prophet like David. Instead, Elijah privately tried to discredit Malcolm as a false accuser. "What began to break my faith was that, try as I might, I couldn't hide, I couldn't evade, that Mr. Muhammad, instead of facing what he had done before his followers, as a human weakness or as fulfillment of prophecy—which I sincerely believe that Muslims would have understood, or at least they would have accepted—Mr. Muhammad had, instead, been willing to hide, to cover up what he had done."(4)

Malcolm did not openly disavow Elijah Muhammad. A few months later, in November 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated. Interviewed by the press for his reaction to the assassination, Malcolm made a careless remark about the assassination being as a case of "the chickens coming home to roost," implying that Kennedy had brought his death upon his own head. Then Malcolm added, "Being an old farm boy myself, chickens coming to roost never did make me sad, they've always made me glad."(5)

The next day Elijah Muhammad, who was no fool about the negative impact this statement would have, suspended Malcolm for ninety days from all speaking and official duties. He could not even teach in his own mosque. Elijah Muhammad suggested that Malcolm would not be reinstated, and one of Malcolm's personal assistants told Malcolm he had been ordered to kill him.(6) But Malcolm was too well known and respected to be disposed of easily. In 1964, Malcolm founded two new organizations, the Muslim Mosque, Inc. (religious), and the Organization of Afro-American Unity (secular). He also extensively toured Africa and the Middle East. While overseas he took the classic Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, which changed his life.

From Mecca, Malcolm (now El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz) wrote a letter to his loyal assistants in Harlem.

Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and the overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this Ancient Holy Land, the home of Abraham, Muhammad, and all the other prophets of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me. . . .

America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered "white"—but the "white" attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam. I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of their color.

You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to re-arrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. . . . All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all the Worlds.

Sincerely,

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (7)

In January 1964, Elijah Muhammad expelled his own son Wallace Muhammad, who had also been one of Malcolm's closest friends. Wallace and Malcolm had both concluded that W.D. Fard could not have been Allah and that Elijah Muhammad had misrepresented Islam and Fard's own doctrines. Wallace had also been the one of the people to confirm his father's sexual infidelity to Malcolm. Malcolm eventually helped one of Elijah's former secretaries, a woman whom he had recommended to work for Elijah, to file a paternity suit against him. Elijah Muhammad told hisfollowers Malcolm's days were numbered. The NOI newspaper, Muhammad Speaks, even carried a cartoon of Malcolm's severed head bouncing down a street.

Both threats and attacks were made against Malcolm and his followers. He had bodyguards accompany him everywhere and spoke often of his impending death. On Sunday, February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated by at least three members of the Nation of Islam while he was at the podium of the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, New York.[8] That night Malcolm's followers bombed Temple no. 7, Malcolm's former temple, in retaliation.

1. Malcolm X, 157-60. Lincoln, 190, cites a different date for the conversion.

2. "Yakub" in Elijah Muhammad's books is spelled "Yacub" by Malcolm X and Alex Haley. In

Malcolm's Autobiography, 164-168, he describes Elijah Muhammad's teachings and

alludes to him as a "faker"; on the impossibility of white change, see the story of the blonde

co-ed on p. 286.

3. Malcolm X, 299.

4. Ibid., 306.

5. New York Times, 2 Dec. 1963, quoted in Lincoln, 191.

6. Malcolm X, 308.

7. Ibid., 339-42.

8. For the best summary of the men behind Malcolm's assassination, see Gardell, 76-85;

for a full-length treatment, see Goldman's The Death and Life of Malcolm X.

the Breakup of the Former Nation of Islam

The modern "Louis Farrakhan" was born in the Bronx, New York, on May 11, 1933, as Louis Eugene Walcott. His real father was a light-skinned Jamaican cab driver, Percival Clark, whose infidelity split up the marriage before Louis was born.(1) His mother would move herself and her two sons to Boston by the time Louis was four, and there Louis was raised.

Four years later, Malcolm Little would also move to Boston, and there he would begin the road which led to his transformation from nominal Christian to Muslim.

