Saviours’ Day 2000

The Nation of Islam Evolves

by Joe Auciello

Elijah Muhammad’s biological and spiritual sons — Wallace Deen Mohammed and Louis Farrakhan, respectively — stood together on the same platform for the first time in 25 years at the Nation of Islam’s annual Saviours’ Day Convention on February 27 this year. The public embrace and warm testimony of the two men signals the beginning of the end of a long rivalry and split in the Black Muslim movement, whose combined membership numbers in the hundreds of thousands.

Elijah Muhammad led the Nation of Islam from the 1930s until his death in 1975. His most significant convert was Malcolm X, who helped to build the Muslim movement throughout the 1950s and 1960s, lifting the Nation up from obscurity. As Malcolm explains in his Autobiography, “I had either directly established, or I had helped to establish, most of the one hundred or more mosques in the fifty states” (p. 296). Malcolm was forced out of the Nation of Islam in 1964 and assassinated in the following year.

Upon Elijah Muhammad’s death, his son Wallace took over the organization and provided it with a new direction. He quickly shed his father’s race-based doctrines and asserted, contrary to previous NOI belief, that Wallace D. Fard was not divine and Elijah Muhammad was not the final prophet. (Elijah Muhammad had met Fard in the 1930s and believed Fard was an incarnation of Allah who designated Elijah as His last prophet.) Wallace Deen Mohammed also rearranged the NOI’s internal structure, disbanding the Fruit of Islam, among other measures. W. Deen Mohammed ultimately renamed his followers as the Muslim American Society. This group adopted the teachings of traditional Islam, which makes no racial distinctions among Muslims and which holds that the seventh century Mohammed was the final prophet of Islam.

By 1978 these actions provoked a reaction, as the NOI’s former National Minister Louis Farrakhan led a breakaway faction to reform the Nation of Islam along its former lines. Farrakhan, of course, reasserted the beliefs that Elijah Muhammad was the final prophet to mankind and W.D. Fard was God incarnate. As Farrakhan explains now, “I did it because I feared that the man I loved would be written out of history.”

The Nation of Islam has always been smaller than the Muslim American Society. Estimates for NOI membership range from 50,000 to 100,000, while the Muslim American Society has an estimated 200,000 members. Yet the influence of the NOI in the Black community and in the country at large far outweighs its numbers.

At the year 2000 Saviours’ Day Conference Minister Farrakhan declared his changed beliefs, which place him squarely within the mainstream traditions of Islam. For the first time, also, the stage did not include oversized images of W.D. Fard and Elijah Muhammad. Instead, according to the March 15 issue of the NOI’s newspaper, The Final Call, “The podium on stage inside resembled the U.S. Capitol, with a huge photo of the Million Man March serving as a backdrop” (March 15).

Farrakhan did not denounce or criticize Elijah Muhammad. Rather, Farrakhan praised him while breaking with his doctrine and subtly demoting Elijah Muhammad from the status of divinely-guided prophet. “I don’t believe that to accept the [7th Century] prophet Muhammad that we have to denigrate, deny and disrespect the man who got us started down this road. I don’t think that Allah would be pleased with me if I embraced the Prophet Muhammad and disrespected the man that suffered to bring me up to a position where I could see the prophet, respect the prophet, follow the prophet, and be a true servant of the prophet.”

At the Second International Islamic Conference, held a few days before the Saviours’ Day Convention, Farrakhan also addressed the question of Elijah Muhammad’s role. According to the on-line edition of The Final Call: “Min. Farrakhan stressed the relevance of the teachings of the most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. He also explained the necessity of the methodology of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad’s teacher, Master Fard Muhammad.

 “‘As a man who studied the condition of our head and the condition of white America’s head, so what [if he] he used a strange methodology [to teach us],’ said Min. Farrakhan. ‘[Master Fard Muhammad] didn’t prescribe what you thought he should, but the patient is on the road to recovery,’ he said.” (Posted on web site, February 26, 2000.)

In his speech at the Saviours’ Day Convention, Minister Farrakhan spoke directly to W. Deen Mohammed. “Twenty-five years later, I know that your father wanted this…From this day forward, the Imam Mohammed and I, no matter what our little problems are, will work them out for the glory of Allah.”

