Intro
It seems that the only a few famous Jazz players converted to Ahmadiyya, they were Yusuf Lateef, Ahmad Jamal (in the 1950’s) and Sahib Shihab (which is also semi-confirmed by Usman Barry, he saw in an Ahmadiyya temple in Denmark, see Bowen too).
FBI reports from 1964 allege that Talib Ahmad Dawud was associated with the Ahmadiyya Community in the USA in the 1950’s, however, was ex-communicated in 1958 via direct orders from Rabwah, Pakistan, based on information that he was teaching black supremacy.
However, in the newspapers of 1959, Talib Ahmad Dawood’s previous name is listed as Al Barrymore. Talib Dawud, a jazz trumpeter and prolific proselytizer associated with the Moslem Brotherhood of America, Inc., first attacked the NOI in 1959 with a series of articles in the black Chicago newspaper, the New Crusader. The most scathing was a photograph of NOI founder W.D. Fard, whom the group believed to be Allah-in-person, with the subtitle: “White Man is God for Cult of Islam” (See “White Man is God for Cult of Islam,” New Crusader, August 15, 1959, see via Felber).
Bowen makes a mistake and alleges that after Art Blakely converted to Islam and moved to New York (mid-to-late 1940’s), he formed, “The Jazz Messengers”, a seventeen-piece band composed entirely of Qadiani converts. Further, Dannin never mentioned any of this either. Dannin briefly mentions Yusuf Lateef (aka William Emanuel Huddleston) who converted to Ahmadiyya/Qadianism. Bowen then errs and says that Talib Dawud converted to Ahmadiyya (See Turner, page 139, 1st edition) claims that a Qadiani-Ahmadi named Muzaffar Ahmad Zafar told him on the phone) in Philadelphia under Sheikh Nasir Ahmad in Philadelphia (See Dannin, 58; Essien-Udom, 313). However, this is impossible since Sheikh Nasir Ahmad was fiercely anti-Qadiani and even started the Schism in Pittsburgh in 1934 and in Cleveland (via Wali Akram). Turner (see pages 138-140) made even a bigger mistake and alleged that even Talib Dawud, Art Blakely, Ford Daleel, Nuh Alahi (Turner alleges that he became a Vice President of the Ahmadiyya Community in the Los Angeles area), McCoy Tyner, Sahib Shihab and Dakota Stanton, Turner based this info on a video interview of Imam Warith Deen (see “A conversation with Imam Warith Deen Muhammad at Duke University, 1992). However, Imam Warith Deen shouldn’t be taken as a credible witness, since he has lied about the person of Master Fard Muhammad and spread lies about him being a Lahori-Ahmadi in 1931 and in the USA on an undercover assignment. Turner also quoted Simpkins and his academic work on Ahmadiyya and FBI files about Malclom X, Simpkins (via Turner) alleged that Art Blakely, Talib Dawud, Yusuf Lateef (aka Bill Evans), Ahmad Jamal and Sahib Shihab helped to raise money and bring more Ahmadiyya Maulvi’s to the USA. Turner also mentions Muhammad Sadiq, (A Jazz Trombone player)(we need more research on this), who seems to have been Ahmadi and even rose to be a President of Ahmadi communities in New York and New Jersey.
Talib Ahmad Dawood (formerly Alfonso Nelson Rainey, born January 26, 1923, on Antigua; died 9 July 1999, New York City) was an American jazz trumpeter. Dawud came from Antigua and Barbuda, taking lessons from his father, a trumpeter who played in marching bands; his mother was a singer who accompanied herself on piano. Dawud also learned banjo and pipe organ. He had his further education in the United States at a high school and music school he experienced in the United States, came as the end of the 1930s to New York. Talib Dawud was an eighteen-year old Antiguan named Alfonso Nelson Rainey when he arrived in New York with “the clothes on his back and a trunk full of books.” He entered the Julliard School of Music in New York in the early 1940’s to study brass instruments while supporting himself with work in the renowned Barrymore household. Early in his musical career he called himself “Barrymore” Rainey and played with the Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong orchestras. His most important musical association, however, came with the Dizzy Gillespie big bands on the eve of the “be-bop revolution.” Because of the support of the Barrymore Foundation, he first took the stage name Barrymore Rainey. After studying at the Juilliard School in 1940, he played with Tiny Bradshaw, Louis Armstrong, Benny Carter, Andy Kirk, Jimmie Lunceford, Roy Eldridge with further swing orchestras (See Dannin).