In 1955, Malcolm X introduced Louis Walcott to the Nation of Islam. Louis was then twenty-two years old, eight years younger than Malcolm. Louis Walcott changed his name to Louis X, as Malcolm had done, and he (Louis X) is the talented, articulate, and angry playwright seen in the opening pages of C. Eric Lincoln's The Black Muslims in America.

Louis X went on to become one of the leaders of the Boston Temple, a playwright for the Nation of Islam, and a contributor to the NOI's national newspaper, Muhammad Speaks. After Malcolm X left the movement and made public the infidelities of Elijah Muhammad, Louis X wrote

in the December 1964 issue of Muhammad Speaks that "only those who wish to be led to hell, or to their doom, will follow Malcolm. . . . Such a man as Malcolm is worthy of death . . ."(2) When Elijah Muhammad expelled Malcolm X as leader of Temple no. 7 in Harlem, Louis X was chosen as his replacement.

The next decade would see the current Nation of Islam draw to a close, focusing largely on Elijah Muhammad's seventh child, Wallace Muhammad. Wallace ping-ponged between acceptance and rejection in the Nation of Islam. Expelled in 1964, a fully repentant Wallace appeared on the platform at the annual Savior's Day convention in 1965, just five days after Malcolm X's assassination.(3)

Later that year, Wallace would be expelled again, this time for four years. According to C. Eric Lincoln, "he was exiled from all contact with friends and family inside the Nation of Islam" until his readmittance in 1969.(4) However, even after his readmittance, he could not resume his full clerical privileges until 1974. Despite these problems, Elijah Muhammad,

relying partly on the numerological mystique of the "seventh child," designated Wallace Muhammad to be the supreme minister of the Nation of Islam and his authorized successor after his death.(5)

On February 25, 1975 (ten years and four days after Malcolm X's death), Elijah Muhammad died of congestive heart failure. After his death, Wallace Muhammad immediately began making changes in the focus and beliefs of the Nation of Islam, moving it closer to those of traditional Islam.

First, he changed the organization's name from the Nation of Islam to the Bilalian Community(1975), then to the World Community of Al-Islam in the West (1977), then to the American Muslim Mission. Wallace changed his own name to Warith. The newspaper was changed from Muhammad Speaks to the Bilalian News, as Warith Muhammad rejected the terms colored, Negro, black, or Afro-American in favor of "Bilalian," and appealed to blacks to use this new term instead. Bilal was the name of an Ethiopian Muslim martyr, allegedly killed by Trinitarian Christians.

In the early 1980s, the Bilalian News changed its name four times and is currently called Muslim Journal. In 1985 the movement became fully incorporated into traditional Islam.

Louis Farrakhan remained with the Bilalian Community for two years under Wallace's leadership, but left in 1977 when it became apparent that Wallace was no longer following the footsteps of his father, Elijah Muhammad. Since Wallace/Warith had discarded "the Nation of Islam" as it had been, Louis Farrakhan took up the abandoned identity. Since Minister Farrakhan had been a long-term and popular leader, many members who preferred to keep the teachings of Elijah Muhammad left with him.

Over the past twenty years, Louis Farrakhan has generally remained true to older teachings of Elijah Muhammad. Farrakhan's newspaper, The Final Call, still reprints "What the Muslims Want" and "What the Muslims Believe" on the back pages of each issue, textually identical to what Elijah Muhammad printed in the 1960s. Reading these statements evokes memories of newspapers printed by the Black Panther Party or by other "Black Power" groups.

According to these statements, the Muslims (i.e., members of the Nation of Islam) want freedom, justice, and equal opportunity for people of all color ("Want," items 1-3). They want reparations, preferably a large tract of land set apart from the United States and given to black people, plus "our former slave masters are obligated to maintain and supply our needs in this separate territory for the next 20 to 25 years" ("Want," item 4). They want the release of all black Muslims convicted of any federal crimes, and the release of all black people convicted of any capital crime requiring the death sentence ("Want," item 5). The Muslims are against racial integration ("Believe," item 9) and against interracial marriage or race mixing ("Want," item 10).

