The Nation of Islam: Peace and Hate

Oct 24, 2011
Beau Harmon

NOI Members Submitting to Arrest - lavocado@sbcglobal.net

Islam, like its fellow Abrahamic faiths, is a religion of peace and love. The Nation of Islam does its best to uphold the first of those values.

If the Ku Klux Klan is the unruly black sheep of the Christian family, then the Nation of Islam may be said to be the intolerant white sheep of Islam. Perhaps those sheep should be the other way around, but either way, each organization is purportedly established on fundamental religious values that all other branches of those religions agree they do not uphold.

Core Beliefs

The Nation of Islam does share certain fundamental ideas with the rest of the Islamic world. They believe that Gabriel came to Muhammad and delivered God's message in what would, over the next 22 years, be recorded as the Qu'ran. Likewise, they believe God's wisdom may be found in the Old and New Testaments.

A significant difference, though, is that it is a primary Muslim belief that Muhammad ibn Abdullah was God's final prophet. The Nation of Islam holds not only that Elijah Muhammad was a prophet of God, but that Wallace D. Fard, founder of the Nation of Islam, was a material incarnation of Allah. Such a concept is contemptible to traditional Muslims. The most controversial of NOI's beliefs is that the black race is superior to all others, and that whites owe to them a significant debt.

Racial Motivations

According to the Peace FAQ, the first men were the black descendants of the gods, and the white race was created by an evil black scientist named YaKub. At least, that is the the belief of the Nation of Islam. They believe that black people in America have been put upon and suffered more than any other race, and as such are God's chosen people. Moreover, their official Muslim Program requests that the United States provide them property where they may establish an all black nation.

Undoubtedly, NOI Muslims would dispute any comparison between the Nation of Islam and the Ku Klux Klan, but compare their demands for segregation to those of the KKK, who claim there is a war being waged against the white race. Perhaps the greatest difference between the two racial supremacy groups is their reputation for violence.

A History of Non-Violence

Certainly, members or former members of the Nation have been involved in violence. John Muhammad, the D.C. sniper who killed ten people in 2002, had been a member of the Nation for many years. On top of this, Nation of Islam leaders have occasionally utilized violent rhetoric in the past. Louis Farrkhan, the Nation's current public spokesman, has been quoted as saying that Malcolm X was deserving of death for leaving the Nation, and that he is proud to have Jews compare him to Hitler.

Still, the Nation, overall, preaches a peaceful approach to achieving their segregationalist demands. In some black communities, Nation of Islam patrols have even decreased instances of violence. There is no doubt that most Nation followers adhere to the Nation's official policy of non-violence.

Similarly, an iteration of the Ku Klux Klan that formed in the 1920s was dedicated to non-violent resistance to what they felt was an attack on white freedoms. David Duke, a former grand wizard of the KKK insists that he is not a white supremacist, but that he is a civil rights activist protecting the rights of European Americans. Of course, despite public claims, the KKK cannot boast the non-violent history that the NOI can. However, it is important to note that to organizations such as these, at least, hate and peace are not, necessarily mutually exclusive ideals.