In the second half of the 1940s and again in 1956 he was a member of the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band, performing with in 1957 at the Newport Jazz Festival. He wrote numerous articles in the African American Chicago daily New Crusader on the controversy between Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X.
In 1949, meanwhile, Nasir Ahmad, along with his protégé Talib Dawud, led a small number of AAUAA members in creating an organization called the International Muslim Brotherhood (IMB) to teach Islam in Philadelphia, and, perhaps, Harlem (See Bowen).
The band’s young tenor saxophonist, Bill Evans, followed him, taking the name Yusef Lateef, as did Lyn Hope, who became Hajj Rashid after making pilgrimage to Mecca in 1958. The drummer, Kenny Clarke, changed his name to Liaqat Ali Salaam, and Oliver Mesheux became Mustafa Dalil. Abdul Karim (from Chicago) is the father of Amatus Sami-Karim (she is the wife of Mahershala Ali), he alleges that Talib Dawood was an Ahmadi and may have quit later.
Via Dannin, Despite Gillespie’s iconoclasm, many converts understood their new religion as a serious spiritual and intellectual quest, learning Arabic to study the Quran, attending Friday prayers, and observing the dietary laws, including the Ramadan fast. Some, like Talib Dawud, quit playing music altogether to study Islam full-time. His first wife, Sayida Faisal, was a young Ex-Ahmadi from Cleveland. Her father belonged to the faction of converts who had remained with Wali Akram after he split with the Ahmadiyya Movement in 1936. By 1940, she stood out as one of the most desirable young women in the movement. Talib himself was a rising star who had eagerly absorbed the teachings of Islam. The African American matchmakers suggested Sayida as a good partner, and he went to Cleveland, where they soon married. Several years later in New York he took a second wife, the jazz singer Dakota Staton, who was not Muslim. He managed her promising career while simultaneously working with Sayida to spread the faith. But this polygamous arrangement soon collapsed when Sayida returned to Cleveland with their children. Talib later divorced both women and moved to London in 1956.
Talib Dawud and Sheik Daoud were key figures for the early Islamic revival in America. The Muslim Brotherhood USA and the Islamic Mission to America viewed the anticolonial struggles in North Africa and the Middle East as modern examples of jihad that indicated the reawakening of Islam as a global force.
In 1959, Talib Dawud met with the famous Muhammad Abdullah in San Francisco and even had dinner at Muhammad Abdullah’s home (See “Muhammad Abdullah, Lahore-Ahmadi Americans and the Black Muslims of America” by Fathie Bin Ali Abdat).
In 1963, via the Chicago Tribune (Sun, Feb 24, 1963 ·Page 6), Dakota Staton and her husband petitioned a Federal Court in Philadelphia to have the NOI excluded from Muslims. Dakota’s husband Talib Ahmad Dawood (aka Alfonso Nelson Rainey) claim that the teachings of Elijah Muhammad have caused incalculable damage to Black people in America (see the scan in the below).
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https://detroitred.tumblr.com/post/3856812950/malcolmology-101-18-noi-answers-muslim-critics
MALCOLMOLOGY 101, #18: NOI ANSWERS MUSLIM CRITICS
By the time Malcolm X had been named national spokesman in 1961, the Nation of Islam had come under public scrutiny from groups ranging from conservative whites to integrationist blacks. However, following trips to the Middle East by Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad in 1959 as well as the organization’s increased public profile, the pressure for other Muslim organizations in the U.S. to condemn the NOI became even more acute. The NOI was predated by other predominantly African-American Muslim groups such as Noble Drew Ali’s Moorish Science Temple and the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam (AMI). Just as the NAACP had scrambled to distance itself from the NOI in the aftermath of “The Hate That Hate Produced,” the AMI and orthodox Muslims launched attacks charging that that Nation’s religious heterodoxy had in fact crossed into heresy.