The Final Call newspaper carries an ever-present emphasis on black supremacy, on white conspiracies, on white people as devils, and on the Jews as a special enemy. In this context, there is a certain irony to learn that in September 1985 Louis Farrakhan invited the infamous Tom Metzger, leader of the White Aryan Resistance (a neo-Nazi white power group), to attend an NOI gathering. The Washington Times reports Metzger's words of praise: "They speak out against the Jews and the oppressors in Washington. . . . They are the black counterpart to us."(6) Yet when one realizes that both groups would like to see black people leave the United States and move to another country, it becomes clearer how well their beliefs mesh together. Metzger, agreeing with this general principle, donated one hundred dollars to the Nation of Islam.

(D) What Attracts Blacks To The

Nation of Islam?

According to Dr. Jerry Buckner, a black Christian pastor and an authority on the Nation of Islam, several factors attract young black men to this movement. To begin with, the Nation offers positive social programs to the community. Its members are active in jails and prisons, recruiting men behind bars and dissuading them from a life of crime.

They have a strong emphasis against drugs, against prostitution and pimping, and against violence and gang involvement. They urge blacks to set up black-owned and black-operated businesses, thus working to raise the standard of living in poor neighborhoods. They also look with disfavor on black reliance on the government welfare system, which they perceive as often perpetuating the cycle of poverty.(7)

The Nation of Islam look to restaurants and food service industry as one focus for economic growth. The Nation of Islam owns thousands of acres of Georgia farmland, and has operated countless restaurants, bakeries, clothing stores, bookstores, hair care shops, and other enterprises. In 1995, the NOI opened the Salaam Restaurant and Bakery on the south side of Chicago, at a cost of five million dollars. Their fundamental ideology is to avoid reliance on government subsidies or white business partnerships and to "Do For Self."

Perhaps their most successful venture has been in providing building security at apartments and housing projects across the nation. Since 1991, the federal government has paid over twenty million dollars to NOI security teams in cities such as Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Chicago, and Los Angeles. The U.S. News & World Report acknowledges that in some places, such as Baltimore and Washington, D.C., hiring of the NOI Security Agency by the Department of Housing and Urban Development was an unqualified success for the tenants. However, there were drawbacks: when paychecks were late one week, some NOI leaders blamed "the Jews" for putting a virus into the computer. NOI security guards will also hawk newspapers or proselytize for Farrakhan while on duty. Still, NOI security teams, which do not carry guns, are looked on with favor and have been generally effective at reducing crime and increasing tenant safety. In order to maintain a sharp appearance, a fine of ten dollars is levied against NOI security guards whose hair

is too long.

Dr. Buckner notes that the Nation of Islam also emphasizes mentoring, taking a younger person under one's wing to model moral principles. Its members do not (or are not supposed to) use drugs, drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, or eat pork. Their use of profanity is supposed to be

limited, but this guideline is bent fairly often. They emphasize fidelity to one's spouse, and have built self-esteem and self-confidence among people badly in need both.

Furthermore, as C. Eric Lincoln observed in 1961, black men are attracted to the Nation of Islam over against the black church because of the preponderance of black men in the movement. In the average black church, over 60 percent of the congregation is female. Those percentages are fine if one is looking for a wife or a girlfriend, but for young black men looking for strong male leadership, the Nation of Islam is more attractive, with about 80 percent of its constituency being male.

Two other things make the Nation of Islam attractive: the discipline, and the power they have to externally "clean up" a neighborhood. In an NOI mosque, members are told very strongly that they have to abide by the rules of the mosque. Infractions could be dealt with by public tongue-lashing before the Muslim congregation, or even by physical violence or beating of the offenders. A Muslim who has sex out of wedlock may find himself and his girlfriend hauled before the congregation and publicly rebuked for disgracing Islam before the world. In a white, Christian

setting, much lighter "church discipline" has been instant grounds for a lawsuit against the church and its pastor; whereas in a black Muslim setting, severe public corrections are looked on with favor as positive discipline.

Along similar lines, a Detroit pastor told this reporter how the NOI "cleaned up" a neighborhood: they physically beat up the pimps and drug pushers in a two-block region, forcing gang activity and prostitution to entirely leave. Area residents were thrilled with the results, which

the Christian churches had not able to accomplish in years of prayer and low-key "witness." The Nation of Islam had a much more aggressive approach, and was under no obligation to turn the other cheek if attacked for their deeds. They got credit for the results.

