In the Name of Elijah Muhammad tells the story of the Nation of Islam—its rise in northern inner-city ghettos during the Great Depression through its decline following the death of Elijah Muhammad in 1975 to its rejuvenation under the leadership of Louis Farrakhan. Mattias Gardell sets this story within the context of African American social history, the legacy of black nationalism, and the long but hidden Islamic presence in North America. He presents with insight and balance a detailed view of one of the most controversial yet least explored organizations in the United States—and its current leader.
Beginning with Master Farad Muhammad, believed to be God in Person, Gardell examines the origins of the Nation. His research on the period of Elijah Muhammad’s long leadership draws on previously unreleased FBI files that reveal a clear picture of the bureau’s attempts to neutralize the Nation of Islam. In addition, they shed new light on the circumstances surrounding the murder of Malcolm X. With the main part of the book focused on the fortunes of the Nation after Elijah Muhammad’s death, Gardell then turns to the figure of Minister Farrakhan. From his emergence as the dominant voice of the radical black Islamic community to his leadership of the Million Man March, Farrakhan has often been portrayed as a demagogue, bigot, racist, and anti-Semite. Gardell balances the media’s view of the Nation and Farrakhan with the Nation’s own views and with the perspectives of the black community in which the organization actively works. His investigation, based on field research, taped lectures, and interviews, leads to the fullest account yet of the Nation of Islam’s ideology and theology, and its complicated relations with mainstream Islam, the black church, the Jewish community, extremist white nationalists, and the urban culture of black American youth, particularly the hip-hop movement and gangs.
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Restoration of Dignity: The Rise of Black Nationalism
- Black to Basics
- A Black Moses in the House of Pharaoh
- 2 The Crescent of the Occident: Islam in Black America prior to 1930
- Black Muslim Slaves and Scholars
- Noble Drew Ali and the Moorish Gospel
- 3 The Genesis of the Nation of Islam
- Behold, I Will Send You Elijah
- A Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness
- A Nation of Islam
- The Image of a Voodoo Cult in an Urban Jungle
- Muhammad is the Messenger of God
- Champions for Allah
- 4 Forces of Evil
- An Asiatic Assault on Babylon
- Exposing the Nation
- X Terminated
- A Federal Conspiracy to Neutralize the Nation of Islam
- Knights of Americanism and the Threat of Black Islam
- 5 The Fall of the Nation
- Until Death Do Us Part
- Rapid Islamization Transit
- To Dismantle am Empire
- Religion, Perception, and Change
- 6 The Resurrection of the Nation of Islam
- From the Nightclub to the Mosque
- The Fall and Resurrection of the Nation of Islam
- Kinship, Scripture, and Strategies of Legitimation
- The Messiah Has Finally Come
- The Black Path of Redemption
- Rebuilding the Black House
- 7 A Nation of Gods: The Creed of Black Islam
- The Creation of the Heavens and the Earth
- Demonogony: The Making of a Devil
- Gods Making Evil: The Problem of Theodicy
- Death Rides a Pale Horse and Hell Follows with Him
- The Sleeping Beauty and the Prince of Love
- The Wheel and Satan, the Challenger
- Apocalypse Now
- Religion, Logic, and Configurations of Belief
- There Are but How Many Gods?
- Proving the Creed: Religion and Science
- The Mathematical Code of Islam
- What is New in New Religions?
- 8 The Sun of Islam Will Rise in the West
- Allah’s Gradual Approach
- Follow Bilal into Paradise
- Qadhdhafi and the Third Universal Theory
- Islamic Reformer and World Transformer, Qadhdhafi’s Twin Role
- Qadhdhafi and the Nation of Islam
- The Lost Found Nation of Islam
- The Five Percent Nation of Islam
- The Nubian Islaamic Hebrews: The Ansaaru Allah Community
- 9 Strained Seeds of Abraham: Is the NOI an Anti-Christian, Anti-Semitic Nazi Cult?
- Christendoom and Crucifiction
- Black Bridge over Troubled Waters
- Blacks, Jews, and the Nation of Islam
- From Dirty Religion Blues to Mendelssohn Violin Concerto
- Anti-Semites or Anti-Satanites?
- The Nazi Connection
- 10 A Divine Nation in a Decaying World
- Gangland Gangstas Turning Gods
- The Hip-Hop Mission
- When Somethin’s Wrong In tha Hood, Who Are You Gonna Call?
- The NOI Prison Reform Ministry: Let My People Go
- 40 Acres and a Mule
- Vote Black Muslim for Congress
- Farewell to Welfare: The Black POWER of the Nation of Islam
- Exit by Reeducation: Road to Freedom
- Artificial Disease and Natural Health Care
- “It’s a God in the House”: Black Islamic Family Ideals
- Justicia Niger
- The Quest for Black Reunification
- Children of Armageddon, or, To Civilize the Uncivilized
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
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