Talib Dawud, a jazz trumpeter and prolific proselytizer associated with the Moslem Brotherhood of America, Inc., first attacked the NOI in 1959 with a series of articles in the black Chicago newspaper, the New Crusader. The most scathing was a photograph of NOI founder W.D. Fard, whom the group believes to be Allah-in-person, with the subtitle: “White Man is God for Cult of Islam.” The NOI found the article so disturbing that the Chicago and New York mosques worked to purchase and destroy as many copies of the issue as possible. Along with jazz pianist, Ahmad Jamal, Dawud and his wife Dakota Staton (Aliyah Rabia) also slandered the sect by claiming that Elijah Muhammad could not perform the Hajj in 1959 because the Saudi Arabian government had banned him as an inauthentic Muslim. Eventually Dawud’s monopoly on the New Crusader disintegrated and bitterness between the groups peaked in 1962 when Dawud sued Muhammad, enjoining the District Court to disallow the terms “Islam” or “Muslim” in association with the sect. Malcolm finally unleashed his assault against Staton, a jazz vocalist: “Even the non-Muslim public knows that no Muslim sister who follows Mr. Muhammad would think of singing sexy songs, half-naked in a night-club where people are getting drunk and expect people to respect her as an ‘example’ of religious piety.” Malcolm then turned the rhetorical war towards Dawud, implying that Staton’s suit was an attempt to reinvigorate his lackluster career.
Another voice echoing Dawud’s sentiments was a Sudanese Muslim student at Pennsylvania University, Yahya Hayari, who wrote a letter to the editor that same year challenging Elijah Muhammad’s Hajj as being out of season. Malcolm responded to Hayari in a private letter and again publicly in the Pittsburgh Courier, challenging the student to settle the dispute “in private, not in public.” He downplayed the differences between the NOI and the Islamic ummah and lamented that Hayari suffered from a “colonial mentality” and sounded like a “brainwashed, American Negro.” Ironically, for all his work as a religious apologist for the NOI, Malcolm would later employ strategy similar to Dawud and Hayari as he attempted to discredit Elijah Muhammad and place himself distinctly within the world of orthodox Islam.
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1954
Talib Dawud – Wikipedia
In 1954 he married Sayida Fazl of Cleveland, Ohio, his second marriage. They bore a daughter Rafiqa and his second son Idris after having a son Farouq by his first marriage.
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1958
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1959
In 1959, he met with the famous Muhammad Abdullah in San Francisco and even had dinner at Muhammad Abdullah’s home (See “Muhammad Abdullah, Lahore-Ahmadi Americans and the Black Muslims of America” by Fathie Bin Ali Abdat).
Dawud promised to print a new edition of Vidyarthi’s magnum opus, Muhammad and World Scriptures for American readers. The msusa jumped on the offer, hoping to associate themselves with Dawud and Staton- both boasting impressive credentials in the fluid, overlapping universe of Ahmadiyya-American Islam, black bebop musicians and African nationalism. But Dawud merely paid lip service to the project and Abdullah tried recovering the manuscripts by visiting Dawud’s three-storey residential apartment and headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood of the USA (mbusa) movement at 5312 West Girard Avenue, Philadelphia. Despite failing to retrieve the manuscripts, Abdullah spent the next three years in the City of Brotherly Love. Abdullah ’s history in Philadelphia between 1960 and 1963 has traditionally been glossed over as a brief, unimportant phase but on closer scrutiny, Abdullah was no mere innocent missionary but in fact dabbled in skullduggery and underhanded politicking amidst the erratically shifting terrain of black Islamic movements in Philadelphia.
