Mother Plane

The Nation of Islam (NOI) is a religious organization founded in the United States by Wallace Fard Muhammad in 1930. A centralized and hierarchical organization, the NOI is committed to black nationalism and focuses its attention on the African diaspora, especially on African Americans. While describing itself as Islamic and using Islamic terminology, its religious tenets differ substantially from orthodox Islamic traditions. Scholars of religion characterize it as a new religious movement.

The Nation teaches that there has been a succession of mortal gods, each a black man named Allah, of whom Fard Muhammad is the most recent. It claims that the first Allah created the earliest humans, the Arabic-speaking, dark-skinned Tribe of Shabazz, whose members possessed inner divinity and from whom all people of color descend. It maintains that a scientist named Yakub then created the white race. The whites lacked inner divinity, and were intrinsically violent; they overthrew the Tribe of Shabazz and achieved global dominance. Setting itself against the white-dominated society of the United States, the NOI campaigns for the creation of an independent African-American nation-state, and calls for African Americans to be economically self-sufficient and separatist. A millenarian tradition, it maintains that Fard Muhammad will soon return aboard a spaceship, the "Mother Plane" or "Mother Ship", to wipe out the white race and establish a utopia. Members worship in buildings called mosques or temples. Practitioners are expected to live disciplined lives, adhering to strict dress codes, specific dietary requirements, and patriarchal gender roles.

Wallace Fard Muhammad established the Nation of Islam in Detroit. He drew on various sources, including Noble Drew Ali's Moorish Science Temple of America, black nationalist trends like Garveyism, and black-oriented forms of Freemasonry. After Fard Muhammad disappeared in 1934, the leadership of the NOI was assumed by Elijah Muhammad. He expanded the NOI's teachings and declared Fard Muhammad to be the latest Allah. Attracting growing attention in the late 1950s and 1960s, the NOI's influence expanded through high-profile members such as the black nationalist activist Malcolm X and the boxer Muhammad Ali. Deeming it a threat to domestic security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation worked to undermine the group. Following Elijah Muhammad's death in 1975, his son Warith Deen Mohammed took over the organization, moving it towards Sunni Islam and renaming it the World Community of Islam in the West. Members seeking to retain Elijah Muhammad's teachings re-established the Nation of Islam under Louis Farrakhan's leadership in 1977. Farrakhan has continued to develop the NOI's beliefs, for instance by drawing connections with Dianetics, and expanding its economic and agricultural operations.

Based in the United States, the Nation of Islam has also established a presence abroad, with membership open only to people of color. In 2007 it was estimated to have 50,000 members. The Nation has proven to be particularly successful at converting prisoners. The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League have characterized it as a black supremacist hate group that promotes racism towards white people, antisemitism, and anti-LGBT rhetoric. Muslim critics accuse it of promoting teachings that are not authentically Islamic.

Definition

The Nation of Islam (NOI) is a new religious movement, a black nationalist religion, and an African-American religion. As well as being characterised as an "ethno-religious movement", it has been labelled a social movement. Scholars of religion have highlighted commonalities between the NOI and UFO religions, with extraterrestrial spaceships featuring in the group's ideas about the end of the world. The scholar of religion Stephen C. Finley also suggested that it could be seen as a form of esotericism.

The name "Nation of Islam" has represented two distinct organizations: the first group was established by Wallace Fard Muhammad in the 1930s and existed until 1975, after which the second organization was created by Louis Farrakhan in the late 1970s. Farrakhan's second Nation has some differences from its predecessor, reflecting how the Nation's teachings have shifted over its history. More broadly, the sociologist of religion Susan J. Palmer characterised the Nation as forming part of a "Black cultic milieu" in which it coexists alongside various black-oriented new religions, including Rastafari, the Black Hebrew Israelites, and the Nuwaubian Nation.

The Nation of Islam is a highly centralized, hierarchical, and authoritarian movement.
Unlike practitioners of Rastafari, members of the Nation do not exhibit considerable variation in their approach to the religion, displaying a high degree of uniformity and conformity. Despite this, not all members have believed all of its teachings implicitly, and there are members who have privately broken its rules on personal behavior and lifestyle.

Relationship to Christianity and Islam

The Nation has no specific holy text of its own, and is influenced by both Christianity and Islam while offering profoundly different interpretations of their central scriptures, the Bible and the Quran.
Having arisen from within a Christian-majority society, the Nation denigrates Christianity, presenting it as a tool of white supremacy. For the group—whose members are commonly called "Black Muslims"—their Islamic identity offers an alternative to mainstream, Christian-dominated American culture.

