1960. “He is just plain Elijah Poole of Sandersville, Georgia.” Dawud,
an American Negro and leader of the Muslim Brotherhood USA, was then
locked in a bitter struggle with the Black Muslims over the question
of their religious authenticity. But the Imam’s remarks couldn’t have
been more ill-timed. Even as Dawud was denouncing the Black Muslims,
Elijah was packing his bags for a trip “back home where I can visit and
pray with my own people.” Several days after he departed from New York,
Elijah placed his credentials before the eagle-eyed _hajj_ committee,
the final judge of who may march to Mecca and pray. Elijah Muhammad was
admitted without delay, and Black Muslims--the word was cabled back and
came over the wire services--held meetings of praise and thanks all
over the nation.
That was that. Muhammad was admitted to the _hajj_, he made the holy
walk to Mecca. Who, then, is to dispute his religious credentials?
Muhammad’s journey to Mecca brought an end to all the arguments about
his true affiliation with traditional Islam. When Mike Wallace and I
were preparing a TV documentary on the Black Muslims, the orthodox
Moslems denounced the movement. “They teach race hate,” one Islamic
spokesman told us, “and that means they couldn’t be Moslems.” The
Federation of Islamic Associations of Chicago is the official Moslem
organization in the United States and Canada. They have denounced
Elijah; they have praised him for conducting the largest Arabic school
in America and for accepting the Koran as law, but federation officials
are “suspicious” of him. These Moslems, however, are largely of
European descent, although their ranks are peppered with a few Negro
converts. Their rejection of Elijah rests on his argument concerning
racism, and they flinch when Muhammad calls himself “The Messenger of
Allah.”
Rejection from such a group is grist for the Black Muslims’ mill.
Malcolm X holds them up to high ridicule and scorn, saying they have
been corrupted by Christianity and that they look very much like “the
blue-eyed devil who enslaved us and took away our culture.” In his
“University Speech” (see Part Two of this book) Malcolm rains fire upon
these “European Moslems” who have “passed us by in an attempt to make
our slave masters Moslems.”
There are several clear differences between Black Muslims and orthodox
Moslems. Whether these differences read Elijah and his followers out
of the Islamic brotherhood is a matter to be determined by Islamic
officials. These are some of the differences between the two groups:
--The Black Muslims will not allow white persons in their temples;
orthodox Moslems accept worshipers of all races.
--The Black Muslims maintain a separate movement; there seems to be
little or no organizational link with the orthodox Moslems. The Black
Muslims do not visit the orthodox Moslem temples, and the orthodox
Moslems do not come to hear Malcolm X.
--Nowhere in the Koran or in any orthodox Moslem literature is there
support for the Black Muslim’s teaching about the evil scientist Yakub.
Nor is there any support in the teachings of orthodox Moslems to
support Elijah’s account--see his “Atlanta Speech” in Part Two--that
this world was once the moon and was blown up by an evil scientist who
wanted to destroy true followers of Allah.
--Orthodox Moslems universally condemn the Black Muslim teaching that
the white man is a devil by nature.
--Orthodox Moslems universally object to the Black Muslim preachment
concerning a separate state.
But once Muhammad walked into Mecca these differences ceased to matter.
To be sure, orthodox Moslems want no part of Elijah and, if pushed,
will denounce him. But the _hajj_ committee has rendered what must be
accepted as the final verdict.
Behind this trip to Mecca lies a typical Black Muslim story. Malcolm
X had visited the Near and the Far East the year before. His mission
was to make certain key contacts for Muhammad. I followed Malcolm by
some several months into Cairo, Egypt, and talked with Moslem officials
who had received him with open arms. Malcolm was in Cairo during the
holy season, at the very time when thousands of chanting Arabs were
wending their way toward Mecca. Malcolm himself was cleared to make
the _hajj_; he could have gone to Mecca in 1959 and that would have
settled the controversy once and for all. Malcolm elected not to go,
not to upstage his teacher and leader. Instead he returned home with
the word that all was well in Mecca, that Elijah and his family would
be received there with open arms.
The following year, while Malcolm remained at home, Elijah went to
Mecca.
