Islam and the Search for African American Nationhood: Elijah Muhammed, Louis Farrakhan, and the Nation of Islam [Paperback]

Dennis Walker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 10, 2005

The presence of Islam in America is as long-standing as the arrival of the first captive Muslims from Africa, making Islam one of America's formative religions. But the long-suppressed indigenous Islam didn't resurface in organized form until the 1930s, when it infused the politico-spiritual drive by the Noble Drew 'Ali and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad to address the appalling social conditions of the ghettoized black masses of the North. Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam would prove to be the most extensive, influential and durable of African-American self-generated organizations. Combining black cooperative entrepreneurship with indigenous Islam-tinged culture and spirituality, the NOI pursued a collectivist nationalist agenda which sought to advance the black masses' cause--within America or without it. At its collectivist height, the NOI achieved a $95 million empire of interlocking black Muslim small businesses and farms--providing a model for "bootstrap self-development" by the marginalized and dispossessed, worldwide. Bourgeois elements developed within, or engaged by, the NOI sought to weld a united African-American nation out of a range of classes. Outstanding second generation leaders--Warith Muhammad, Louis Farrakhan and Malcolm X--would further imbed Islam in Black America, and extend its relations into the international community. Their media offered an informed and critical outlook on both domestic and international affairs that often paralleled progressive analysts. What seems clear, after two monumental marches in 1995 and 2005 to the nation's capital, is that the NOI and African-American Muslims will have substantial input into the future direction of the African-American struggle. But it remains ambiguous whether the developing African-American nation will pursue its still-unfulfilled promise through secession, autonomy or long-term integration. To date, indigenous American Islam has been made a bogey by various white elites in order to regiment their own and other ethnic groups. "Dr. Walker has drawn a portrait of this movement that deserves the attention of scholars. I strongly recommend it to teachers and students studying or writing about Islam and the African American experience." — Dr. Sulayman S. Nyang, Howard University "It is not very often books of substance on African Americans, Islam and the Nation of Islam are written to set the record straight, or to reveal the truth about an historical legacy in the making. However, Islam and the search for African American, and the Nation of Islam, by Dr. Dennis Walker is an exception to the rule... ...Dr. Walker’s book sets the record straight for an Islamic, African American and an Arab historical connection, the influences and impacting maze of geographical history, as well as the search for African American nationhood in the 21st century. This well documented book offers several defining points of views coupled with the elements of societies’ Black History, The Nation of Islam, race, class, and culture. Dr. Walker’s book also strengthens and confirms the longstanding relevance of media knowledge and networks within the African American communities and its impact on domestic and international relations. Islam and the search for African American Nationhood is an extensive scholarly treasure trove of African, Arab and Islamic history. This timely study on Islam and the African American movement and its leaders is worthy reading, yet goes beyond the expansion of the African American experience and its search for Nationhood." — Leila Diab in Muslim Journal

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dr. Dennis Walker is a Celtic Australian specialist on Muslim minorities and author of two books on Islam and the national question. He reads five Muslim languages, and is author of numerous scholarly papers, articles and reviews in a number of languages, reflecting his wide travels and areas of interest. He has taught at Melbourne University, Deakin University and Australian National University.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

For a time, the Million Man March made Farrakhan the undisputed national leader of the USA’s Blacks. This raised a possibility that he could have gone on to construct a long-term mass-movement with enough of a vote-bank to compel the mainstream’s white political bosses to admit his people’a nd, indeed, himself and his Islam’into the American political system in an unprecedented way. This, though, brought out the tensions as to whether even the new NOI could become a genuinely political, as opposed to a religious or entrepreneurial, group. The potential of the Black Muslim sects to help lead a deeper engagement by the Afro-American common people with the US system was clear in the November 3 1998 American elections. Minister Benjamin Chavis Muhammad, who had been somewhat of a professional politician before his 1997 conversion to Farrakhan’s Islam, and national director of the 1995 March, was perhaps the driving force behind the serious effort the NOI now made to lead ordinary Blacks back from cynicism and avoidance into activism in electoral politics. In New York, as in Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, Washington, D.C., and other cities, NOI posters and flyers and radio broadcasts urged voters to come to the polls. A large ‘Get Out the Vote’ rally was hosted by Farrakhan in Chicago. Minister Benjamin also took to the Big Apple’s airwaves, especially on stations popular with Black youth, urging them to vote for their own interests. This 1998 ‘grassroots’ campaign did induct many sometimes apathetic ghetto blacks into electoral politics. Muslim volunteers were at the fore of the ‘Get Out the Vote’ campaign. Above-average Black voting helped oust House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and brought Democratic gubernatorial victories in Alabama, California, South Carolina, Georgia and Maryland. . There is no doubt that a few top leaders, and many volunteers, of the Nation of Islam in 1998 put the spotlight on their sect when taking part in a drive to advance African-American interests through congressional politics. On the other hand, this was a coalitional campaign in which Farrakhan was once again working with Black Christian clergy-politicians, a consistent pattern since he founded the new NOI in 1978. Thus, the NOI of 1998 remained woven into the Black professional politicians class and the clergies in the face of all Jewish micro-nationalist efforts to isolate and starve his sect since 1984.

Product Details

• Paperback: 530 pages
• Publisher: Clarity Press, Inc. (June 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0932863442
• ISBN-13: 978-0932863447
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,250,565 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Another independent study of the N.O.I and it's icons, October 15, 2006

By 

ZANZIBAR "Hotep" (Diaspora) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Islam and the Search for African American Nationhood: Elijah Muhammed, Louis Farrakhan, and the Nation of Islam (Paperback)

I purchased this book for research on a certain M.S.T. member. And this book didn't disapoint in this regard, and actually included some unknown points I was not aware of regarding the M.S.T. and it's history. This book written in 2005 by author Dennis Walker gives the reader another angle to analyze the N.O.I. and it's leadership. However, throughout this 597 page book I never get the impression the author really has any significant respect for said organizations. But this book can be a decent read, especially considering the current events surrounding the N.O.I. and the minister.