Download The Threat of the Nation of Islam to African

The Threat of the Nation of Islam
to African-American Churches
By Detective Sergeant Sam Smith
The Growth of Islam in the United States
Islam is expanding rapidly in the United States. The growth of Islam in the United
States is largely fueled by immigration. However, up to one-third of American Muslims
are African-Americans who have converted to Islam during the last seventy years, first
into the Nation of Islam and then into mainstream Sunni Islam.
According to a major survey done by the Pew Research Center and released in the
spring of 2007, most of the Muslims who were born in the United States are AfricanAmerican converts and descendants of converts, but a fast-growing number are the
children of immigrants, and this last group is extremely young; nearly half are between
18 and 29.1 According to Pew, 60 percent of Muslims age 18 to 29 think of themselves as
"Muslim first," compared with 40 percent of people older than 30, and they are much
more likely than their parents to go to mosque every week.2 The frightening thing is that
within this age group, 26 percent of Muslims age 18 to 29 believe that suicide bombing
can be justified.3
The grass-roots movement of Islam in
America has grown from recruiting AfricanAmericans on college campuses, converting inmates
in prison, and proselytizing Christians who have
converted in an attempt to connect with an AfricanMuslim, religious-ethnic identity. Wendy Zoba in a
Christianity Today cover story entitled “Islam,
U.S.A." wrote, “Islam is gaining most of its U.S.
converts in prisons and on university campuses. The
majority of American converts to Islam — 85 to 90
percent — are black.” 4 In addition, the number of
American women who marry Muslim men and
convert is estimated to be about 7,000 per year.5
Statistically speaking, African-Americans in
the United States are two hundred times more likely to convert to Islam than whites.
Islam has only modestly appealed to white Americans (who usually convert to Islam after
marrying a Muslim or convert for mystical reasons). Nevertheless, Islam has become a
powerful presence among the black population.6
An Un-Godly Alliance of Christianity and Islam
Many African-American churches have aligned themselves with Farrakhan’s
Nation of Islam (NOI) for political reasons and for racial unity. But there is a danger. For
example, one African-American Christian mother told a reporter that she actively hopes
that her son will join Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam. “I have to leave my son where he’s
going to get protection. Before I close my eyes in this world, he’s going to be
Farrakhan’s.”7
One Baptist woman, whose son converted to Islam, spoke favorably, “This Islam
sounds like true religion to me. They don’t believe in smoking dope, drinking liquor, and
no adultery. I say we could use more teaching like that…When my son reached over to be
a Muslim, I was not going to fault him. I enjoy listening to him talk about it, and how it
came out of Africa, and that sounds pretty good.8
This mother’s statement illustrates the importance that Christians need to study
the origins, and culture of Islam, the beliefs and doctrines, and the bloody history of its
founder, the prophet Muhammad. It is especially important for African-American
ministers to educate their members about Christian history. Islam did not come out of
Africa! It came out of the Saudi Arabian desert.
Africa’s Christian Heritage
The truth is that Islam destroyed the rich cultures and civilizations of many North
African nations, including indigenous, African Christian communities in Nigeria, Sudan,
and Ethiopia. Some people mistakenly believe that Christianity was brought to Africa by
European
missionaries. Not
true. Christianity was
long established in
Africa before it ever
spread to Europe. In
Acts chapter 9, Philip
the Evangelist
baptized a member of
the Ethiopian royal
court and he is
credited with starting
Ethiopia’s first
Christian church.
Mark the Evangelist,
established a Christian community in Ethiopia in 42 AD. In 325 AD, the kingdom of
Aksum (northern Ethiopia and northern Sudan) was the world’s second nation (after
Armenia in 301 AD) to declare Christianity as its official religion and the first nation to
ever use the image of the cross on its coins. In fact, in 525 AD, the Abbyssinians
(Ethiopians) were such ardent defenders of Christianity that the Negus Kaleb (Emperor of
Abyssinia) conquered the Yemeni kingdoms of southern Arabia and stopped the
persecution of Christians by the evil Jewish king Yusef Dhu Nuwas, who tried to purge
his country of Christians by burning their churches
and killing almost 20,000 believers. Additionally,
Ethiopia is mentioned 37 times in the King James
Bible. The Book of Psalms rarely praises any other
nation other than Judea, however, in Psalm 68:2, the
author prophesied “Ethiopia shall soon stretch her
hands unto to God.”
