Black Gods of The Inner City By Prince A Cuba

Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam is a figure as current as today's headlines, but the movement of which he is a nominal spokesman has a continuous history of over eighty years in this country. The Nation of Islam (NOI), as it is officially known, came to the attention of the general public in the 1960s as the "Black Muslims." (1) It is well-known for its doctrine that the White Man is a devil, but what is probably less well known is another part of its teaching ------- that the Black Man is God. The Moorish Science Temple of America Outsiders have done little in-depth research to trace the NOI's doctrinal predecessors. The NOI itself has denied its connections with previous movements, specifically Noble Drew Ali’s Moorish Science Temple of America (MSTA). Ali, who was born Timothy Drew in North Carolina in 1886, taught, among other things, that the people known today as Blacks are descended from the ancient Canaanites, and were known as Moors. He rejected the terms “black,” “colored,” or “Negro.” Ali taught that the so called “Negroes” were in fact Asiatics, and that all non-Caucasians were Asiatics; and that all the people in North America identified as “Negroes” were in fact Moors, descended from Moroccans who had immigrated here prior to the arrival of the European Caucasian. According to Ali, they had had their Moorish citizenship and names taken away from them in 1779 and replaced by slavery and their original names substituted by the slave masters’ names, and were now referred to as “Negroes,” (in effect, denationalizing them). Ali also taught that Asiatics were “olive complexioned,” [sic] and that “Black, according to science, means death.” Colored meant “anything that has been painted, stained, varnished or dyed.” It also served as a reference to Europeans. Ali established his first temple, the Canaanite Temple, in Newark, New Jersey, in 1913, and then a second in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, before moving to Chicago, Illinois in 1925. It was in the year 1925 that a configuration of Venus appeared in conjunction with a crescent moon giving the appearance of a star and crescent. The interpretation was made that this heralded the coming into power of the Asiatics, and the fall of the Caucasian civilization. Moorish Science Temple tradition holds that the Prophet, Noble Drew Ali, had traveled to the East, “mastered the pyramids,” and had received a charter from the King of Morocco. In Ali’s Moorish Science Circle Seven Koran there is an implied connection with Abdul Azziz ibn Saud (who had just seized Mecca in 1924 and had yet to consolidate himself as overall ruler and retitle the Arabian peninsula with his own family name). It was also claimed in the early days of the MSTA that Ali had met with U.S. President (from 1913 to 1921) Woodrow Wilson who had told him “it would be as difficult getting Negroes to accept Islam, as trying to get a horse to wear pants; you won’t get a hundred of them.” Ali smiled. “That’s okay. I still want them. I’ve already got one leg in.” Beside the official printed pamphlet, The Circle Seven Koran, was the “Koran Questions for Moorish Americans,” typeset and arranged in a question and answer catechism format (also known as “101 Questions” and memorized by Moorish Science adherents). These teachings were described as “Islamism” in MSTA literature. Noble Drew Ali gave them a flag (red, with a green five pointed star in the center, and identical to the current flag of Morocco); he gave them a nationality: Moor; a book, The Circle Seven Koran; and an identification card, which read: “This is your Nationality and Identification Card for the Moorish Science Temple of America… We honor all the Divine Prophets, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha and Confucius… I do hereby declare you are a Moslem under the Divine Laws of the Holy Koran of Mecca, Love, Truth Peace Freedom and Justice.” It ended with: “I Am A Citizen of the U.S.A.” But what really made the Moors conspicuous were their red fezzes and their use of “Bey” or “El” following their “slave names.” While the Moorish Science Temple of America came into existence in 1913, it was not formally chartered (licensed as a religious organization) until 1928. With this in mind, any scholar that researches MSTA antecedents should examine Masonic connections. (2) The Shriners Freemasonry as a speculative fraternal association, as we know it today, was officially established in London, England in 1717. From that root, grew the branch of African-American Prince Hall Freemasonry established in 1775 in Boston, Massachusetts. Almost a hundred years later, in 1872, in Rome, New York, Caucasian Freemasons of the 33rd degree created an order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and called their lodges “temples,” and became popularly known as “Shriners.” Their official and full name is “The Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine for North America.” They created a fictitious history for themselves, claiming initiations from the Grand Sharif [noble] of Mecca (a hereditary title granted to descendents of Muhammad ibn Abdullah), wore red fezzes, sported star and crescent jewelry, and greeted each other with “Salaam alaikum.” (They were to be referred to as “Moslem Sons” by Wallace D. Fard). These Shriners existed as an unincorporated organization, and when the state of New York passed a special act in 1895 to incorporate them, the group’s leadership rejected it. In 1893, a group of African-American Prince Hall Freemasons organized in Chicago the “Ancient Egyptian Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine of North and South America.” Their origins are likewise fictitious, claiming a charter granted by a pseudo-Islamic notable at Chicago’s World Fair. This group incorporated in 1901 in the District of Columbia. (3) The two organizations existed independent of each other, buying their literature and regalia from the same sources, and using the same rituals. However, the White Shriners subsequently sought an injunction against the Black Shriners. The case ended up in the United States’ Supreme Court. The Black Shriners won the case in 1929. The title of “Noble” in Ali’s attribute should serve as a signal. The clasped hands symbolizing Unity in MSTA literature is another hint: the position of the thumbs reveal a Masonic “grip.” Legend has it that Ali was the reincarnation of Muhammad ibn Abdullah, the Prophet and Reformer of the Islam of 7th century Arabia which, itself developed into two dominant factions: the Sunni and the Shia. (Ali is also claimed by some to be the reincarnation of Jesus). Eventually relocating to Chicago, Ali built an organization that numbered perhaps 30,000 adherents at its peak. On March 15, 1929, Ali was arrested after factional violence resulted in the death of a rival, Sheik Claude Greene. Arrested and held in the county jail, Ali was eventually released on bail, but died July 20, 1929, under what has become, to many, mysterious circumstances. Three immediate splinters of the original MSTA resulted. (4) After “veiling the form” (Arabic, ghaybah; “absence, concealment”), Noble Drew Ali is said to still exist in a “state of occultation” in the manner of the 12th Imam in one branch of Shiism, although a constant vigil is maintained at Lincoln Cemetery at the stately mausoleum maintained there for him. Master Fard Muhammad The story of the NOI itself starts with a man variously known as Wali Farrad, W.D. Fard, Wallace Fard Muhammad, and Farrad Muhammad, but who is best known as Master Fard Muhammad. (5) According to his successor, Elijah Muhammad: “He came alone. He began teaching us the knowledge of ourselves, of God and the devil, of the measurements of the earth, of other planets, and the civilizations of some of the planets other than the earth. He measured and weighed the earth and the water; [he gave] the history of the moon; the history of the two nations that dominated the earth. He gave the exact birth of the white race; the name of their God who made them and how; and the end of their time, the judgment, how it will begin and end.” (6) According to the same source, Fard had said, "My name is Mahdi; I am God." And according to another source, Fard, when asked who he was by the Detroit police, responded: "I am the Supreme Ruler of the Universe." (7) Master Fard Muhammad is officially noted by the NOI as having arrived in Detroit on July 4, 1930, and departing on June 30, 1934. (There is an older tradition of an earlier arrival twenty years previous as well as attendance at the University of Southern California.) (8) In the interim, Fard established temples in Detroit and Chicago, and created a hierarchical organization composed of a men's military training unit called the Fruit of Islam (FOI), a ministers' corps, and a women's auxiliary called the Muslim Girls Training