In describing itself as Islamic the NOI seeks to reclaim what it regards as the historic Muslim identity of the African-American people, with the group's second leader, Elijah Muhammad, stating that "Islam is the natural religion of the Black Nation." The Nation sees itself as part of the Islamic world, and Islamic elements in its practices include the use of the Arabic language, prayers five times a day, and the adoption of a flag based on that of Muslim-majority Turkey.

The Nation has little in common with mainstream forms of Islam. Mainstream Muslims generally see it as a movement that has "selectively adopted some Islamic beliefs and concepts" but is not "truly Islamic". The scholars Jason Eric Fishman and Ana Belén Soage observed that although the Nation uses many standard Islamic terms, it gives them "profoundly different meanings" to those understood by most Muslims. The Nation's views differ from the Five Pillars, which are typically seen as central to Islam; its claims that God takes anthropomorphic form and that there is no afterlife differ fundamentally from Muslim teaching. Unlike most forms of Islam, the NOI does not hold that Muhammad was the final nor the most important messenger of God, instead treating its first two leaders, Fard Muhammad and Elijah Muhammad, as being more important.
From mainstream Islamic perspectives, its teachings are heretical, with its theology being ''shirk'' (blasphemy). Accordingly, some scholars of religion have characterised it as "quasi-Islamic", or referred to it as "Fardian Islam", "pseudo-Islam", or "nontraditional Islam".

Beliefs

Theology

The sociologist of religion David V. Barrett noted that the Nation's theology is "very distinct" and "extremely detailed". The Nation provides conflicting statements about its theology; although it professes commitment to the monotheistic idea of a single God, its discourse refers to multiple gods, meaning that it can be interpreted as polytheistic.

In the NOI's view, each Allah (God) is not an incorporeal spiritual entity but a flesh-and-blood person. These Allahs are anthropomorphic, taking the form of black men, which was the shape that the first Allah consciously adopted. In Nation teaching, the Allahs are not immortal, instead typically living for around 200 to 300 years. They have varying abilities and degrees of power, with each taking over following the death of their predecessor, after which they rule for a cycle in history. The Nation regards its founder, Fard Muhammad, as the latest of these Allahs, or "God in person". He is deemed the first to have attained the same powers as that of the earliest Allah, namely the ability to return the universe to its primordial darkness and then recreate it. The Nation teaches that although this founder disappeared in 1934, he had secretly moved to Mecca and would live for another 409 years.

Reflecting a belief in the inner divinity of humanity that is common among black-oriented new religions, the Nation also promotes the idea that "God is man and man is God, that God has a presence inside human individuals." Accordingly, the NOI teaches that the black race, in its natural state, is divine, a "nation of Gods", with Elijah Muhammad espousing the view that "all Muslims are Allahs". According to the NOI, "knowledge of self" is key for black people to realize their inner divinity. The NOI thus maintains that by following its teachings, its adherents can recognize their inner godliness. Elijah Muhammad for instance stated that humans could develop parapsychological powers and that he personally had telepathic abilities.

The Nation of Islam's theology is "completely divorced" from mainstream Islam. The two differ in regard to the fundamental ontological divide between humanity and God, as well as God's nature, which for mainstream Muslims is deemed eternal and non-anthropomorphic. Also conflicting with mainstream Islam is the NOI's claim that there is no afterlife; Elijah Muhammad wrote that "when you are dead, you are DEAD". Notions of Heaven, the Nation claims, are a lie used by white Christians to keep black people docile. Instead Elijah Muhammad taught that there is no spiritual realm beyond the material universe.

Cosmogony and the Tribe of Shabazz

The Nation teaches that in the beginning there was nothing but darkness. Then, 76 trillion years ago, the first Allah willed himself into being, taking 6 million years to form into his desired appearance: that of a black man, in reference to the blackness from which he had emerged. The first Allah then created the Sun and the planets, as well as fellow black gods, who lived predominantly on the Earth but also on Mars. Of these, the first Allah and 23 others formed a council of ruling imams: 12 greater and 12 lesser. Each of these imams would take a turn being the ruling Allah for one cycle each.

The NOI refers to these early individuals as "god-scientists". They are part of what it calls the "Original" or "Asiatic" race, a people who were divided into 13 tribes. The Nation labels these people "black", describing them as having dark skin as well as smooth, straight hair, closely resembling dark-complexioned Arabians or South Asians rather than Sub-Saharan Africans. In portraying humanity as the creation of the first Allah, rather than a product of evolution, the Nation endorses a unique form of creationism and believes dinosaurs to be a hoax created by white scientists.