Farrakhan and his NOI proselytes have
intentionally misled African-American Christians by
telling them that Islam is Africa’s true monotheistic
religion. Wallace Fard, the founder of the NOI, in
the 1930’s, convinced his followers (most were
former Christians), that “The white man was devil
himself. The embodiment of evil, whites had enslaved
the blacks and robbed them of their African names,
giving them Christian names instead.”91
American Islamic ideas and traditions have seeped into many African-American
churches. In my community on the eve of Mother’s Day of 2007, city police officers
were dispatched to a suicide involving a juvenile. An African-American 10-year-old boy
hanged himself with his shoelaces. Earlier, the boy had argued with his mother and she
sent him to his room to cool off. Approximately two hours later, she went upstairs to
check on him and found his lifeless body hanging inside his closet. When the officers,
who were on location, keyed up their radios to talk, I could hear the mother and the two
sisters crying, praying, and travailing in the background. It was heart rendering. I read the
boy’s obituary a few days later. His Christian mother gave him the Islamic middle name
of “Malik.” Malik is Arabic for king or tribal leader, but according to the Hadith (the
verbal traditions of the life and habits of Muhammad and the second highest written
authority next to the Qur’an), Malik is the “Keeper of Hell!” It says, “They (the people in
hell) will cry: ‘O Malik, would that your Lord put an end to us.’”10 (See footnote)11
Islam and the Recruitment of Prison Inmates
A significant number of American Muslims are in fact convicted inmates who
converted to Islam in various state and federal prisons.12 According to the Washington
Post, the number of converted inmates is in excess of 250,000. Most of these converted
inmates are African-Americans.13 Colbert King, the black columnist wrote that the FBI
have investigated and traced terrorist plots to African-American Muslims incarcerated
within the California Correctional Institutes.14
The Leaders of NOI were formerly Christians
The key leaders of the NOI, after the mysterious disappearance of its founder
Wallace D. Fard, were not only once Christians, but were the sons of Christian preachers.
Elijah Muhammad, his wife and two brothers were once Christians
Elijah Muhammad, born Elijah Poole, was the son and grandson of Baptist
preachers. In 1915, he met his wife, Clara Evans, at a church meeting. In 1929, Elijah and
his two brothers joined Fard’s Islamic Temple in Detroit. After Elijah replaced Fard as
leader of the NOI in 1934, he assumed Fard’s title of “Prophet,” and added “Messenger
of Allah” for good measure.15
Elijah Muhammad immediately continued his vehement attacks on Christianity
and African-American churches. He also denied the divinity of
Christ but yet he deified Fard. His followers to this day still believe
that Wallace D. Fard is God; a lie that is further propagated by the
minister Louis Farrakhan. Elijah continued Fard’s relentless attack
on Christianity with success. It is estimated that four million
African-Americans who converted to Islam did so after reading
pamphlets and books written by Elijah Muhammad or after visiting
one of the hundreds of storefront mosques he opened over a period
spanning five decades.16
Malcolm X and his two brothers and sister were once
Christians
Malcolm X, was the son of Earl Little, a Baptist preacher. Malcolm recalled
memories of his “father leaping and jumping in the pulpit, his resonant voice igniting the
worship and praise of his listeners.”17 After the death of his father, Malcolm became a
ward of the state and turned to a life of crime. He became a Moslem in 1950, while
serving time in Norfolk State Prison in Massachusetts. Fellow inmates had nicknamed
Malcolm “Satan” for his vehement hatred of God, the Bible, and religion in general. His
brother, Reginald converted Malcolm to Islam while he was incarcerated. Two of
Malcolm’s brothers and one sister were already NOI members. Shortly thereafter,
Reginald was later expelled from the NOI for adultery.
Malcolm X was ordained as an NOI minister after he earned an early release from
prison. Malcolm vented his rage towards white people, black Christians, and Christianity.