and General Civilization Class (MGT-GCC). (9) This infrastructure was built upon Fard's ideological foundation known as the "Secret Ritual," which, arranged in a question-and-answer format, became better known as the "Lost-Found Muslim Lessons" or simply as "The Lessons." Now among the Farrakhan faction of the NOI they are known as “The Supreme Wisdom Lessons,” and with that change, the claim is added that Elijah Muhammad co-authored them, ignoring the fact that they were in existence in fixed form prior to Elijah’s first acquaintance with Farad and the NOI in the Fall of 1931. In addition to the “Secret Ritual,” Prophet W.D. Fard authored “Teachings for the Lost-Found Nation of Islam in a Mathematical Way.” Undated, in a typeset booklet, Fard had arranged a series of 34 mathematical word problems that incorporated the esoteric teachings of the NOI. Among initiates the booklet was known as the “Problem Book.” Within these lessons were the basic elements of an ancient mystery school. It involved secrecy from outsiders; an esoteric ritual containing keys for recognition between fellow members; a cohesive world view; and a tradition that could be explained only to initiates. Central to these teachings were the knowledge of self and the Black man's godhood. (10) According to these teachings, the Black man was by nature divine, and in fact was the original human (man), ancestor of the human race (antedating Louis and Mary Leakey's discoveries of early human remains in Africa by nearly thirty years.) White people, on the other hand, were produced out of Black people by a scientist named Yacub approximately six-thousand years ago. (11) Discovering a recessive gene in the Black man, Yacub used a system of eugenics on a group of sixty-thousand people on an island (Patmos) and, after six-hundred years, was able to create a biological mutation: the White man. Of course Yacub did not live to see his creation, but he left behind an infrastructure to propagate his system, as well as the ideological basis for White supremacy. Bleached of the essence of humanity, Whites were "without soul." Nonetheless the race was destined to rule for an allotted period extending to 1914 C.E. though, as Fard's messenger Elijah Muhammad put it, "a few years of grace have been given to complete the resurrection of the Black man, and especially the so-called Negroes whom Allah has chosen for this change (of a new nation and world). They (so-called Negroes) have been made so completely mentally dead ... that extra time is allowed." (12) It was also taught that the supreme god amongst this mighty nation of Black gods commanded the name of Allah. (13) This title was claimed by Master Fard Muhammad himself. Fard's deification of man can hardly be considered an aberration in light of historical precedents. The ancient pharaohs of Egypt, the Aztec emperors, and the Peruvian Incas who traced their ancestry to the Sun God are well-known examples. More recently, there are claims of divinity for emperors Hirohito and Haile Selassie, the Dalai Lama, and Kushok Bakula. (14) And even these should hardly turn any heads in the light of the tradition of Jesus of Nazareth as God incarnate. The Hindu avatar tradition would also be right at home in such company. The teaching of the divinity of the Black man, specifically, (a doctrine known as "incarnation"), is said to go back to ancient Egyptian mystery schools; in fact Khem (and its variants Cham, Ham), an ancient name of Egypt, means "land of the Blacks." Nor did the doctrine of incarnation start with Master Fard Muhammad and the NOI; according to Fard's messenger and successor, Elijah Muhammad, the knowledge of man as god had been long known but "was kept a secret from the public." (15) Of course this concept is supported by the anthropomorphism of the earliest traditions of Sumer, Egypt, Babylonia, and reflected in its later religious manifestations: the Pentateuch, Mahabharata, Qur’an, et cetera. The Lost-Found People of Islam Prior to Fard's appearance in 1930, Noble Drew Ali's Moorish Science Temples of America were in decline. After the loss of its founder in 1929, the movement had fallen into three separate schisms. Sheik John Givens El (Ali’s chauffeur), claimed that Noble Drew Ali had become reincarnated into him, on August 7, 1929 in Chicago. This was publicly announced in Chicago's Pythian Hall on August 19 of that year. (16) But, according to scholar (third generation MSTA) Ravanna Bey, W.D. Fard, known at the time as Abdul Wali Farrad Muhammad, and two other Moorish Scientists, Mealy El and Charles Kirkman Bey, contested the authority of Givens El. The latter two went on to establish their own independent Moorish Science Temples, while Fard converted a Detroit Moorish Science Temple and renamed it the Temple of the Lost-Found People of Islam (a story that has been hotly contested by NOI leadership). (17) A wartime FBI memo claimed W.D. Fard was one Sheik Davis El from Kansas; (an error subsequently ignored in the FBI’s voluminous file in excess of fifty-thousand pages.) (18) According to yet another source, Fard had declared himself the reincarnation of Noble Drew Ali. (19) With so many stories in circulation, confusion has been the norm. The MSTA, in particular, are responsible for numerous unsubstantiated claims regarding Farad, Elijah Muhammad, and the early origins of the NOI. On November 21, 1932, Robert Karriem, a member of Fard's Detroit temple, was arrested for the murder of John J. Smith, another temple member. That episode and subsequent events were extensively reported in the two local newspapers: The Detroit Times and The Detroit Free Press. The police arrested thirty-seven members in what they characterized as a case of "human sacrifice" with religious overtones. They labeled the incident “the Voodoo Murder,” and the media followed suit. (20) The organization was referred to as the "Voodoo Cult," and Fard as "Chief of the Voodoos" by their detractors. Karriem, also known as Robert Harris, was adjudicated mentally unfit for trial and ordered to be confined to the State Insane Asylum at Ionia, Michigan, on December 6, 1932. On the same date, Mr. Fard had agreed to “abdicate the city.” His First Minister at the time, Othman (or Ugan) Ali had made a deal with the authorities to alter the teachings in exchange for his freedom. Seven months later, the police discovered Fard in the city again, arresting him at Detroit's Hotel Traymore on May 25, 1933. Held overnight for "investigation," he was photographed and fingerprinted. On the following day he was again ordered out of the city. Traveling to Chicago, he was reportedly arrested again in September. According to Elijah Muhammad, Fard "came to Chicago in the same year [1933] and was arrested almost immediately on his arrival and placed behind prison bars."(21) According to FBI sources, Fard was thought to have been arrested in Chicago on September 26, 1933, without disposition, photo, or fingerprints taken, for "disorderly conduct," a police euphemism for the harassment of undesirables. This is the last official record of Fard. Unsubstantiated rumors lay his disappearance at the door of the Chicago police department; but according to NOI tradition, Fard continued to visit Detroit surreptitiously into 1934. Fard The Man Who was Fard? Official NOI teachings state that he was born in Mecca, Arabia, February 26, 1877. The offspring of a Black father and a White mother, he was "able to go among both black and white without being discovered or recognized." (22) His mission was to teach freedom, justice, and equality to the members of the "lost tribe of Shabazz in the wilderness of North America." He had received the finest education in preparation for his mission; "he could speak 16 languages and write 10 of them. He could recite the histories of the world as far back as 150,000 years and knew the beginning and end of all things." (23) However, different sources contribute their conflicting versions of the man. Fard was also described as a "Palestinian Arab who had participated in various racial agitations in India, South Africa, and London before moving on to Detroit." He was also thought to be the son of an African Jamaican mother and a Syrian Muslim father. (24) Another report claimed that he was born of a Maori mother and a British sailor father in New Zealand. (25) Still another states that he was a Turkish-born agent for Hitler. (26) A recent account somewhat incoherently describes Fard as a "Jewish Nazi Communist," and says he was an agent of the CIA in 1930 (seventeen years before that agency came into existence). (27) One more recent writer has constructed the tenuous hypothesis that Fard came to Sufi mysticism by way of Theosophy. (28) There is even an account (complete with transcript) of a supposed encounter between Fard and Albert Einstein at a Detroit radio station in 1932. (29) More recent is the revisionist history that Fard and