Malcolm X and Nation of Islam - Essay Example

MALCOLM X AND NATION OF ISLAM Introduction Malcolm X also known as Elhajj Malik El-shab is one of the best known African- American leaders of the last century. He was a Muslim minister and a victim of assassination. He was interested first in African Americans gaining control of their own lives. He rejected Christianity and became an n African Muslim. He was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska in 1925. Before his birth the whites tried to lynch his parent’s house to the ground because his father, who was a Baptist minister, had problems with the whites. Even after his father moved the family to Lansing, Michigan to escape this family home was burnt down by a white supremacist organization (Rummel and Heather 2005, 011-017). His father’s problems were as a result of the fact that he was an organizer for Marcus Garvey’s back to Africa movement. Early historical background He was a militant follower of Marcus Garvey’s "Back to Africa" movement. The Lansing, Michigan, equivalent of the Ku Klux Klan warned him to stop preaching Garvey’s message, but he kept on and one night they had to be snatched away because their home was on fire. But his father got louder about Garvey, and the next time he was found bludgeoned in the head, lying across streetcar tracks. He died soon and afterwards and the family was in a bad way. In Malcolms words they were so hungry and dizzy and had nowhere to turn. Finally the authorities came in and the children were scattered about in different places as public wards. Malcolm became the ward of a white couple who ran a correctional school for white boys. This liked him in the way they liked their house pets. They got him enrolled in an all−white school. He was popular, he played sports and everything, and studied hard, and stayed at the head of his class through the eighth grade. While in the eighth grade he was asked what vocation he wanted to pursue. When he responded that he wanted to be a lawyer, he was informed that such a profession was not suitable for a Negro. This ugly retort proved to be psychologically devastating. Malcolm would eventually leave the school. . That summer he was 14, and was big enough and looked old enough to get away with telling a lie that he was 21, so he got a job working in the dining car of a train that ran between Boston and New York City. On how he became a criminal and ending up in jail he said “I’d go to Harlem. That’s where I saw in the bars all these men and women with what looked like the easiest life in the world. Plenty of money, big cars, all of it. Finally, one day a numbers man told me that he needed a runner, and I never caught the night train back to Boston. Right there was when I started my life in crime (X and George 1990, 023-027). I was in all of it that the white police and the gangsters left open to the black criminal, sir. I was in numbers, bootleg liquor, hot goods, and women. I sold the bodies of black women to white men, and white women to black men. I was in dope, I was in everything evil you could name. I was finally caught and spent 77 months in three different prisons” The story is that he went to live with one of his half sisters in Boston, Massachusetts. There he engaged in petty crimes in the streets and was involved in everything from breaking and entering peoples premises to running numbers and doping. He was ultimately arrested at the age of twenty and sentenced to ten years imprisonment (X and Benjamin 1989, 125). Islamic connections and later life experiences While in prison he came under the influence of Black Muslims who taught him that the whites were actually devils who had robbed the African Americans of their true homeland, names and religion. They told him that his name ‘little’ had been forced on his forefathers by their slave master whites. He became a member of the nation of Islam. Nation of Islam was started in the 1930s by Wallace Far who declared that Christianity to be a religion of the white man. When Fard mysteriously disappeared Elijah Mohammed took over the leadership of Nation of Islam. The tenets of Nation of Islam included Islam religion, black pride and black nationalism. Due to this he decided to drop the name ‘Little’ for ‘X’. He also gave up vices that whites had “forced” on African Americans which included use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, lusting after white women, excessive sexual indulgence, crime, gambling etc. He was also taught to be proud of his African heritage and to stop worshipping a white skinned, blond haired, blue eyed Jesus that did not look like him or other African. One of the Muslims who he got to interact with I n prison and who changed him significantly was the Muslim activist cleric Elijah Muhammad. In one of his interviews with the famous Playboy he said, “My light color is the result of my mother’s mother having been raped by a white man. I hate every drop of white blood in me. Before I am indicted for hate again, sir, is it wrong to hate the blood of a rapist?” When asked to comment on his change of religion and crime he had this to