Muhammad Speaks
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Muhammad Speaks was one of the most widely-read newspapers ever produced by an African American organization. Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad began the publication in 1961.[1] Its first issue bore the title Some of this Earth to Call Our Own or Else. A weekly publication, it was distributed nationwide by the NOI and covered current events around the world as well as relevant news in African American communities, especially items concerning the Nation of Islam itself.
The paper was sold door-to-door and on street corners by Nation of Islam members (Fruit of Islam), at select newsstands in major cities and in the temples of the Nation of Islam. In his The Autobiography of Malcolm X, activist Malcolm X claimed to have founded the newspaper, but this has not been independently confirmed. According to the current Nation of Islam, Malcolm X helped create Mr. Muhammad Speaks, a different newspaper distributed locally in New York City.[2]
In addition to NOI-based ventures, Elijah Muhammad had used the nation's African-American press to publicize the organization and his views. In the 1950s his regular column in the Pittsburgh Courier, at the time the nation's largest black-owned newspaper, generated more letters to the editor than any other feature in the newspaper.[3]
Following the death of Elijah Muhammad, his son and successor Warith Deen Muhammad renamed the newspaper Bilalian News in 1975. The title was a reference Bilal ibn Rabah, the first known black African follower of the prophet Muhammad. It was renamed once more in 1981, becoming Muslim Journal. There are a number of publications that hold claims to continuing in the tradition of the original paper, notably the The Final Call, but the Muslim Journal which currently operates out of Homewood, Illinois is the direct successor to the Muhammad Speaks Newspaper. Muslim Journal is a member of the National Newspaper Publishers Association.
[edit] References
- ^ Edward E. Curtis, Islam in Black America: identity, liberation, and difference in African-American Islamic thought, SUNY Press, 2002, p.74.
- ^ Muhammad, Askia (March 10, 2000), Muhammad Speaks A Trailblazer in the newspaper industry, Final Call, http://www.finalcall.com/national/savioursday2k/m_speaks.htm, retrieved March 23, 2009
- ^ Mattias Gardell, In the Name of Elijah Muhammad, Duke University Press 1996
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