According to Nation teaching, one of the god-scientists was a renegade and, 66 trillion years ago, tried to destroy the Earth with explosives. The resulting explosion forced a chunk of the Earth's mass into orbit, where it became the moon. One of the 13 tribes was trapped on the moon, where they died due to lack of water. The Nation also maintains that 15,000 years ago, the god-scientists wrote down knowledge of the future in a text, the Mother Book, parts of which have passed down in the Torah, Gospels, and Quran.

Of the twelve tribes that remained on Earth, the most resilient was the Tribe of Shabazz; they settled in Egypt's Nile Valley and the area around Mecca in the Arabian peninsula. The Nation calls this region "East Asia", reflecting its belief that Asia and Africa were once a single continent. It was because they moved into the "jungles of East Asia" (i.e. Africa), Elijah Muhammad claimed, that members of this Original Asiatic Race developed Afro-textured hair. The Nation teaches that the Original Race were Muslims by their intrinsic nature, but that many created heretical deviations such as Hinduism; some of those who broke Islamic rules were exiled to North America, where they became the continent's native population.

For the Nation, everyone not of West European genetic origin is a descendant of the Original Asiatic Race. In contrast to understandings of race held by most Americans, for the Nation, "black" does not simply mean those of Sub-Saharan African genetic descent, but all people of color, including Asians, North Africans, and Native Americans. Even some Eastern Europeans, such as Albanians, are considered descendants of the Original Asiatic Race. Elijah Muhammad for instance referred to "black, brown, yellow ndred" people as collectively constituting "black mankind", which he then juxtaposed against the "white race".

Myth of Yakub

The NOI promotes a story called the myth of Yakub, which received its fullest exposition in Elijah Muhammad's 1965 book ''Message to the Blackman''. In this narrative, Yakub was a black scientist; a child prodigy, by the age of 18 he had learned everything that Mecca's universities had to teach him. He attracted a following but caused trouble, leading the Meccan authorities to exile him and his 59,999 followers to Pelan, the Mediterranean island of Patmos.

On Pelan, the NOI claims, Yakub engaged in a selective breeding program to create the white race. This entailed breeding new children, with those who were too dark killed at birth and their bodies fed to wild animals or incinerated. Over two centuries, Yakub's experiments created a blonde, light-skinned people, the white race. As a group of people distinct from the Original Asiatic Race, the white race are degenerate, sub-human, and bereft of divinity, being intrinsically prone to lying, violence, and brutality. Elijah Muhammad repeatedly referred to whites as "the devil". The Nation maintains that most white people are unaware of their true origins, but that such knowledge is held by senior white Freemasons. These ideas have been labelled both racist and racialist.

According to the Nation's teachings, Yakub's newly created white race sowed discord among black people, and thus were exiled to live in the caves of "West Asia", meaning Europe. In this narrative, it was in Europe that the white race engaged in bestiality and degenerated, resulting in the emergence of apes and monkeys. To help the whites develop, the ruling Allah sent prophets to them, the first of whom was Musa (Moses), who taught the whites to cook and wear clothes. According to the Nation, Jesus was also a prophet sent to civilise the white race. The group rejects the Christian belief that Jesus was a unique manifestation of God, that he was the Messiah, was the product of a virgin birth, or was crucified and resurrected.

White rule

In the Nation's teachings, the ruling Allah permitted the white race to rule the Earth for 6000 years, a period ending in 1914. It claims that the ruling Allahs allowed this so that black people would discover humanity's inner potential for evil and learn how to defeat it, thus enabling them to realize their inner divine capacity and become gods.

The NOI claims that over 6000 years ago the whites began to dominate the world, using treacherous tactics that the Nation calls "tricknology". As part of this, the whites enslaved the Tribe of Shabazz, shipping many of them to the Americas through the Atlantic slave trade. The NOI claims that most enslaved blacks forgot their true names, their Arabic language, and their Muslim identity, instead embracing Christianity, which the Nation labels "white man's religion". The group deems Christianity a tool of white supremacy used to subjugate black people, and expresses the belief that the oppressed (African Americans) and the oppressors (European Americans) cannot share the same god. The Nation claims that in their enslaved state, black people have lost their morality by engaging in sinful behaviour such as fornication and drinking alcohol, something encouraged by the whites. In making this argument, the NOI equates the United States with the city of Babylon as presented in the Bible.

