Perspectives

Reply to Daniel Pipes: A century of Black American Islam Part 1

By Jackie Muhammad -Guest Columnist- | Last updated: Feb 12, 2014 - 9:19:50 AM

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Recently you wrote a blog in the Washington Times entitled, “A Century of Black American Islam.” Your purpose was to create a false image of Islam as practiced in Black America, by the Nation of Islam and the Moorish Scientists. But your real purpose is to undermine the work of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and the work of the Nation of Islam. You begin by using a very interesting term, “normative Islam,” a term that has no resonance in the Islamic lexicon.

By normative Islam you really mean “orthodox” Islam. Apparently your premise is that the Nation of Islam’s magnetic attraction is waning in America and it will soon morph into the more “orthodox” form of Islam.  As one who fashions himself as an “expert” on Islam you should know that Islam is not practiced exactly the same in any two countries. The practice of Islam in Iran is not the same as the practice of Islam in Nigeria, or the practice of Islam in Iraq. Saudi Arabia, which has a more restrictive form of the practice of Islam (Wahhabi) is not the same as the way Islam is practiced in Indonesia, which is different from the practice of Islam in the Philippines, which has a more “relaxed” form of Islam. So to what form of Islamic orthodoxy are you referring?

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Jumu’ah prayeroccurs weekly at Nation of Islam mosques across the globe.
All of these Muslim nations, however, adhere to the same five principles of Islam, and they all receive their guidance from one book, The Holy Qur’an, which is exactly the same in every Muslim nation. The principles practiced in Liberia are exactly the same in China as they are in the Nation of Islam in America. If you go to London and attend a Nation of Islam mosque you will get the exact same teaching as you would in Harlem, with one distinction, the accent is different.  So, to assume that one Muslim nation has to be a carbon copy of another is quite unrealistic.

The same is true of Judaism and Christianity.  What is “normative” Judaism?  Is it Rabbinical Judaism? Is it Reform Judaism? Is it Karaite Judaism?  Is it Conservative Judaism? Is it Chasidic Judaism? Is it Messianic Judaism? Is it Cultural Judaism? Is it Humanistic Judaism? Is it Reconstructionist Judaism? Or is it Orthodox Judaism? All of the principles of the various forms of Judaism are not congruent, neither are the various scriptures from which they get their religious instructions. But you speak nothing of these inconsistencies. Is this a double standard or just hypocrisy?

It is quite paternalistic for you to assume that you can tell us what kind of Islam you think we should practice, particularly because of the role the Jews have played in creating the conditions under which we suffer today. Therefore, you should focus on bridging the gap within your own religious community before you assume you know what’s best for the Black community. Moreover, do you circumnavigate the globe telling the hundreds of Christian denominations what form of Christianity they should be practicing, and which of the hundreds of Bibles they should be reading from on Sundays?  So, why the double standard with the Nation of Islam and Moorish Scientists?

When you write that the Nation of Islam has “invented” a new religion, you cannot be more in error.  Our practice of Islam is the same as what you call “normative” Islam. I challenge you to prove otherwise. Our interpretation of some aspects of Islamic theology and eschatology may differ in some cases from other Islamic groups, but that’s no different than what one Islamic group may have from another group. Again, look at your own Jewish community as an example. Reform Jews have a different interpretation of some aspects of Judaism than do Orthodox Jews.

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(top) Imam Siraj Wahhaj delivers the Khutbah during Jumu’ah prayer at the Nation of Islam’s annual Saviours’ Day convention. (bottom) Muslim men and children listen during Jumu’ah prayer at the Nation of Islam’s annual Saviours’ Day convention.
Further, I must correct you when you say Islam was “founded” by Prophet Muhammad 1,400 years ago. Islam was “founded” by Allah (God) Himself. Prophet Muhammad was the instrument used by Allah (God) to transmit His message to the world, and this He did perfectly. Before Prophet Muhammad emerged on the world scene he was an illiterate Arab who yearned to see the condition of his downtrodden fellow Arabs improved. Within 25 years he was successful in doing what no other prophet before him succeeded in accomplishing; within a period of 100 years Islam had spread throughout the world.

In your rush to make it seem as if you know what you are talking about you accuse the Moorish Scientists of “appropriating” practices and “borrowing” traits from other organizations. You make it sound as though this is unique to the Moorish Scientists. Did not the Jews “borrow” practices from the Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, Babylonians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, and a host of other civilizations more advanced than their own and integrate the “borrowed” practices of other cultures into the fabric of Judaism? 