Malcolm X ranted and railed in his newspaper articles against the Christian message of
the black church, characterizing black ministers as “yelling and spitting out foam all over
the pulpit,” and dismissing as “nonsense” their messages about “hell-fire after death,
and the dying of Jesus on the cross.”18 During one of Malcolm’s fiery sermons he lifted a
Christian Bible up in the air and dared God to verify its miraculous claims. Malcolm
worked his Moslem audience into a frenzy after he threw the Bible down on the floor and
shouted the Bible was no different from any other book.19 He was known to stomp on the
Bible during his sermons and denounce the verses as packs of lies. Malcolm mocked the
hymn the “The Old Rugged Cross,” and other Christian principles and doctrines. In 1959,
Malcolm told his parishioners that they had someone greater than Jesus, “…someone to
open the eyes of the blind, the ears of the deaf, heal the sick, raise the dead-Elijah
(Muhammad) is doing all of this.”20
Malcolm blamed his criminal behavior on
Christianity. At an NOI convention he said, “There was a
time when I didn’t know the Truth. I was then in total
darkness. I was deaf, dumb and blind. I did many things
that were bad. I was dope-addict. I was a liar. I was a
thief. I hated my own kind. I was a drunkard. But then I
couldn’t help being what I was. I WAS A CHRISTIAN! 21
On February 21, 1965, NOI members assassinated
Malcolm X at the direction of his teacher and mentor,
Elijah Muhammad (I will write more about Malcolm X
and Elijah Muhammad in the future). Malcolm’s funeral
was held at the Faith Temple Church of God in Christ.
Malcolm X has since become a role model to many
African-American youths and many have converted to
Islam after being introduced to him by Spike Lee’s 1992
movie, “Malcolm X.”
Even Louis Farrakhan was once a Christian
The current leader of the NOI is Louis Farrakhan. He was born Louis Eugene
Walcott and left the Episcopal Church and joined the Nation of Islam in 1955. On
Saviours' Day 2000, Minister Louis Farrakhan prophesied that "Islam is to consume
America. Islam is to consume England, and one day, these great nations will become
servants of God.22
The NOI’s Influence into the African-American Christian Community
The Nation of Islam’s current membership is estimated to be between twenty
thousand to fifty thousand members at the most, maybe one hundred thousand members
worldwide. However, the NOI influence is far greater among African-Americans than its
membership. For example, in 1995, several hundred thousand African-Americans (most
were Christians) came to Washington, D.C. to support Farrakhan’s Million Man March.
Will Islam Replace Christianity as the Primary Faith of Black Americans?
In the early 1930s, NOI founder, Wallace D. Fard made a bold prediction that one
day Islam would replace Christianity as the primary faith of black Americans.23 Despite
vicious attacks by NOI leaders on Christianity, the black church has barely responded.
The result has been that the NOI has provided a bridge for African-American to
move in large numbers toward Islam. Daniel Pipes, wrote “By now, that long-ago
prediction no longer seems inconceivable, indeed, it has somewhat come true, with
toward one million African-Americans identifying as Muslims. An even brief visit to
various black neighborhoods quickly confirms that not only is an Islamic infrastructure a
visible and important part of black life-mosques, Islamic schools, female head coverings,
and male skullcaps are very much in evidence-but an active ambitious drive to propagate
Islam is underway. So vital is it, the director of a California-based church effort to stem
the conversion of black Americans to Islam has made a memorable prediction: ‘If the
conversion rate continues unchanged, Islam could become the dominant religion in Black
urban areas by the year 2020.’”24
Pipes elaborated about the impact of Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam
has had on urban black churches. “All African American Muslims, not just NOI members;
nearly every one of them has a direct connection to the NOI, personal or familial.
(Elijah) Muhammad can claim to have spawned a substantial new Muslim community.