This illustrates the vast difference between Christian and Muslim ethics. From the New Testament framework, Christians are morally forbidden from using violence or force to accomplish such goals. We are told to "turn the other cheek" when smitten (Matt. 5:39). Externally, our society

expects that Christians ought to behave in such a manner. If the elders of a Christian church forcibly beat up drug sellers from a street gang, they could expect a stack of lawsuits from the victims of the beating, not to mention public castigation by the print and broadcast media. Yet a Muslim group can commit the same action with relative impunity, since a pacifistic response is not part of their internal system of ethics and thus the surrounding society does not expect it of them.

Finally, many blacks can relate to the Nation of Islam for some of the reasons mentioned by Malcolm X . Many blacks feel targeted by white society or by law enforcement. Current U.S. statistics say that by the age of twenty-nine, 30 percent of American black men will either have been under court supervision or been sentenced in a criminal case: drugs, theft, rape, violent crime.(8) This percentage is far higher than that of white men under twenty-nine, so many blacks are more receptive to Farrakhan's rhetoric of a white conspiracy against them.

1. Magida, 9-10.

2. Louis X, "Boston Minister Tells of Malcolm—Muhammad's Biggest Hypocrite," Muhammad

Speaks, Dec. 4, 1964, pp. 11-15, quoted in Magida, 83, and Goldman, 269-70.

3. Magida, 89.

4. Lincoln, 264.

5. Gardell, 101-2.

6. Washington Times, quoted in Free Inquiry, Feb. 1995, 11.

7. Dr. Jerry Buckner, interview by author, 13 Dec. 1995.

8. Ted Gest, "A Shocking Look at Blacks and Crime," U.S. News & World Report, 16 Oct. 1995, 53-54.

(E) NOI BELIEF SYSTEM

(1) The principal heresy of the NOI that both Muslims and Christians find

objectionable is Elijah Muhammad's teaching on the nature of God.

Elijah Muhammad taught that there are many Gods (polytheism); that

some of these Gods had a beginning and later died; that one of them

was Wallace D. Fard who literally was Allah; and that God is a man,

the black man in general and Master Fard in particular. Throughout his

teaching Elijah Muhammad gives credit to W. D. Fard (whom he also

calls "Master Fard Muhammad, God in Person") as the true and

praiseworth source for his teachings.

Note: According to the Institute of Islamic Information and Education,

"Islam and the so-called 'Nation of Islam' are two different religions.

The only thing common between them is the jargon, the language

used by the both." The Muslim Student Association at the

University of Southern California affirms that the NOI is "misusing"

the word Islam and is "in fact clearly and absolutely in violation of

certain basic principles contained in the Qur'an and Sunnah."

Many other orthodox Muslims would agree.

( Muslim Student Association, University of Southern California,

"Abusing the word Islam," USC Muslim Students Association

Islamic Server, 11 Apr. 1997

<http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/notislam> (25 Apr. 1997).

The "Sunnah" are the customs or habits of Muhammad

and of his early Muslim followers.

(2) Min. Farrakhan maintains that Elijah Muhammad was a divinely

commissioned Messenger of God.

(3) Elijah Muhammad: “He was the only One in the whole entire dark

Universe. He had to wait until the atom of life produced brains to

think what He needed. How long was that? I don't know, Brothers. But

He was a Black man, a Black man! . . . The Black God produced

Himself; He's Self-created. “Not only that, but "Allah (God) was

created on the very earth that we are on today.”

(Elijah Muhammad, Our Saviour Has Arrived Newport News, Va.:

United Brothers Communications Systems, 1969[?], 39-41, 96.

(4) Elijah Muhammad: “There is no God Living Who was here in the

Creation of the Universe, but They produce Gods from Them and

Their Wisdom lives in us”.

(Elijah Muhammad, Our Saviour Has Arrived Newport News, Va.:

United Brothers Communications Systems, 1969[?], 97)

(5) Elijah Muhammad: “Allah . . . taught me that there are not any gods

Who live forever. Their wisdom and work may live six thousand or

twenty-five thousand years, but the actual individual may have died

within a hundred or two hundred years, or the longest that we

have a record of, around a thousand years”.

