Black Religion and Black Power: The Nation of Islam’s Internationalism

Bayyinah S Jeffries

doi:10.3390/genealogy3030034

Abstract

The Nation of Islam’s influence has extended beyond the United States. This Black American Muslim movement has used the intersection of race and religion to construct a blueprint of liberation that has bonded people of African descent throughout the Diaspora. Their transnational dimensions and ideas of freedom, justice and equality have worked to challenge global white imperialism and white supremacy throughout the 20th century and beyond.

Highlights

Muslim movement has used the intersection of race and religion to construct a blueprint of liberation that has bonded people of African descent throughout the Diaspora
Outside of Africa, Black people have grappled with a system of racial oppression that criminalized, dehumanized and at times completely blocked any path to socioeconomic advancement, including miseducation, chronic unemployment, underemployment, mass incarceration and indiscriminate violence against black bodies
The Nation of Islam (NOI or Nation) filled the void left by Garvey as a model of black power but the Nation helped to advance Garvey’s mission of black self-determination

Summary

Brief History

The Nation of Islam was founded by W.D. Farad Muhammad in Detroit Michigan in 1930. After Muhammad’s death in 1975, the Nation of Islam continued under two separate groups: the Community of Al Islam in the West or The American Muslim. Mission, which Elijah Muhammad’s son, Imam W.D. Mohammed, spearheaded; and, The Nation of Islam, which the former NOI national spokesman Minister Louis Farrakhan led. Mohammed, spearheaded; and, The Nation of Islam, which the former NOI national spokesman Minister Louis Farrakhan led Though they took separate paths, both groups remained committed to a transnational vision. Upon Elijah Muhammad’s death, Farrakhan and the newly revived Nation of Islam continued to promote this double identity of being both black and Muslim throughout the late 1970s and up until today. Both of these Nations demonstrated a commitment to a global black movement grounded both in black self-determination and the Islamic principles of freedom, justice and equality

NOI’s International Aspirations and Applications

Findings

Black Power Interventions for a Global Black Audience