As reported in The Final Call, Farrakhan elaborated on the theme of reconciliation. “‘The Imam and I will be together until death overtakes us and we will work together for the cause of Islam. We will work together for the establishment of Islam; not only among our people, but to establish Islam in the Americas,’ said Min. Farrakhan, whose entrance and embrace of Imam Mohammed ignited thunderous applause, and resounding cheers. ‘Allah-u Akbar! (God is great!)’ rang out, and many wiped joyous tears from their eyes as the two men hugged and kissed one another on the cheek” (March 15).

The report of the audience’s reaction is no doubt a deliberate effort to underscore the approval and support of Minister Farrakhan’s change of course and cement the loyalty of any wavering members. It is possible that a splinter group could emerge from the NOI — and no one is more aware of that possibility than Farrakhan himself. It would be possible, in fact, to use Farrakhan’s own words against him. When Malcolm X, 35 years ago, criticized the NOI for its mistaken interpretation of Islam, Farrakhan was among the first to denounce him as “traitor” and “hypocrite.”

Unlike Malcolm X, though, Farrakhan is able to change the Nation of Islam’s direction from within, and there is no one in a position of authority over him. Unlike W. Deen Mohammed, Farrakhan will not jettison the legacy of Elijah Muhammad but will instead revise it.

The Chicago Tribune quoted the analysis of Salim Muwakkil, a former Nation of Islam official: “He’s trying to make this palatable to them by making it combative, by giving them a mission …There are going to be some disgruntled folk, but I think it’s going to work” (February 28).

At this time, “reconciliation” among all the Muslim groups in the United States does not mean one common organization. The Muslim American Society and the Nation of Islam will continue to function as separate entities, but their doctrines will be more similar, and they will cooperate more. Already, W. Deen Mohammad has endorsed the Nation of Islam’s call for a Million Family March to be held on October 16 in Washington, D.C.

Visit to a Mosque

A week before the Nation of Islam’s annual Saviours’ Day Convention I attended the Sunday services in Muhammad’s Mosque No. 11 in Boston.

The ministers that afternoon clearly had the Convention on their minds and were preparing their members for it. The ministers, especially the head of the mosque, Minister Don Muhammad, knew at least in general terms what was in store the following week and labored to prepare the faithful for the changes that were to come.

One of the women ministers gave a diatribe against Professor Henry Louis Gates’s television series about Africa on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS). In the past, Gates had written an unflattering portrait of Minister Farrakhan for the New Yorker magazine, so he was fair game. From this polemic the minister shifted gears and spoke of the need for the Black community in general and NOI members in particular to find their sense of purpose and direction. “These are confusing times, brothers and sisters. We don’t always know where we are going or what we are doing…We need to go to Chicago to hear the words of Minister Farrakhan…We need marching orders…We need to get our marching orders from Minister Farrakhan so that we can be pointed in the right direction…I’m with Farrakhan!”

This minister’s talk stressed the twin themes of change and obedience — the need to follow Minister Farrakhan in whatever direction he chooses to lead.

The main presentation was delivered by Minister Don Muhammad. His task was to prepare the faithful spiritually and philosophically for Minister Farrakhan’s religious convergence with the orthodox Islam of W. Deen Mohammed. None of this was stated directly, though.

Minister Don’s talk was titled, “What is Islam?” In the course of the half hour he repeatedly emphasized the point that Islam means “the subordination of the Muslim’s will to the will of Allah.” He defined a Muslim, then, as anyone who follows the will of God, or Allah. By that definition Minister Don could and did claim that Jesus Christ was a Muslim because, as he died on the cross, he subordinated his will to the will of God.

Minister Don’s sermon was notable for what it did not say. Absent was any reference to the specific doctrines which marked off the Nation of Islam from other Muslims. There was no mention of Fard Muhammad, the “Saviour” whose day the NOI was celebrating. There was no mention of Elijah Muhammad as the prophet who had direct contact with Allah in human form (Fard Muhammad). Nor was there any mention of whites being “blue-eyed devils,” and the like. Instead, a new doctrine was promoted: A Muslim is one who subordinates his or her will to the will of God.

In stressing this definition, Minister Don was preparing his listeners to accept W. Deen Mohammed and his thousands of followers as full-fledged fellow Muslims. The differences between the Islamic communities — differences which have existed for decades — were left aside as immaterial and insignificant.

The other theme which Minister Don hammered on was the theme of subordination, or obedience. The implication would soon be clear. Faithful, loyal members of the Nation of Islam would accept Minister Farrakhan’s “marching orders” with whole-hearted support and obedience.

No doubt similar sermons were delivered in mosques throughout the country.