The Nation of Islam
It was in the Midwestern part of the United States that the mysterious pedlar-cum-teacher Farad Muhammad revealed himself to the late Elijah Muhammad, founder of the Nation of Islam.
This powerful organisation, whose earlier efforts in the name of Islam were denied and rejected by Old World Muslims, later went through a radical transformation under the current leader Imam Warith Deen Muhammad. Fundamentally changed to reflect more accurately the true teachings of Sunni Islam, this largest body of Sunni Muslims in the United States can be said to be one of the contemporary efforts of Muslims to be assimilated into the mainstream of American society and to realise as all other American citizens the fruits and benefits of the American Dream. Though this may sound anathema to those who knew the old Nation of Islam (NOI), the fact remains that the American Muslim Mission is currently trying to achieve for its predominantly black Muslim membership what all the three dominant American religious establishments have done for the Protestant, the Catholic and the Jewish Americans. An interesting point about the American Muslim Mission is that its original founder taught his followers an ethic which has been characterised by some of the American researchers of the movement as ‘very similar to the work ethic of the Puritans’. This emphasis on self-pride and on the dignity of self-help and self-development within the framework of their community has ironically resulted not in the distancing of the black Muslim from the mainstream of American society but in propelling him towards greater engagement with the American Dream. By moving into the field of small businesses, these American Muslim converts became more and more self-confident in their belief and hope of realising their dreams within the American society. With this change in perception and attitude came the new feeling that America can be made habitable for Muslims and all others. This native American attempt at reconciling Islam and the American Dream is still in an embryonic stage and a counter-movement from the more militant and more rebellious groups of the old Nation of Islam is beginning to unfold.
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