The Nation of Islam (NOI) is an Afro-American movement self-described “Islamic militant sect” founded on July 1930 in Detroit by Wallace Fard Muhammad. One of the main leaders, Elijah Muhammad, advocated the Afro-Islamist theory, according to which the descendants of the victims of the slavery market should embrace the traditions and the predominant religion of their country of origin, ie. radical Islam. In order to restore this status the “NOI” has the objective of creating within the United States a “only-black and Islamic” nation.
The “NOI” is organized in temples, each of which is administered by a “pastor”; these temples are present in all major US cities, and their function is to bring the African-American population of that place to the organization’s ideas. One of the most notorious activists of “NOI” was the famous Malcolm X. The organization has serious racial prejudices especially towards Jews and anglo-saxon Whites.
Among the beliefs: Elijah Muhammad is the greatest Prophet along with Mohammad, the black human race is superior, blacks have created the Bible and the Koran. Jesus was black.
The “NOI” is also known to have been involved with, or be the mandator for, the murder of the same Malcolm X, who had the guilt of having abandoned it.
Malcolm X was born in Omaha, Nebraska. His father was a Baptist preacher and died in 1931, officially after being hit by a tram; however, in his autobiography, Malcolm X argued that his father was assassinated by a group of supporters of “White Supremacy”. Malcolm’s mother was only “half black” because she was born after a rape by a white man. Because of the controversies on the real causes of the death of her husband, she was victim of a severe form of mental breakdown and was declared legally insane and the family dispersed. The same Malcolm was given to a family of guardians.
Malcolm finished his junior high school getting the best results of his class but abandoned when his favorite teacher told him bluntly that becoming a renowned lawyer was “not a realistic goal for a nigger”. After leaving school, Malcolm turned into a good for nothing; the first problems with the law brought him into a detention center, from which he was released to move for some time in Boston, near his older sister.
Later he found work as a shoeshiner at a nightclub. Moreover he found also work as a waiter in a train. He moved then in the neighborhood of Harlem, in New York, where he gave himself to a series of cheerful illegal activities such as drug smuggling, gambling, prostitution, extortion and robbery. When he was examined for the lever during the Second World War, doctors found him mentally unsuitable.
The January 12, 1946, at age 20, Malcolm was arrested and sentenced to ten years with the charge of housebreaking, illegal possession of firearms and stealing. At the Charlestown State Prison earned the nickname “Satan” for his continued swears, especially against God and the Bible.
In 1948, while in prison, Malcolm received a letter from his brother Reginald asking him to join the Nation of Islam (NOI). Reginald explained him that the “NOI” defined itself a “militant extremist Islamic sect”. Its central thesis was that the majority of African slaves were Muslims before being captured and then the blacks would have to reconvert to Islam. The “NOI” was also a “black nationalist” group, which advocated the creation of a separate black nation within the United States.
Malcolm was captivated by the teachings of the leader of “NOI”, Elijah Muhammad. With the help of his sister, he managed to get transferred to a penal colony in Norfolk where he had more freedom; he became an avid reader and sought in history and philosophy arguments in favor of the “NOI” theories. To enrich his culture and improve his handwriting, he came to transcribe by hand an entire dictionary; therefore, he began to correspond on daily basis with Elijah Muhammad. Eventually, Malcolm X was released on trust, August 7, 1952.
In 1950 the FBI opened a file on him after he wrote a letter to President Truman expressing his positions against the Korean War and declaring himself a communist. It was in that year that Little began to sign himself “Malcolm X”. Historically, in the United States of America to the blacks slaves were given the surnames of their masters. Although he was not the son of slaves, the origin of his surname at birth was attributable to the masters with whom his ancestors had served at one time. The choice of “X” as a surname would thus represent the refusal to accept this bond with the masters of the past.
Just out of prison, Malcolm X went near Elijah Muhammad in Chicago.
In March of 1953, the CIA began to control the actions of Malcolm; apparently this had to do with the fact that, according to some informants, Malcolm X called himself a “communist” (the USA were in Cold War with the Sovietic Union). In the archive on the CIA appeared also two letters of Malcolm signed with the nickname Malik Shabazz; the surname “Shabazz” according to Elijah Muhammad, was a reference to the origin from an ancient black Asian nation. In May of that year, the CIA concluded that Malcolm X had a “asocial personality with paranoid trends (pre-psychotic paranoid schizophrenia)”.
In the same year, Malcolm moved for a long period near Elijah Muhammad in Chicago, then returned to Boston with the role of “Pastor of Temple Number 2 of the Nation of Islam.” In later times he opened several other temples, becoming minister of many of them. His preaching brought many converts to the NOI; among the most famous we can remember Cassius Clay that just by joining the NOI decided to change his name into Muhammad Ali. Soon Malcolm X became the number two of the movement and the “right arm” of Elijah Muhammad. Between 1952 and 1963, certainly thanks to the enormous charisma of Malcolm, the NOI went from 500 to 30,000 subscribers.
In 1958, Malcolm married Betty Shabazz in Lansing, Michigan. They had six daughters, all named Shabazz: the first was Attallah, born in 1958; followed by Qubilah, born in 1960; Ilyasah, born in 1962; Gamilah Lumumba, born in 1964, and the twins Malikah and Malaak, born after the death of Malcolm in 1965.
While working for the NOI, Malcolm X came to know about some extramarital affairs of Elijah Muhammad. The same Elijah defended himself by claiming that, as a messenger of God, he had the right to have several wives and “any slave he could grab his hand”; however, he was not married to any of the young secretaries with whom he had relations and finally he made them all pregnant. Malcolm refused to put it silenced and he showed himself publicly annoyed.
In 1963, on the occasion of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm said quite coldly that the violence that Kennedy had created, only turned back on him, adding that this kind of thing did not saddened but made him happy. These statements caused a huge stir and eventually the NOI reneged the words of Malcolm, forbidding him public speaking for ninety days. Many of these positions, which divided the movements for the rights of blacks, brought him away from the much more megalithic Martin Luther King, advocate of nonviolence and reconciliation.
In the spring of 1963, Malcolm started collaborating with Alex Haley to write the book “Autobiography of Malcolm X”. The March 8, 1964 he publicly declared his separation from the NOI and on March 12 announced the creation of a new movement called “Muslim Mosque, Inc.”
The February 14, 1965, Malcolm and his family survived a bomb attack against their house. A week later, on February 21, during a public speech in Manhattan, Malcolm was killed, at age 39, by seven shots of a firearm.
At the funeral of Malcolm X, celebrated on February 27, 1965, in Harlem, attended more than 1,500,000 people, after which his body was buried in the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.
Three members of the Nation of Islam (N.O.I.) were arrested for his murder: Talmadge Hayer, Norman Butler and Thomas Johnson. Although all three had been convicted of murder in March 1966, the only Hayer confessed his responsibilities, but later were released more names, all within the Nation of Islam.
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