See also: Wallace Make-up Muhammad

The Nation of Islam, or Lost - found Nation off Islam in North-America , sometimes also called Allah Temple off Islam is the matrix of almost all the current Muslim organizations of the African-American community , and was founded with Detroit, in the North of the the United States, in 1930, by Wallace Fard Muhammad. The Nation of Islam thinks that this one is the Messie (or the Mahdi) awaited by the Moslems. The organization will end even up going appreciably further, by regarding it as God incarnated.

One about it knows very few things or on his precise ideology. For the Nation of Islam, it would have come in the world in 1877 to Mecque, in Saudi Arabia, before coming to preach the black people in America, then to give up its physical incarnation in 1934, date on which it disappears mysteriously. For FBI, it was called in fact Wallace Dodd Ford or Wallace Dodd, born in 1891 in New Zealand, and would be a white Métis Polynésien arrived at the the United States in 1913. It would have been stopped in 1918 for hold-up, stopped again at the beginning of 1926 for infringement with the law California of Prohibition of alcohol, and finally would have made prison of 1926 with 1929 for infringement with the legislation on the amazing . It would then have settled with Detroit, before creating Nation off Islam in 1930.

In November 1932 bursts a business which threatened the young organization. A human sacrifice was made by a member, Robert Karriem (born Harris) qualified “unbalanced”. Make-up was stopped with Karriem. According to the police report of the time, he would have denied any responsibility in the crime. During the interrogation, it would have ended up indicating that the creation of the organization was strictly a racket . In 1934, under the pressure of the police force, it would have left Detroit. The file of FBI proposes several assumptions as for what it would have become thereafter, but does not have direct information on this subject. They are primarily references to other sources, like articles of newspapers.

Whatever the real motivations of the creator of the organization, this one gathers after its disappearance of 1934 an small group of convinced and militant members, who will make of it in about thirty years a strong organization of tens of thousands of members.

Elijah Muhammad (1897-1975)

See also: Elijah Muhammad

After the mysterious disappearance of Wallace Make-up Muhammad in 1934, Elijah Muhammad takes the direction of the movement, which was at the time still groupusculaire.

Elijah Poole was born in Georgia (southern of the the United States), but settled with Detroit (Northern of the United States) in 1923. It followed in that the great migration of the black of the time, since the agricultural south, poor and segregationist of the United States, towards industrial north, richer and a little more tolerant with regard to the blacks. But even in North, racial discriminations persist, generating a virulent hatred of the white . To Strait, Poole comes into contact in 1931^, with Fard Muhammad, and rejoins its incipient organization. It takes the name of Elijah Muhammad, but is also made know under the names of Gulan Bogans, or about Mohamed Rassoul speaks in connection with NoI about the time about a climate about organisational chaos and of intrigues surrounding disappearance of its founder . For Nation off Islam on the other hand, it is Wallace Fard Muhammad which chose to be its divine representative in the continuation of this so difficult task to bring the truth and the light to its lost and found people . From now on with the head of the organization, it takes the title of “messenger of God”, under whom the organization continues today to indicate it. It starts to extend this one, still limited in 1934 to Detroit and Chicago. It is the industrial North-East which proves to be most receptive. Muhammad there creates a series of temples (which will be later renamed Mosquée S), and calls them according to their number of creation. Thus, with New York, the historical mosque is always indicated under the name of mosque number 7 (at the origin temple N° 7), because it is the seventh founded (or visited) by Elijah Muhammad.

Ideology

Concerning the formation of the ideology of the movement, the share exact to allot to the founder Wallace Make-up Muhammad, and that to allot to Elijah Muhammad remain difficult to establish. Although NoI proposes its religious nature, the slope socio-policy of sound Idéologie is not less strongly marked. The ideological vision of Nation off Islam was formalized in the Muslim Program of 1965, always into force, but the essence of these sets of themes was already clearly marked as of the years 1930. In spite of a certain moderation of the interpretation of the basic principles (in particular the rejection of the white ), NoI of the beginning of the 21e century has an ideological positioning very similar to that of its beginnings.