Left in the dark by Dawud, Abdullah reached out to Elijah Muhammad’s noi. Ever since Dawud returned in July 1959 from pilgrimage to Mecca, both mbusa and noi were embroiled in a fiery and well-publicized lawsuit over Elijah’s Islamic authenticity. As Dawud posed as a common enemy, Abdullah rang up Wallace Delaney Mohammad, newly minted Minister of noi Temple # 12 at 4218–20 West Lancaster Avenue, Philadelphia. After several spurned efforts, Abdullah’s patience made headway in 1960 when Wallace invited Abdullah for dinner. Right from the outset, Abdullah sought to clear the misunderstanding between their movements. Towards the end of 1958, Rabbani Khan, Imam of Woking Mosque, an aaiil-affiliated institution abandoned their earlier friendly disposition to the noi by castigating Elijah for preaching a “most fantastic … caricature of Islam” and extricated all links with the noi. Thus, Abdullah reassured Wallace that the Lahore-Ahmadi’s stance towards black Islam fundamentally differed from the Woking Mission’s.
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Grand Haven Tribune
Wed, Feb 04, 1959 ·Page 14,
Alameda Times Star of Wed, Feb 04, 1959 ·Page 6
The Patriot-News, Wed, Feb 04, 1959 ·Page 15
The News of Cumberland County, Wed, Feb 04, 1959 ·Page 4
The Punxsutawney Spirit, Thu, Feb 05, 1959 ·Page 5
The Record American, Tue, Feb 03, 1959 ·Page 2
Scans
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The Urbana Daily Citizen
Thu, Feb 05, 1959 ·Page 3
“‘Dakota Staton and jazz trumpeter Al Barrymore were refused a marriage license by the town clerk of Greenwich, Conn., because they didn’t have a copy of Barrymore’s decree from his previous wife. Members of the Moslem faith, they applied under their Arabic names — Miss Aliyah Rabia and Mr. Talid Dowod..Brigette Rohland, the Ballett Russe de Monte Carlo dancer who used to date ex-King Simeon of Bulgaria, now it appears to prefer Art Ford””.
Scans
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The Afro-American
Sat, Jun 06, 1959 ·Page 6
Scans
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1959
Aug
gfelb_1.pdf
https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/138714/gfelb_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
“White Man is God for Cult of Islam,” New Crusader, August 15, 1959.
“”Talib Dawud, a jazz trumpeter and prolific proselytizer associated with the Moslem Brotherhood of America, Inc., first attacked the NOI in 1959 with a series of articles in the black Chicago newspaper, the New Crusader. The most scathing was a photograph of NOI founder W.D. Fard, whom the group believed to be Allah-in-person, with the subtitle: “White Man is God for Cult of Islam.”
Scan
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The Afro-American
Sat, Oct 31, 1959 ·Page 19
Scans
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St. Paul Recorder
Fri, Nov 13, 1959 ·Page 6
Scans
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New Pittsburgh Courier
Sat, Nov 21, 1959 ·Page 11
Acid Thrown as ‘Moslems Clash’
Scan
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The Bee
Tue, Jan 26, 1960 ·Page 9
Scan
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The Afro-American
Sat, Feb 13, 1960 ·Page 15
Scan
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The New York Age
Sat, Feb 13, 1960 ·Page 8
From Charles Betha X, secretary, Muhammad’s Temple of Islam, No. 2, Chicago, ill.
This is in response to an article vs. the NOI.
Scans
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The New York Age
Sat, Feb 27, 1960 ·Page 5
Talib Ahmad Dawood vs. Elijah Muhammad. Talib Ahmad Dawood says that Elijah didn’t perform Hajj in 1959, it was Umrah.
Scan
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The Afro-American
Sat, Apr 09, 1960 ·Page 15 and 17
Scans
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Washington Afro American
Sat, Apr 09, 1960 ·Page 17
Talib Ahmad Dawud has Ahmadiyya beliefs.
Scan
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The Afro-American
Sat, Apr 16, 1960 ·Page 16
Al-Haji Talib Ahmad Dawud uses Qadiani arguments like, Jesus might be dead since the soldier struck the side Jesus (as) and blood and water gushed out. Al-Haji Talib Ahmad Dawud also says that Jesus (as) survived the cross and travelled to India.
