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Islam And Black Pride
One of the most bizarre manifestations of African-American pride is the contemporary identification with Islam. Like Kwanzaa, however, Islam has a far shorter and less memorable history in Black America than most realize.
The story goes that in 1930 Allah appeared to the people of Detroit in the form of a mysterious man named “Fard.” Allah’s human form seemed to be of African and Arab descent and claimed to have been born in Mecca, a descendant of the prophet Muhammad. He preached a message of racial
identity and claimed that Islam was the true religion of the black people of America before they were robbed of it by the White Man. (Ironically, the prophet Muhammad was described as a “white man” by those who knew him).
In fact, Fard was really just a small-time con-man named Wallace Dodd Ford, who had served three years in San Quentin for drug-dealing. He drifted into Detroit at a time when many African-Americans were beginning to form racial identity groups around charismatic personalities such as Marcus Garvey. Of course, racial consciousness was hardly just “a black thing” at the time, as the 1920’s were also when Ku Klux Klan influence peaked in America.
Interestingly, Ford was neither of African nor of Arab descent, as he claimed. He was a mix of European and Polynesian. But he did recognize an opportunity when he saw one, and the street preacher soon built up quite a following among those who could appreciate an overtly racist theology that persists to this day in spite of its craziness.
According to Ford, and his Nation of Islam, Africans were the original and only people of the world (divine and uncorrupted) before whites were invented by an evil scientist named Yakub in a malicious.experiment with tragic consequences. Islam is the true religion, and, at some point, a spaceship will be sent by Allah to eliminate the white people from the earth. (The Quran actually says that black people became that way because they lived closer to the rising place of the sun – which wouldn’t be possible unless the earth were flat).
Although it may be difficult to imagine such a crackpot being given the time of day in this progressive age, in fact much more than that is awarded to Louis Farrakhan every time he plans one of his narcissistic “Million Man” marches. Prominent political figures such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton
never fail to line up behind the leader of an organization that openly espouses a message of racial superiority. In 2005, even Bill Clinton lent his endorsement to the event – of course, he’s supposed to be our first Black President (at least for the black people who managed to survive his unwillingness to stop genocide in Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Sudan, Zaire, Burundi and Rwanda – as Clinton’s eight years in office saw more Africans lose their lives in wars than were ever brought to America in chains).
It’s only fitting that the nation’s largest and most accepted racial hate organization got its start through false and fatuous circumstances. Ford was not just an imaginative preacher of hate, but a skillful con artist as well. He charged the nation’s poorest people $10 (in the middle of the Depression) to divine their “original” Muslim name for them, and he had affairs with several
women. In 1933 (and again in 1934) he was asked to leave town by the police following a ritual killing committed by a devoted follower. The second time around he managed to disappear so effectively that many believe he was killed by his heir, Elijah Muhammad.
Like Ford, Elijah Muhammad was also a fraud. He fathered several children from illegitimate relationships and disillusioned several of his followers in the process.
One of these was Malcolm X, who traveled to Mecca for the Hajj at about the same time and came away with even more reasons to be disenchanted by the Nation of Islam. Traditional Islam may be an artificial religion designed under very harsh conditions in the 7th century, but at least there isn’t talk of UFOs or evil scientists, and neither is it racially exclusive. Malcolm was impressed to see people of all races circling the black rock together and he broke away from the Nation of Islam. Shortly thereafter, he was killed for his principles by followers of Elijah Muhammad.
The modern Nation of Islam is led by Louis Farrakhan, who broke away from Elijah Muhammad’s son in 1977, after the latter began moving the organization toward traditional Sunni practices. Today, most Black Muslims observe mainstream Islam with a slight racial tinge, rather than the cultic
heritage of Wallace Dodd Ford and Elijah Muhammad. This includes teaching directly from the Qur’an and stressing the Five Pillars of Islam.
Islam And Black Pride
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https://discerning-Islam.org
Last Update: 03/2021
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