The Nation thus understands the modern subjugation of African Americans as part of an ancient white conspiracy. The group interprets many of the problems facing African Americans in this light; Farrakhan for instance claimed that the white establishment encouraged a black gang culture to provide an excuse for the police killing of black youths, that they flooded black-majority areas with drugs, and that they created AIDS to exterminate black people. The Nation is also critical of U.S. aggression towards countries with non-white and Muslim majorities, and in keeping with its ethos has adopted an anti-Zionist position regarding Israel.

Eschatology and the Mother Plane

The NOI is millenarian, believing that humanity is living in end times. It propounds a distinct eschatology drawing on the Book of Revelation. Central to its view of the apocalypse is a large spaceship, known as the Wheel, the Mother Plane, or the Mother Ship, and which members usually refer to using female pronouns. Elijah Muhammad described this as "a small human planet", claiming that it is half a mile in diameter. The Nation teaches that this vessel is the Merkabah that appears in the Book of Ezekiel (1:4–28). It teaches that Allah and many of his scientists live in a magnificent city on the Mother Plane, from which they monitor humanity; Farrakhan has claimed that Elijah Muhammad never died but is resident aboard this ship. The Nation teaches that there are also smaller vessels, "baby planes", docked inside the Mother Ship and that these travel to visit Earth.

The Nation teaches that a period of deteriorating racial tensions will culminate in the apocalypse. NOI members have repeatedly claimed that this apocalypse is imminent; Farrakhan for instance predicted that the Gulf War of 1990 would spark it, while Tynetta Muhammad predicted it would occur in 2001. According to Nation teaching, the apocalypse will come when the Mother Plane appears above the Earth and transports the righteous to live aboard it. It will then use the baby planes to bury bombs beneath the Earth's surface, which on detonation will wipe out the old, white-dominated order. The Earth's atmosphere will then burn for 390 years and spend another 610 cooling down.

Once the Earth has returned to a habitable state, the ruling Allah will return the righteous to live on the planet, in a new black paradise. In his book ''The Supreme Wisdom'', Elijah Muhammad claimed that after the apocalypse, "Peace, joy and happiness will have no end." Those living in this perfect society will eat the finest food and wear clothes of silk interwoven with gold. The NOI has taught that the white ruling elite are aware of this forthcoming apocalypse and that the U.S. exploration of space and the Strategic Defense Initiative are futile attempts to protect themselves against the Mother Plane.

Black nationalism and separatism

Ideologically, the NOI is black nationalist, and has sometimes been perceived as a Black Power political organization. Scholar of religion Mattias Gardell commented that the idea of black unity is "at the very core of the NOI ideology". It seeks to empower black people by giving them a positive self-identity, purging ideas of white superiority and black inferiority from its followers. In the Nation's view, black liberation requires a religious dimension.
It regards African Americans, or black people more broadly, as the Chosen People, espousing a cosmology in which the black race is superior and the white race inferior.

The Nation is black separatist, rejecting the integration of the black and white races. This racial separatism was at odds with the mainstream civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. The Nation was critical of African-American activists who promoted racial integration, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, regarding them as "Uncle Tom Negroes". In contrast to King's calls for non-violent protest against segregation and racial violence, the Nation maintained that self-defence was a moral obligation for African Americans.

The NOI called for the creation of a separate, sovereign African-American nation-state in the southern part of what is currently the United States, with Elijah Muhammad stipulating that the U.S. should financially support this new country for 20 to 25 years. This is presented as compensation for the unpaid labor of their enslaved ancestors. Farrakhan has also suggested that the countries of Africa should set aside land on that continent for the African diaspora, characterising this as a reparation for the complicity of West African states in the Atlantic slave trade. Gardell suggested that any nation-state formed under the Nation's leadership would be theocratic, authoritarian, and totalitarian.

Unlike the Garveyites and Rastafari who emphasise links between the African diaspora and Africa itself, Elijah Muhammad and the NOI instead focused their attention on the African diaspora in the Americas, rejecting a specifically Pan-African ideology. Elijah Muhammad stated that "where as the Black man in Africa is our brother, our central responsibility is with the Black man here in the wilderness of North America". Rather than treating Africa as a homeland, the Nation's origin myths present Mecca as the original home of African Americans. Nation writings portray Africa itself as the least desirable of the Original Asiatic lands, with the scholar of religion Michael Muhammad Knight arguing that Elijah Muhammad "upheld white supremacist tropes" about African cultures. The latter for instance complained of Africans' "savage dress and hair styles," forbidding NOI members from imitating them, and stating that it was the Nation's job to "civilize Africa".