say, “… But it was the greatest thing that ever happened to me, because it was in prison that I first heard the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. His teachings were what turned me around. The first time I heard the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s statement, "The white man is the devil," it just clicked. I am a good example of why Islam is spreading so rapidly across the land. I was nothing but another convict, a semi−illiterate criminal (Malcolm 2001, 45-46). Mr. Muhammad’s teachings were able to reach into prison, which is the level where people are considered to have fallen as low as they can go. His teachings brought me from behind prison walls and placed me on the podiums of some of the leading colleges and universities in the country” The Nation of Islam is an African American dhimera of Islam and Black nationalism. The Nation of Islam was founded during the Great Depression of 1930 in the ghettos of Detroit Michigan. Having migrated to the industrial north in search of economic opportunity and to escape the racial oppression in the South, thousands of Blacks now found themselves in a crisis situation. As it turned out “the North was no Promised Land [but, in many ways,] was the South all over again…”1 The main difference being the racial prejudice in the South was overt whereas in the North it was covert. A mysterious peddler of silks and artifacts by the name Wallace Fard Muhammad appeared in Detroit and started the group. Very little is known about him except that he is reported to have come from the East. “His mission was to teach freedom, justice, and equality to the members of the ‘lost tribe of Shabazz in the wilderness of North America.’”4 He also taught poor blacks that “they were somebody. That they were Black people.… [who had] a past…[and] a future.… a history and a destiny.” Fard quickly gained a following. Within about three years he had recruited nearly 8,000 followers. One of these was an unemployed auto worker named Elijah Poole. Poole, who later changed his last name to Muhammad. Due to his efforts on Fard’s behalf Fard soon chose him to be his Chief Minister. In the summer of 1934, Fard suddenly disappeared as mysteriously as he had arrived. Elijah Muhammad was named the new leader and assumed the title of “Messenger of Allah.” Perhaps the single most important event in the development of the Nation of Islam took place in 1947 with the “conversion” of a convict in prison at Concord, Massachusetts Malcolm X who later in 1964 fell out with the group and was later gunned down. With the death of Elijah Muhammad of congestive heart failure on February 25, 1975, his son, Wallace Deen Muhammad became the new leader of the Nation of Islam.8 Because of his knowledge of orthodox Islam, Wallace immediately began to make changes, greatest being his followers into traditional, international Islam. That way the group died. While professing to be followers of Islam , they held little to no connection to the beliefs of Sunni or Shia Islam. Unlike other forms of Islam nation was messianic believing that Mohammed was the son of God rather than a prophet and that Wallace a certain fellow is god. Nation of Islam has been traditionary xenophobic believing that all whites are devils. They hate the Jews and believe that most of the problems in this world have been brought about by the Jews. They allegedly even believe that AIDS was prepared by Jewish doctors and administered onto the Blackman. Official Nation of Islam doctrine is that the most effective way for the Blackman to regain power is to build their own nation on separate land in the United States..Malcolm X began his religious teachings as a Nation of Islam convert. He was responsible for popularizing it and bringing it to the forefront of the American consciousness in the 1950s.He also opposed the Vietnam war and termed it as senseless anger on innocent people. When he was chosen to a senior spokesperson position of the Nation of Islam in 1963 he did his work with perfection. His message of black pride, self sufficiency and self defense contrasted the Civil Rights Movement’s non violence. Malcolm’s life was filled with a lot of controversy especially his beliefs. But in an interview with Alex Haley, who coauthored his autobiography before completing his own book: Roots, at the Playboy in May 1963 he personally clarified his beliefs, “I know that the time is near when the white man will be finished. The signs are all around us." "Christ wasn’t white. Christ was black. The poor, brainwashed Negro has been made to believe Christ was white to maneuver him into worshiping white men."