You also mentioned Edward Wilmot Blyden and mischaracterized his position and contributions. According to your statements Noble Drew Ali “appropriated” the notion from Dr. Blyden and the Honorable Marcus Garvey that Christianity is the religion of Whites and Islam is the religion for nonwhites. The predominate religion in Africa, the Middle East and Asia today is Islam. The predominate religion in Europe and America is Christianity. Blyden was clearly stating the obvious. Right wing Christian Conservatives preach this very axiom every day. Check out the bile that’s spewed from the lips of many of the pundits at Fox News, a medium that you are often seen on distilling your “wisdom.” 

This fear of the rise of Islam has ushered in the theory of the Clash of Civilizations. Pat Buchanan makes no secret of his belief that the rising tide of Islam is a threat to White people and Christianity in his book, “The Death of the West.” Mark Steyn, one of America’s leading Conservative columnists in his recent book, “America Alone” plays on this same theme. The State of Israel adheres to this same philosophy. Israeli writer Shlomo Sands in his national best seller, “The Invention of the Jewish People,” calls Israel an ethnocracy, not a democracy; it is the equivalent of a wholly-owned subsidiary for the Jews, not for all Israelis (Arabs and Christians).  That’s why they go to great lengths to stem the birth rate of the Black Jews and the Palestinians.

Dr.  Blyden was a Pan-Africanist Christian who had a strong affinity for the reformative powers of Islam in Africa, particularly among the Liberians and the people of Sierra Leone in  West Africa.  He expressed his views very clearly in his monumental book, “Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race.” Blyden, born in the West Indies of Nigerian parents, became an Americo-Liberian, the name given to American Blacks who were freed from slavery in America and expatriated to Liberia, as well as those “emancipated” after 1865 who chose not to remain in America and the West Indies.

You write about the plight of the Nation of Islam after Farrakhan’s “passing.” How arrogant.  Let’s be clear about one thing: Minister Farrakhan is not going anywhere. That may be wishful thinking on your part. Voluminous volumes of materials that Minister Farrakhan has produced in the forms of books, tapes, and his legacy will be studied for years and years to come. People will study his works and be inspired by them the way they read the works of Moses, Paul, Marx, Freud, Muhammad, and yes, even Jesus.

So-called scholars like you take pleasure in tearing down the image of the N.O.I. based on distortions and lies, instead of objectively recognizing the role the Nation of Islam plays in reconstructing and rehabilitating the lives of a people America has literally destroyed by prohibiting us from the ability to practice our religion, not allowing us to be properly educated, and emasculating our male children because White America viewed them as a threat, not just during the era of chattel slavery, but to the present day.

Judaism in Israel and America has a zero growth rate, and is being negatively stigmatized throughout the world. Fewer and fewer Jews are associating with the religion, especially younger Jews.  Richard Cohen of the Washington Post is one of the leading thinkers highlighting this phenomenon. On the other hand, Islam is the fastest growing religion in America. Is this one of the reasons that you are so upset with Black people’s attraction to Islam?

Minister Farrakhan is the leading spokesman for Islam in this country. As such, every effort is made to de-potentiate him in the eyes of the public; you have served as a willing participant in this process. Islam has always been viewed as a threat to the broader Judeo-Christian society in America and the world. That’s why anyone viewed as a vocal spokesman who can galvanize the people under the banner of Islam is stigmatized and demonized. Hence, people who prescribe to your philosophical outlook will use your pseudo-intellectual approach to create a false image of such a person. 

By the way, what studies have you done that substantiate the allegation that the N.O.I.’s influence is waning? What Nation of Islam mosques have you attended lately that allows you to make such a claim? What statistical profile have you commissioned to substantiate your claims? What Minister Farrakhan has succeeded in doing is reaching beyond the confines of the mosques and attracted Christians, progressive and conservative Whites, and even some Jews to a newer vision of America based on the teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. 

Also, when you speak of Minister Farrakhan’s influence you must factor into the equation the fact that he has visited over 100 nations. Thus, he has been seen by over 110 million people on television, in public arenas, and heard on the radio, or read about in newspapers by a significant portion of the world’s population who cannot possibly fit into the confines of a small mosque. Moreover, Farrakhan’s reach into the music industry, the world of sports and in the business community is in no way confined to mosque attendance. The Minister called for a Million Man March and according to our scientific calculation we garnered nearly two million men, predominately Christians, not Muslims.

Finally, who are you to predict the future of the N.O.I.? If we were to apply the same tactics and scrutiny to Judaism we would be called anti-Semitic. You have no power or knowledge to make such a prognosis. My point, sir, is not to argue or debate with you, those days are over, and our purpose is to teach you so that you won’t make the same errors in the future.

(Jackie Muhammad is a former presidential appointee, member of the Oxford Round Table, educator, youth-trainer and businessman. He can be reached at [email protected].)