Cover Story Strangely, the Ku Klux Klan was rumored to be funding NOI as it shared NOI’s interest in keeping the two races separate.
The Great American Reformer Black and black Muslim movements ran parallel, often overlapping and invariably drawing from each other.The leaders across the board felt mutual empathy and together gave African Americans a sense of common aspirations and dreams. Their broad objectives were the same — to better the community’s condition. Some chose the civil rights route, some religion, and others political activism. Upon their arrival in America in the late 20th century, immigrant Muslims were disapproving of what had been passing for Islam among African Americans. Many of them found un-Islamic the hatred of white people, the number of daily prayers, the rituals, and the references to Fard as “Allah,” and Elijah Muhammad as “the Prophet.” What they failed to appreciate was the community’s struggle to reach toward a distant vision of Islam in difficult if not impossible circumstances. Without the foundations laid by these communities, there would have been no Islam in America among African Americans. Imam W.D. Mohammed, a direct beneficiary of their legacy, however radically changed its character and direction. Although cross-cultural references can be misleading, it seems fitting to compare Imam W. D. Mohammed’s impact on Islam among African Americans with that of Martin Luther (1483-1546), who radically altered the course and content of Christianity. Like Luther, the imam took on the entire establishment of what was normatively seen and accepted as Islam and gave it a new direction. The genius of Imam W. D. was that he single-handedly moved the African American community toward identifying with pluralist American identity while moving away from Black Nationalist Islam. Today, millions of African American Muslims are comfortable with being as strongly American as they are being devout Muslims, demonstrating the two are not incompatible. It was not easy. Imam W.D. had broken ranks with NOI and suffered every kind of calumny. He was “excommunicated” several times for simply denying Fard’s divinity. The excommunication was particularly painful because it was executed by Elijah 28
Muhammad, his own father. But he would not relent. He was finally re-admitted into NOI in the early 1970s and, after his father’s death, declared its leader. Imam W. D. now set about instituting a major overhaul of NOI to align it with orthodox Sunni Islam. To start with, he rejected his father’s literal interpretations. He rejected black separatist views that reflected racism and reverse prejudices, and encouraged the learning and recitation of the Quran in the community and laid the foundations for an entire generation of Islamic scholars. Emphasizing the personality and history of Bilal, Imam W. D. introduced the word “Bilalian” to refer to the African American community to draw strength and pride from Bilal’s analogous experience during the Prophet’s time. This direct link with the origins of Islam imbued the community with a sense of history and honor. The focus on Bilal also allowed Imam W. D. to avoid falling under the cultural and theological influence of contemporary Arab Islam, which he did not find particularly attractive. Imam W. D. was not only a visionary but also a practical leader. He headed the Mosque Cares, an Islamic dawah project, and a business entity called the Collective Purchasing Conference. His videos, audiotapes, and television programs ensured that his message was reaching the community. By the 1990s, mainstream America had begun to acknowledge Imam W. D.’s stature as a great American in the best pluralist tradition. In 1992, he was asked to give the first invocation by a Muslim in the U.S. Senate. In March of that year, he became the first Muslim to deliver an address on the floor of
Muhammad Ali
the Georgia State Legislature. The next year saw him offering the Islamic prayer at the inaugural interfaith prayer service hosted by President Bill Clinton. Imam W.D. died in September 2008, having had a monumental impact on Islam in America, especially among African Americans.
After W.D. Mohammed For many Americans today, African American Muslims are synonymous with NOI, as if their history begins and ends there. But the history of African American Islam in the U.S. begins in the earliest stages of America itself. Identity was stripped by others (as in Sapelo), reconstructed and stripped again.
Sapelo Island cemetery Islamic Horizons January/February 2013