Article Ten:
Waves of Islam in America: A Spiritual Autobiography
Muhammad Abdullah Ahari Bektashi El Chicago, Illinois
November 1, 1994
When Brother Adib Rashad suggested I write a spiritual autobiography of my path to al-Islam, I didn't know where to start. In the past I've done articles on Sufi Abdul Hameed, Noble Drew Ali, Arab immigrants, Arabic slave narratives, Muslim writers, Sheikh Daoud, and others. I didn't want to just do another survey and repeat material already available to the public. Additionally I didn't want to lead people away from love for our Islam pioneers in America (Noble Drew Ali, Elijah Muhammad, and others), nor did I want to come across as only a Black Nationalist. I am neither and I am both. I am Bektashi, Moorish America, Sufi, Shia', Moorish Orthodox, and Wahabi all at the same time. I am the average American Muslim, growing and trying to define himself and to find his place within the greater Muslim world and still not lose his unique identity as American Muslim.
The pilgrimage of the forced emigree to these shores produced many of these seemingly diverse and complex trends within the American Muslim scene and even within a family or even an individual. This pilgrimage was made less ornus by a spiritual quest than was undertaken by these emigres (and to some extent the larger society). Sometimes this quest follows the pattern of the larger society, but more often than not the so-called American Negro (now African American, Moorish American, Ethiopian, and Nubian) was lead by his own imagination and genius which does not allow for a stale, withered flower to bring spiritual fulfillment and new patterns for this quest were made.
The common core for both of these quests (those that made their own pattern and those that followed that of the greater society) transcends orthodox or unorthodox Christian, Islamic , or Jewish forms of worship and presents a pattern that is designed to answer the needs of the forced emigree in a strange land. The essence of all of this is an ethnic ethic that tries to give purpose and meaning and answers the greater questions of whys and hows of our existence.
Within the African American Community this resulted in a magic world view that is usually apocalyptic in scope. Saviors and Messiahs had to come to take the lost-found back to the Motherland and to the Motherland's mentality. This is not only true of the rural poor but of all but the most assimilated.
Most writers of the past have attempted to analyze the nativistic American Islamic Nationalist Movement separate from the African American Religious Community or from the larger American Religious Community. This is a grave error which I have tried to correct. Brother Adib Rashad gave me the impetus to carry out this difficult demanding research. He himself has found parallels with Father Hurley, Father Divine, Jehovah's Witnesses, Elijah Muhammad, and Marcus Garvey. Connections with Masons, Shriners, Christian Science, Mormonism and Eastern Muslim groups can also be made.
The range of the indigenous American Islamic Nationalist range from the anti-Shariah Five Percenters and their Book of Life to a Militant Silk Traders preaching to a new American Prophet from the hidden realm who borrowed from the white mansion and from the lost-found testaments in Egypt and Tibet lately brought to these shores. In the East we had dervishes that spun in circles, people that were trampled by horses and were unharmed, and your thief-beggar. America had its own snake oil salesmen, tall tale weavers, and crafty big city wheelers and dealers. Gang bangers, pimps, lying womanizing ministers, and men whose true motives were unknown slithered into the Depression Era America heralding new ages, new identities, bringing new histories, and lining their pockets.
America was hurting and crying out for love and caring. Thousands were ready to "hear" the call. Love of God and self was the solution. The package has to be new not just new wine in old wine skins. The heard call had to bring answers that would allow the down trodden to raise their heads high. Many came with new Christianity, but a few came with Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. These New Age "Muhammadans", "Moslems", and "Asiatic Black Men" are the focus of this present work.
To be honest, this was true of those calling themselves Muslim to a small extent, but most who fit this mold were not Muslim not did they identify with Islam or call themselves Muslim. The Mainstream Press would slander our Muslim leaders such as Noble Drew Ali and Sufi Abdul Hamid and we believed and still repeat that horrible slander. A few courageous pioneers sought to tell the truth and clear away the muck that obscured the truth of our history. Adib Rashad has attempted to tell us of Elijah Muhammad, I have attempted to tell of Noble Drew Ali, Muhammad Yusuf of Tennessee has written on Sufi Abdul Hameed, and Peter Lambourn Wilson (Hakim Bey) has written on the Moorish Orthodox Church.
At the first World Parliament of Religious our early Muslim American leader- Muhammad Alexander Russell Webb gave two speeches on Islam. These were the only speeches by a Muslim on Islam given there. A lone Muslim correspondent from Paris sent a brief letter revealing his personal feelings about his faith. Forward to 1993 and we see a Parliament where over 200 Muslim speeches were presented, but alas only two dealt with the history of Islam in America or with the first parliament. These speeches were one by Akbar Muhammad on Muhammad Alexander Russell Webb and one by myself on Islam in America being a response to racism. The immigrants all but closed out the Ahmadiyyah and Indigenous views on Islam.
It is a sad state of affairs when immigrant Muslims sell pork and beer in our neighborhoods and teach us intolerance. We are taught to call every we disagree with is a Kafir and we are separated from our community when we accept Islam. Furthermore we are subjected to more racism when we attempt to marry into the immigrant community. The only answer is for us to develop our own community. To do this we must develop a sense of history, a dialect or language to identify members by, a literature, and a cadre of potential leaders so we need not be subservient to immigrant Muslims. As I have said above Brother Adib is doing this. We must also thank Shiekh Daoud (May Allah Rest His Soul), Minister Farrakhan, Silas Muhammad, Imam Warith Deen Muhammad, Imam Jamil al-Amin, and others for doing the needed work in this direction. I pray to Allah for the day when the followers follow their lead and when those in the Hanafi Madh-hab, Dar al-Islam, the Islamic Party, and the Moorish Science Temple get off their backsides and join in the work of nation building (those who are doing the work within these groups are to be commended) and needed dawah work.