Religious vision

The Théologie of NoI is rather far away from the orthodoxe Islam. Certain aspects are indeed clearly unacceptable for this one:

• Islam is the true religion of the black man, and is reserved for the Blacks, and in theory with the other populations “of color”. According to a speech of Elijah Muhammad: you can easily distinguish them [[white Race|White]] of our people (dark, brown, yellow or red) . In practice, it there forever have true attempt of NoI to address to other ethnic groups that the Afro-américain S. the Islam insists on the contrary on its universal vocation.
• the Blancs are a lower race, created by a black scientist, name of Yakub, 6000 years ago. They are the representatives of the devil on the ground, but prophecies announce the end of their reign. The black man produced these four colors: brown, red, yellow and white the black man, however, is the creator of all Maintenant, large Mahdi (God in person) with its wisdom, knowledge and comprehension infinite, will give the original black man in the original situation or he was at the beginning, God and the governor of the universe . This idea according to which the blacks are the human original ones existed already in African-American organizations preceding, like The church off God , a group of Hebrew blacks created in 1915.
• the inter-racial marriages are prohibited: We believe that the mixed marriages or the mixture of the races should be prohibited .
• God is not a spirit, because we live in a material universe , and of this fact God is a man . God must be a man, and not a spectrum . Actually, there was God at the beginning which created all these things and we know that there does not exist today, but we still know that of this God, the person of God persisted until today in her Noirs people, and today a supreme being (God) appeared among us with same infinite wisdom to cause a complete change . Allah came to us from the Holy City from Mecque, Arabia, in 1930. It employed the name of Wallace D. Fard . For the orthodoxe Moslems, this disappearance of creative God of the origins, and its replacement by racial collective God of which emerges God/higher man is unacceptable. Thus, for example, according to the Coran (33: 40) Muhammad the messenger of God, and the last of the prophets . Any person claiming to be a Prophète since the death of Muhammad is thus by definition always considered as a false prophet by the orthodoxe Islam, a fortiori if he proclaims God in person.
• WE BELIEVE in the Résurrection of dead - not in physical resurrection - but the resurrection of the spirit . Orthodoxies Sunnites and Chiites affirm on the other hand a physical resurrection of died before the last Jugement.

One can also note a strong belief in the Numérologie, which will have besides an important influence on the movement after the death of Elijah Muhammad, with the choice of the seventh wire of Muhammad like new leader.

There are joint positions with the Islam or the Christianisme: prohibition of the sexual relationships except marriage, assertion of family values , role directing of the man within the family unit. Thus, the official site of NoI indicates, One teaches with our wives a code of modest clothing which encourages the practice of a high morality .

The consumption of Porc is prohibited, in accordance with the teaching of the Islam. NoI also insists on the respect of the five Piliers of Islam. The consumption of Drug, but also of Tobacco and alcohol is discredited, in agreement with the traditional Moslem vision.

The religion, particularly the Christianity, taught everywhere the lie according to which we were the descendants of Kham wire of [[Noah (patriarch)|Noah]] condemned, him and its descendants, with being slaves of the White . The religion of the White, the Christianity, is the religion of the Esclavage and the evil. Orthodoxe Islam admits on the other hand to a certain extent the validity of the Christianisme. It is noted however that under the direction of Louis Farrakhan, the speech is partly inflects. If the Christianisme remains responsible for slavery, it is allowed that it is carrying a certain value if he releases himself from historical sound Racisme: With my Christian brothers and sisters which is present, Jesus was not an accident. Jesus was a grateful man towards his Father. He was a man so much in agreement with God, he remained so much in the light of his Father who he became the light of the world . Just like in the Islam, the acceptance of the Christianisme exists today partially. The set of themes is however different. Islam criticizes the deification of Jesus, when the Nation of Islam criticizes especially the Racisme Christianisme having allowed the Esclavage.

There are finally certain Christian influences. The places of worship in the beginning are called of the temples, for example. The ministers of religion are called “ ministers ”, and not Imam.

Social and political independence of the Blacks

See also: black Nationalism in the United States

The ideology of Nation off Islam is not limited to the religious field. It has also a strong social and political, indifferent component from an Islamic point of view, and that the organization can divide in whole or part with other nationalist groups Afro-américains. The central idea is the independence of the black people in America.