Elijah Muhammad had secretly planned for the NOI to eventually evolve into mainstream Sunni Islam. The contradictions of the core anthropomorphic theology and the Yacub traditions are conveniently ignored. While the oral histories of Moorish Science adherents claim Fard as one of their own gone astray, NOI initiates say that Fard, arriving in the "wilderness of North America" as early as 1910, taught Noble Drew Ali, Father Divine, Daddy Grace and Sufi Abdul-Hamid (30) the concept of Black godhood, though all of these later went on their own way. There is also a tradition that in Egypt Fard taught Duse Muhammad Ali, the mentor of Marcus Garvey (founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association), as well as Garvey himself, whom he allegedly met in London. Fard was described as having an "Oriental cast of countenance," (31) a description which the 1933 police provided photo seems to bear out. Police sources describe him as five feet, six inches in height and weighing 133 pounds. His eye color is given as "maroon," his hair as black, and his complexion is described as "dark" or "swarthy." His age was reported as 33 years old in contemporary published accounts and police reports; information that does not concur with an 1877 birth date. One entry described him as looking like a "dark complected Mexican." Only three photographs remain from Fard's alleged three and a half years in Detroit: the police photo, the "glamourized" (i.e. touched-up) portrait of a sort popular in the late 1920s, taken at a forty-five-degree angle by a professional photographer, and the photo that appeared in the Detroit Free Press on November 24, 1932, (page 20). The latter photo, in which Mr. Fard appeared seated with a book in his hands, flanked by two detectives, seems to bear out the authenticity of the Detroit police photo of May 1933, Elijah Muhammad’s denial not-with-standing; it is also consistent with the long-held NOI tradition that Fard always appeared with a book in his hand when he was photographed. The professional, glamour shot became the official portrait of Fard, and was later reproduced as a portrait painted by Herbert Muhammad, Jr., grandson to Elijah. This painted portrait has since then been passed off as an original photographic print. (32) The Departure of Fard Other accounts circulated after Fard's disappearance. According to Elijah Muhammad, Fard was "ordered out of the country" and caught a flight to Mecca. (33) It was also reported that he sailed to Australia and New Zealand, and that he was last seen "aboard a ship bound for Europe." (34) A suspect source claimed that Fard was interviewed in Germany but denied ever being in the United States. (35) A report in a Sunni Muslim newspaper claimed that Fard was alive and living in California and was then himself a Sunni Muslim, and has now been updated to report his death. (36) In addition, there were rumors to the effect that Fard "met with foul play at the hands of either the Detroit police or some of his dissident followers," or that he was the victim of "human sacrifice" himself, thereby accounting for both his disappearance and his title of "Saviour." (37) Another unsubstantiated story said that, afflicted with an incurable illness, he died and was buried under another name, and "no man knows of his grave to this day." Rumors aside, there has been no reliable report of his death. The FBI, which initiated an investigation of Fard in 1942 that was to last more than sixty years, could not substantiate or verify his name at birth, birth date, place of birth, port of entry, exit, or present whereabouts, despite exhaustive inquiries. The FBI did, in fact initiate a campaign in their Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) to discredit Fard through its use of “friendly journalists” of which more details will follow, infra. There are even indications that bodies were exhumed in the search for Fard. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, after a search of their files, claimed no record of W.D. Fard was to be found. (38) The Messenger of Allah It was Elijah Muhammad who was almost single-handedly responsible for the deification of Fard as "Allah." Elijah Muhammad was born Paul Robert Poole in 1897 on a tenant farm in Sandersville, Georgia, the seventh of twelve children; he was called “Elijah” by his grandfather. Later on, Fard would give him the name Karriem, and then Muhammad. (39) Elijah married the former Clara Evans in Georgia and then migrated to Detroit in 1923. Working at a variety of jobs until the Depression hit in 1929, he went on relief until 1931. It was in that year that he first met Fard, and was first introduced to his teachings, but says that "it was not until 1933 that he [Fard] began revealing his true self to us." (40) After Fard's disappearance, the struggle for succession commenced. Elijah's own brother fell in the bloody internecine warfare that developed. (41) Rivals in the Detroit temple made necessary Elijah's hegira to Chicago, which was destined to become his headquarters and power base; but from 1935 to 1942, he was a fugitive from individuals he characterized as “hypocrites” whom he claimed wanted to do him physical harm. In 1942 he was arrested in Washington, D.C., by the FBI on the charge of Sedition for counseling NOI members to violate Selective Service law, i.e., refusing to be drafted. Around the same time, more than eighty members of the Chicago temple were taken in under the same charge by FBI agents working with local police. One of the arrested temple members said the officers "tore the place apart trying to find weapons hidden, since they believed we were connected with the Japanese." (42) The sedition charge was based on the temple's anti-draft stance and was applied for blatantly political reasons. The arrest of Elijah and his followers, and their subsequent incarceration until the end of the war, greatly enhanced their status as martyrs for the cause. Like other leaders jailed for their activities as political prisoners, Elijah brought forth innovations for his movement when he was released. Prior to his imprisonment, the movement was based entirely on its theological teachings and traditions. In 1946 it numbered in the hundreds, estimated by several sources as probably around four-hundred people; but that was to change. Upon his release, Elijah stated, "We have to show the people something ---- we cannot progress by talk." And so, as his son Wallace later explained, Elijah "changed from preaching his mysterious doctrine to doing something practical. He said, 'We have to have businesses.' So he began to promote the opening of businesses. He said, ‘You have to produce jobs for yourself.’" (43) Quietly growing through the 1940s and '50s, the NOI came to enjoy phenomenal growth in the 1960s owing to media exposure and the charismatic gifts of its new national spokesman, Malcolm X. As Elijah's chief minister, Malcolm was known in Black inner-cities for his dynamic presence and speaking ability. He gained international exposure through Mike Wallace's 1959 sensationalized television expose-type documentary, "The Hate that Hate Produced." The program shocked White America, while at the same time grim-faced FOI members met with admiration from inner-city audiences. Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, and the NOI had arrived on prime time. Recruitment skyrocketed. Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1925, Malcolm X had been introduced to Elijah Muhammad through family members while in prison in Massachusetts. In the early 1950s he embraced the NOI’s teachings and received his "X." (44) At this time the NOI had probably no more than 400 active members and had existed as a small cult. (45) Upon his release he joined the organization in Detroit and subsequently rose to a position of leadership, eventually moving to New York City, where he was appointed minister of Temple #7. But in 1965 factional rivalry and the FBI’s Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) activities reaped their harvest: Malcolm X was assassinated. COINTELPRO Almost no mention has been made of the role of the FBI’s “friendly journalists” like M. S. Handler of The New York Times, and Ed Montgomery of The San Francisco Herald-Examiner. These journalists were provided with “letterhead memoranda” (LHM) or “blind memos” from the FBI with information not to be attributed to them as a source. (46) These journalists then did rewrites from the government-provided documents. M.S. Handler who wrote the Introduction to Alex Haley’s version of the biography of Malcolm X (The Autobiography of Malcolm X), was described, according to Haley, by Malcolm, as “the most genuinely unprejudiced white man I ever met… I have asked him things and tested him. I have listened to him talk, closely.” However it was Handler that broke the story of the “impending split” between Malcolm and Elijah, in fact instigating