ISLAM, NATION OF

also called American Muslim Mission, or World Community Of Al-islam In The West, or Black Muslim Movement, religious and cultural community that evolved in the 20th century in the United States out of various quasi-religious black nationalist organizations. Prominent among these precursor groups was the Moorish Science Temple of America, founded in Newark, N.J., in 1913 by Prophet Drew Ali, born Timothy Drew, who posited the Moorish, and thus Muslim, origins of all blacks and advocated a return to Islam as the only means of redemption from racial oppression. The secular Universal Negro Improvement Association, founded in 1914 by Marcus Garvey, also espoused principles later adopted by the black Muslims. The movement proper was founded by Wallace Fard Muhammad (also called W.D. Fard, or Wali Farad), believed to have been an orthodox Muslim born in Mecca around 1877. He immigrated to the United States in 1930 and established a temple (or mosque) in Detroit a year later. Most of Fard's initial followers were black migrants from the southern United States who, because of prevailing racial policies and economic conditions, were clustered together in the black ghettos of the great northern industrial cities. They believed Fard to be an incarnation of Allah who had come to liberate what he called the Lost-Found Nation of Islam in the West. Fard promised that if they would heed his teachings and learn the truth about themselves, they would overcome their white slave masters and be restored to a position of dignity and primacy among the peoples of the world. The chief developer of the movement was Elijah Muhammad (q.v.), who succeeded Fard as leader of what had come to be called the Nation of Islam after the latter's mysterious disappearance in 1934. Shortly thereafter Muhammad founded the movement's second temple in Chicago. The movement spread slowly at first. By the end of World War II American blacks had caught the spirit of protest and black nationalism that was sweeping Africa. The Nation of Islam benefited directly from the pent-up frustrations of the black masses and offered those frustrations a militant, if avowedly nonviolent, expression. Soon there were mosques in all larger cities with sizable black populations. Under Muhammad's leadership, the Nation of Islam professed the moral and cultural superiority of black men, who were seen as destined by Allah to assume cultural and political leadership of the Earth. Blacks were enjoined to give up Christianity, which was regarded as the white man's chief stratagem for the enslavement of nonwhite people. The white race was conceived of as a race of devils whose time to reign was coming to an end. Meanwhile black people were urged to work together to reclaim their fallen (criminals, drug addicts, etc.), learn their true history, strive for economic independence, and prepare for the Battle of Armageddon, the final struggle between good and evil. During the 1960s the movement achieved national prominence through the personality of Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad's spokesman, whose forceful articulations of racial pride and Muslim principles made him a cultural hero, especially among black youth. The publication of a book by C. Eric Lincoln entitled The Black Muslims in America (1961) established during this period what became the standard, though never official, name for the movement in the public mind. Disagreements among the sect hierarchy eventually led to Malcolm's suspension and to the establishment of a rival group, the Muslim Mosque, Inc., under his leadership. Violent disputes between the two groups were suspected as a contributing factor to Malcolm's assassination in 1965. A series of changes in the social, intellectual, and spiritual direction and development of the Nation of Islam was effected in the late 1970s under the leadership of Elijah Muhammad's successor, his son Warith Deen (or Wallace D.) Muhammad. During this period all precepts of colour-consciousness, racism, and the deification of Fard were repudiated, and the organization was renamed the American Muslim Mission. In May 1985 W.D. Muhammad announced the dissolution of the American Muslim Mission in order that its members might become a part of the worldwide orthodox Islamic community. The centralized leadership and organization that had previously characterized the movement thus came to an end, although its network of mosques and their attendant religious, educational, and economic programs continued to function. A splinter group based in New York City and under the leadership of Louis Farrakhan retained both the name and the founding principles of the Nation of Islam.