African-American Muslims
[5] Most of these captives were forced into Christianity during the era of American slavery;[6] however, there are records of individuals such as Omar ibn Said practicing Islam for the rest of their lives in the United States.
[12] Malcolm X is considered the first person to start the movement among African Americans towards mainstream Islam, after he left the Nation and made the pilgrimage to Mecca.
[13] In 1975, Warith Deen Mohammed, the son of Elijah Muhammad took control of the Nation after his father's death and guided the majority of its members towards mainstream Sunni Islam.
[14] However, a few members rejected these changes, leading Louis Farrakhan to revive the Nation of Islam in 1978 based largely on the ideals of its founder, Wallace Fard Muhammad.
Born to a wealthy family in what would in a few years become the Imamate of Futa Toro, an Islamic theocratic state located along the Middle Senegal River in West Africa.
His autobiography is housed at The Library of Congress in Washington D.C. Masjid Omar ibn Sayyid was opened in Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1991 to honor his legacy.
"Yarrow Mamout, from Maryland whose portrait was painted by Charles Peale in 1819, is immortalized wearing a hat typical of the African Muslims.
This elderly man, who prayed in public and sang praises to Allah in the street, retained not only his religion and his name but also the dress that signaled him as a Muslim.
The Quran, together with hadith (especially those collected in Kutub al-Sittah) and binding juristic consensus form the basis of all traditional jurisprudence within Sunni Islam.
[25] Sharia rulings are derived from these basic sources, in conjunction with analogical reasoning, consideration of public welfare and juristic discretion, using the principles of jurisprudence developed by the traditional legal schools.
The conversion of Malik el-Shabazz (better known as Malcolm X) in 1964 is widely regarded as the turning point for the spread of orthodox Sunni Islam among Black American Muslims.
As a result of his personal thinking and studies of the Quran, he became part of Ahlus Sunnah during a term in federal prison from 1961 to 1963 for refusing induction into the United States military.
[citation needed] Mohammed introduced many reforms and began an information campaign about Sunni Islam much as el-Shabazz had years earlier.
[citation needed] In many urban areas of the United States today many Black Muslims in the Sunni tradition are known and recognized by the hijabs on women and kufi caps and long beards for men.
[citation needed] During the Muslim movement in the United States during the 20th century, the African American community was also introduced to Shia Islam.
Hakeem became an assistant at a mosque in Watts and hosts charity work as well as teaching gang members in Los Angeles about Shia Islam.
[29] The Moorish Science Temple of America (MSTA) is an American organization founded in 1913 by self-proclaimed prophet Noble Drew Ali.
[30] Ali's teachings aligned with Sufi ideas regarding the higher self and the lower self;[citation needed] they also drew heavily from elements of Buddhism, Christianity, Gnosticism, and Taoism.
"[33] Specifically, they hold that the Moabites' Iberian Moorish descendants, recently defeated by European powers in the Spanish Reconquista, were prevalent among the victims of the Atlantic slave trade, making them ancestors of modern African Americans.
He provided three main principles which serve as the foundation of the NOI: "Allah is God, the white man is the devil and the so-called Negroes are the Asiatic Black People, the cream of the planet earth".
[40] He left the NOI after being silenced for 90 days (due to a controversial comment on the John F. Kennedy assassination), and proceeded to form Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity before his pilgrimage to Mecca and conversion to Sunni Islam.
Louis Farrakhan, who quit Warith Deen Mohammed's group, started an organization along the lines of Elijah Muhammad's teachings.
Farrakhan renamed his organization the Nation of Islam in 1981, and has regained many properties associated with Elijah Muhammad, such as Mosque Maryam, its Chicago headquarters.
The first Million Man March took place in Washington, D.C. in 1995 and was followed later by another one in 2000 which was smaller in size but more inclusive, welcoming individuals other than just African American men.
The Nation of Islam has received a great deal of criticism for its anti-white, anti-Christian, and anti-semitic teachings,[43] and is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
[49] Specifically, Clarence 13X denied that the Nation's biracial founder Wallace Fard Muhammad was Allah and instead taught that the black man was himself God personified.