that reality, and furthering in other reports, internecine conflict amongst N.O.I. membership. The unnamed sources of his stories were in fact the FBI’s LHMs, themselves, based on informants’ reports. (47) Ed Montgomery, in a series of copyrighted reports for the San Francisco and Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and the Boston Record-American newspapers (July 28, 1963, and February 26, 1965), engaged in counter-intelligence propaganda for the FBI. His articles were calculated to discredit the NOI through discrediting its founder, W.D. Fard. According to Montgomery, who was provided the cover story, (or “legend,” in intelligence parlance), by the FBI, Fard was a White man, an ex-con drug dealer, who deserted his White wife and infant son on the West Coast, and going to Detroit, started the NOI as a racket to make a lot of money, and disappeared with his ill-gotten gains. However, the 1933 Detroit Police Department arrest photo is represented as a 1926 San Quentin prison mug shot, and the 1926 drug prices represented are actually 1963 prices. There are other holes in the story; but before we evaluate information, we must first evaluate the source. Who was Ed Montgomery? He is the same journalist that reported that Huey P. Newton was living in a luxury apartment, based upon information received from his FBI handlers. (48) In both stories, Montgomery was supplied with facts culled from the Bureau’s files, and he provided the creative impulse. The information provided by the FBI and reported by Montgomery was later used by the FBI as reference material. When any enquiry was addressed to the Bureau regarding Fard, they simply referred the query to the Montgomery piece as being authoritative, while neglecting to mention they were its originators. Much has been made of the break of Malcolm X from the NOI, mainly drawn from biased sources. Reduced to the bare facts, in sequence: Malcolm was suspended for his “chickens come home to roost” comment regarding President Kennedy’s assassination, on December 1, 1963. According to Malcolm: “Within hours of the [Kennedy] assassination----I am telling nothing but the truth--- every Muslim minister received from Mr. [Elijah] Muhammad a directive---in fact, two directives. Every minister was ordered to make no remarks at all concerning the assassination. Mr. Muhammad instructed that if pressed for comment, we should say: ‘No comment.’ ” (49) Within that ninety-day period of “silencing,” Malcolm was anything but silent. The only place he didn’t speak was within the NOI temples! When he did give his formal news conference on March 8, 1964, he endorsed Mr. Muhammad’s program while expressing the fact that individuals within the organization made it impossible for him to implement that program: the same people forcing him out, were instigating his assassination. (50) Malcolm borrowed money from his sister Ella Baker in Boston to make his own hajj. Most people don’t know that it was Malcolm that prepared Elijah Muhammad’s hajj in 1959. According to Malcolm: “He [Elijah Muhammad] left me in charge of the Nation of Islam’s affairs when he made an Omra [lesser hajj] pilgrimage to the Holy City Mecca.” (51) While much has been made of Malcolm’s Islamic orthodoxy in an effort to discredit Elijah’s NOI, take note of the fact that it was the same Hajj Committee that approved Elijah’s hajj. Who then can challenge his Islamic credentials? While in Mecca Malcolm met some smiling White Muslims of which he sent a letter describing same to every major White newspaper in the United States. This incident is rehashed over and over again in an effort to refute the NOI’s theology, as recent as the late Manning Marable’s book. Ignored are the Essiem-Udom’s book, (52) C. Eric Lincoln’s (53), and Louis Lomax’s (54), all of which raised the issue of White Muslims, all published before 1964--- to which Malcolm responded that they looked much like the devils who robbed us of our culture, language, etc. Not to mention the NOI’s own secret ritual concerning them, i.e., “Muslim Sons.” Another important fact, largely unknown, is that Malcolm’s own entourage to a great extent, subscribed to the belief system of the NOI: that W.D. Farad was Allah in person, that Elijah was his Messenger, that Yacub had made the devil, and that devil was the White man. To have Malcolm flip the script like that, and to first know of it from reading the White man’s newspapers did much to undermine the personal loyalty of many of Malcolm’s immediate followers. Malcolm’s continuous vitriolic verbal attacks on Elijah Muhammad, true or not, did much to instigate the people who eventually murdered him. That the FBI’s COINTELPRO was in full effect, or that the NYPD did little to protect him, or that reporters like M.S. Handler instigated enemies within the NOI, not-with-standing. The undeniable fact is, that Malcolm made a faction of the NOI angry enough to kill him. To argue that Black people can not regulate extra-judicially their own internal affairs without the intervention, help, control, or direction of White people (FBI, CIA, NYPD), is another internalized unconscious manifestation of White Supremacy, a widespread psychosis of the pseudo-nationalists. Regardless of the many positive things attributed to Malcolm does not negate the fact that he angered some people sufficiently enough to kill him. Despite the advice of his own security to cease his ad hominem verbal attacks on Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm continued to provoke the faction that eventually killed him. After his death Malcolm X became the martyr of the Black Nationalist movement; but for the next ten years, the various factions were just treading water, and no one made any waves, (except a man called “Allah”), until the death of Elijah Muhammad in 1975. Allah Comes To Harlem In the meantime, however, the doctrine of Black incarnation had not died, and while W.D. Fard was still invoked in prayer in the temples of the NOI, another cycle in the series of resurrections and reincarnations came about. The former FOI Clarence 13X became the founder of the "Five Percenters" in New York City around 1964. Born Clarence Edward Smith in Danville, Virginia, in 1928, while still in his teens he came with his family to New York City. Married and the father of several children, he served with the U.S. Army during the Korean Conflict. Honorably discharged in 1954, he remained a reservist until 1960, at which time he joined the NOI. He remained in the NOI until he was advised to leave in early December 1963 by Malcolm X. The leading rumor of the cause of Clarence's departure from the NOI was his admitted love for playing craps. Dice playing, it was claimed, was a way of demonstrating the mathematical probabilities inherent in the nature of the universe. By contrast to Einstein's famous dictum, "God doesn't play dice," the former Clarence 13X Smith, who took on the attribute (or name) Allah, did claim, "I am going to shoot dice until I die." (55) And he did. "Allah," as he became known, took Fard's Secret Ritual, better known to contemporary initiates as the "Lost-Found Muslim Lessons," (also referred to as “120 Degrees”), out of the temple and put them into the hands of the youth in the streets. Fard's initiation ritual related a mathematical formula for human society, which was broken down into percentages. The Five Percent were those who taught righteousness, freedom, justice, and equality to all the human family. They taught that the god of righteousness was not a spirit or a spook, but the Black man of Asia. (Asia was viewed as the primary continent, all the others as subcontinents; continental drift was a facet of this teaching.) The Eighty-Five Percent, ---the masses,--- believed in a "Mystery God" and worshipped "that which did not exist." They believed in a spiritual deity rather than a material man as god. They functioned on a "mentally dead" (i.e. unconscious) level and were easy to lead in the wrong direction but hard to lead in the right. The Ten Percent were the bloodsuckers of the poor who taught the Eighty-Five Percent that a Mystery God existed. They kept the masses asleep with myths and lies, catering to their superstitious nature and living in luxury from the earnings of the poor. The Ten Percent might be accurately described as a professional priesthood. This priesthood are recognizable by their otherworldly concerns and esoteric explanations for natural phenomenon, confusing material reality with symbolism, and injecting spiritualism into rational thought. The Five Percent were destined to be poor righteous teachers and to struggle successfully against the Ten Percent. Their job was to lead the Eighty-Five Percent to freedom, justice, and equality and heaven (“money, good homes, friends in all walks of life.”) At first a loose confederation of the lumpen-proletariat, Allah's followers numbered in the hundreds, but that soon