The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought

Nation of Islam

Whether the Nation of Islam is a political movement or a religious movement has been much debated by scholars. Within the movement, only Warith Deen Mohammed (the son of Elijah Muhammad) viewed the Nation of Islam (then under the leadership of Louis Farrakhan) as a social reform movement. All the other leaders of the Nation of Islam—Wali Fard Muhammad, its founder; Elijah Muhammad, its leader from 1934 to 1975; and Louis Farrakhan, who revived the movement after Warith Deen Mohammed reformed the Nation of Islam—saw no such distinction between the Nation’s religion and its politics.

It is not always certain which teachings of the Nation of Islam go back to Fard Muhammad and which to his successor and sole transmitter, Elijah Muhammad. However, it does seem that Fard Muhammad first identified Islam with what he called the “original humanity,” who were black. Thus the original and natural ruler of the world was the “blackman.” This should not be understood to mean just Africans and their descendants. For Fard Muhammad all “original” people were Asiatics, with the distinction between Asia and Africa introduced by whites in order to divide and thereby conquer them.

Elijah Muhammad inherited and expanded on Fard Muhammad’s racial understanding of religion, history, and politics but focused on the independence of African Americans. He encouraged them to set up their own economy and society and separate themselves entirely from white America. Even his strong emphasis on education and morality could be seen as a means of separating the races. Elijah Muhammad never used the term, but he advocated a kind of theocracy. He continually demanded obedience to himself—the “Apostle of Allah”—from his followers. And as he approached death, he believed the Nation of Islam needed no successor: the teachings of Allah as he had expounded them would suffice.

When Warith Deen Mohammed (then still named Wallace D. Muhammad) assumed the leadership of the Nation of Islam after his father’s death in 1975, he radically transformed the movement, religiously and politically. He rapidly brought most of the beliefs and practices of the movement in conformity with more traditionally Sunni formulations of Islam. The anti-American statements and the demands for territorial separation between blacks and whites were also dropped. Although Warith Deen Mohammed frequently met with both American and Muslim political leaders and supported Muslim groups such as the Afghan mujahidin in the 1980s, the Palestinians, and the Kuwaiti refugees, he eschewed political activities. Instead he argued for interfaith dialogue and the unity of humanity. Unlike his father, he saw no problem with African American Muslims voting, running for office, or even joining the army. They were to be model citizens. His “solution” for the ills of the United States was Islam.

Louis Farrakhan strongly objected to the reforms of Warith Deen Mohammed. He returned to the beliefs of the Nation of Islam under Elijah Muhammad. However, Farrakhan was far more politically active. He supported Jesse Jackson’s 1984 bid to be the Democratic presidential nominee and provided him with bodyguards. Farrakhan’s most ambitious foray into politics came with his 1995 “Million Man March” on Washington, D.C. Although the purpose of the march was to advocate “unity, atonement, and brotherhood,” it also included efforts to register African American men to vote and to convince them to engage in volunteerism and community activism. Several speakers also attacked the Republicans, who were depicted as hostile to welfare, Medicaid, and other programs that assisted poor African Americans.

The most recognizable and iconic political thinker to emerge from the Nation of Islam was also the one with the most ambivalent relationship with the movement: Malcolm X (1925–65). His program of black nationalism and antiassimilation came directly from the Nation of Islam’s political program. After his break with the movement, however, he was able to abandon its policy of political quietism. In fiery speeches such as the “Ballot or the Bullet” or demands for human rights for African Americans “by any means necessary,” Malcolm X may have drawn on the political ideology of the Nation of Islam, but he also seemed poised to put it into action.