... “Freedom, justice and equality are our principal ambitions. And to faithfully serve and follow the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is the guiding goal of every Muslim. The nation of Islam through Mr. Muhammad and later through Malcolm taught the black Americans the knowledge of their own selves, and of their own people. He cleaned them up−−morally, mentally and spiritually−−and he reformed them of the vices that had blinded them in the Western society. He stopped black men from getting drunk, stopped their dope addiction if they had it, stop nicotine, gambling, stealing, lying, cheating, fornication, adultery, prostitution, juvenile delinquency (Wood 1994, 78). They believed that the white man had taught the black people to hate themselves as inferior, to hate each other, to be divided against each other. They believed that Muhammad restored their love for their own kind, which enabled them to work together in unity and harmony. He shows them how to pool their financial resources and talents, then to work together toward a common objective. Among other things, nation of Islam had small businesses in most major cities in the country, They were taught by Mr. Muhammad that it is very important to improve the black man’s economy, Black Americans were urged to have their own land. They believed that the brainwashed black man could not stand on his feet until when left alone to learn to become his own producers, manufacturers and traders of their own, to employ their own. They believed that the white man resisted them because he wanted to keep the black man under his thumb and jurisdiction in white society. He wanted to keep the black man always dependent and begging−−for jobs, food, clothes, shelter, education. They also believed that the white man did not want to lose somebody to be supreme over. He wanted to keep the black man where he can be watched and retarded (Burlingame 2011, 67). They were taught that as soon as they separate from the white man, they would learn that could do without the white man just as he could do without them. In particular, Malcolm believed that none of the American presidents had helped African American. Not even Lincoln. “None of them have ever done anything for Negroes. All of them have tricked the Negro, and made false promises to him at election times which they never fulfilled. Lincoln’s concern wasn’t freedom for the blacks but to save the Union.” He responded to a question at the Playboy As opposed to Martin Luther King junior who believed in a united activist group of both whites and black American liberals, Malcolm X could not trust any white on the Issue he urged African Americans “Brothers, the white man can’t give you the solution. You will never get the solution from any white Liberal, Don’t let them come in and tell you what we should do to solve the problem. Those days are over. They can’t do it and they won’t do it. He compared the asking of help from white liberals to asking a fox to help you solve the problem confronting the wolf saying that the fox would give you a solution that would put you right in his clutches citing that that is exactly what white liberals would do. Unlike Martin Luther who dreamt of a united America where both whites and blacks would coexist as brothers and sisters, Malcolm believed that the situation was beyond help. He believed that the American society was already divided on racial lines He suggested that, “ since we are already divided, the least the government can do is to let us control areas where we live. Let the white man control his….” He electrified urban audiences with his eloquent prose and inspirational style. He believed that violence was not the only answer, but violence was justified in self defense. Those blacks should achieve what was rightfully theirs “by any means necessary.” In the 1960s a rift and suspicions developed between the Malcolm and Muhammad. Malcolm’s worst suspicions were confirmed when a news report disclosed that two of Elijah Muhammad’s former secretaries had filed paternity suites against him charging that he had fathered their four children. Devastated, Malcolm left the Nation of Islam and formed two organizations, The Muslim Mosque, Inc., and the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU). After visiting Mecca Malcolm did not take long to realize that the Nation of Islam was not practicing Islam at all and after that started deviating from the group by practicing more mainstream Islam in 1964. Assassination and conclusion Later that year he seemed to soften his stand on use violence in the quest for freedom and even met with Dr. Luther King jr to exchange remarks. Sooner afterward on 21st February 1965 Malcolm led a mass rally in Harlem when rival Black Muslims gunned him down. It has been suspected that members of the nation of Islam assassinated him in fear of his great charisma and feared that he could influence its followers to also leave the group Bibliography Burlingame, Jeff. 2011. Malcolm X: "I believe in the brotherhood of man, all men". Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, Inc. Malcolm X. 2001. The autobiography of Malcolm X. London: Penguin. Rummel, Jack, and Heather Lehr Wagner. 2005. Malcolm X militant black leader. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=223721. Wood, Joe. 1994. Malcolm X: in our own image. New York: Anchor Books. X, Malcolm, and Benjamin Karim. 1989. The end of White world supremacy: four speeches. New York: Arcade Pub. X, Malcolm, and George Breitman. 1990. Malcolm X speaks: selected speeches and statements. New York: Grove Weidenfeld. Read More