(Elijah Muhammad, Our Saviour Has Arrived Newport News, Va.:

United Brothers Communications Systems, 1969[?], 96)

(6) Elijah Muhammad: “God is a man and we just cannot make Him

other than man . . . if I would say that God is not man, I would be a liar

before Him and stand to be condemned."

( Elijah Muhammad, Message to the Blackman in America

Chicago: The Final Call, Inc., 1965, Pg. 6-7)

(7) THE DEVILS OF ELIJAH MUHAMMAD

In the Nation of Islam, both God and the devil are human beings. Elijah

Muhammad identified the devil as the white man, the Caucasian race.

According to Elijah, though the black race is many trillions of years

old, the white race began a mere six thousand years ago with Yakub,

one of the Black Gods of this time cycle.(1)

Elijah explained, “The white race is not equal with darker people

because the white race was not created by the God of Righteousness.

. . . They were made by Yakub, an original Black Man—who is from

the Creator. Yakub, the father of the devil, made the white race, a race

of devils—enemies of the darker people of the earth. The white race

is not made by nature to accept righteousness.”(2)

According to Elijah Muhammad, Yakub was born 20 miles from the

Holy City of Mecca about 6,600 years ago. From the age of six he

knew he was “born to make trouble, break peace, kill and destroy his

own people with a made enemy to the black nation.” He had a very

large head and grew up to be called “the big head scientist.” He

decided to conquer and subdue the black race, and through lies he

gathered 59,999 followers, whom the King of Mecca exiled to the

island of Patmos. There Yakub worked to create the white race by

allowing marriage only between brown or lighter-skinned Negroes and

by killing all newborn black babies. His followers obeyed him; the

penalty for disobedience was decapitation.(3)

Yakub died after 150 years, but his project to make a race of lawless

criminals lived on (Elijah's term for this misguided eugenics project

was “grafting”). After two hundred years, only brown people were left

alive. After another 200 years, Patmos was home to only yellow and

red people. At the end of “the six hundredth year, Mr. Yakub had an all- pale white race of people on this Isle,” said Elijah Muhammad.(4)

The white race left the island and returned to Paradise (Mecca). But in

less than six months they had caused warfare and controversy among

the people, so the King of Mecca had them escorted to Europe by “a

caravan, armed with rifles, to keep the devils going westward.” Here

begins the white man's history, for he was granted six thousand years

to rule the earth.

The first two thousand years were squandered while the whites lived

as naked savages in the caves of Europe, eating their meat raw and

without even a knowledge of fire. They tried to "graft" themselves back

to black by reverse breeding, but succeeded only in making gorillas

(this is the origin of the monkey and gorilla family).(5) Then Moses

came to them. He taught them how to wear clothes, use fire, cook their

food, and to believe in Allah. The whites rejected Moses, who set

a trap and blew up three hundred of them with dynamite,(6) but it was

through Moses' efforts that the teaching of civilization gradually

seeped into the mind of the white man. Over the centuries, the white

man used this knowledge, combined with his innate craftiness and

“tricknology,” to dominate the world.

The twenty-four God-Scientists who wrote the history of this world

foreordained that the period of white rule should be limited to six

thousand years. To accomplish this, “the Black Man or Gods were put

to sleep in order that the Wisdom of the Black Man did not interfere

with what the white man is made for (to rule us under wickedness,

enslavement, deceit, murder, and death for six thousand years).” (7)

(8) THE JESUS OF ELIJAH MUHAMMAD

Elijah Muhammad taught that two thousand years after the coming of

Moses, Jesus came to the Caucasian race to reform them, but they

rejected His rule. Jesus was not miraculously born of a virgin, as the

Bible and the Qur'an teach. Rather, said Elijah, “The real truth that the

Christians hate to confess is that Joseph had gotten the child, Jesus,

by Mary while he was married to another woman and at that time had

six children by the first marriage. So Master Fard Muhammad (God in

Person) has taught me."(8)

Elijah also stated that the angelic prophecy, "He shall save His people

from their sins" (Matt. 1:21), does not refer to Jesus of Nazareth saving

His people (in Muhammad's mind, the white people) from sin. Rather,

it refers to "a modern-day Jesus," Fard Muhammad, who comes to

save the black man.(9) Much of the New Testament was not just

reinterpreted by Elijah Muhammad, but totally rewritten.