Malcolm’s ambassadorial work in Cairo--and that is precisely what it
was--stunned many of his American detractors. Others of us who had
been close observers of the movement were not surprised. We knew that
Malcolm has always maintained excellent relations with top Arabs at
the United Nations. Few, if any, of these meetings were ever public.
But they did occur and there is every indication that they are still
going on. The road to Mecca was cleared long before Malcolm and Elijah
left these shores; powerful pro-Nasser Arabs are quietly in Malcolm’s
corner, and many Black Muslim bazaars open with the reading of cabled
greetings from “Our Beloved Brother Gamal Abdel Nasser.”
The emphasis of orthodox Islam is universal love and brotherhood among
men of all races. The central teaching of the Black Muslims is that all
white men are devils and will soon be destroyed. It seems superfluous
to point out the wide disparity between these two views. But both
Muslim and Moslem worship Allah. And that--at least so the _hajj_
committee said--is all that matters.
The answer to this ambiguity, I suspect, lies in the gangling structure
of the Moslem hierarchy. Unlike, say, the Catholic Church, the Moslem
faith is not a tightly knit, fully administered organization. I have
talked with Moslems about all this, and while they would rather that
Elijah did not say much of what he says, they are still smarting over
the Christian Crusades and readying for the moment of truth with the
Jews. The Black Muslims carefully describe themselves as “anti-Zionist”
rather than as against the Jews. But herein, I suspect, is the
resolution of the entire matter of Elijah’s relationship to orthodox
Islam.
A high Islamic official in Cairo explained it to me in these words: “Of
course your Black Muslims are improperly informed. But they are turning
men to Allah, away from Christianity, toward Mecca. This is what we
want; this is what we must have. We need new blood in western Islam. If
Muhammad can give that new blood we welcome him. As for his teachings,”
the official continued, “we will see to it that the correct view is
given to the black man in America. Now the thing is to get them facing
toward Mecca.”
_Is This a True Religion?_
Although Elijah has made his holy pilgrimage to Mecca, the debate over
the religious validity of the Black Muslims still rages, with the
movement’s critics holding to their charge that Elijah Muhammad teaches
hate whereas true religion teaches love. A case can be made that these
critics are doubly in error, first in their assumption that their own
faith teaches universal love, and secondly in their conclusion--aided
by news accounts--that the Black Muslims actually preach hatred of
others.
Every religion is a closed network of believers; it has its dogma, its
ritual, its gods. The followers of that faith are taught to love one
another and are urged to proselytize sinners (outsiders) wherever they
can be found. Most religions draw creedal, not racial, lines. Persons
of any race may embrace the tenets of the faith and become members.
However, this is not always the case and racial overtones have crept
into major world faiths.
The late, and loved, Pope John flirted with immortality by coming to
grips with the issue of racism in religion. Not only did he infuse the
Church with the fresh air of universalism, but he halted a service
because a priest violated--forgot, actually--His Holiness’ order that
a reference to the Jews as a “perfidious people” be stricken from the
Catholic prayer service. The pending second session of the ecumenical
council may see the introduction of a proposal that would call on the
Church to speak out against anti-Semitism. The proposal was not brought
up in the first session because the Church fathers feared what the
Arabs might say!
The Jews and the Protestants face essentially the same problems as the
Roman Catholics. St. Paul rose to glory because he translated being
a Jew from a biological to a spiritual proposition. Many Jews have
not accepted that translation and they snicker when Sammy Davis, Jr.,
walks into their temple. Racism is such a fact of American Protestant
church life that most major denominations are divided along racial
lines. Then there is the question of religion and geography. The
world’s major faiths were spawned in certain areas and took root among
people of a common ethnic stock. Thus the followers of Buddha are apt
to be Orientals; but for slavery and colonization all of the followers
of Christ would be European. But for the same kind of cultural
intermingling, Allah’s followers would be the peoples of Asia Minor
and North Africa, and the black peoples below the Sahara would still
be practicing the varied tribal and family faiths mentioned earlier in
this essay.