Gender and sexuality issues

The NOI's teachings on gender are conservative and patriarchal. It promotes strict gender roles, maintaining that the security of the black family is ensured when its members adhere to their gendered responsibilities. Emphasis is placed on the family unit, with the Nation being critical of the historically matrifocal focus of many African-American families, instead stressing the importance of a male family figurehead.

Seeking to restore black manhood, the Nation expresses great concern regarding the emasculation of black men, attributing this attitude to the failure of black men to prevent the sexual assault of black women by white men over the centuries. It expects men to be providers for their family. Women are expected to act as caretakers of the household and the children, and are cautioned against forming friendships with men. Outsiders often perceive the Nation's women as being victims of male oppression and control.

The group's leadership is overwhelmingly male, although several women rose to senior positions during the 1990s; in 1998 the Nation appointed its first woman minister, Ava Muhammad, as head of Mosque Number 15 in Georgia. Some Nation women still play an active role in their communities, sometimes challenging established gender norms in the organization.

The NOI strictly enforces heterosexual monogamy among its members and encourages sexual abstinence prior to marriage. Members seeking to court another are expected to inform the captain of their local Fruit of Islam or Muslim Girls Training branch about their intentions.
Men found to have beaten their wives are temporarily suspended from Nation membership. Divorce is discouraged but not forbidden. Children are expected to study hard, avoid street culture, and respect their elders.

Although Nation members are allowed to marry non-members, the group stipulates that they should only marry other black people, claiming that sex with white women emasculates black men. Birth control methods are criticised as an attempt by the white establishment to lower the black birthrate, although Farrakhan stated support for abortion in cases of rape, incest or where the woman's life is endangered.
Same-sex relationships are condemned as immoral. Elijah Muhammad complained that schools, jails, and prisons were "breeding dens of homosexuals," while Farrakhan banned gay men from his Million Man March, bringing accusations of homophobia.

Practices

Services, prayer, and celebration

During the 1960s, the NOI's places of worship were called both temples and mosques. As well as serving a religious function, these can also be used as a community center, bank, school, and child-care facility. The figure leading a temple is called the captain and will be a member of the Fruit of Islam subgroup.

Those attending meetings will sometimes be searched by members of the Fruit of Islam or the Muslim Girl's Training group, who look for weapons and for objects like cosmetics and cigarettes which are disapproved of. After this, attendees are seen to their seats, usually rows of benches. The sexes are segregated during worship; women on the right and men on the left. The tone of Nation services is sombre and quiet. Services typically begin with the statement "As-salamu alaykum" (peace be upon you), with the congregation responding "Wa 'alaikum As-salam" (and also upon you). Meetings at the mosque are both opened and closed with prayers, and the Nation's "national anthem" may be played. A lecture is provided by a minister, who may also read verses from either the Bible or Qur'an.

In the late 1950s, Elijah Muhammad published a prayer manual outlining how his followers should pray five times a day. This involved an ablution beforehand, typically involving washing the hands, face, and ears, symbolically associating physical cleanliness with the purification of the body more broadly. Women are expected to cover their heads while praying. Elijah Muhammad stipulated that these prayers should be in English, although commented that in future he would explain how to do so in Arabic. In later articles, he explained that his followers should face towards Mecca as they pray, symbolising their journey toward the restoration of black greatness.

The most important date in the Nation's year is February 26, Saviours' Day, which is believed to be the birthday of Fard Muhammad. This is the date on which the organization holds its annual national convention. Under Farrakhan, the Nation has also held a second Saviour's Day each year, on October 7, to mark the birth of Elijah Muhammad. In addition to marking festivals, NOI members are encouraged to make the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca; Elijah Muhammad himself did so three times.

Lifestyle

The Nation requests that, as a declaration of mental emancipation, new members change any names inherited from slave-owners who owned their ancestors. This is not considered necessary if the new member has a name that is already African in origin. In the NOI's early years, Wallace Fard Muhammad bestowed new names on followers for a $10 fee. During the mid-20th century the Nation began encouraging the use of "X" as a surname, symbolising what they regarded as the African-American's identity as an "ex-slave" and also as a marker for their lost ancestral name. As this results in many individuals having the same name, numbers are added before the X to differentiate members (i.e. "Charles 2X", "Charles 3X").

The NOI encourages its followers to live highly disciplined and structured lifestyles; this conservative and ascetic approach has led to followers being called "Black Puritans". Nation members are encouraged to obey the law, to seek gainful employment, to always be punctual, to avoid buying on credit, and to never gamble.