changed. Allah was arrested after an altercation with the New York City police in 1965 which resulted in his being held as a political prisoner and being judicially declared “insane.” He was subsequently released in 1967. The Rise of the Five Percenters Allah attracted the attention of both the police and the politicians ----- a lethal combination. Mayor Lindsay's liberal Republican administration in New York City saw in him a means of keeping the Harlem streets cool through the long, hot summers of the riot-strewn Sixties in a well orchestrated manner of pacification. So Allah was put on the city payroll. Meanwhile the New York City Police Department's Bureau of Special Services (BOSS), who kept their eyes on radicals and dissidents, put him at the top of their list of "Black Militants." (56) For his part, Allah wanted something for his youngsters. In the short time he was associated with the Mayor's office, he was able to open a “street academy” under the authority of the Urban League, with city funds. He expanded his recruitment of youth with picnic outings and airplane rides, also provided by city and charitable funds. The youth in turn sensed his love for them, and it is no wonder that in the earlier Five Percenters, and the later “Nation of Gods and Earths,” he is referred to as "The Father." Allah was assassinated Friday the 13th of June, 1969 by "three male Negroes." His death was reported on the front page of The New York Times. (57) His murder remains unsolved. It has been rumored within the FOI circles that his death was the result of his "taking the lessons out of the temple." There is evidence, however, that BOSS instigated the assassination to create a war between the NOI and the Five Percenters. (58) With Allah's martyrdom, legends and a mythology of supernatural proportions began to proliferate, created by a newly established priesthood. People like Universal Shaamgaud Allah, one of the earliest pioneers and undisputed designer of the Universal Flag, spun incredible stories about Allah. In his self-published “Sun of Man,” Allah was credited with having it snow on one side and raining on the other side of 125th Street. (59) Another, Beloved Allah, wrote what became the accepted canon of the new religion: “The Nation of Gods and Earths.” Beloved Allah simply plagiarized the body of Barry Gotterher’s book, The Mayor’s Man (NY 1975), and mixing it with some of the oral accounts of Allah in circulation and came up with “The Bomb: The Greatest Story Never Told.” The piece was published in The Word in 1987 and since then has become the official canon of the new offshoot of the original Five Percenters, “the Nation of Gods and Earths.” And so, "The Father, Allah," joined the pantheon of the Black gods of the inner city along with Nobel Drew Ali and W.D. Fard. But Allah's story doesn't end there. Like Jesus, he taught "You are gods," (John 10:34; echoing Psalm 82), testifying to the inherent divinity of man; nonetheless his followers elevated him above themselves. His biographies became tinged with myth, and a supernatural element was added to his teachings; the "Father" has been magnified in his absence, and he has become a cult personality. His photos adorn walls where previous generations had kept a picture of a blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus. A New Era With the death of Elijah Muhammad in 1975, a new power struggle ensued in the house that Fard built. Wallace Delaney Muhammad, son of Elijah, and namesake of Fard, was born in Detroit in 1933. He received his elementary and high-school education at the NOI's University of Islam in Chicago, and spent four more years studying Islam and Arabic at Sunni Muslim schools. He was long regarded as the logical successor to his father. Born and groomed for the part, he was introduced by Malcolm X as "the seventh son of our dear beloved leader and Teacher who is following in the footsteps of his father." (60) But not everything was to run so smoothly or so simply. Wallace D. Muhammad had in fact been expelled several times from the organization by his father for his refusal to recognize the divinity of Master Fard Muhammad. In addition, Minister Louis Farrakhan, the national spokesman for the organization, was waiting in the wings. Farrakhan, while probably more popular among hard-core militants, failed to muster the votes required from the family dominated inner-circle in Chicago. So, despite Wallace's departures from NOI orthodoxy, nepotism prevailed. Wallace was careful, however. He did not challenge the sanctity of his namesake's coattails, to which he clung and owed his own legitimacy. A year after his accession to power, Wallace claimed in speeches to believers that he was in communication with the founder, saying, "Master Fard Muhammad is not dead, brothers and sisters, he is physically alive and I talk with him whenever I get ready. I don't talk to him in any spooky way, I go to the telephone and dial his number." (61) Within a few years, however, Wallace was moved in the direction of Sunni Islam. Taking the organization through a number of name changes, (like “Bilalian”), he changed his own name to Warith (meaning "heir" in Arabic). Ultimately he sold off the businesses that the organization had accumulated over the previous thirty years and joined the fold of mainstream Islam. Leadership within the Warith camp justified the ideological coup and revisionist innovation with a recently fabricated hadith: that W.D. Farad and Elijah Muhammad had surreptitiously conspired to have their version of Islam eventually join mainstream Sunni Islam. The Farrakhan Facet For a while after Elijah Muhammad's death, Louis Farrakhan toed the line. Approximately three years later, however, the old-line NOI traditionalists regrouped. With a certain amount of encouragement from them, Farrakhan left the employ of Warith. Known in an earlier period as Minister Louis X of Boston's Temple No. 11, Farrakhan had joined the NOI in the mid-1950s. A former calypso singer, he became a speaker of some note; admittedly, a student of Malcolm. He received the name Farrakhan from Elijah Muhammad, but neither he nor anyone else seems to know just what it means. Groomed in the shadow of Malcolm X, and sometimes hosting him in his visits to Boston, Farrakhan was later to fiercely denounce him in the pages of Muhammad Speaks,---- (as did Malcolm’s own brothers), the paper that, ironically, Malcolm himself had started in New York (with Louis Lomax) in 1960: “Only those who wish to be led to hell, or to their doom, will follow Malcolm. The die is set and Malcolm shall not escape, especially after such foolish talk about his benefactor in trying to rob him of the divine glory which Allah has bestowed upon him. Such a man as Malcolm is worthy of death.” (62) Farrakhan later admitted his deviation from the NOI path in following Wallace. Others had refused to recognize the legitimacy of Wallace's succession and had left earlier. Many, like the national baker, maker of the bean pie, Silas Muhammad, formed his own organization, as did numerous others. In the mid-1980s as many as twelve “Nations of Islam,” other than Farrakhan’s, were in existence. Many individuals who had left during the early period of Wallace’s regime later joined Minister Farrakhan’s found themselves on a lower status than those who had, like Farrakhan, stayed through the Wallace interim. Those who had taken on “righteous names” during their unrestrained freedom now, in rejoining Farrakhan’s NOI, were told that they had to surrender them and, go back to using an “X.” In time, some of the other NOI traditionalists regrouped around Farrakhan. One, the former Bernard Cushmeer (now Jabril Muhammad), joined up and claimed that Elijah was not really dead. He wrote a book to prove it. Farrakhan, after some hesitation, concurred; in September 1985, claiming to have had a vision in which he was taken up to the Mothership and saw Elijah. (63) But there was one certainty in the air: that a era had passed and a new cycle had been initiated in the history of the unique form of Islam practiced in the wilderness of North America, complete with its own prophets, gods, saviors, and messengers. Another Cycle After centuries of slavery, lynchings, discrimination, miseducation, police brutality, and poverty, it was not difficult for semi-literate Black migrants in the Depression era to believe that the White man was a devil. What was difficult, after generations of being taught in schools, textbooks, and the media that Black people were inferior and had no history of achievement before enslavement, was for them to see the divine nature in themselves. It was not for Black people to rehabilitate their view of Whites, but to raise their own self-esteem. The doctrine of Black godhood responds to this need, and the Black gods of the inner-city are symptomatic to this effort. In recent years the Five Percenters have grown in