Moorish Science Temple of America

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Attendees of the 1928 Moorish Science Temple Conclave in Chicago. Noble Drew Ali is in the front row center.

The Moorish Science Temple of America is a religious organization which states that African Americans were descended from the Moors and thus were originally Islamic.

Founded in New Jersey in 1913 by the Noble Drew Ali, Moorish Science blossomed in Chicago during the late 1920s. However, power struggles and the death of Noble Drew Ali led to the factionalization of the sect, a condition that exists to this day.

Contents

[edit] Noble Drew Ali's beginnings

Timothy Drew was born on January 8, 1886 in North Carolina, USA.[1] The accounts of Timothy Drew's ancestry variously describe his being the son of two former slaves who was adopted by a tribe of Cherokees[2] or his being the son of a Moroccan Muslim father and a Cherokee mother.[3]

His mother apparently died while Drew was a young boy, and left him to an abusive aunt.[4] According to the Moorish Science account, at the age of 16 he befriended a band of Roma ("gypsies") with whom he traveled the world,[5] although other accounts state he shipped out on a merchant seaman, became a railway expressman,[6] or joined a circus and became a stage magician.[7] Some researchers wonder whether Drew actually left the States at all.[8]

It was supposedly during these travels that he met the high priest of an Egyptian cult of magic. In one version of Drew's biography, the leader saw him as a reincarnation of the founder of the cult, while in others he considered him a reincarnation of Jesus. According to the biography, the cult trained him in mysticism and bestowed upon him a lost version of the life of Jesus.[9]

This text came to be known as the Holy Koran of the Moorish Science Temple of America (note that this text is never spelled Qur'an). It is also known, somewhat more informally, as the Circle Seven Koran because of its cover, which features a red "7" surrounded by a blue circle.

Drew was anointed the Noble Drew Ali, the Prophet, and launched into his career as head of the Moorish Science Temple.

[edit] History

Noble Drew Ali

[edit] Early history

In 1913 Drew Ali formed the Canaanite Temple in Newark, New Jersey.[10] Forced to flee town for his views on race,[5] Drew Ali and his followers settled in Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Detroit. He settled in Chicago in 1925, ostensibly because the Midwest was "closer to Islam",[11] and the following year he officially registered Temple No. 9.

In the late 1920s it was estimated that the Moorish Temple had 15,000 members in 17 temples,[12] despite scrutiny, and possibly harassment, by the Chicago police. By 1928, the Moors had indeed obtained some respectability within Chicago and Illinois, being featured prominently and favorably in the pages of the Chicago Defender, a black newspaper, and conspicuously collaborating with black politician and businessman Daniel Jackson.[13] Drew even attended the 1929 inauguration of the Illinois governor. The Chicago Defender stated that Drew's inauguration trip ended "with interviews with many distinguished citizens from Chicago, who greeted him on every hand".[14]

[edit] The death of Drew Ali

In early 1929, following a conflict over funds, the business manager of Chicago Temple No. 1, Claude Green-Bey, a Booster's Club president, splintered off, declaring himself Grand Sheik and taking a number of members with him. On March 15 Green-Bey was stabbed to death at the Unity Hall on Indiana Avenue in Chicago.[15] Although out of town at the time, dealing with former Supreme Grand Governor Lomax Bey (professor Ezaldine Muhammad), who had also aligned himself with Claude Green-Bey's attempted coup,[16] Drew Ali had returned to Chicago and was arrested as an instigator along with other members of the community. No indictment was sworn for Drew Ali at that time.

Shortly after his release, Drew Ali died at his home in Chicago on July 20, 1929.[17] Although the exact circumstances of his death are unknown, the autopsy ruled that Noble Drew Ali died from pneumonia and tuberculosis. Many of his followers speculated that his death was caused by injuries received at the hands of the police or from being beaten by other members of the Moorish community,[18] or possibly pneumonia.[19] However, one Moor told the Chicago Defender that "The Prophet was not ill; his work was done and he laid his head upon the lap of one of his followers and passed out."[20]

[edit] Succession and schism

At the Unity Conference later that year, the governors declared Charles Kirkman Bey as the successor to Drew Ali, naming him Grand Sheik. However, John Givens El, Drew's chauffeur, declared that he was Drew reincarnated, leading to a division within the temples.[21]

On September 25 of that year, the Chicago police, accompanied by two Moors, were investigating the apparent kidnapping of C. Kirkman Bey, at the home of Ira Johnson when they were met by gunfire from the home. This quickly escalated into a shoot-out that spilled out into the surrounding neighborhood. In the end, a policemen as well as a Moor were killed in the gun battle, with a second policeman later dying of his wounds.[22] Sixty "Negroes" were taken into police custody and a reported 1000 police officers patrolled the Chicago South Side that evening.[23] Johnson Bey and two others were later convicted of murder.[24]

[edit] Nation of Islam

The community was further split when Wallace Fard Muhammad, known within the temple as David Ford-El,[25] also claimed (or was otherwise considered) to be the reincarnation of Drew Ali.[26] When his claim of leadership was rejected, he broke away from the Moorish Science Temple and formed his own group in Detroit, an organization which would eventually become the Nation of Islam.[27]

[edit] The 1930s

Despite the turmoil and defections the church grew in the 1930s. It is estimated that church membership in the 1930s reached 30,000, with major congregations in Philadelphia, Detroit, and Chicago,[28] a community large enough to support two publications: the Moorish Guide National and Moorish Science Monitor.