Male members typically cut their hair short, sometimes shaving the head entirely, and do not usually wear beards. This signifies their willingness to abide to the Nation's strict rules and reflect their renunciation of much personal choice. They are expected to wear suits with either ties or bowties; those who are part of the Fruit of Islam wear military-style uniforms, sometimes accompanied by a fez. Women are commanded to dress modestly; they are not permitted to wear trousers, are expected to wear long sleeves, and are encouraged to cover their heads. Cosmetics and the chemical or heat-based straightening of hair is also discouraged.

The NOI teaches that practitioners should keep fit and maintain a healthy diet, as part of which it espouses strict dietary rules. Vegetarianism is encouraged among members, although not obligatory, with Elijah Muhammad writing that "meat was never intended for man to eat". In ''How to Eat to Live'', Elijah Muhammad urged his followers to subsist primarily on fruit, vegetables, and certain grains, and to choose lamb if they must eat meat. Discouraged foods include dried fruits, white flour, additives, and fast food. Although its own produce is not wholly organic, the Nation is supportive of organic food and the avoidance of genetically modified crops, insecticides, and pesticides.

The NOI also encourages followers to avoid foods associated with the slave culture of the U.S., such as cornbread, catfish, and collard greens, deeming this cuisine to be undignified. Concerned about obesity and diabetes among African Americans, Elijah Muhammad urged his followers to restrict their caloric intake, ideally by eating only one meal a day. He claimed that this would extend the human lifespan and that those who ate only once every 24 hours would live for 150 years and that those who ate once every seven days would live for 1,050 years. Members are also encouraged to conduct regular three-day fasts, and to fast during the daylight for the entirety of December. The NOI also prohibits the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other recreational drugs, and has recommended the avoidance of vaccines for children.

Economic and educational independence

Espousing economic nationalism, the Nation follows the ideas of earlier thinkers like Booker T. Washington and Marcus Garvey in emphasizing the construction of African American infrastructure as a means of community empowerment. The Nation has created many companies, including the Salaam restaurant chain, the Shabazz bakeries, the Fashahnn Islamic clothing range, the Clean 'N Fresh skin and haircare products, and Abundant Life Clinics. It also owns a mall in Chicago and clothing stores and food markets. These businesses provide income for the NOI and help tackle African American unemployment.

Since the 1980s, the Nation has also sought government contracts, and in 1988, it established the Security Agency Incorporated to provide FOI patrols for clients. In 1985 it launched its POWER (People Organized and Working for Economic Rebirth) project, designed to redirect black purchasing power toward black-owned businesses. It also seeks the collective economic advancement of African Americans through individual achievement; various women members created their own businesses, sometimes run from the home.
Some of its African-American anti-capitalist critics have derided the Nation's economic approach as black capitalism. Farrakhan has responded that while socialism appeals to him, capitalism is the only feasible road to economic empowerment for African-Americans.

The Nation prioritises land ownership to increase food production and autonomy for African Americans; a commonly used slogan among the NOI is that "The farm is the engine of our national life." It established a farm in White Cloud, Michigan in 1947, and by the early 1970s owned 20,000 acres of farm land in Michigan, Alabama, and Georgia. In 1994 Farrakhan's Nation purchased 1,556 acres of rural South Georgia near Bronwood, naming it Muhammad Farms. Much of the produce grown here is distributed to NOI mosques around the country. NOI members also own urban gardens in various U.S. cities.

In 1991, the Nation launched its Three Year Economic Savings Plan, asking followers to send them $10 a month over the three years, money that would collectively allow the group to buy more farmland. For the Nation, acquiring land and growing food is regarded as a means of building self-determination for African Americans. It hopes to establish a system of black-owned farms through which to feed 40 million black people, with the stated aim of providing at least one healthy meal a day for every African American.

The NOI is highly critical of the U.S. school system, believing that, by being Eurocentric in its focus and concealing the achievement of non-white societies, it perpetuates white supremacy. To this end, the Nation has established its own educational system. Across the U.S. it has established Muhammad Universities of Islam; most of these are elementary schools, although a few also offer secondary education. These emphasize science, mathematics, black history, Arabic, and NOI doctrine; Farrakhan has said that they need to provide black children with "an education to make them Gods". In these schools, boys and girls are taught separately; pupils are only given two weeks of vacation each year. Combating the idea that academic achievement entails "acting white", the Nation has sought to associate hard work in school with pride in being black. As well as African-American pupils, some of these schools have also accepted students from Latino, Asian, and Pacific Island communities.