numbers, despite the departure of Allah. The movement evolved from the Five Percenters, to the Five Percent Cycle of the Nation of Islam (initially recognizing its parent movement), to the Five Percent Nation, and finally, giving birth to its own offshoot, “The Nation of Gods and Earths.” This new group has its own new flag, derived from the original Universal flag. The new flag accurately reflects the splinter group’s refusal to recognize equality for women in their tampering with the original design, and reducing the size and position of the crescent Moon. This ideological shift contradicts the core value of the original Five Percenters: to “teach Freedom, Justice, and Equality to all the human family.” (Apparently, women are excluded from this family). The doctrine of Black godhood was enjoying a renewal among inner-city youth of the 1990s. They were attracted by its esoteric tradition, its Black identity, and the symbolism of the Five Percenter's Universal Flag. The Five Percenters’ influence in the early rap music field was evidenced by the artists who identified themselves with it in their lyrics: Big Daddy Kane (King Asiatic God Allah), Poor Righteous Teachers, King Sun, Rakim, Brand Nubian, Movement Ex, and Lakim Shabazz (who has done a video in Egypt with pyramids in the background). (64) What can you possibly think when you watch MTV and hear an attractive young Black woman, "cultured-down" (dressed in long skirts with her hair covered, “three-quarters” of her body covered), announce: "Peace, this is the goddess Isis"? There's definitely a connection between godhood, Blackness, and Egypt. However you may view the above, the next time you hear a twenty-year-old youngster like Lakim Shabazz on MTV rapping about "knowledge, wisdom, and understanding," or saying "The original man is the Asiatic Black man," or "I'm God, my number is seven," you will recognize that he is reciting portions of a once-secret ritual that is known to be more than eighty years old and that traces itself back to ancient Egypt. With that knowledge, you can be assured that the Black gods and goddesses of the inner-cities are alive and well. Footnotes 1. The term was coined in 1956 by C. Eric Lincoln, Black Muslims in America (Boston: Beacon Press, 1961, rev. ed. 1973), pp. xii. 2. Lincoln, pps. 50-55. For additional history on the MSTA: Peter Lamborn Wilson, “Shoot-Out At the Circle 7 Koran,” Gnosis Magazine, #12 (Summer 1989), pps .44-49; Peter Lamborn Wilson, Sacred Drift: Essays on the Margins of Islam, (San Francisco 1993), pps. 15-50. 3. For an authoritative history of the Prince Hall affiliated Shriners, see: Joseph A. Walkes, Jr., History of the Shrine: Ancient Egyptian Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, Inc. (Prince Hall Affiliated) A PILLAR OF BLACK SOCIETY, 1893-1993 (Detroit 1993); For the United States Supreme Court case: Ancient Egyptian Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, et al, v. Michaux, et al, 279 U.S. 737, 49 S. Ct. 485 (1929). For Prince Hall Freemasonry: Joseph A. Walkes, Jr., Black Square and Compass: 200 Years of Prince Hall Freemasonry (Richmond, VA. Rev. ed. 1994); and Prince A. Cuba, British Counter-Intelligence and the Origin of African-American Freemasonry in 1775, (Baltimore, MD, 2012). According to Thomas Herbert Johnson in The Oxford Companion to American History, the White Shriners were founded by the comedian W.J. Florence (1831-1891), who claimed he was initiated at Cairo, Egypt, into the Ancient Arabic Order, which is dated by the Shriners from A.D. 656. Their membership is drawn from the Knights Templar and Scottish Rite Masons; pp. 723. 4. E.U. Essien-Udom, Black Nationalism: A Search for Identity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962, 1971), pp. 35. The “mysterious circumstances” are largely exaggerated. (See: Arna Bontemps and Jack Conroy, Anyplace But Here, (1945); revised, (NY 1966); Prof. Ernest Allen, Jr., “When Japan Was ‘Champion of the Darker Races’: Satokata Takahashi and the Flowering of Black Messianic Nationalism,” The Black Scholar, (Vol 24, No. 1, Winter 1994), pps. 23-46: “Ali’s official cause of death was ‘Tuberculosis Broncho-Pneumonia,’ Standard Certificate of Death No. 22054, Timothy Drew, issued July 25, Cook County, Clerk,” at pp. 42, n. 29. (Of course this officially generated report should be digested with more than a grain of salt). Also: Arthur Huff Fauset, “Moorish Science Temple of America,” in J. Milton Yinger, Religion, Society, and the Individual, (NY 1968), pps. 458-507. 5. E.D. Beynon, "The Voodoo Cult among Negro Migrants in Detroit," American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 43, No. 6, (May 1938), pps. 894-907. Republished as Master Fard Muhammad: Detroit History, Prince-A-Cuba. ed. (Afrikan World Books, Baltimore, 2012). Page references are to the former. “Mr. Wali Farrad, W.D. Fard, Professor Ford, Farrad Muhammad, F. Mohammed Ali”; Beynon, at pp. 896. 6. Elijah Muhammad, Message to the Blackman in America (Chicago 1965), pps. 16-17. 7. Beynon, pp. 897; described as an “Oriental fakir,” Farad reportedly told the detectives that arrested him that he was the “supreme being on earth.” “Negro Leaders Open Fight to Break Voodooism’s Grip,” Detroit Free Press, November 24, 1932, pps. 1-2. However, according to Elijah Muhammad, Farad forbade him from telling anyone he was Allah or Mahdi until after his departure. “History,” University of Islam, No. 2, Yearbook (1973); Malu Halasa, Elijah Muhammad, pp. 45; “It was not until 1933 that he began revealing his true self to us as being the answer to the Prophecy of Jesus, the Coming of the Son of Man, the Seeker of the Lost Sheep.” Elijah Muhammad, Our Savior Has Arrived, (Chicago 1974), pp. 23. 8 . Ibid., pp. 5; Pittsburgh Courier, July 20, 1957; and interview with Elijah Muhammad by R. Simmons of The California Eagle, July 28, 1963. Sister Carrie Muhammad claimed that he was a graduate of the University of Southern California at Los Angeles, Beynon, at pp. 897, n. 6. According to Elijah Muhammad, Farad had been enrolled in a California university while living with a white family, Elijah Muhammad, History of the Nation of Islam, (n.d., Secretarius), pp. 5; Hatim A. Sahib, “The Nation of Islam,” (Diss. 1951), pp. 69. The FBI’s file concurs with a California sojourn. A search of undergraduate microfilm records initiated by Robert S. Ellwood, Director, School of Religion, University of Southern California, came up negative for attendance under a variety of possible aliases. 9. Temples were founded in Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, and Washington, D.C. (All locations where Elijah Muhammad lived during his hegira, and where their foundations were built on MSTA temples. Membership estimated by Detroit officials as 8,000, and the Special Investigation Squad of the Detroit Police Department as 5,000, and as “more than 4,000 followers,” “Banished Leader of Cult Arrested; Farad Found in City Despite Promise to Leave,” Detroit Free Press, May 26, 1933, pp. 10; 8,000,--- “Raided Temple Bares Grip of Voodoo in City,” Detroit Free Press, November 23, 1932, pps. 1, 3; 10,000,---“Voodoo Chief Back In Cell,” Detroit Times, May 26, 1933. The 8,000 figure is based upon records seized at the Hastings Street Temple. 10. The expressions "knowledge of self" and "know thyself" are found throughout the NOI teachings. Cf. George G.M. James, Stolen Legacy (Newport News, Va.: UB & USCS, 1954), pps. 3, 88, 92; Anonymous, Egyptian Mysteries: An Account of an Initiation (York Beach, Me.: Samuel Weiser, 1991), pp. 43. The English word “mystery” is derived from the Greek musterion, which signified a rite performed only in the presence of initiates. (The Greek mystery schools were fashioned after the style of the earlier Egyptian universities, at which Thales, Pythagoras, and other notables received their degrees of graduated knowledge). The term “mystery” was used by Cicero (106---43 B.C.E.) in the Latin to mean “a secret,” and in the Greek New Testament, “the mysteries” refer to supernatural revelation, or something beyond human comprehension. See: Prince A. Cuba, “The Inner and Outer Temple,” The Universal Truth, Vol. 2, No. 4, pps. 18-20. 11. Muhammad, Message, pp. 110-121. 12. Elijah Muhammad, Our Savior Has Arrived (Chicago 1974), pp. 13. 13. Lincoln, pp. 75. 