This idea is expressed at the territorial level by the will to create an independent State black, for example in the South of the United States, even if it means to organize a massive displacement of the Blacks towards this new country. We want that our people in America whose parents and grandparents were descendants of slaves can establish a separate State . This project was however never really supported by concrete initiatives: racial separatism that Muhammad practiced was more symbolic system than anything else, limited to build a black identity and with the creation of institutions and companies directed by Blacks. The ground change-tremors, such as the destruction of the “white devil” and the monumental spot of the transport and the reinstalment of twenty million Blacks elsewhere, were left with Allah, which would choose its own hour to act , both imposed by the owner of the new slave.
Les first names of the novel members of NoI is not always changed, but when they are it is for the benefit of Islamic first names. Family names are also frequently changed, generally in favor of a Moslem name, but sometimes also of a African name or “X” symbolic system, expressing the obliteration of the historical patronym by slavery.

Independence must be also built in the economic domain. Nation off Islam very early insisted on the need for the black Blacks in general, and the “Moslems” in particular, to build black companies and to buy preferentially in these companies. It is a question on the one hand of acquiring a more favoured social status, and on the other hand not to depend more on the white owners, marked of Racisme. For this reason, the organization created as of years 1930 of the companies under its control, but also encouraged its members to create their own companies, while supporting the employment of the members of the community and the economic relations with the other “Moslem” companies. Success was partly with go, and a small but active fabric of affiliated undertakings directly or indirectly to NoI was affirmed with the years.
A vestimentary code expressing this will of social rise is requested from the members of the organization. For the men, it is about the port of a strict costume three-roomed flat, with Cravate, or frequently with a Bow tie. For the women, they are modest behaviors. We want that all the black children are educated, taught and involved by their own professors.}}

Synthesis

Development

Consolidation

As of the years following the disappearance of its founder, Nation off Islam sets up the Savior's Day (day of the saver), each February 26th, dates birthday from the birth supposed from Master W.D. Fard Muhammad, born on February 26th, 1887 in the holy city of Mecque . With time, the Savior's Day became an important religious holiday of the community, being used as marker of the identity of this one, and giving certain years places to gatherings of masse.
In 1934 takes place the first diffusion of The Final Cal to Islam , first newspaper of NoI. This one and its successors will have intermittent publications, but which will be reinforced with time, improving the capacity of communication of NoI.
The day before the Second world war, the young organization, still very modest, takes place already its of worship (still called “temples” at the time), its ideology, its framing, its religious holidays and its bodies of communication.

During the Second world war, the Nation of Islam affirms its opposition to the US government by refusing any collaboration with the effort of war. According to a report/ratio of FBI N° 100-9129 of September 30th 1942, Elijah Muhammad would have, with meetings held between on September 11th and on September 18th, 1942, declared that the Japan board are their brothers. Complaints were recorded with Chicago showing the Mohammed subject of sedition of conspiracy . According to a report/ratio of the FBI of December 19th 1942, Elijah Muhammad would be on this date under the blow of a judgment at three years of prison approximately 65 members were stopped with Chicago (it was stopped at the end of September 1942). In 1943, still very small, Nation off Islam is described by a report/ratio of FBI as being strongly pro-Japanese woman, and its leaders advise with its members to refuse to be made record for the effort of war while indicating that they are already recorded with Mecque . This report/ratio also states that the leaders of the temples located at Milwaukee, Washington DC and Chicago were accused for sedition .

These reports/ratios confirm the very oppositional report/ratio of the members of NoI with the US government, even in crisis period. NoI having only a few hundreds of members at the time, his impact on the American effort of war was null. The war however was a moment when the organization could affirm in a spectacular way its head-on opposition with white government , thus contributing to make known itself.

After the war, the police pressure grows blurred, and NoI can take again its development efforts. Muhammad itself leaves in 1946 the federal prison Milan, Michigan, or it was since 1942. In 1952, NoI recruits Malcolm Little, more known under the name of Malcolm X, which will become an important craftsman of the strong development of the years 1950 and beginning of the year 1960.