Without his efforts, the hundreds of thousands of African-Americans who are now
Muslims would presumably still be Christians.25
The NOI is a bridge to mainstream Islam
The threat that the NOI poses to America’s black churches is that it has had a
historical role in introducing African-Americans to Islam. E.U. Essien-Udom, author of a
book length study on the NOI, noted as early as 1962, that, “few join the nation and
remain in it.”26 Some members return to Christianity, while most feel the magnetic pull
of mainstream Islam and become Sunnis or Shia’s (for example, Muhammad Ali, who
joined the NOI in 1964 and later moved on to Sunni Islam in 1975).
The Horrific Events of 9-11 has Caused Islam to Grow in the United States
There has been an increase of conversions to Islam since 9-11 in America’s cities.
The majority of the conversions are African-Americans. For example, Pittsburgh has
seven mosques, and between 8,000 to 10,000 Sunni Muslims.27
Converts within the black community say they are attracted to the disciplines of
prayer, the emphasis within Islam on submission to God and the religion's affinity with
people who are oppressed. Others are suspicious of government warnings about the
emergence of new enemies since the 2001 attacks because they share memories of how
civil rights leaders Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were demonized. Now as a result,
they are willing to view Islam as a legitimate alternative to Christianity. “It is one of the
fastest-growing religions in America," said Lawrence Mamiya, professor of religion at
Vassar College, speaking of Islam among black Americans.28
"I am both Muslim and Christian”-Reverend Ann Holmes Redding
There are even African-Americans that claim to be both Christian and Muslim.
For example, in Seattle, Washington, the Reverend Ann Holmes Redding, an Episcopal
priest converted to Islam. She preaches in her church on Sundays, but dons a black
headscarf and worships at a mosque on Fridays. She told the Seattle Times, "I am both
Muslim and Christian, just like I'm both an American of African descent and a woman.
I'm 100 percent both.”29 Ironically, it was in a Christian church that she converted to
Islam. She told the Times, that in the fall of 2005, a local Muslim leader gave a talk at the
cathedral. When he prayed before those attending, Redding was moved. “As he dropped
to his knees and stretched forward
against the floor, it seemed to her that
his whole body was involved in
surrendering to God.” Then in the
spring, at a St. Mark's interfaith class,
another Muslim leader taught a
chanted prayer and led a meditation on
opening one's heart. The chanting
appealed to the singer in Redding; the
meditation spoke to her heart. She
began saying the prayer daily.
Benjamin F. Chavis, formerly
of the NAACP, and a Christian
minister (holds credentials with the
United Church of Christ) announced in 1997 that he was joining Farrakhan’s Nation of
Islam. Standing before the assembled Black Muslims with a Bible in one hand and a
Qur’an in the other, Chavis proclaimed: “I find no theological contradiction between
being a black Christian and a black Muslim.”30
The Great Compromise
The minister Farrakhan once called for black Americans to renounce Christianity
which he called a “white man’s religion,” and to embrace Islam.31 However, he now
preaches that believers can be both Moslem and Christian. In fact, he has stated that he is
now a “Christian too.” He said “A good Muslim is a Christian and a good Christian is a
Muslim.”32 (Refer to my article “The Farrakhan Controversy-A Wolf in Sheep Clothing”
to read what he preaches and teaches. It is the anathema to basic Christian beliefs).
Louis A. DeCaro, Jr. (a Ph.D, an ordained minister and seminary professor)
insightfully wrote that the Nation of Islam is not truly Muslim, nor has it ever correctly
taught its followers about the religion of Islam. Instead, the NOI has been far more
proficient at demeaning Christianity than it has been in introducing people to the
religion of the Qur’an.33
DeCaro writes, “As a leader in the black community, Louis Farrakhan longs for
the very thing he shall never possess: the mantle of the black church. Like the leaders of
the precursor Nation of Islam organizations, Farrakhan is hopelessly at odds with the
black Christian Church. He may win the hearts of individual Christian pastors and may
even enjoy the arm’s length favor of many Christian people, but, like Simon Magus of
old, he is caught in the galling trick bag of his own religious legacy.
