Faith and resistance
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While Noble Drew Ali and Malcolm X were reclaimers of lost identities: black Americans could embrace Islam because their true identity had once been Islamic. Worried that they wouldn't be able to enjoy the "blessings of Liberty" if their neighbors were not getting along freely enough, Ali's Moorish Science Temple pushed for nationhood and self-determination for Black Americans and a vision of every nation "worshiping under their own vine and fig tree." This perspective illustrated a longing for cultural restoration—regaining ethnic roots and a past buried under generations of oppression. In The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm recounts his attraction to the Nation of Islam precisely because of its disavowal of Christianity and its "alien God," which he viewed as a tool of white supremacist oppression. To Malcolm, the Islam represented a rejection of White America and a reclamation of respect as an American, one that allowed Black Americans the opportunity to sever ties with a traumatic past and access a more in tune self.
The readings mention appropriation in relation to how the Moorish Science Temple or the Nation of Islam are doing Islamic things. These groups are often criticized for changing, or altering, the very nature of traditional Islamic beliefs, but as one of the prompts points out, these changes are actually very logical; they provide a spiritual and cultural grounding for Black Americans that reflects their real-life experiences. Similar to the way bebop jazz pulled from traditional African American styles yet also incorporated new influences, Black American Islam appropriated elements of Islam and provided a unique adaptation for Muslims as an instrument of survival for their unique context. The faith was radically reconceived not to replicate “real Islam” but to develop a liberatory identity in opposition to oppressive whiteness.
The refusal of Islam to accept racial hierarchies, the insistence of Islam that humanity is one, resonated with Black Americans’ appeal for justice and self-respect. The changes that occurred in Black American Islam were thus critically important, representing a whole different route to religious and social freedom.