Expansion: the Years Malcolm X

See also: Malcolm X

The Years 1950 and the beginning of the Années 1960 saw the organization passing from a few hundreds of members (500 estimated in 1952) to tens of thousands (: 30000 estimated in 1963). Until 1964 Malcolm X, was the principal spokesperson of the doctrines of Elijah Muhammad , and becomes the most visible and known leader of NoI, especially after its nomination like “national spokesperson of Nation off Islam ”.

Malcolm Little (1925 - 1965) was born with Omaha, in the Nebraska. His/her father was a preacher Baptist and a defender of Marcus Garvey (a nationalist black), and died in a way discussed (perhaps assassinated) in 1931. After a schooling prematurely stopped and placements in various hearths of reception, Malcolm Little settles with Boston, in his/her half-sister, then share for Harlem (New York), where he quickly becomes a delinquent.

During the Second world war, it is reformed 4-F (mentally disturbed). According to its autobiography, he would have declared, in order to be refused, that he wanted a weapon for to kill out of the crackers , pejorative term indicating the white. Besides well before its autobiography, the FBI quotes a mail of June 29th, 1950 or he writes they will never accept me in the US Army . Everyone always said Malcolm is insane, as is not it not difficult to convince people as I am it .

To 21 years, in 1946, it is condemned to a sorrow from eight to ten years of prison following burglings. In 1948, his/her Reginald brother, who converted with Nation off Islam , addresses a mail to him where it presses it to convert, which it makes little time afterwards. After its conversion, he becomes an avid prisoner of reading, constitutes a good self-educated culture and starts to correspond by mail with Elijah Muhammad.

After its release in August 1952, it meets this one with Chicago. According to one of the practices of NoI, it changes its family name, and takes that of “X”. Located by Elijah Muhammad, he becomes an effective and dynamic preacher, of a great honesty with respect to this one. For these reasons, it quickly assembles the levels of the small organization which is still Nation off Islam .

Six months only after its release, in February 1953, proof of its increasing importance, FBI opens a file relating to it. It is suspecté there communist sympathies .

In 1953, at 27 years, he becomes initially an assistant of the temple N° 1. This spectacular growth is due to the meeting between the alarm clock of the black militancy in all the country and an ideology of the particularly radical black pride. But it is undeniable that it is also largely due to the missionary activity of Malcolm X. It is within the framework of this spectacular growth of adhesions that in 1955 Louis Eugene Walcott, singer of Calypso and Violoniste, joined the Nation of Islam, and takes the name of Louis Farrakhan. Nation off Islam attracts also celebrates it boxer Cassius Clay, who will take the Moslem name of Mohammed Ali.

Starting from the end of the Years 1950, NoI gains an increasing media visibility. It is in particular the documentary one televised of Mike Wallace in 1959, The Hate that Hate Produced (hatred which the hatred produced), which reveals NoI at the national level. Better speaker of the organization, Malcolm X becomes one accustomed of the televised plates, and is regularly interviewed by the written press and broadcast. Per hour of the first African independences and fight for the civic rights of the Blacks, the anxious rapid growth of NoI and fascine the Media. Proof of the increasing importance of the organization, X is integrated as a representative of NoI within a committee of black personalities of various horizons which meets Fidel Castro on September 19th 1960, at the time of the visit of this one into the the United States.

December 24th, 1959, Elijah Muhammad and its sons make the pilgrimage with Mecque. In spite of its distance of orthodoxe Islam, the Saoudi authorities let the leader of Nation off Islam take part in the Hadj , for unknown reasons, perhaps by ignorance of the organization.

Malcolm X is not the only media vector of the organization. This one is expressed also largely through the American black press. The men of the Nation of Islam sold The Crusader and The Pittsburgh Courier , the Amsterdam News and the Westchester (N.Y.) Observer because they contained the message of Mr. Muhammad, often surrounded in the same page by advertisements for the companies with Moslem capital which supported the work of Mr. Muhammad. In The Curier and The Crusader , the column was called Mr. Muhammad Speaks . In The Amsterdam News it was entitled Le Monde of Islam and The Observer published the lesson of Mr. Muhammad in a series called: the Paradise of the white man is the hell of the black man . Some of these newspapers had a broad diffusion, since the The Pittsburgh Courier would have distributed: 350000 copies per week in 1957. The Adultère is completely contrary with the lesson of Nation off Islam . After having drawn aside this information, Malcolm X would have ended up obtaining confirmation in 1963 from it. Elijah Muhammad itself would have ends up indicating that being the envoy of God on ground, it was not subject to same the rules as the common run of people. These events strongly seem to have deteriorated the confidence of X in the holiness of Elijah Muhammad.

