THE NATION OF ISLAM

THE HONORABLE MINISTER LOUIS FARRAKHANThe ascension of Farrakhan as the Honorable Minister of the Nation of Islam gave him instant notoriety. But his fame was due not only to his title and leadership role, but also to his bold and shocking criticisms and his high profile in the mainstream media.To members of the Nation of Islam, Farrakhan is largely embraced because of what he has done for the organization. If it were not for him, the NOI as it was during the days of Wallace Fard Muhammad and Elijah Muhammad would have been obsolete.When Farrakhan resurrected the NOI, he did so with the help of only two leaders who defected with him from Wallace Muhammad’s organization. Farrakhan toured the nation, mobilizing former members and attracting new converts. He reinstated the organization exactly as it had been before, with the same rules and ideology. He purchased its first temple in Chicago, where he still resides. He also established many NOI business ventures, such as food-industry services, restaurants, and the NOI’s Muhammad Farms in Georgia, which harvests and sells produce and grains. Under Farrakhan’s leadership, the NOI became noted for its many social-reform programs that helped to alleviate problems in black communities such as gangs and drug use and to transition convicts released from prison. Farrakhan also reestablished Elijah Muhammad’s Three Year Economic Savings Program, which called for black people to pool their resources by contributing $10 a month to help fight against poverty, want, unemployment, abominable housing, hunger and nakedness of the 30 to 40 million black people in America (Nation of Islam).As much as Farrakhan criticized white America for slavery and the contemporary condition of blacks, he also held blacks themselves responsible for their woes. He asserted the following in a speech he gave in 1979, saying that [black people] have fallen short of the glory of God. My people are not dying from skinheads. They’re not dying from the Ku Klux Klan. They’re dying from their ignorance and self-hatred that has us destroying one another. We have to blame ourselves, because we’ve been offered the chance to go to the best schools to get an education, but we have not come out and used that education to provide the goods and education that our communities need.