Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, and Wallace Muhammad

Elijah Muhammad, Malcom X and Wallace Muhammad
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Elijah Muhammad, Malcom X and Wallace Muhammad
This type of an essay is an explanation for my new understanding of “The Nation of Islam.” This is really beneficial based on the various contexts of disbelief and bewilderment as well as how different individuals place faith in the deviation of Islam. Completing this essay was not an easy task but thanks to the various reference materials provided by the internet. There is a pile of resources materials in relation to “Prophet Elijah Mohammed” from NOI’s official site and from other sources such as Anti-defamation League. It was not difficult to find Malcom X’s information since much of positive sources were readily available, there was little negative sources. It seems like the negative sources are only limited to Elijah and Wallace. Major sources that provided useful information in regard to Malcom X include Malcom X’s official, the official website of NOI (noi.org). The research that proved to be difficult was about Wallace Mohammed’ information. There is very little information in relation to Wallace Mohammed, but search of this information started to yield results when I ran into a documentary by the title “This far by Faith” at PBS’s website (pbs.org/thisfarbyfaith/people/wraith_deen_mohammed.html). After a careful review of the resources that I had compiled, I have come to discover the founder of the Nation of Islam (Wallace Fard) and I can say that the discussion of the Nation cannot be complete without mentioning this dynamic soothsayer, not to mention Louis Farrakhan who was his disciple.
The story of Wallace starts with a travelling salesman who travels with his imported commodities, attracting the attention of socially and economically oppressed black families due to his stories about the superiority of the black people and spreading his version of the Islam and strict diet. That is the short introduction to Wallace’s history who most people thought was either an Arabic, mixed race or a white man who originated from New Zealand. Moreover, they took him to be either to be a son of God or God Himself but in the flesh or an ex-con who was taking advantage of other people’s emotions or ignorance. Whatever version of him that is accepted by people determines their position on his Lost-Found religion referred to as ‘Nation of Islam’. Wallace’s story continues with him befriending a son of lay Baptist Preacher from Georgia. It is believed that Wallace taught this boy his version of the Islam religion. The teachings involved stories of black race’s superiority over other races; that white men were as a result of an experiment of a black man and thus they were evil; there was an existence of a space ship that had the power of creating mountains and destroying cities, this space ship was orbiting the earth; and how the Islam was the only true religion of the black people. After receiving the teachings, the lay Baptist Preacher’s son changed his name to “Elijah Mohammed”. During the early 1930’s, Elijah Mohammed contributed to the spreading of Wallace’s...