The second subject of divergence relates to the policy: Malcolm X was interested by the movement for the civic rights of the Blacks such as it developed since 1955. If the official Idéologie of the movement were opposed to the black Nationalisme, and asserted simply a statute of normal American for the Blacks, X considered that there was to be a presence of the black nationalists and black muslims in what seemed the first great black movement of mass of the history of the United States. Elijah Muhammad was on the other hand hostile at the end of the Racial segregation and the support for a movement in which many white progressists were. It feared the dissolution of the Blacks in an American unit dominated by the White.

The third dispute relates to the Religion: Malcolm X started to be interested in the official Islam sunnite, and realized that the Religion preached by Elijah Muhammad of it was very distant. The interest shown by X with regard to orthodoxe Islam could thus only move away it from its mentor.

One can finally quote divergences of ambitions: X within the black community will have in general and of Nation off Islam in particular, its important mediatization, seem to have worried Elijah Muhammad.

In 1963, after the assassination of the president Kennedy, all these divergences burst on the public place, after a discussed declaration of X. This one declared indeed which violence that Kennedy had not been able to stop turned over against him. He added ( the chickens returning to the hen house never return to me sad, they return to me only happy - In French, Chickens coming home to roost has a significance close to “which sows the wind collects the storm”). This sentence could be included/understood like an approval of the assassination. Elijah Muhammad repudiated this declaration, and prohibited with X any public statement during 90 days, injunction which Malcolm X obeys. But the relations between the two men reached their point of rupture. In its autobiography, X even affirms that one of its assistants would then have indicated to him to have received the order of the direction of NoI to kill it.

March 8th 1964, Malcolm X announced its departure of the Nation of Islam. The March 12th, it announced the creation of its own organization “ mosque The Muslim Inc. ”. Little time after, it converts with orthodoxe Islam sunnite. The April 13rd 1964, Malcolm X left the Aéroport John Fitzgerald Kennedy to make the pilgrimage with the Mecque (the Hajj) of which it returned under the Moslem name of Malik El-Shabazz. His wife and her daughters took the family name of Shabazz then.

He off condemned the Racisme anti-white of Nation Islam . But Malcolm X remained faithful to an action turned in a privileged way towards the black people. He as refused to condemn the violence of oppressed, and had rather hard words for holding of non-violence, as he showed to encourage with the tender.

Little time after its return of Mecque, Malcolm X founded the “organization for the unit Afro-American”, a nonreligious political group. He thus affirms his will to carry out at the same time a religious fight for the Islam, and a political struggle for the Blacks, both functioning in an autonomous way.

The tension between Malik El-Shabazz and Nation off Islam did not cease growing. The February 14th 1965, its house was the object of an bomb attack, and he was assassinated of 15 balls the February 21st 1965. Two months before, Louis Farrakhan had written such a man is worthy to die . Three members of Nation off Islam will be recognized guilty in 1966: Norman 3X Butler, Thomas 15X Johnson and Talmadge Hayer. The organization itself will deny any participation in the assassination. Betty Shabazz woman of Malcolm X, which died in 1997, publicly showed Farrakhan of a role in the murder . It was also considered that the FBI was informed of the project of assassination and covered it, even helped. This assumption was taken again by NoI.

With its death, the project of Malcolm X to create an Islam sunnite within the black community, integrated in Islam world and breaking with the Racisme seems a failure. Its organization will remain groupusculaire, and Elijah Muhammad will firmly maintain its influence on American black Islam until its death, in 1975.

Evolution towards the sunnism

See also: Warith Deen Muhammad

The February 26th 1975, Elijah Muhammad dies. In accordance with its numerologic beliefs, it indicates its seventh wire, Warith Deen Muhammad (born Wallace D. Mohammed in 1933) to succeed to him.