But time and trouble make saints of everybody ... and universalism
occurs only when feuding faiths clash on the plains of practical
reality. Thus American Protestants now have a commission that is given
over entirely to eliminating all anti-Semitism from the gospel of
Christ. The Episcopal Bishop of California, James Pike, has gone so
far as to suggest that we take down the cross as a symbol of our faith
lest this encourage the teaching that the Jews killed Our Lord. This
teaching--that the Jews killed Christ--is no longer fashionable as it
was when I was baptized. Now one is told that the Romans killed Christ.
And since the once-heathen Romans are now Christians--even though they
are Catholics--I suppose this makes things better.
* * * * *
Now let’s turn to the other side of the coin.
During a recent lecture before the Jewish Graduate Club at Columbia
University I talked about the need for all orthodox religions to relax
their dogmas and accept other peoples as equals. One fiercely intent
man leaped to his feet and shouted to me, “You want to rob us of our
culture because you people don’t have one of your own!” This was sheer
nonsense and the host rabbi rose to say so. But I pressed the issue:
Could I join their temple? The younger Jews shouted “Yes--we would love
to have you.” The older fellows were not quite so sure.
“Are you as Jews chosen of God, thus the only ones who are really
blessed?” I asked one of the fundamentalists.
“Yes,” he shot back.
“Are you chosen in a way that I can never be?” I continued.
“Yes.” He faltered. “You are not a Jew; you cannot be among the elect.”
By this time the younger Jews were on their feet screaming
denunciations of him. But the issue of ethnic exclusiveness that splits
today’s Jewish community had been laid bare.
Dogma and ritual are further evidences of the tribalism endemic to
religion. I was born and raised a Baptist; long before I could read and
write I knew that any person who had not been immersed in water was
doomed to Hell. There was nothing to argue about, no need for polemics
and reasoning; there would be no Methodists in Heaven!
The point of truth is this: Ethnic and dogmatic bigotry are imbedded
in every religious faith plying its wares in the world market; we
religious liberals are students of apologetics, sophisticated believers
who prefer to forget our crude and tribalistic roots in favor of an
enlightened social ethic. Alas, along came Elijah and made us see
ourselves as we once were; along came Malcolm X and made us understand
what we are now, and why.
The argument that the Black Muslims are not a valid religion because
of the exclusivity of their fellowship, then, is clearly spurious.
Every religion is a sort of sanctified country club, a coming together
of peers in the name of their god. The second argument against the
religiosity of the Black Muslims is equally spurious: Like all faiths,
the Black Muslims never say hate the other fellow; they say love your
own kind. Religious bigotry is Western civilization’s major moral blind
spot, and Malcolm X has taken up squatters’ rights just there.
Thus it is that secularism must save the church--the layman must lead
the clergyman to the mourner’s bench and make him confess brotherhood
in the name of a democratic and pluralistic society. The nature of our
social moment demands that we free God from racialism and dogmatics.
Racialism, the malignant one of the two cancers, must be dealt with
first since it is the prime moral issue of our time. And it must be
dealt with by all peoples of all faiths working in concert. Should our
social order change, should we somehow come to grips with the evils
that have spawned the Black Muslims, the movement would be forced to
refine itself or perish.
Malcolm X is the best authority for this. I have often pressed him on
his categorical denunciation of the white man as a devil, and his reply
is always the same: “The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that the
white man is a devil. We hold to that teaching because history proves
the white man is a devil. If he is not a devil,” Malcolm X concludes,
“then let him prove it. Let him give justice, freedom, and equality to
our people.”
I have deliberately kept my analysis of the Black Muslims in personal
terms of reference because this is precisely how most Negroes feel
about the matter--after all, the attraction of the movement for Negroes
is one of the major points of this essay.
“Of course I disagree with Malcolm,” the wife of a Negro newsman told
me. “But I disagree with a lot of other religions, too. If he teaches
hate, so do they; what’s the difference? I wonder why the white people
are after him.” She smiled. “Could it be because he is colored?”
The Black Muslims have their God, their gospel, their ritual trappings,
their approval from official heads of the Islamic faith. As a religion,
then, there is little left to do but disagree with them and then leave
them alone.
