31: SALAAMS AND STRATEGY: THE IMPACT OF ISLAM ON AMERICAN BLACK CIVIL RIGHTS
As I commemorate another Black History month during this time of deep democratic turmoil, I look back at the leaders and movements who have shaped America’s Black consciousness. This February marks 56 years since the assassination of Malcolm X. Malcom X and his racial and religious ideology were influential in fortifying the movement for Black nationalism and inspiring a new wave of Black civil rights. What is unique to Malcom X’s political beliefs is his grounding in a deep conviction of Islamic doctrine.
As Jim Crow laws continued to terrorize Black communities across America throughout the 1950s and 60s, many Black Americans began denouncing Christianity due to its familiar, long history as a tool to justify slavery and oppression, in the United States and beyond. The pan-Africa movement, born and spread by Marcus Garvey, influenced how African Americans perceived their race within a global context, popularizing a movement to practice religions that originate in Africa, like Islam. The Nation Of Islam (NOI) emerged as an alternative religious community whose goal was, “to improve the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of African Americans.” Originally established in 1930 by Wallace Fard Muhammad in Detroit Michigan, the NOI’s membership and attention grew under the leadership of Elijah Muhammed, expanding to mainstream followers like Muhammed Ali.
NOI’s beliefs and practices differed from traditional Islamic sharia law and doctrine in fundamental ways. While traditional Islam teaches that Allah is one God and the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is his only prophet, the NOI teaches that Wallace Fard came to earth as God incarnate and that Elijah Muhammad was a prophet sent to spread the word about Fard's incarnation. The NOI preached that the Black race is the original and superior race and that all white people are “devils”, while traditional Islam teaches that all humans are equal. While the NOI mentored key activists such as Malcolm X and poured into a rhetoric that uplifted black power, black self-defense and black economic autonomy, it diverged from the civil rights movement's goal of racial integration through nonviolence. \
Leading up to his death, after returning from his pilgrimage to Mecca, Malcom X cut ties with NOI and Elijah Muhammed, and started his own separate organization named Muslim Mosque. He was taken by the unity he saw displayed among diverse people in devotion at Mecca widening his perspective on racial separatism. Malcolm X publicly renounced NOI as an organization that misued Islam for alterior motives, in many ways repeating the same offenses it promised to protect against. It would be NOI members who would eventually assassinate Malcom X shortly after in 1965.
After the death of Elijah Muhhamed in 1975, his son Warith Deen Mohammed assumed control of NOI and started a national transition to orthodox Islam. Louis Farrakhan would later break off from this group and start his own revival of NOI original doctrines based on dianetics, however by that time several different Black Muslim communities grew around the country.
While Islam, like other religions was used by Black leaders to assert political control in the United States, it has also been an invaluable asset that has united parts of the Black community and restored a pride in Black racial identity.
Today, the Pew Research Center reports that Black Muslims account for a fifth of all U.S. Muslims, and about half are converts to Islam. Islam is practiced in a variety of forms, communities and places across the United States. In many ways the American Muslim community still has a long way to go in addressing the racial relations of its past and present. As more Muslim immigrants came to America in the mid 90s, growing tension has existed between the Black and non-Black Muslim community, most notably as part of the George Floyd case in Minnesota. In a post 9/11, BLM world Muslims across America continue to contend with their faith and define it on their own terms.
