Intro
In the early 1940’s, when Elijah Poole was arrested for draft dodging, he seems to have told the FBI that he was anti-war and against fighting for America (see Morrow, page 52). Morrow alleges that Fard taught non-violence and non-interference in political affairs (no refs were given). Technically, Elijah Poole taught his followers not to carry any weapons, not even so much as a pen knife. He said carrying a weapon means belief that the weapon has more power to protect than does almighty God.
It seems that Elijah Poole and Fard were influenced by the Ahmadi Teachings on the end of Jihad. However, in 1947, the Qadiani-Ahmadi’s shockingly approved of offensive Jihad and upended all of MGA’s arguments (See “From Sufism to Ahmadiyya: A Muslim Minority Movement in South Asia” by , which was also done in 1917 via Maulvi Muhammad Ali’s classic deviant Quranic commentary.
Thus, the Qadiani-Ahmadi’s totally differed from the NOI inasmuch as they supported colonial governments (white people from Europe, whom were also called Jinn by Ahmadi’s in this era) and even fought for them pridefully (mostly in Pakistan). Whereas the NOI members like Muhammad Ali famously refused military entry. It should be noted that even the Ahmadiyya off-shoot of Wali Akram was also against violence and wanted non-interference in political affairs.
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Time to quit the knee-jerk Nation of Islam bashing
Elijah Muhammad taught his followers not to carry any weapons, not even so much as a pen knife. He said carrying a weapon means belief that …
I am one so-called “black Muslim” who can no longer remain silent in the face of ad infinitum news media attacks on the Nation of Islam.
First, the nation was an unindicted co-conspirator in the just-concluded Washington sniper trials because defendant John Allen Muhammad used to go to local meetings in Spokane, Wash., and attended the Million Man March in Washington in 1995.
I’m convinced that if Muhammad had just held on to the spirit of atonement and personal responsibility–like the other black men who truly believed in themselves at the march–then maybe his 10 victims might still be alive, and maybe the Washington, D.C., area might have been spared several weeks of sheer terror caused by the sniper’s murder spree last year.
Nobody ever blamed the U.S. Army, where Muhammad learned to shoot a high-powered military rifle, and where he mastered the craft of “sniper” for those killings. But ever since Sept. 11, 2001, there has been a verbal open season on Muslims of all descriptions.
Now there’s talk that Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has become some sort of Grigori Rasputin, who has gained ascendancy in the Royal Court of Michael Jackson, and is asserting control over the King of Pop’s business affairs.
But unofficially, talk of a grown man who wears a mask on his face in public and dangles his own mask-wearing son over a hotel balcony railing, coupled with the NOI’s talk about reparations for slavery and a black-white “two-state-solution” to America’s racial problem is a little weird. OK, I admit it’s a lot weird. But in a society that presumes innocence until proven guilty in a court of law, weird is not automatically guilty. And the Nation of Islam is anything but weird.
For myself, ever since I met NOI founder Elijah Muhammad, I have been on the lookout for whatever is good and whatever is bad about the movement. During that 30-some-year sojourn, I have met many good Muslims, and I have met some really bad actors who called themselves Muslims. But I know the nation helps all its true ad-herents become better human beings.
For instance, when I first got involved in the movement in 1967 I attended meetings Tuesday and Thursday evenings in San Jose, Calif.,; Wednesday, Friday evenings in San Francisco; and Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon again in San Francisco.
Those were the days when the civil rights movement was evolving from turn-the-other-cheek sit-ins into the militant “Black Power” movement.
So I could hardly wait until I went to my first Monday night meeting with the Muslims. I figured Monday was when we would “get down” and study maps of the city’s sewers and make plans on how to best attack important targets when “The Revolution” started.
Finally, Brother Benjamin, who was the lieutenant in charge of the San Jose study group, invited me to his house one Monday evening.
I was ready.
When I got there, imagine my shock to discover that it was just a night off, and Brother Ben, who operated a snack shop in town, was fixing homemade ice cream.
Over the years since then I have observed that followers of the late Elijah Muhammad have always been much more concerned with “how to eat to live,” than with “how to kill white people.”
Now, there is some very caustic rhetoric often spoken at Nation of Islam meetings. But after nearly three centuries of slavery, followed by 100 years of lynching and segregation, not every black person–in or out of the nation–is ready to forget the past, and hold hands at some made-for-television multicultural hootenanny and sing “Kumbaya.” But I can tell you, there is no Nation of Islam “hate message” that causes NOI acolytes to engage in rampant anti-social behavior.
Sure, the NOI delivers a shocking wake-up call that is hard to fathom, but I know Louis Farrakhan. I’ve eaten dinner at his table. I know he does not teach hate. He does not teach hatred of white people. He does not teach hatred of Jewish people.What is taught to each Nation Of Islam convert–and Farrakhan has tried to demonstrate this by his own mea culpa concerning his angry, heat-of-the-moment screeds about Jews in the past–is repentance from errant past behavior, unity and self-help. Period.
Members of the nation are not “taking control” of Michael Jackson and “brainwashing” him. Nor are Muslims a bunch of gun-toting, anti-Semitic snipers. Elijah Muhammad taught his followers not to carry any weapons, not even so much as a pen knife. He said carrying a weapon means belief that the weapon has more power to protect than does almighty God.
No, black Muslims, like other Muslims, like all people of faith and goodwill, are sincerely trying hard to be prayerful and pious and charitable in an America that devotes much more time every day to music videos than it ever does to any meaningful dialogue among people of various faiths and racial/ethnic groups.
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Links and Related Essay’s
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s violation of ‘yada` al-harb’ in 1900 – ahmadiyyafactcheckblog
Did MGA abrogate Jihad in 1900, as he became a prophet? – ahmadiyyafactcheckblog
Time to quit the knee-jerk Nation of Islam bashing – Chicago Tribune
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#ahmadiyya #ahmadiyyafactcheckblog #messiahhascome #ahmadiyyat #trueislam #ahmadianswers #mirzaghulamahmad #qadiani #qadianism
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