The Nation of Islam is a group that I’ve heard a lot about growing up as a Muslim; they were always discussed with some level of secrecy, and not very much was ever really known about them. I found it incredibly interesting how the NOI frames women’s “duties” as a method of resistance against white supremacy and normalized behaviors. A black woman to cook/clean held weight in the sense that it was a remnant of times where black people were forced into subservient roles against their will, whereas the NOI viewed it as a willingness to do these things for their families out of love and the freedom afforded to them as Muslim women. The western media often had this depiction of the “poor Muslim woman” forced to do these things for their thankless families on the path to misery when, in reality, gender norms were being challenged routinely as Muslim women were afforded more rights than men in some instances. This reclamation of domestic labor was one of the many ways the NOI directly challenged a world that was still affected by Jim-Crow era thinking and feeling. They also only allowed black journalists to cover their news, further restating the culture of Black autonomy in a new world. Think just a few years before the Cold War era, in a world where color barriers were physical walls separating and subjugating, how incredible would it be that a group of powerful Black religious figures would have the strength to reject the white reporter from mislabeling them?
Elijah Muhammad’s upbringing was also discussed, and it sheds light on why the organization may be structured the way it is. There was a passage detailing the “mysterious Arab street peddler,” Wallace Fard was a man who sold exotic textiles to black women on the streets of Detroit. His mission was to spread the word of Islam, and he merely used his business as a vessel to do so. Interestingly, it is mentioned that he knew the key to families’ hearts was their women/mothers. By influencing the women into listening to his lectures, he noticed that their men would also attend and learn from him. Elijah was easily influenced “After Fardβs lecture, various reports state that when he was introduced to the speaker, Elijah declared, βI know who you are, youβre God himself,β to which Fard replied, βThatβs right, but donβt tell it now.” “(82) I found it interesting that the leader of the NOI and the subsequent voice by which the vessel Malcolm X preached, was led so far away from the core morals of Islam. It is also said he was known as the “messenger of Allah” a title that no man besides the one prophet Muhammad should be granted.
