Black Muslim Religion in the Nation of Islam, 1960-1975

Chapter One: What Islam Has Done For Me: Finding Religion in the Nation of Islam

WhatIslamHasDoneForMe FindingReligionintheNationofIslam I believe in Allah, God of the Muslims, creator of all the worlds, and in Elijah Muhammad, his last Apostle, who was conceived by a black man, born of a black woman, suffered under the white man, was economically cruci- fied, mentally dead and racially buried. He is still in hell (America) but has risen from the dead the so-called Negroes, and is raising his people from their graves of ignorance, to inherit heaven on this earth. . . . Thence Allah shall judge the living (devils) and the dead (socalled Negroes). I believe in no “Holy Ghost” tales; no murderous Spanish Inquisition Catholic Church; no communion of saints, angels, spirits or spooks; no forgiveness of your [white] people’s sins against mine; no dry bones and decayed flesh resurrecting; and no life after physical death. —Sylane X, Muhammad Speaks, April 1962 chapter 1 G iven the ways in which powerful interpreters of culture framed the  during the 1960s and 1970s, it is no wonder that many Americans came to regard the movement primarily as a political and social movement rather than a religious one.  leaders also contributed to this image of the group; their sometimes heavy-handed use of the word “religion” was partly a political strategy used to claim social legitimacy and legal protections .  leaders frequently cited the American tradition of religious liberty as a powerful symbol in their fight to protect  males from the military draft, to repel the interference of local police forces and the , and to defend Elijah Muhammad’s status as a religious leader. At the same time, if one takes seriously the words of  members, it is clear that many of Elijah Muhammad’s followers understood themselves to be practitioners of a genuine religion. In fact, members of the  used the word “religion ” over and over again to describe their belief in Islam.1 Their eloquent and enthusiastic writings show that, while these narratives may have sometimes performed political functions, they were also expressions of religious feelings, ideas, and experiences. Hundreds of Muslim followers contributed letters to the editor of Muhammad Speaks and especially testimonials about the impact of Islam on their lives. The testimonials appeared in a running feature of Muhammad Speaks called “What Islam Has Done For Me.” Many of these stories were classic American religious conversion narratives whose form will be familiar to many readers, and they evidence how the styles of religious practice and patterns of conversion in the  echo those of other American religious groups. These testimonials often described how a convert faced a crisis or lingering problem before they found Elijah Muhammad and the . Converting to Islam provided a way out and a solution to their problems. Some of these narratives, like those of born-again African American Christians, discussed conversion as a sudden and powerful moment in which the believer experienced God’s presence.2 Others framed their conversions in less numinous terms, instead explaining their conversions as a gradual transition to Islam that nevertheless yielded equally important results. In this chapter, I offer a reading of those narratives, foregrounding the words of the believers themselves. In so doing, I highlight first-person narratives of Islamization, stories that explain what it meant to members of the  to become Muslims. For these persons, Islam was certainly a religion, but it was also a path what isl am has done for me : 17 to self-improvement and a source of physical and psychological safety or protection . For some, it was a complete way of life. IslamasaReligiousAlternative Many believers in the  embraced Islam as a religious alternative to Christianity .3 As shown by the epigraph at the beginning of this chapter, Sylane X from New York City even crafted a creed of Muslim belief—one that was not part of regular  literature—that transformed a well-known Christian formula into a statement of theological and doctrinal protest. His creed is a rejection of Christian religion, which was associated in the minds of many believers in the  with black suffering and white racism. It also denied the existence of any “spooky” God or afterlife. Over and over again in the pages of Muhammad Speaks, believers contrasted what they saw as the superstitious and spooky religion of Christianity with the rational and practical religion of Islam. For instance, Dr. Leo X McCallum, the semi-official dentist of the , praised the scientific and rational elements of...