One discerning rabbi noted after Farrakhan’s World Day of Atonement in October
1996: “Let’s face it, the Million Man March and the World’s Day of Atonement are
really about getting people to attach to Farrakhan religiously. The religious power
buttons he’s jealous of aren’t really held by the Jews. They’re held by the black Christian
leaders. That’s the constellation he wants. Farrakhan knows that as soon as he says
Jesus, he’s lost. So he goes about it differently. He’s not really after the Pharisees, he’s
after Jesus. Jews are just the effigy.34
Note: The next article will be about the good works of the NOI
1
Miller, Lisa. “American Dreamers: Muslim Americans are one of this country's greatest strengths. But
they're vulnerable as never before.” Newsweek, July 30, 2007.
2
Ibid
3
Ibid
4
Zoba, Wendy Murray. “Islam, U.S.A.” Christianity Today, April 3, 2000, p. 42
5
Dretke, James P. “The Growth of Islam in the United States,’ article awaiting publication, 2000.
According to Dretke, this statistic is mitigated by the fact that many of these women revert back to their
Christian roots when their children get older (i.e., above 7 or 8 years old). Also, cf., Zoba, p 42.
6
Ibid
77
The New York Times, March 5, 1994
8
Louise Blake quoted in The Washington Post Magazine, April 3, 1983.
9
Halasa, Malu. Elijah Muhammad, Chelsea House Publishers, New York-Philadelphia, 1990, p. 44.
10
Al-Zukhruf 43:77
11
I am not superstitious. I don’t believe that names predestine a child to infamy or greatness. Otherwise,
prisons would not be full of Peters, Pauls, Marks, and Johns, and Hispanic criminals named “Jesus.” I
emphatically do not believe the mother cursed her baby by naming him after the “Angel of Hell.” I mention
this only to illustrate the ignorance (lack of knowledge) about the threat of Islam to Christianity and how
Islam has already seeped into many African-American churches. However, I do recognize that there have
been other historical people named “Malik”
12
Cuthbertson, Ian. “Exclusive: America’s Prisons: Breeding Grounds for Muslim Converts,” Accuracy in
Media: For Fairness, Balance and Accuracy in News Reporting, January 9, 2007
13
King, Colbert I. “Muslim Converts, Meet FBI,” Washington Post, August 20, 2005; Page A17
14
Ibid
15
Newton, Michael. Holy Homicide: An Encyclopedia of Those Who Go With Their God…And Kill!
Loompanics Unlimited, Port Townsend, Washington, 1998, p. 187
16
Evanzz, Karl. The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad, Pantheon Books, New York,
1999, preface p. XI.
17
DeCaro, Louis A. Jr. Malcolm and the Cross: The Nation of Islam, Malcolm X, and Christianity, New
York University Press, New York and London, 1998, p. 62.
18
Ibid, p. 105
19
Ibid, p. 110
20
Ibid, p. 112
21
A transcript of Muhammad’s speech and remarks by Malcolm X from the 1957 “Saviour’s Day”
convention are found, respectively, in “Islam: The Remedy for the So-Called Negroes’ Ills,” and “Moslem
Convention-1957,” Moslem World & the U.S.A., March-April 1957, 19-22, 14-15
22
“Allah’s pulpit thumper,” Salon News, February 28, 2000.
23
Pipes, Daniel. Militant Islam Reaches America, W.W. Norton & Company, New York London, 2002, p.
219
24
Pipes, p. 219-20
25
Ibid, p. 230
26
Essien-Udom, E.U. Black Nationalism: A Search for an Identity in America, 1962, p. 182
27
Plushnick-Masti, Ramit. “Cities see rise of black Muslims in wake of 9-11: Religious leaders report
growth in major American Cities,” Associated Press, March 22, 2007
28
Bigg, Matthew. “Post 9-11, Islam flourishes among blacks.” February 25, 2007,
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2121536220070226, retrieved 10-10-07
29
Tu, Janet I. “I am both Muslim and Christian,” The Seattle Times, June 17, 2007
30
DeCaro, p. 4
31
Ibid, p. 5
32
Hogan/Albach Susan. “Louis Farrakhan claims he is both a Muslim and a Christian,” Chicago Tribune,
May 26, 2007
33
Ibid, p. 3
34
Trebay, Guy. “The Sins of Omission,” Village Voice, October 22, 1996, p. 18