To close I will end with the text of my speech at the 1993 World Parliament of Religions entitled "Proto-Islamic Movements as a Response to Racism".
"Today I am going to speak about proto-Islam being an answer to the racial and social problems in America. By proto-Islam I mean groups that are not necessarily Islamic but have characteristics in common with Islam. This would include groups diverse as the early Mormon Church, the Ahmadiyyah, the Bahia' Movement, the Moorish Science Temple, and the Nation of Islam.
"The first use of the term Proto-Muhammadanism was by 19th century Protestant writers in America writing about Mormonism. This term is highly inaccurate as Muslims do not worship Muhammad and thus do not follow Muhammadanism. The term does have a value in referring to so-called Pseudo and Heretical Islamic groups. Nothing can be Islamic and false, but a religion can be derived from Islam or have something in common with Islam, thus Proto-Islam would be a useful and accurate term to use.
"My main focus will be on the Moorish Science Temple. The reason I chose to speak on proto-Islamic movements is that they were how the current Islamic communities and environment was started in this county. Until recently there was no propagation of Islam by the Immigrant groups to the larger American populous. This left a wide open arena in which groups such as the Bahia', the Ahmadiyyah, the Nation of Islam, and the Moorish Science Temple could spread their ideas. A more "Orthodox Islam" did not have a firm basis in this country until after the founding of the MSA (Muslim Student Association) and when immigration laws began to loosen in this country. Before that most of the Muslims that came here very quickly assimilated and for the most part they did not spread Islam or do Dawa'h.
"However in the Black or African American community groups such as the Garvey Movement and the Moorish Science Temple began to develop in order to answer the problems that arose from African Americans being treated as second class citizens and looking for an alternative to the Manifest Destiny, racist version of Christianity they were exposed to. The Proto-Islamic movements filled this void.
"Some of the problems which arose among the so-called Negro masses (now termed African-American) included: what they should be call themselves; or, whether they should be called Negro, black, colored, or Ethiopian. They would also have to have a reason to change the nomenclature. They would re-invent or rewrite histories to better fit their world-views in order to do this. In the case of the Moorish Science Temple, the founder Noble Drew Ali said that America was founded by a tribe of "Ameers" (thus Ameer-I-ca). These "Ameers" were members of tribes from Morocco (Moroccan Tribes) which were part of Africa or in Moorish nomenclature -- Amexem. A brief side line here, in the commentary of the translation of Maulana Muhammad Ali we are told that the early followers of Islam were originally called Moors and were only later called Muslims. This would fit into Drew Ali's world-view and not the one of the so-called Orthodox Muslims.
"Noble Drew Ali's world-view was one where the original Asiatics (Moors) were displaced by Europeans from their place as leaders of high civilization. It is reported he said, "We are an Eastern people traveling West building kingdoms as we go." In order to gain acceptance of his world-view amongst his people (the African-Americans and by extension the whole world, as he saw himself as a world prophet), Noble Drew Ali felt a desire to change the mentality of his people. Due to this heart felt desire, he was reported to have said, �In order to change a people you must first change their literature.�
"To achieve this he wrote (compiled might be more accurate) a new scripture. This new scripture derived its sources from early American Spiritualist writers such as Levi (author of the Aquarian Gospels) and from the Rosicrucians who published a pseudo-Egyptian psalmic text purported to have been written by Amenhotep. The title of the Rosicrucian work is alternately Unto Thee I Grant and Infinite Wisdom.
"In using all of this material he began to develop a new view of history and nomenclature for his future followers to use and expound. He began to get people to leave Christianity which he called �The Folly of the Slave Master.� He told his followers that they had to follow certain dress codes and dietary habits. Thus he imposed a structure in his followers lives where, in many cases, there was none before.
In imposing a structure he developed a text named the Holy Koran of the Moorish Science Temple. On the front of this work there is a symbol -- a seven enclosed by a circle divided at the four points of the compass. This is derived from the Aquarian Gospels wherein Jesus received this title after he conquered the pyramids in order to pass the test for prophethood.
"In Noble Drew Ali teaching his personal history, he said he had to go through the pyramids to receive the title of prophet. Thus his own history was derived from the books he used in compiling the sacred text for the Moorish Science Temple. He did not tell his people who his parents were. His life was told mainly through myths and legends. To say more he was introducing Religious Nationalism -- an American Islamic Nationalism -- is beyond the scope of this brief work. Drew Ali's first step in doing this was to tell people that, "Before you have a God, you must have a nationality.
"Following is a passage from Moorish Literature called �What shall we call him?�
"So often our various journalists find trouble in selecting the proper name for the Moorish American. Some say "Negro," another will brand him "Race Man," still another will call him "Afro American," and then some "Colored," "Dark American," "Coon, " "Shine," "The Brethren," and your "Folks." It is indeed a hard matter to find something suitable for the various occasions where a title needs to be used. Is it that these people have no proper name? Did they have a national name when first brought to these shores in the early part of the seventeenth Century? If so, what was it? Did not the land from which they were forced have a name?"
"From the above you can see that Noble Drew Ali was trying to get people away from names that allowed people to lord over them. He gave them back a pride by giving them a new name, new history and new religion (whether it was true or false is besides the point). He clothed these new ideas in the garb of what he said was Islamism (or Islam). This was strange, Oriental, and different from what they were used to but it linked them back to their true history."
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