Warith Deen Muhammad will admit later being influenced by the thought of Malcolm X (of which he was a close friend), which will be rehabilitated besides by the movement (a Mosquée will take even its name).

Into three years, between 1975 and 1978, it transforms basic into roof the Idéologie of the movement, and on a religious basis sunnite brings it, while breaking with the racist ideology and nationalist of its father. The idea that we had community is not Islamic, and comes the days of the black nationalism . The project of an independent State for the Blacks is thus abandoned.

The strong typical centralization of Nation off Islam is reformed, in order to support a broad decentralization of the Mosquée S, in conformity with the tradition of the Sunnisme: our religion does not require the degree of organization and centralized control which we used. The Moslems are right Moslems, and they go to the mosque, and it is all .

Warith Deen Muhammad became a religious leader respected and impossible to circumvent with the the United States. It will be asked to him in 1992 to make a prayer with the American senate, and it is him which will make the Moslem prayer at the time of the interdenominational prayer for the nomination of the president Clinton, in 1997.

Recasting of Nation off Islam

See also: Louis Farrakhan

In 1978, a group of historical members of the Nation of Islam, directed by Louis Farrakhan, decides to reorganize around the lesson of Elijah Muhammad. In 1981, Louis Farrakhan proclaims officially the restoration of the Nation of Islam, and fidelity with the dogmas of Elijah Muhammad. The “news” NoI continues like the legitimate continuatrice of the organization created by Elijah Muhammad, as well in the religious plan as in the plan of the nationalism Afro-American. In practice, the context evolved/moved compared to the years 1930 or 1960, in particular in three fields:

• the report/ratio with the other Blacks. With the development of desegregation and the development of a better integrated black middle-class, NoI was brought to develop a more important dialog with the other groups of the black community than than practiced Elijah Muhammad. Under the direction of Louis Farrakhan, the organization even became very unit, insistent on the necessary unit of the black community, whereas Elijah Muhammad remained with the variation of the large black organizations anti-segregation: Minister Farrakhan was welcome in innumerable churches . For the true political rehabilitation of the community, minister Farrakhan was re-recorded to vote in June 1996 and trained a coalition of religious, civic organizations and policies to carry the voice of those which are private civic rights in the political scene .
• the report/ratio with the other black Moslems. Following the reforms of the son of Elijah Muhammad, the sunnites became majority within the communities Black Muslims . The obligation to be defined compared to them became thus essential, and involved a bringing together with the practices sunnites, even if the doctrines remain different on certain points.
• the report/ratio at the american company in general. With its development and its institutionalization, the organization had to evolve/move as for its radical rejection of the United States. Criticism is always there, but the refusal of the members of NoI to regard itself as American, refusal often repeated at the time of Elijah Muhammad gradually fell in disuse with the call to take part in the elections. The support for this candidate with the democratic nomination for the elections presidential of November 1984 is an innovation compared to the traditionally distant attitude of NoI compared to the American institutions and with the other organizations Afro-américain be. The organization of Louis Farrakhan insists from now on on its supports with all that can advance the black condition in the USA. It is group of safety Fruit off Islam , of NoI which kept Jesse Jackson during the presidential campaign of 1984 before the secret services do not undertake any . This type of “anti-American” declaration, as well as the anti-white and anti-Jewish image of the organization posed certain problems with Jesse Jackson, which had to take its distances. The countryside of Jesse Jackson however was an important moment for Nation off Islam , which was thus found under the fire of the Média S, and could affirm its black militancy, three years only after the official recasting of the organization.

Development of American black Islam

The orthodoxe ones limit ethnic specificity of their movement. While preserving a sensitivity Afro-American marked, they insist on their integration in the world Islam and within the American nation. For this reason, they remove theological specificities which differentiated them from the other Moslems, and they insist on compatibility between the fact of being a good Moslem, and a good American. Prohibition to vote or to begin in the army was raised. Partisans of Warith Deen Muhammad the racial harmony, the brotherly love and American patriotism profess now . Warith Deen Muhammad will thus take part in an oecumenical prayer with the American congress in the years 1990, under the presidency of Bill Clinton.