This, of course, pains liberals, Negro and white, who want to hear a
ringing denunciation of the Black Muslims. Negro leaders are always
quick to denounce Elijah, but the Negro masses are strangely silent.
There is a reason for this silence, something both the Negro leadership
and the white power structure would do well to examine: Deep down in
their hearts, as James Baldwin so accurately states, the black masses
don’t believe in white people any more. They don’t believe in Malcolm
either, except when he articulates their disbelief in white people.
In the end--and this is the thing white people will be a long time in
grasping--the Negro masses neither join nor denounce the Black Muslims.
They just sit at home in the ghetto amid the heat, the roaches, the
rats, the vice, the disgrace, and rue the fact that come daylight they
must meet the man--the white man--and work at a job that leads only to
a dead end.
This brings me to the core of the matter, to the final measure of every
religion: it is a thing called _compassion_, a concern and caring
about the other fellow. It is rooted in the glaring awareness that we
all have fallen short of the high mark set for us, and thus we need the
honest sympathy and understanding of all men everywhere.
For though you may have your God, your holy book, your ritual, and
your symbols; though you may give of your wages to build the temple;
and though you may have been to Mecca, or Jerusalem, if you have not
compassion you are but meanness couched in Scripture, you are but an
ancient stink, a reason for men to hold their noses as they crawl on
toward a land of human understanding and brotherhood.
_The Nation_
Once the convert becomes a Black Muslim he is baptized as a citizen in
the Nation of Islam. They have a flag, a symbol, and a cause. From this
day forward his life centers around activity at the Muslim restaurant
and temple.
Who are these Black Muslims? Where do they live, and what do they do
for a living?
These questions baffle all observers because any Negro you encounter
could be a Black Muslim. Usually the men wear identifying pins, and the
Muslim women can generally be spotted by their dress, particularly the
long, flowing headpiece. But these identifying signs are not always
present. I have encountered Black Muslims working in printing plants,
in barbershops, as messenger boys, as night-club entertainers, and
as cab drivers. I will never forget taking a stroll in Central Park
where I came across a Muslim sister working as a nursemaid to three
white children! Since most nurses and maids are Negroes, the rise
of the Black Muslims has sent a quiet but very real chill through
the employment agencies in several major cities. After all, there is
no telling what these Muslim women will do when the “word” comes,
when the Battle of Armageddon is declared. And there is no way for
employment agencies to determine if Negro applicants are Black Muslims
before sending them out as servants in white homes. Nor is there any
way for heads of households to know just who their butlers and cooks
are. To borrow from James Baldwin, nobody knows their name. It could be
“X.”
The Black Muslims flatly refuse to discuss their organizational
finances with anyone. However, observers of the movement are
convinced that the tithes collected at temples and the income from
temple restaurants form the basis of the Muslim economy. The local
restaurant--and most of them are called “Shabazz” restaurants after
Malcolm X whose “restored” Arab name is Shabazz--is under the
supervision of the local minister. He seems to have fairly complete
control, but all matters are subject to review by Malcolm X as Elijah’s
roving ambassador. The local ministers are allowed a certain portion of
what they raise, but only top insiders know just how Mr. Muhammad makes
this determination. The major leaders of the movement all seem to have
taken a vow of poverty and live on expenses furnished by the movement
itself. I know this is true of Malcolm X and I suspect it to be true of
others.
But it must be remembered that the Black Muslims are both thrifty and
industrious; they are encouraged to open their own businesses and
many of the top leaders are themselves businessmen. Elijah Muhammad,
Jr., runs one of the largest bakeries in Chicago; Raymond Sharrieff
is said to have ownership in a clothing store there. All evidence
indicates that local Muslim leaders finance themselves through various
enterprises and that the bulk of the funds raised in the temple itself
flow on to the movement headquarters in Chicago.
Whoever and wherever these Black Muslims are they lead an exacting,
regimented life. In their homes they practice strict dietary
laws--precisely those of the kosher Jews--and avoid contact with
white people as much as possible. The private role of both the man
and the woman in the family is clearly defined, and the children are
indoctrinated with the faith while they are still young. Muslim men
are watched by The Fruit and must engage in some kind of gainful
employment. They are encouraged to go into small business whenever
possible; they are assured of patronage from their fellow Muslims.