He claimed that Jesus died, not by being crucified on a cross, but by

being stabbed in the heart by a police officer in Jerusalem with a large

hunting knife or small sword. Elijah claimed that Jesus was standing in

a spread-eagle position, with His back to the wooden wall of a

storefront. The Jewish authorities offered twenty-five hundred dollars

in gold to anyone who brought Jesus to them dead and fifteen hundred

dollars if He were brought in alive. The officer told Jesus, “They

are going to kill you anyway, so why not let me kill you and make the

twenty-five hundred dollars as I am a poor man and have a wife and

family to care for?” Jesus agreed. He “knew that he would

be killed but did not care.” (9)

The sword blow through the heart literally pinned Jesus to the wall. The

blood stopped circulating so quickly that Jesus' arms were frozen in

the stretched-out position. Thus, Elijah corrects a popular

misconception: Jesus "died in the form of a cross and not on the

cross!"(10)

Afterwards, His father Joseph (not Joseph of Arimathea) “mortgaged

all of his little land and embalmed Jesus in a liquid in a glass tube. As

long as the air does not get to him, he will be there just as he was the

day he was killed two thousand years ago. He is buried in

Jerusalem."(11) Any talk about Jesus' resurrection is dismissed by

Elijah Muhammad as ignorant foolishness.

The six thousand years of white rule was said to have ended in the

year 1914 (a year which is also important to Jehovah's Witnesses).

However, no visible changes occurred that year. Elijah explained, “A

few years of grace have been given to complete the resurrection of the

Black man,” because “they (so-called Negroes) have been made so

completely mentally dead by the enemy (white race) that the extra time

is allowed."(12) He did not say how much extra time is permitted,

but his books (written in the 1960s and early 1970s) state several times

that America should be destroyed by the 1970s or 1980s.

Elijah's books read much like those of Jehovah's Witnesses, warning

that the total destruction of America and the literal removal of the

wicked (for the NOI, the white race) will come any time now. The devils

who have overrun America will be utterly destroyed, swiftly and

irretrievably. “The black nation and our God, Who is the Originator of

the universe, have decided to remove the troublemakers from our

planet Earth, as there is no way of the black nations getting along in

peace with this wicked, grafted race known as the white race.”(13)

Elijah stated that after the white race has been decimated, the black

race will resume its former position as world rulers: “The Black man is

the true owner of the earth. Now the God of Justice Has Risen up to

Deliver the rule back to the Black Man and give him a place in the sun

that justifies his ownership.”(14)

(11) THE SALVATION OF ELIJAH MUHAMMAD

According to Elijah Muhammad, salvation is achieved by recognizing

the true God (the black man) and the true devil (the white man). For

the black man, Islam is his religion by nature and righteousness is his

natural condition. For the white man, Christianity is his religion by

nature, and sinfulness is his natural condition.

Virtually without exception, statements about Christianity are applied

to the white race, and Christianity is seen as an invention of the white

man: “There is no hope for us in Christianity; it is a religion organized

by the enemies (the white race) of the Black Nation to enslave us to

the white race's rule.”(15)

As taught by Elijah Muhammad, salvation has nothing to do with

forgiveness of sins or the promise of heaven. Life after death is a

myth, he claimed, and no one goes to heaven or hell after death. “I

have no alternative but to tell you that there is no life beyond the grave!

There is no justice in the sweet bye and bye! Immortality is now, here!”

(16) Biblical and Qur'anic references to heaven were reinterpreted as

peace of mind, safety, and material comfort in this life.(17)

The NOI taught that "salvation" requires conforming to a standard of

righteousness: living in truth, shunning immorality, detesting theft and

slavery, practicing justice, worshipping Allah, and taking on one of the

names of Allah (the NOI renamed incoming members). The white man

would find this course of action much more difficult than the black

man, since, according to NOI beliefs, the white man has an innately

sinful nature and the black man does not: “The white race was born

and made to be an enemy of Allah (God). The Black Man is not born

to be an enemy of Allah (God).”(18) Though it is difficult, a few

individual white people can escape destruction if they become

Muslims.(19)

But who is Allah, the Savior, whom Muslims must believe in?

