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Losing patience<\/div>\n

<\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

In the year 2000, a very public reconciliation took place on a Chicago stage between the leader of the Nation of Islam (NOI), Louis Farrakhan and the man who once took his place, Imam Warith Deen Muhammad. When WD Muhammad was chosen to lead the NOI after his father\u2019s death in 1975, he moved the organization \u2013 rechristened, so to speak, as the Muslim American Society \u2013 towards orthodox Sunni Islam until a disillusioned Farrakhan resurrected the NOI in 1981, assumed the group\u2019s leadership, and brought back much of the evangelical Black nationalist theology. <\/p>\n

As Muslims from around the world continued to immigrate to the US and Islam eventually became a near-daily news item, comparisons with the NOI\u2019s awkward teachings strained the credibility of the Islamic tenets the group had long co-opted<\/a> (the personification of Allah in the form of the organization\u2019s founder, W. Fard Muhammad, in particular). The meeting at the NOI\u2019s 2000 Savior\u2019s Day convention was an indication, in part, that a slow push towards a more conventional Islam was underway, a move propelled by the eventual dwarfing of NOI\u2019s membership (number in the tens of thousands) compared to Muhammad\u2019s (more than a million). At that meeting, WD Muhammad held out an olive branch to those who opposed his shift to orthodox Islam 30 years ago, and offered to educate NOI leaders in the Islam he favored.<\/p>\n

But last week, Muhammad added harsh words<\/a> to the soft pressure he had been exerting quietly since that rapprochement. \u201cThe time for those [NOI] leaders who had that hate rhetoric has come and passed,\u201d said<\/a> Muhammad last week during a speech at the University of Arkansas, \u201cand they know it.\u201d Indeed, many of the main points of contention between the NOI and orthodox Muslims \u2013 calls for separation of the races, bans on interracial marriage, and the deification of the NOI founder \u2013 are still featured prominently<\/a> on the organization\u2019s website. In addition to the lack of progress on discarding unorthodox teachings, Muhammad also cited the \u201cfancy lifestyles\u201d of NOI leaders as proof of their \u201chaving fun\u201d at the expense of the rank-and-file membership.<\/p>\n

Claiming knowledge<\/a> of the NOI\u2019s inner workings, Muhammad predicted that, in the absence of Farrakhan\u2019s direct leadership (the leader, currently fighting prostate cancer, stepped down<\/a> late last year), the current leaders would see the writing on the wall and take steps avoided until now. With Farrakhan\u2019s strong personality acting as the glue that kept the NOI together in its current form, it will be difficult for the NOI to survive without a similarly strong leader who shares his viewpoints. \u201cI think there\u2019s a merger coming,\u201d insists<\/a> Muhammad, \u201ca quiet merging of leaders of the Nation of Islam and leaders in my community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the wildly divergent teachings of the Nation as compared to orthodox Islam may make such a merger a zero-sum game. If things go the way WD Muhammad predicts, it will leave steadfast believers in the teachings of Elijah and Fard Muhammad abandoned. Theology aside, the many successes of the NOI in confronting drug dealers, gang violence, and promoting paternal responsibilities (most vividly demonstrated in Farrakhan\u2019s Million Man March in 1995) are still appreciated by many African-Americans of other religious persuasions. Any challenge to the NOI would have to go beyond theological changes and prove that it can be as galvanizing, effective, and influential in such matters \u2013 something the more sedate WD Muhammad may struggle with.<\/p>\n

Farrakhan has thus far attempted to convey a message to mainstream Muslims that he is a true believer, while maintaining a veneration for the NOI founders that keeps its core members in check. For many Muslims, the litmus test for the transition effort remains the statement of basic tenets in the Final Call<\/a> newspaper and on the NOI\u2019s website. Like the white smoke above the Vatican that signals the selection of a new Pope to the Catholic world, outsiders to the still secretive organization will be waiting for signs of change there \u2013 signs that may yet prove the birth of a new Nation.<\/p>\n

Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"