A number of Negro businessmen have been attracted to the Nation of
Islam because it provides them with a ready source of customers. Other
Muslim brothers can be seen on the streets every day selling Muslim
newspapers. They are allowed to keep a goodly portion of what they
earn and are thus independent. The temple restaurants employ scores of
Muslim men and women, thus decreasing the ranks of their unemployed.
Other Muslims are door-to-door salesmen and find easy entry in the
Negro community, where the white door-to-door salesmen have become
anathema.
But the average Black Muslim works for some white man somewhere in some
capacity. He is urged to learn a trade and thus ready himself for the
day when he will be called upon to be one of the heads of industry and
commerce in the Muslims’ own, separate state.
The Black Muslim men are lectured constantly about family
responsibility and are subject to trial before their peers if they
violate the rules of the order. Punishment can vary from a small fine
to temporary or permanent banishment from the temple. No Muslim will
associate with an offender for the duration of his exile. It is said
that Malcolm X’s brother was once banished and that Malcolm refused
even to write the man until the period of punishment had been served.
Black Muslim women are schooled in the art and need for homemaking,
and are taught to take a back seat in the presence of their husbands.
Muslim women almost never talk to strangers--non-Muslims, that is--and
maintain a general silence that is unnerving. They also eschew make-up
and fancy dress. When I first encountered the Muslims some five years
ago, this ban on feminine adornment was rigidly enforced. But there
seems to have been a strong revolt among temple women and the ban has
been relaxed to the point where employing make-up is now optional. Yet
I have seen few Muslim women exercise this option. The wife of a major
Muslim official, say Joseph X of New York, certainly wouldn’t exercise
it.
The Black Muslims are a male-oriented organization. A man reaches real
stature in the movement when he becomes a member of The Fruit of Islam,
the functional and disciplinary arm of the movement. The Fruit hold
separate temple services, where they are taught, among other things,
every possible method of self-defense. Every local temple has a Captain
of The Fruit--in New York it is Joseph X--and the entire network is
headed by the son-in-law of Elijah Muhammad, Raymond Sharrieff. The
Fruit enforce brotherhood among the men of the temple and form the
honor guard whenever Malcolm X or Elijah Muhammad makes a public
appearance. The Fruit work under the local minister, but there is a
line of authority that runs down to the local captains directly from
Sharrieff’s Chicago headquarters. The Muslim Girls Training Class
(MGT), for young women, is headed by Sister Lottie X, also of Chicago.
The division of authority seems to be along these lines: The local
Fruit and MGT work under the local minister on local matters. But
unless the matter in question is one of clearly defined doctrine the
local minister gets clearance from Chicago before issuing his orders.
On national matters, those affecting the movement as a whole, The
Fruit and the MGT take orders directly from headquarters. These orders
are issued to members of the temple who obey without question.
One of the functions of The Fruit and the MGT is fund-raising. None
of the rumors about Muslims receiving help from outside--Communist or
segregationist--sources has proved true. The fact of the matter is that
the Black Muslims are hard-working, frugal people; they never buy on
installment, and they give a tenth--at least--of their earnings to the
temple. This income is augmented by bazaars, plays, rallies, and the
sale of their own newspapers and magazines. Then there is the matter
of the various lawsuits the Muslims have carried on with astonishing
success. The Black Muslims have collected upward of a quarter of a
million dollars I know about in the past four years or so, mostly as a
result of police brutality against their members. These suits are filed
in the name of the individual Muslim but they are carried on by the
temple, and I suspect the temple shares in the results.
Further regimentation of life within the Nation is achieved by
demanding that members send their children to Black Muslim schools
wherever possible. In two cities, Chicago and Detroit, the Muslims have
“universities” where they train the children from kindergarten through
high school. It will be recalled that Elijah Muhammad first got into
trouble with the law when he decided to send his children to the Muslim
school rather than the public schools. Now authorities in both cities
have approved the Muslim schools as accredited centers of learning.