However, the death of Noble Drew Ali as well as surveillance by police (and later the FBI), caused the Moors to become more withdrawn and critical of the government during the 1930s and 1940s.[29]

[edit] FBI surveillance

During World War II, the Science Temple (specifically the Kirkman Bey faction) got the attention of the FBI, who falsely suspected the Moors of collaborating with Japan. The FBI was alarmed by doctrines and prophecies that the world order would one day invert and put the Asiatics of the world back in charge, as the Temple taught was the original order of things. The FBI created a file on the organization which grew to 3,117 pages,[30] but produced no evidence of any connection or even much sympathy between the Empire of Japan and the temple.

It is estimated that in the 1950s the community had 10,000 members in 15 temples.[31] The Moorish Science Temple showed a slow but steady growth in the 1950s and early 1960s due to its prison ministries.[32]

[edit] El Rukn connection

When Jeff Fort, leader of Chicago's Black P Stone Nation gang, was paroled from prison in 1976, he announced that he had converted to Islam. Moving to Milwaukee, he associated himself with the Moorish Science Temple there, although it is unclear whether he officially joined or was instead rejected by the church.[33]

In 1978, Fort returned to Chicago and changed the name of his gang to El Rukn ("the foundation" in Arabic), also known as "Circle Seven El Rukn Moorish Temple of America"[34] and the "Moorish Science Temple, El Rukn tribe".[35] Experts, however, are divided over the nature of the actual relationship, if any, between El Rukn and the Moorish Science temple.[36] Nonetheless, Fort reportedly hoped an apparent affiliation with a religious organization would discourage law enforcement.[37]

[edit] Practices

Members of the Temple wear fezes, and a turban (including Drew, who wore a Cherokee feather in his) and add the suffixes Bey or El to their names to signify their Moorish heritage. The ushers of the Temple wore black fezzes, and the leader of a particular temple was known as a Grand Sheik, or Governor. Drew began to teach the Moorish Americans how to become better citizens, and make more impassioned speeches, urging Moors to reject the derogatory labels such as Black, colored, and Negro—and for Americans of all races to reject hate and embrace love. He believed that Chicago would become a second Mecca.

Drew Ali was also known to have had several wives,[38] and according to the Chicago Defender he could marry and divorce at will.[39]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Wilson, p. 15; Gomez, p. 203; Paghdiwala; Gale Group.
  2. ^ Wilson, p, 15.
  3. ^ Gomez and Paghdiwala give both versions.
  4. ^ Wilson, or Gomez, p. 205.
  5. ^ a b Paghdiwala.
  6. ^ Both Wilson.
  7. ^ Wilson, p. 30, who reproduces a 1927 flyer for a "Great Moorish Drama" in which Drew Ali "will be bound with several yards of rope as Jesus was bound at the Temple of Jerusalem . . . and will escape in a few seconds".
  8. ^ Gomez, p. 206. Turner, p. 92.
  9. ^ Paghdiwala; Wilson.
  10. ^ Paghdiwala, p. 23.
  11. ^ Wilson, p. 29.
  12. ^ Chicago Tribune, May 14, 1929.
  13. ^ Nance (2002), p. 635-637.
  14. ^ Chicago Defender, January 1929.
  15. ^ Chicago Tribune
  16. ^ Gale
  17. ^ Chicago Defender, July 27, 1929.
  18. ^ McCloud, p. 18; Wilson, p. 35. The Chicago Defender, whose news articles had turned critical of the Moors, said that "it is believed that the ordeal of the trial together with the treatment he received at the hands of police in an effort to obtain true statements are directly responsible for the illness which precipitated his death" (July 27, 1929).
  19. ^ Scopino
  20. ^ Quoted by Paghdiwala, p. 24. Also quoted by Nance (2002, p. 659, note 84) with a reference to "Cult Leader Dies; Was in Murder Case," Chicago Defender, July 27, 1929.
  21. ^ McCloud, p. 18. Gardell, p. 45.
  22. ^ [Officer Down Memorial Page] for Patrolmen Jesse D. Hults and William Gallagher.
  23. ^ Chicago Tribune, September 1929. Washington Post, September 1929.
  24. ^ Hartford Courant.
  25. ^ Prashad, p. 109.
  26. ^ Ahlstrom (p. 1067), Abu Shouk (p. 147), Hamm (p. 14), and Lippy (p. 214) all state that Fard claimed or was considered by many Moors to be the reincarnation of Noble Drew Ali.
  27. ^ Ahlstrom (p. 1067) and Lippy (p. 214)..
  28. ^ Paghdiwala, p. 26.
  29. ^ Nance, p. 659.
  30. ^ [1]
  31. ^ McCloud, p. 17.
  32. ^ Hamm, p. 16.
  33. ^ Nash (p. 167) says Fort did join the Milwaukee temple. Hamm (p. 25) states otherwise: "Fort tried to join the Moorish Science Temple in Milwaukee but Temple elders refused to have him."
  34. ^ Chicago Tribune, "El Rukn street gang joins drive to register voters", August 25, 1982, p. 17.
  35. ^ Shipp, New York Times (1985).
  36. ^ Blakemore, et al. (p. 335) says that "The Moorish Temple has always denied such a connection."
    See also Nashashibi ("In 1982 the El Rukns dropped their affiliation with the Moorish Science Temple and moved closer toward a more orthodox understanding of Sunni Islam.")
    See also the 1988 court case, Johnson-Bey et al. v. Lane et al. ("The sinister El Rukn group is a breakaway faction from the Moorish Science Temple ... apparently it no longer has any connection with the Moorish Science Temple.").
  37. ^ Main, Chicago Sun-Times (2006).
  38. ^ Chicago Tribune (1929) and Chicago Defender (1929).
  39. ^ Chicago Defender (1929).

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

  • Nance, Susan. (2002) “Mystery of the Moorish Science Temple: Southern Blacks and American Alternative Spirituality in 1920s Chicago.” Religion and American Culture 12, no. 2 (Summer): 123-66.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moorish_Science_Temple_of_America"
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