14. India's ambassador to Mongolia, considered a "living Buddha," The New York Times, July 22, 1991, pp. A-6 15. Muhammad, Message, pp. 9; “Some of these gods were the leaders of their tribes or people.” pp. 72; Saviour, pp. 61. George A. Barton, “The Kinship of Gods and Men among the Early Semites,” Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 15, No. 1-1, (1896), pps. 168-182; Wesley Williams, “Aspects of the Creed of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal: A Study of Anthropomorphism in Early Islamic Discourse,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 34 (2002), pps. 441-463. “ ‘Euhemerism’ is the theory that the ancient beliefs about various gods originated from the elaboration of the traditions of actual persons. It is derived from Euhemus, a Sicilian writer who developed this thesis in a book about 300 B.C.E. The later Christian apologists used this theory as an explanation for the Egyptian, Babylonian, and Greek gods, but not for their Yahweh or Jesus.” Prince A. Cuba, Before Adam: The Original-Man, (NY 1980), pps. 10-11; Citing F.L. Cross and E.A. Livingstone, (eds.), The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, (2nd edition, Oxford 1984), pp. 480. 16. Prof. Ravanna Bey, third-generation Moorish Scientist and Adept, in personal communication with the author. 17. Essien-Udom, pps. 35-36. 18. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Detroit Field Office Report, File #100- 26356 (Nov. 12, 1942). 19. Arna Bontemps and Jack Conroy, Anyplace But Here (New York; Hill & Wang, 1966); cited in Essien-Udom, pps. 35-45, 48, 55. 20. Detroit Times, Nov. 22, 1932. 21. Muhammad, Message, pps. 24-25; “Voodoo’s Reign Here is Broken; Slayer Held Insane; Farad Quits City,” Detroit Free Press, December 7, 1932, pp. 7; “Voodoo Chief Back in Cell,” Detroit Times, May 26, 1933, pp. 10; “Banished Leader of Cult Arrested,” Detroit Free Press, May 26, 1933 22. Ibid., pp. 20. 23. Pittsburgh Courier, July 20, 1957. 24. Lincoln, pp. 14. 25. San Francisco Herald-Examiner, July 23, 1963. 26. The New Crusader (Chicago), Aug. 15, 1959. 27. Sayyid Issa Al Haadi Al Mahdi, The Book of the Five Percenters (Monticello, N.Y.: Tents of Kedar, 1991), pp. 413. 28. Hakim Shabazz, Essays of the Life and Teachings of Master W. Fard Muhammad (Newport News, Va.: UB & USCS, 1990). 29. A copyrighted pamphlet appeared in 1997 representing the alleged meeting as factual. Several articles appeared which debunked the factual claim. See: Prince A. Cuba, “[Fiction] Wallace Fard Muhammad vs. Albert Einstein,” The Universal Truth, Vol. 2, No. 6, pps. 12-16, and Prince Farad, “Fraud Exposed,” The Universal Truth, Vol. 2, No. 6, pp. 17. The work is a plagiarization of a play written by Minister Aleek Allah, founder of The Justice Chronicle for a creative writing class in the early 1980s. 30. Essien-Udom, pp. 32; Lincoln, pp. 182. 31. Essien-Udom, pp. 43. 32. For information regarding the origin of the official portrait painted by Herbert Muhammad, Jr., see Steven Barboza, American Jihad, (NY 1994), pp. 100. The image promoted as a photographic print is actually a photographic print of the painted portrait. 33. Muhammad, Saviour, pp. 21; Essien-Udom, pps. 45-46. 34. San Francisco Herald-Examiner, February, 26, 1965, and July 28, 1963; Lincoln, pp. 17. 35. Issa Al Mahdi, The Book of the Lamm (Brooklyn, N.Y.: Ansarullah Publications, 1986). 36. Interview with Dr. Alauddin Shabazz in New Trend, July 1991 37. Lincoln, pps. 17, 199. 38. Letter from Central Intelligence Agency in response to Freedom of Information Act request by the author, February 14, 1994. 39. Essien-Udom, pp. 128. 40. Manning Marable. Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention (NY 2011), pp. 86; The unsubstantiated rumor of Elijah Muhammad’s membership in the UNIA originated in Amy Jacques Garvey’s pamphlet, Black Power in America (1978), and gained wider acceptance through Theodore G. Vincent’s citing of her in his Black Power and the Garvey Movement (Ramparts Press, San Francisco 1971), pp. 222. Their claim was that “Elijah Poole” was “a corporal in the Chicago division” of the UNIA is easily contradicted by the fact that he had not moved to Chicago until after his association with W.D. Farad (circa 1933), and his own ascendance to leadership over his faction of the NOI. Muhammad, Saviour, pp. 23. 41. Muhammad, Message, pp. 264. 42. Essien-Udom, pp. 67. 43. Wallace D. Muhammad, As the Light Shineth from the East (Chicago: WDM Publishing, 1980), pp. 20. It was Wallace, now Warith, who appointed a Pakistani imam named Abdullah Muhammad to head his Oakland masjid. He later identified him as W.D. Fard whom he claimed had returned under disguise to undo his previous work. He reported this ersatz Fard dead in California in 1992. Amatallah Shariff Okakpu, “A Healing for the Mind, Heart, and Soul,” Muslim Journal, September 24, 1994, pps. 7, 15. 44. The practice of inserting the "X" (the symbol for "unknown" in mathematics), before the "slave name" (the surname signifying ownership, bequeathed from the slave master to his slave), came into existence after the disappearance of Fard. Believers were told in the early period that they would get their "righteous name" on his return. The practice became established and its purpose forgotten. 45. Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X (NY 1965), pps. 410/417-418/413. (There are several versions of the biography with different pagination; the triple pagination citation is a result of this). 46. Letterhead Memoranda usually had a footnoted disclaimer: “This document contains neither recommendations nor conclusions of the FBI. It is the property of the FBI and is loaned to your agency; and its contents are not to be distributed outside of your agency. ” Other “friendly journalists” were Robert Daley, a politically-appointed Deputy Police Commissioner (NYCPD) who authored “Target Blue,” subtitled “The Story Behind the Police Assassinations,” (New York magazine, February 12, 1973), which drew upon secret police files relating to the Black Liberation Army (BLA), a blatant propaganda piece demonizing politically active Black Nationalists; and Frank Faso of the New York Daily News; See Note 58, infra. As we go to press, confirmation of Ed Montgomery’s role as a “friendly journalist” is revealed in Seth Rosenfeld’s Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student Radicals, and Reagan’s Rise to Power (NY 2012), pps. 107-108, 553, notes 107, 109. Montgomery was unsuccessful in his libel action where he was identified in his role with the FBI, Montgomery v. Bay Guardian Co., San Francisco Superior Court No. 722-487. 47. Haley, Autobiography, pp. 400/407/404; Portions of Malcolm X’s FBI file were published (Clayborne Carson, Malcolm X: The FBI File (NY 1991). The entry for February 26, 1963, a blind memo “header” reads: “Animosity Between Subject [Malcolm X] and the Family of ELIJAH MUHAMMAD” (The capitalization of a name means there is a Bureau file (BUFILE) on the individual). The memo goes into greater detail around the incident. Carson, pp. 222. Following that entry is: “According to [deletion] this animosity was particularly aggravated by an article which appeared in an April [deletion] edition of The New York Times to the effect that subject [Malcolm X] overshadowed ELIJAH MUHAMMAD, and was taking over the NOI from ELIJAH who was ill.” Carson, pp. 243. Finally, a blind memo for February 10, 1964 has the header: “The Rift Widens Between Elijah Muhammad and his Principle Lieutenant Malcolm X Little.” Carson, pp. 254. Following that memo, Handler’s headline was: “Malcolm X’s Role Dividing Muslims,” The New York Times, February 26, 1964, pp. 39, which was basically a rewrite of the data provided in the earlier FBI memo. While Malcolm thought so highly of Handler, the latter said of Malcolm: “Malcolm’s exposition of his social ideas was clearly thoughtful, if somewhat shocking to the white initiate, but most disconcerting in our talk was Malcolm’s belief in Elijah Muhammad’s history of the origins of man, and in a genetic theory devised to prove the superiority of black over white--- a theory stunning to me in its sheer absurdity.” M.S. Handler, Introduction, in Haley, Autobiography, pp. xi/xxviii/xi-xii. In Handler’s obituary, his colleagues at the Times credited him “with having encouraged Malcolm X’s withdrawal from the then–current Black Muslim view that whites were devils.” Robert D. McFadden, “M.S. Handler, a Times Reporter Who Covered World War 11, Dies,” The New York Times, February 11, 1978, pp. 24. 48. “[Charles] Gain, [William] Cohendet, and the four other [FBI] agents assigned to the BPP [Black Panther Party] squad …. Tipped off San Francisco Examiner reporter Ed Montgomery to Huey [P.] Newton’s posh Oakland apartment overlooking Lake Merritt.” Kenneth O’Reilly, “Racial Matters”: The FBI’s Secret File on Black America, 1960-1972 (NY 1989), pp. 303. “Feature articles in major league newspapers were ‘facilitated’ only if [J.] Edgar [Hoover] approved of the publication concerned. His favorites were those of Hearst, Copley and Gannett chains, the San Francisco Examiner, the Washington Star and … the Chicago Tribune.” Anthony Summers, Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover (NY 1993), pp. 99; “FBI files would refer to an approved reporter as ‘a very reliable contact’ or ‘a close friend of the Bureau.’ One such friend… would be Jeremiah O’Leary, who then worked for the Washington Star.” Ibid., pp. 100; “Contrary to the FBI denials, approved reporters were allowed access to files.” oppos. cit. pp. 100; elsewhere, what this author terms “friendly journalists,” the FBI called “aggressive newsmen.” Ibid., pp. 353. 49. Haley, Autobiography, pp. 300/307/305. For the conspiratologists: the building which houses the Manhattan Center where Malcolm made his “chicken come home to roost” comment,” has carved into the masonry of its façade: “Scottish Rite Freemasonry, with bas reliefs of their double-headed eagle emblem. 50. “I still believe that Mr. Muhammad’s analysis of the problem is the most realistic and that his solution is the best one….Internal differences within the Nation of Islam forced me out of it. I did not leave of my own free will. But now that it has happened I intend to make the most of it.” Malcolm X, Two Speeches (NY 1965), pps. 3, 4. 51. Haley, Autobiography, pp. 286/292/290; “Elijah Muhammad, head of the movement, has made a pilgrimage to Mecca, a journey reserved for Islam’s faithful.” M.S. Handler, “Assertive Spirit Stirs Negroes, Puts Vigor in Civil Rights Drive,” The New York Times, April 23, 1964, pp. 20 52. Manning Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention (NY 2011), for example, states: “Malcolm’s affirmation that whites also could be Muslims meant a wholesale rejection of the Nation’s theology, which may have fit for his own emerging outlook but remained deeply problematic for a group that had only recently departed the Nation and still found much to speak for in its views on race.” pp. 328. The NOI’s official teaching on this question is the reference to “Muslim Sons,” i.e., “Shriners.” ---- “…A Muslim does not love the devil regardless to how long he studies. After he has devoted thirty-five or fifty years trying to learn and do like the original man, he could come and do trading among us and we would not kill him as quick as we would the other devils, that is who have not gone under this study…” ----“Secret Ritual,” Lost-Found Muslim Lesson, Part 1, Section 9. [L-F M-L, 1:9]. The NOI equated Islam as a way of life, a world view encompassing all aspects. In this context, Black people were “by nature” Muslims, whereas Whites could live under the restrictive laws of Islam. 53. C. Eric Lincoln, Black Muslims in America (rev. ed. 1973) 54. Louis Lomax, When the Word is Given: A Report on Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, and the Black Muslim World (NY 1963), pp. 61 55. Les Matthews, "Allah Lives," (New York) Amsterdam News, June 21, 1969, pps. 1, 41. Einstein made several references in his writings to this dictum, the first, in 1926 (in private correspondence, previous to its official publication) in response to Heisenberg’s “uncertainty principle:” “…in the precise formulation of the law of causality, ‘if we know the present, then we can calculate the future,’ it is not he second clause that is wrong, but the first one. We cannot, as a matter of principle, gain knowledge of the present in all its determinants.” Werner Heisenberg, Uber den anschaulichen Inhalt der quantentheoretischen Kinematik und Mechanik (on the Visiualizable Content of Quantum Theory Kinematics and Mehanics), Zeitschrift fur Physik, Vol. 43, (1927), pps. 172-198. Said Einstein: “Quantum mechanics calls for a great deal of respect. But some inner voice tells me that this is not the true Jacob. The theory offers a lot, but it hardly brings us any closer to the Old Man’s secret. For my part, at least, I am convinced that he doesn’t throw dice.” Einstein, in a letter to Max Born, Berlin, Germany, December 4, 1926; Max Born, (edit.). Briefwechsel 1916-1935 (Munich 1969), pp. 129. See also: Albrecht Folsing, Albert Einstein: A Biography (NY 1997). For anyone interested in pursuing the subject of dice playing, the theory of probability was developed by Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) and Pierre Fermat (1601?-1665). The initial problem was proposed by the Chevalier de Mere, “more or less of a professional gambler.” E.T. Bell, Men of Mathematics, (NY 1937), pp. 86. 56. Barry Gottehrer, The Mayor's Man (New York, 1975), pp. 92. This book provides a good history of Allah's career and interactions with the Lindsay administration. Gottehrer personally hired Allah for the Task Force and was an associate and friend of his. See: Nicholas Pileggi, “Barry Gottehrer’s Job Is To Cool It,” New York Times, September 22, 1968, pp. 245. According to Gottehrer, he served as a conduit “for distributing $1.3-million for special summer programs…” 57. William F. Farrell, "Harlem Militants Offer Peace Vow," The New York Times, June 15, 1969. 58. Frank Faso, "Kenyatta's Pal is Killed, Cops See Muslim War," New York Daily News, June 14, 1969. Faso was an example of a friendly journalist working for the police to instigate a bloodbath, that was anticipated, and averted. 59. Beloved Allah, “The Bomb: The Greatest Story Never Told,” The Word, Vol. I, No. 3, (August/Sept. 1987), revised version; http://metalab.unc.edu/nge/thebomb.html. Rashaad Marria, calling himself Intelligent Tarref Allah, filed a civil lawsuit in federal district court to have the Nation of Gods and Earths recognized as a religion by the New York State Department of Corrections. The prestigious law firm of Cromwell & Sullivan represented the case pro bono (Marria v. Broaddus, 200 F. Supp. 2d 280). Decided in 2002 by Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald, now “registered NGE [Nation of Gods and Earths] adherents” could fast on designated days and commemorate certain days in remembrance of Allah (much in the style of early Christianity). Shaamgaud also claimed in 1983 in The Sun of Man: “…the first time the government took the father away from us for his rest or arrest whichever [sic] you prefer, was when New York City had its first major blackout! It was on that very night they snuck him out of Bellvue [sic] Hospital to Mattah [sic]. The Light was leaving New York City, that’s why we had the blackout. Now the father told them. [sic] that he would burn them with the sun (during this period New York City had its first water shortage or draught.)” Author’s Note: The United States’ North-East electrical failure, popularly known as the “Great Blackout,” occurred November 9, 1965; Allah was transferred from New York City’s “Tombs” (Manhattan House of Detention) to Matteawan State Hospital on November 26, 1965. 60. Essien-Udom, pp. 81. 61. Wallace D. Muhammad. "Self Government in the New World." Bilalian News, Vol. 1., No. 19, March 19, 1976; cited in Milton C. Sernett, ed., Afro-American Religious History: A Documentary Witness (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1985), pps. 413-420. See: Amatallah Sharif Okakpu, “A Healing for the Mind, Heart, and Soul,” Muslim Journal (September 24, 1993), pps. 7, 15, claimed that W.D. Fard died in Haywood, California in 1992. 62. Minister Louis X, "Boston Minister Tells of Malcolm - Muhammad's Biggest Hypocrite," Muhammad Speaks, December 4, 1964. See also Clayborne Carson, Malcolm X: the FBI File (New York; Carroll & Graf, 1991), pp. 43; and Playthel Benjamin, "Interview with Louis Farrakhan," Emerge magazine, February 1990. 63. Jabril Muhammad, Is it Possible That the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is Still Alive? (New York; Resurrecting Light Communications, 1983). 64. Charlie Ahearn, "The Five Percent Solution," Spin, February 1991, pps. 55-57, 76; Harry Allen, "Righteous Indignation," The Source (March-April 1991), pps. 49-55. Selected Bibliography and Recommended Reading: Allah, Wakeel, In The Name of Allah: A History of Clarence 13X and the Five Percenters, Vol. 1, and 2, (Atlanta, 2009) Cuba, Prince A., Before Adam: The Original Man (NY 1980) Fauset, Arthur H., "Moorish Science Temple of America," in J. Milton Yinger, Religion, Society, and the Individual, (New York: Macmillan, 1968), pps. 458-507. Goldman, Peter, The Death and Life of Malcolm X, (New York: Harper & Row, 1973). Malcolm X, Yacub’s History, (Virginia Beach 1992) Malcolm X: The Last Speeches, (NY 1989) Perry, Bruce, Malcolm X: The Life of a Man Who Changed Black America (NY 1991) Watts, Jill, God, Harlem U.S.A.: The Father Divine Story, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992). BLACK HISTORY/POLITICAL SCIENCE/THEOLOGY Black Gods of the Inner City was originally published as an article in Gnosis magazine (Fall, 1992). It is here revised, updated, and enlarged. Tracing the origins of the three indigenous movements amongst people of African descent in the United States: The Moorish Science Temple of America (MSTA), the Nation of Islam (NOI), and the Five Percenters, Black Gods features an extensive system of citation and references, but is written in an easy to read style making these histories accessible to both scholar and layperson. Discover the heretofore unrevealed Counter-Intelligence Program’s (COINTELPRO) use of “friendly journalists,” their names, and how they created havoc within these movements.