According to Elijah Muhammad, it is W. Fard Muhammad: “You will

have to be punished, divinely beaten and destroyed until you accept

Master Fard Muhammad, to Whom praises are Due forever, as

your God and Saviur, as I and thousands of my followers are doing.”

(20) One of Elijah Muhammad's best-known books is entitled Our

Savior Has Arrived, which refers to W. Fard Muhammad.

On February 26 of each year the NOI celebrates Savior's Day,

honoring the purported birthday of W. Fard Muhammad.

W. Fard Muhammad was viewed as Allah, Almighty God, the Savior,

the return of Christ, the Mahdi, and the Messiah to the Jews.(21) Yet in

addition, Fard's disciple Elijah Muhammad also served in a role as

Savior or intermediary between the black man and God. Using imagery

lifted from the Gospel according St. John, consider the following

statement from Elijah Muhammad:

“I am the Door. By no means can you get by except you come by me.

Your prayers will not be heard unless my name is mentioned in them. I

am saying that you cannot get a prayer through to Allah (God) unless

you mention me in your prayer. Try it and see. I am satisfied that those

who know this will bear witness.”

“I have the key to your salvation, and I have the key to your hell. I can, if

you will let me, pull you out of hell and set you into heaven. Then I can

keep you in heaven; or I can keep pushing you and push you into the

punishment of hell until you acknowledge that there is no God but

Allah Who came in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad, to Whom

praises are due forever, and that Elijah Muhammad is His Servant.”

“There is no escape for you today. The only way is through me to Allah

(God). Me first, for you cannot get to Allah (God) without getting to

me first.(22)

Thus, Elijah Muhammad taught that there were two Saviors: W. Fard

Muhammad in the 1930s, and Elijah himself. Elijah does call W. D.

Fard "my God and my Saviour" several times, but Elijah saw his own

position as so important that he, Elijah, functioned as the black man's

Savior alongside of Fard himself.

(12) FARRAKHAN'S DEVELOPMENTS

In the past twenty-two years since Elijah Muhammad's death, Minister

Farrakhan has been seemingly revising aspects of his predecessor's

theology. Before different audiences, Minister Farrakhan will preach

conflicting messages, which makes it more difficult to determine what

he “really” believes. Yet overall, some sort of progress in his teaching

can and should be charted.

Louis Farrakhan has increasingly found acceptance before Muslim

audiences and been recognized by several nations as a Muslim

leader.He is familiar with the shahada, the Muslim confession of faith:

“I witness that there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is the

Apostle of Allah.” Reciting this creed is all that is necessary to convert

to Islam. When Muslims say this creed, the Apostle they mean is

Muhammad ibn Abdullah of Mecca, the founder of Islam who died in

A.D. 632.(23)

Twenty years ago, Louis Farrakhan taught "that there is no God but

Master Fard Muhammad, Who is Allah, and that the Honorable Elijah

Muhammad is His divine Messenger."(24) If Farrakhan still believes

this, he doesn't say it anymore, and when he quotes the shahada, he

now uses the orthodox formula listed above. A review of the

introductory words used by Minister Farrakhan each Saviour's Day

since 1973 reveals a progressive abandonment of references to Fard

as Allah and to Elijah Muhammad as the Last Messenger of Allah, and

(by the 1990s) a shift to introductions acceptable to orthodox

Muslims.(24)

Minister Farrakhan now describes Master Fard as "the Mahdi," one of

the terms Fard used to identify himself. In Islamic thought, the Mahdi

(Arabic, "the guided one") was a Muslim imam (leader), Muhammad

ibn al-Askari, who went into hiding in the ninth century A.D. and whom

the Shi'ite Muslims believe will return prior to the Day of Judgment.(25)

This designation is more tolerable to the orthodox Muslim mind, since

the Mahdi is not equated with deity. Likewise, Minister Farrakhan now

describes Elijah Muhammad as "the Messiah" and avoids referring to

him as the Last Messenger of Allah, since this would infringe on the

finality of the Prophet Muhammad.