Civic engagement

The Nation has a longstanding record of involvement in civic, economic, and political activities. In some economically deprived areas, it has played a role in providing services that public institutions have not. In some areas with high African-American populations, the NOI has for instance engaged in door-to-door campaigns to raise awareness about local pollution, or used the Fruit of Islam to patrol neighborhoods as a community watchdog, especially to stop drug-dealing. The Nation has also urged African Americans not to rely on state welfare payments, arguing that this undermines the community's ability to be self-sufficient.

The scholar Edward E. Curtis IV stated that the Nation is "both highly religious and political at the same time", while Gardell noted that it "formulated emphatic political demands". However, the NOI has urged its members to avoid mainstream electoral politics; throughout most of his leadership, Elijah Muhammad instructed his followers not to vote. Later, Farrakhan backed Jesse Jackson's 1984 campaign to become the Democratic Party's presidential candidate, and in 1990 three NOI candidates stood for election in the U.S. Although many outsiders have presumed the NOI to be a revolutionary movement, it has not sought to foment political revolution or violent social change, instead focusing its emphasis on shifting the consciousness of its members, encouraging them to focus on personal moral improvement, family building, and economic activity.

History

Background

Islam had a presence in North America prior to the formation of the United States. African Muslims were among the Spanish expeditions that explored the continent during the early modern period, and were also among the many enslaved people transported there via the Atlantic slave trade of the 16th to 19th centuries. It is estimated that, at the time of the American Revolution in the 1760s–80s, approximately 15 percent of enslaved Africans and African Americans in the new United States were Muslim. Although Islam probably died out among the African-American community over subsequent generations, the notion that Islam was a religion historically associated with African Americans influenced the emergence of groups like the NOI in the early 20th century.

The Nation formed in the 1930s, when large numbers of African Americans were migrating from southern states to northern cities, and most of its early members were southern migrants who had settled in Detroit. The early NOI's outlook was informed by various sources, including older forms of black nationalism, Garveyism, the Moorish Science Temple of America, the Jehovah's Witnesses, and Black Freemasonry. In particular, the scholar Dawn Gibson characterised the Nation as having been "born out of a fusion" between the ideas of Garveyism and the Moorish Science Temple.

A major influence on the NOI's ideas was the Jamaican black nationalist Marcus Garvey, who lived in the U.S. from 1916 to 1927 and who formed the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA). Garvey's economic nationalism and calls for black self-sufficiency and enterprise were a particular influence on the Nation, with the scholar Zoe Coley commenting that "UNIA provided the cultural bedrock for the NOI". The Moorish Science Temple, an organization also promoting an idiosyncratic religion that described its teachings as Islam, would also be a key influence on the Nation. This had been established by the North Carolina-born African American Noble Drew Ali in Newark, New Jersey, in 1913. Drew Ali claimed that he was the reincarnation of both Jesus and Muhammad, and maintained that African Americans should refer to themselves as "Moorish Americans", reflecting what he believed were their connections to the Islamic Moors of North Africa.

Wallace Fard Muhammad

The Nation of Islam was founded by Wallace Fard Muhammad, who appeared in Detroit in July 1930, when he began preaching his ideas among the city's African Americans. Fard Muhammad claimed that he was an Arab from Mecca who had come to the United States on a mission to the African-American people, whom he called the "Nation of Islam", to restore them to their original faith. The Nation has since taught that Fard Muhammad was Allah himself. They have claimed that he was born in Mecca on February 26, 1877, the son of a black father and white mother, a woman from the Caucasus Mountains named Baby Gee. Being half-white, the NOI maintain, was necessary for allowing him to move freely in white society.

Outside of the Nation, various theories have been proposed as to Fard Muhammad's true identity. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) later noted that Fard Muhammad's fingerprints matched those of Wallie D. Ford, a white man who had a record of arrests and had served a three-year sentence in San Quentin Prison for drug charges. Ford had been released in May 1929, a year before the appearance of Fard Muhammad. The NOI reject the identification of Fard Muhammad as Ford, claiming that the FBI forged the fingerprint evidence. There have also been suggestions made that, on his release from prison, Fard had joined the Moorish Science Temple of America and subsequently forged his Nation as a breakaway faction.

Fard Muhammad's following grew rapidly. He held meetings three days a week which attracted 7,000 to 8,000 people, some of them former members of the Moorish Science Temple. Fard Muhammad wrote two manuals, the ''Secret Ritual of the Nation of Islam'' and the ''Teaching for the Lost Found Nation of Islam in a Mathematical Way''. He also urged his followers to listen to the radio sermons of the Watch Tower Society and Baptist fundamentalists. He established a bureaucratic administration within the Nation, its own system of schools, and the Fruit of Islam (FOI) paramilitary wing for men and the Muslim Girls Training School for women.