NoI, of dimensioned sound, remains officially faithful to its particularisms, so much theological (with respect to the Sunnisme) that policies (with respect to the the United States). One however notes a certain evolution of the practices of the organization. The quotations of the Coran are done more, the “temples” are renamed “Mosquée S”, the respect of the five pillars of Islam is proposed, the anti-white attitude is strongly moderated, the vote with the elections from now on is encouraged. One can read there an attempt at adaptation of the organization vis-a-vis the Islamic religious legitimacy more important of the black muslims sunnites, but also the will to obtain a certain respectability in connection with the increasing weight of NoI.

The million man march of 1995

Louis Farrakhan paid an special attention to the Africa, and accomplished several voyages there, although a permanent establishment does not seem to be obtained, nor inevitably required.
In 1986, for example, Farrakhan organizes a voyage five days in Nigeria with 14 assistants and bodyguards , causing certain negative reactions in the pays.
In May 1993, Farrakhan goes with Libreville, the Gabon to take part in the second African top - Afro-American. In October 1994, Minister Farrakhan took along 2000 Blacks of America towards Accra, with the Ghana, for the first international Savior's Day of international Nation off Islam of the saver ]. The Ghanaian president Jerry Rawlings opened and enclosed officially this convention 5 days.
In 1996, Farrakhan went in Libya, at the time under sanction of the the United Nations, to receive the Prix Kadhafi of the human rights, supplied with a sum of: 250000 dollars. It has had for summer often reproached the Nation of Islam for being financed by the Libya.

December 18th, 1997, Farrakhan could meet sheik Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the person in charge of Al-Azhar, the most prestigious mosque sunnite of the world.

These voyages reinforce the media visibility of NoI, and reaffirm the bonds between the Africa and wire and girls of Africa to the the United States of America, in the the Caribbean, in Central America and of the South, like with the Canada .

By the means of commercial subsidiary companies, Fruit off Islam , famous for its effectiveness, contracted a certain number of contracts with municipalities. Thus, the security companies related to NoI led operations to Baltimore, Buffalo, Chicago, Dallas, Dayton, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York and Washington .

Although the firms related to FoI have good performances, they are the object of a certain suspicion of the Médias. Several points worry.

On the one hand, these firms recruit much among former prisoners. It is a characteristic of all the groups black muslims, which have an important activity in the Prisons in order to bring the prisoners to the “repentance” and with the “hello”. This activity missionary and to a certain extent supported besides by the prison authorities themselves, through the Chaplain S Moslems. The strict discipline, which is one of the characteristics of Nation off Islam in general and of Fruit off Islam in particular, to date avoided any important overflow, in spite of certain problems (excessive use of the force or defect of co-operation with the police force, for example).

In addition, some fear the development of a true paramilitary branch of NoI, in relation to its objectives “anti-American”, as the creation of an independent black State (this objective is always posted on the site of NoI, but actively does not seem not defended). For this reason, certain declarations could reinforce the suspicions. Thus, William/Abdul Sharieff Muhammad, Suprem Captain of Fruit off Islam , indicated 1992 to the Final Cal , the official bulletin of NoI, " we have a military structure within which we involve our hommes" . But she insists on her capacity to bring back them with dimensions one of the law, and on the competence which they bring in the comprehension of the Délinquance: as regards safety, Nation off Islam has credibility in the streets . Although there is no evolution on these dogmas, interpretation that “the new” Nation off Islam gives some is somewhat standardized. The claim of a particular “Islam”, or that of black separatism (independent State, separated schools, refusal of the mixed marriages) are thus always officially into force, but with inflections.

The rejection of the Christianity, religion of the white, strongly attenuated. NoI, in accordance with its “unit” speech Afro-américain developed much his relations with the Pasteur S American blacks, and thus insists hardly any more on the rejection militant of Christianity.