Scan
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New Pittsburgh Courier
Sat, Jul 16, 1960 ·Page 13
Hajji Talib Dawud. Imam, or head of the Muslim Brotherhood, USA. American Representative of the Islamic Congress. An authority on African and Islamic history and art on which he has rare books and pieces in his extensive collection. Recently toured Egypt, Arabia, the near east and Mecca. Lives in New York (From photo taken in Cairo Mosque).
Scans
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The Louisville Defender
Thu, Apr 06, 1961 ·Page 5
Scans
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Atlanta Daily World
Sun, Jun 03, 1962 ·Page 9
Scans
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The Call
Fri, Jun 08, 1962 ·Page 1
Scans
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New Pittsburgh Courier
Sat, Jun 09, 1962 ·Page 1 and 4
Dakota Staton, Hubby File Suit Against Mr. Muhammad
Scans
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New Pittsburgh Courier
Sat, Jun 23, 1962 ·Page 5
Scans
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Grand Haven Tribune
Fri, Jul 06, 1962 ·Page 6
Black Muslim Cult of Violence
Scan
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The St. Louis American
Thu, Jul 12, 1962 ·Page 11
Al-Haj Talib Dawud mentions Zafrullah Khan as he challenges Elijah Poole for a debate.
Scans
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Jackson Advocate
Sat, Jul 07, 1962 ·Page 1
Scans
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Atlanta Daily World
Sun, Jul 15, 1962 ·Page 2
Scan
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Grand Haven Tribune
Thu, Jul 19, 1962 ·Page 6
Scans
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The Call
Fri, Jul 20, 1962 ·Page 9
Dakota’s Husband Challenges Muhammad.
Scans
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The Afro-American
Sat, Jul 21, 1962 ·Page 15
Scan
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Atlanta Daily World
Tue, Jul 24, 1962 ·Page 2
Scan
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The Afro-American
Sat, Sep 08, 1962 ·Page 4
Scan
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The Afro-American
Sat, Sep 22, 1962 ·Page 4
Scans
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New Pittsburgh Courier
Sat, Nov 24, 1962 ·Page 4
Scans
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The Call
Fri, Jan 11, 1963 ·Page 8
“”Dakota Staton and husband Talib Daud launched a lawsuit against Mr. Muhammad and his group which call themselves Muslims. This suit could turn into a dilly if it ever reaches court””.
Scans
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The Louisville Defender
Thu, Jan 17, 1963 ·Page 10
Al-Hajji Talib A. Dawud, Imam of the Muslim Brotherhood, U.S.A., officially announces…
Scans
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Chicago Tribune
Sun, Feb 24, 1963 ·Page 6
Muslims Sued Over Claim of Islamic Link
Dakota Staton and her husband petitioned a Federal Court in Philadelphia to have the NOI excluded from Muslims. Dakota’s husband Talib Ahmad Dawood (aka Alfonso Nelson Rainey) claim that the teachings of Elijah Muhammad have caused incalculable damage to Black people in America.
Scans
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Links and Related Essay’s
Click to access Dannin2002black-pilgrimage-to-islam.pdf
Who is Sheikh Nasir Ahmad? Aka Walter Smith Bey, another Ex-Ahmadi
Jazz musicians that accidentally converted to Ahmadiyya – ahmadiyyafactcheckblog
Click to access Dannin2002black-pilgrimage-to-islam.pdf
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad also claimed to be the second coming of Krishna – ahmadiyyafactcheckblog
Just a few Jazz musicians converted to Ahmadiyya – ahmadiyyafactcheckblog
Who is Maulana Muhammad Abdullah (1905-1992)? – ahmadiyyafactcheckblog
Is Mahershalla still a Qadiani-Ahmadi? – ahmadiyyafactcheckblog
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Tags
#ahmadiyya #ahmadiyyafactcheckblog #messiahhascome #ahmadiyyat #trueislam #ahmadianswers #mirzaghulamahmad #qadiani #qadianism
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