In 1931, an African-American man named Elijah Poole became a disciple of Fard Muhammad. He had been born to a poor family in Bold Springs, Georgia in 1897; his father was a sharecropper and Baptist preacher. In 1923, Poole and his wife Clara relocated to Detroit, where they settled in the black ghetto of Paradise Valley. There, he joined Garvey's UNIA, and worked in industrial plants before becoming unemployed amid the Great Depression. On joining the Nation of Islam, Fard Muhammad gave Poole the new name of Elijah Karriem.

In 1932 the Detroit Police Department arrested an NOI member for a murder which they claimed was a human sacrifice, generating growing press coverage. The police then raided the Nation's headquarters and arrested Fard Muhammad. He was soon released; the killer was declared insane. After this incident, Fard Muhammad gave Elijah Poole increasing powers, declaring him Supreme Minister of the Nation and renaming him Elijah Muhammad. In 1933, Elijah Muhammad then set up a new temple on Chicago's South Side. Fard Muhammad was arrested several further times; in September 1933 he was arrested for disorderly conduct in Chicago, which is his last known verified whereabouts. In 1934, Fard Muhammad disappeared without notifying his followers or designating a successor. Rumours spread that he had moved to Europe or that he had been killed, either by the police or by former followers.

Elijah Muhammad's leadership

With Fard Muhammad gone, Elijah Muhammad became head of the Nation. It was under his leadership "that the NOI's theology crystallized". Elijah Muhammad claimed that Fard Muhammad had been the latest Allah and that he had now returned to his own realm, with Elijah Muhammad remaining on Earth as his messenger. His wife Clara took on the identity of Khadija. Elijah Muhammad relocated the NOI's headquarters to Chicago, and embarked on seven years traveling the US to promote his religion, especially along the East Coast.

During the Second World War, the FBI started monitoring the Nation; FBI informants reported pro-Japanese sentiment being expressed at its meetings. Many Nation members refused the military draft and in September 1942 the FBI arrested 65 NOI members, including Elijah Muhammad, for doing so. Elijah Muhammad was released in August 1946, at which point he found the Nation's membership had declined. He lived at a villa named The Palace in Chicago's Hyde Park area, and in winter moved to a large ranch outside Phoenix, Arizona. Increasingly exposed to Sunni Islam, Elijah Muhammad drew more elements from it into the Nation, and also undertook the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca three times, in 1959, 1967, and 1971.

The group's membership grew during the latter part of the 1950s. In 1959, the FBI encouraged the media to attack the Nation, hoping to discredit it. It was in this year that a documentary about the group, ''The Hate that Hate Produced'', was screened. This press criticism backfired, giving the group significant attention and assisting its recruitment. The NOI became a foil for the civil rights movement, which presented the group as evidence for the harmful effect that poor race relations were having in the U.S. In 1962, Los Angeles police raided one of the Nation's temples; one member was killed and seven injured, attracting national press attention. In 1963, a schism in the Nation's Temple Number 7 in Harlem led to the creation of a new group, the Five Percent Nation of Islam.

One of the Nation's most significant members at this time was Malcolm X. Born Malcolm Little, he discovered the Nation while in prison; following his release in 1952 he rose swiftly through its hierarchy. In 1960, he launched the newspaper ''Muhammad Speaks'', which reached a circulation of over 600,000. In 1963, he became the Nation's first National Representative. He also travelled internationally; in Britain, he met with Michael de Freitas, who converted to the Nation and created a British branch. Another prominent NOI member was the boxer Muhammad Ali. Born Cassius Clay, he encountered the Nation in 1961 and received significant media criticism after announcing his membership of the group in 1964.

Malcolm X went on the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, where he came across white Muslims, an experience that shifted him from his total hostility to white people. In light of these experiences, in March 1964 he left the Nation and became a Sunni Muslim. He began denouncing Elijah Muhammad for his extramarital affairs and accused the Nation of holding back the revolutionary potential of African Americans. In February 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated in New York. The following year, three members of the NOI were convicted of the killing. There was press speculation that the Nation's leaders were complicit, something which damaged the group's reputation; recruitment declined in the latter half of the 1960s. As the Black Power movement emerged in the late 1960s, many observers saw the Nation as its forerunner and a vanguard, with the Nation claiming that it had inspired the movement.

In 1972, the NOI bought the St. Constantine Greek Orthodox Church in Chicago and transformed it into their headquarters temple, Mosque Maryam

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