The religious practices also approached Islam sunnite. Farrakhan insists from now on enormously on the traditional practices of Islam sunnite, including the pilgrimage in Mecque, and has succeeds in meeting of the important leader Moslems, like in December 1997 the person in charge of the large mosque Al-Azhar of the Cairo.
On another side, NoI estimates that the Jews were partly responsible for the Esclavage Blacks and its horrible consequences (this thesis rests on a book very disputed The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews , published in 1990 pennies the aegis of NoI) The Jews were implied in the dreadful trade of the slaves and thus have a certain responsibility in the results terrifying for our setting in slavery and the flight for our culture, name, language, God, religion and history critical in diplomatic Le Monde of May 2006 this book as being one Tall story anti-semite .
Plusieurs academic works shows that the feelings anti-Jews are always quite present within NoI. Louis Farrakhan also could declare in an interview: many the Juif S which had the houses, the apartments of the black community, we regarded them as nozzles of blood. When the Jews leave, the Arab S Palestinian S come, the Korea NS come, the Vietnam iens… we call them the nozzles of blood .

In practice, the positioning of Nation off Islam is ambiguous today:

• Not sunnite, but insisting much on the common points with the Islam. In particular, the members of Nation off Islam respect the five fundamental obligations of the Moslem, but their maintained belief according to which Wallace Fard Muhammad was incarnated God is unacceptable for an orthodoxe Moslem.
• more officially racist, but not always very far from a skid.
• Insistent on the responsibility for the men compared to the women maltreated of the community, but from the point of view rather sexist for natural domination of the man on the woman.

The perception of Nation off Islam is thus also ambiguous. Its black speech militant gives him a real influence on the black community, but its positions with the edge of the Racisme and the reproaches of Sexisme are worth a certain mistrust to him. In 2000, Warith Deen Muhammad and Louis Farrakhan were thus officially reconciled, but the divergences did not disappear for as much.

Synthesis

In spite of the evolutions of Nation off Islam , Islam sunnite continuous to refuse this group like really Moslem. The three points which pose more the problem are:

• the assertion according to which God (Allah) incarnated himself in Wallace Fard Muhammad.
• the refusal of the physical resurrection of died at the end of times. Nation off Islam believes in an only spiritual resurrection.
• the racial thought of the group, which results amongst other things by its refusal to open with the White and in the prohibition of the mixed marriages.

In a more general way, Nation off Islam continues to be considered by its detractors, in particular American, like a movement Raciste and Antisémite.

But in part of the black community, NoI sees its popularity growing thanks to its speech mixing religion and black nationalism. The actual weight of the organization is difficult to appreciate. One estimates between 1 and 2 million the number of black muslims living with the the United States in 2006. Between 5 and 10  % of the black Moslems would concern mosques of NoI or would be sympathizers. The direct and active members would be rather between 20 and: 40000, without there existing on this point (in 2007) a study achieving the unanimity. But the influence of the organization in the not-monk fields exceeds today clearly this perimeter.

See too

Internal bonds

• Moorish Science Temple off America
• Moslem American blacks
• Malcolm X
• Elijah Muhammad
• Wallace Make-up Muhammad
• Khalid Abdul Muhammad
• Kémi Séba
• Movement of the civic rights to the United States
• black Nationalism in the USA

External bonds

• the official site of the French branch of '' Nation off Islam ''.
• Islam in the United States by the State Department.
• Children of Allah and America, Article of the monthly magazine the Express train.
• history of NoI by NoI, on the French site of '' Nation off Islam ''.
• history of NoI on a site devoted to racism anti-white.
• the official site of '' Nation off Islam ''.
• the file of the FBI concerning Wallace Muhammad Make-up.
• the file of the FBI on Malcolm X, put on line within the framework of the Freedom information act .
• vision of '' Nation off Islam '' on Wallace Muhammad Make-up.
• an article of the " Subway Times Detroit" on Wallace Muhammad Make-up.
• '' Muhammad Speaks '', retranscribing site of the speeches of Elijah Muhammad.
• '' final The cal '', weekly magazine of '' Nation off Islam ''.
• '' Emergence off Islam in the African-American Community ''.
• '' Louis Farrakhan and The Nation off Islam '' pdf .
• ''How Elijah Muhammad Won''.
• '' Nation off Islam, Encyclopedia Americana ''.
• has Century off Islam in America '' pdf .
• Online version of '' Message to the Blackman in America '', by Elijah Muhammad
• '' Louis Farrakhan and the Nation off Islam: Part One ''
• '' has off Brief Look At the Roots and Development The Nation off Islam ''