In the past few years, Louis Farrakhan has rarely mentioned the term

“Gods” in the plural, nor made references to the Gods dying (at least,

that I am aware of). Minister Farrakhan often describes the living God

as the Creator of the Universe, Creator of heaven and earth, or by the

Qur'anic term "Lord of the worlds." This also is a change from Elijah

Muhammad's original doctrine (which we saw earlier) that the Creator

of this universe died and another God is in His place.

One area where Mr. Farrakhan has not changed is the assertion that

God "started as an atom of life" who “created Himself out of the

material of the darkness.”(26) For Christians, this means that

Minister Farrakhan's God is not truly an eternal God because He

“comes into existence” at some point in the remote past.

As Minister Farrakhan has increasingly been invited to speak at

Christian churches, he tailors his message to the audience, liberally

quoting from memory New Testament passages that even

contradict NOI doctrine, such as John 1:1, Romans 5:19, or

Colossians 2:9.(27) He quotes passages on the deity of Christ, the

sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, the bodily resurrection of Jesus,

salvation by grace through faith, and the Second Coming of Jesus

Christ, which no other Muslim in his right mind could deliver to a

Christian audience - doing so with a passion and panache marvelous

to behold.

His punchline is that a true Christian, a true Muslim, and a true Jew all

worship the same God, and though we each may be separated by

theology, if we sincerely and wholeheartedly serve God according to

the best examples of our Scriptures, we will all fare well in the end. He

called the Christian ministers “the People of God.”(28) This accords

well with liberal and ecumenical Muslim perspectives in America, but

again, it was not Elijah's perspective.

NOTES:

1. The full story of Yakub is told by Elijah Muhammad in Message, 110-126. Also note

Muhammad, Our Saviour, 12, 110-126.

2. Muhammad, Our Saviour, 90.

3. Muhammad, Message, 110-115.

4. Ibid., 115-16.

5. Ibid., 117, 119.

6. Ibid., 120.

7. Muhammad, Our Saviour, 99; parenthetic statements in the original text.

8. Ibid., 157-158.

9. Elijah Muhammad, The True History of Jesus as Taught by the Honorable Elijah

Muhammad, compiled by the Coalition for the Remembrance of Elijah (Chicago:

Coalition for the Remembrance of Elijah, 1992), 20. Note that in this reference,

Muhammad wrongly cites Matt. 1:23, which the author correctly refers to as Matt. 1:21.

10. Muhammad, True History, 13.

11. Ibid., 14.

12. Ibid.

13. Muhammad, Our Saviour, 13.

14. Ibid.

15. Ibid., 200.

16. Muhammad, Message, 221.

17. Elijah Muhammad, The Fall of America (Newport News, Va.: The National Newport

News and Commentator, 1973), 14-15.

18. Elijah Muhammad, How to Eat to Live, Book One (Chicago: Muhammad's Temple of

Islam No. 2, 1967), 58. [return]

19. Muhammad, Our Saviour, 129. [return]

20. Ibid., 83, 89-91. [return]

21. Muhammad, Fall of America, 143.

22. For example, Muhammad, Fall of America, 143; Message, 16, 294; Our Saviour, 191.

23. Muhammad, Fall of America, 205. [return]

24. Technically, Elijah Muhammad contradicted himself on the afterlife. He seems to teach

a "hereafter" or an afterlife in Our Saviour, 89, and elsewhere, but in his chapter on

"The Hereafter" in Message, 303-305, he explains that this term refers to the next

generation of people living on the planet. [return]

25. Technically, Muslims do not believe Muhammad was the "founder" of Islam. They

believe God founded Islam and Adam was the first Muslim. Muhammad might be

called the putative founder of Islam. [return]

26. Louis Farrakhan, Seven Speeches by Minister Louis Farrakhan (1974; reprint, Chicago

: WKU and the Final Call, Inc., 1992), 74. [return]

27. Mattias Gardell, In the Name of Elijah Muhammad: Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of

Islam (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1996), 192, 193.

28. Louis Farrakhan, "Proper Preaching: The Way to Revive and Restore the People of

God," sermon given at Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, Chicago, Ill., on 3 March

1994.