reshaping faith
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Noble Drew Ali founded the Moorish Science Temple with elements of Freemasonry in an attempt to reconfigure a Black Islam. This form of the faith bore no connection to Old World Islam but still played a pivotal role in African-American Islam. Marcus Garvey was seen as a precursor to the MST mission, though his impact is often overstated. Garveyism promoted a unified race consciousness, where Islamic motifs and Ethiopian references underscored an African Nationalist Vision.
Garveyism had its roots in social darwinism, an outdated view that echos in the MST. While Ali refuted external racialization, calling his followers Moors, his version of Islam relied on racialism and separatism, incorporating outdated ideals of Black purity and racial distinctiveness.
As discussed in class, culture is always mixed. Issues arise when cultural borrowing is disrespectful, when it goes unacknowledged by its adopters. The MST's use of Islam to serve Black nationalism prompts questions of integration versus misappropriation, especially given its social darwinist undertones.
However, religion often helps reclaim what's been lost or taken. Ali's Black particularism could be seen as a reworking of Islamic narratives to foster solidarity and self-determination.
For Malcom X, Islam served as an awakening: a way to grasp his historical legacy, inherited traumas, and purpose. His early exposure to the NOI, similar to Ali's teachings, offered a version of Islam that diverged from traditional Eastern narratives. Malcom critiques the East's fury in this regard, citing their silence as enabling "religious fakers" to mislead the vulnerable. Islam allowed Malcom to unveil the whitening of history, the atrocities committed under the guise of progress and Christian values. NOI origin stories, like that of Yacub, stray from Islam's Eastern roots, but they reveal a history of oppression, giving perspective to a people deliberately blinded.
Despite Islam's peaceful tenets, Malcom X is often portrayed as the "angry Black man," frequently juxtaposed against MLK, who is cast as the more reasonable, tame figure. Malcom's anger was often framed as needless, yet, as we discussed, anger can be an expression of love. Why should he have restrained his rage at his people's displacement and engineered poverty?