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American Society of Muslims

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The American Society of Muslims was a predominantly African-American association of Muslims which was the direct descendant of the original Nation of Islam. It was created by Warith Deen Mohammed after he assumed leadership of the Nation of Islam upon the death of his father Elijah Muhammad.[1] Warith Deen Mohammed changed the name of the Nation of Islam to the "World Community of Islam in the West" in 1976, then the "American Muslim Mission" in 1981, and finally the "American Society of Muslims" in 1988.[2]

The group largely accepted beliefs and practices based on mainstream Sunni Islam, abandoning many of the distinctive claims of the founders of the Nation of Islam. Warith Deen Mohammed retired as the leader of the association in 2003 and established a charity called The Mosque Cares.

History

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After the 1975 death of Elijah Muhammad, his son, Warith Deen Mohammed, became the leader of the Nation of Islam. He rejected many of his father's views, including black separatism and belief in the divinity of Wallace Fard Muhammad, founder of the Nation of Islam. He was "determined to bring it into conformity with mainstream Islam".[3] In 1976 he changed the name of the organization to World Community of Islam in the West. In 1981 it changed again to American Muslim Mission, a name that was retained until 1985. Finally it settled on the American Society of Muslims.[4]

In 1977, Louis Farrakhan resigned from Warith Deen Mohammed's reformed organization. With a number of supporters, he decided to rebuild the original Nation of Islam upon the foundation established by Wallace Fard Muhammad and Elijah Muhammad.[5]

Organizational reforms

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Second renaming

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On September 10, 1978, in an address in Atlanta, Georgia, Warith Deen Mohammed resigned from his position as Chief Imam of the World Community of Al-Islam in the West and appointed a Consultative Body of Imams (A'immah) to oversee the activities of the Community. Upon his resignation, Warith Deen Mohammed pledged to serve as an ambassador at large for the community. This was his first step in separating his ministry from the narrow confines of the Nation of Islam/World Community of Islam. The original Council of Imams, according to Warith Deen Mohammed, would consist of the 6 Imams over the Regions.[6][7]

Third renaming

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The change from the American Muslim Mission to the American Society of Muslims occurred in the context of problems following protracted legal challenges caused by financial claims on the estate of Elijah Muhammad made on behalf of children he had fathered out of wedlock.[8][9] In 1985, Warith Deen Mohammed ordered the dissolution of the American Muslim Mission. Warith Deen Mohammed said disbanding the American Muslim Mission means "we are members of the worldwide Muslim community...not to be identified in geographic terms or political terms or racial terms". The decision to break up the organization meant that each mosque would be autonomous.[10] Despite the movement's legal dissolution, the movement continued informally. A legal judgement in 1987 forced the sale of $10 million worth of property. Warith Deen Mohammed sold a number of properties to Farrakhan, including Temple No. 2, the headquarters mosque, which was purchased with a donation to Farrakhan from Muammar Gaddafi.[9][11] Warith Deen Mohammed reconstituted the movement as the American Society of Muslims in 1988. Warith Deen Mohammed and Farrakhan retained control of their rival groups before a phase of rapprochement in the 1990s.[citation needed]

In 2002, the American Society of Muslims was estimated to have nearly 2.5 million followers, "with a percentage of immigrant and naturalized American citizens from various Muslim ethnic peoples, European Americans, and a majority of African Americans representing five generations since the earliest history of Elijah Mohammed's leadership (1933) and in some cases before".[12]

Warith Deen Mohammed resigned from the leadership of the American Society of Muslims on August 31, 2003, and established The Mosque Cares. He gave as his reason for resigning that the imams within the organization continued to resist his reforms.[4][13][14]

On December 21, 2003, Warith Deen Mohammed gave his blessing to an attempt by Imam Mustafa El-Amin to maintain the ASM as an organization. El-Amin advertised in The Muslim Journal, expressing solidarity with the aims of the former leader. El-Amin received little support, and the ASM did not reorganize. After Warith Deen Mohammed's death in 2008, its members have identified as the "Community of Imam Warith Deen Mohammed" or simply "Muslim Americans", and its national activities have been largely organized by The Mosque Cares, run by one of Warith Deen Mohammed's sons, Wallace D. Mohammed II.[15]

Programs and aim

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Publications

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The organization's newspaper was Bilalian News (after Bilal ibn Rabah) in 1975. In 1981 it became The Muslim Journal.[16] As of 2006, it was edited by Ayesha K. Mustapha.[17]

Education

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After Elijah Mohammed's death, Warith Deen Mohammed transformed the Muhammad University of Islam into the Clara Muhammad Schools,[1][18] or simply Mohammed Schools, replacing the University of Islam founded by his father. The school system is "an association of approximately 75 elementary, secondary, and high schools throughout the United States and the Caribbean Islands." The schools have been described by Zakiyyah Muhammad of the American Educational Research Association as "models of Islamic education that are achieving commendable results".[19][20]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b Lincoln, C. Eric. (1994)The Black Muslims in America, Third Edition, William B. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans Publishing Company) page 263
  2. ^ Esposito, John. "On Faith Panelists Blog: W.D. Mohammed: A Witness for True Islam - John Esposito". Newsweek.washingtonpost.com. Archived from the original on 2010-05-28. Retrieved 2012-09-19.
  3. ^ Geneive Abdo, Mecca and Main Street: Muslim Life in America After 9/11, Oxford University Press US, 2006, pp. 8-9
  4. ^ a b Goldsborough, Bob. "Chicago Tribune, Wednesday, Sept 10, 2008". Archives.chicagotribune.com. Archived from the original on May 28, 2009. Retrieved 2012-09-19.
  5. ^ Lincoln, C. Eric. (1994)The Black Muslims in America, Third Edition, William B. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans Publishing Company) page 265
  6. ^ Evolution of a Community, WDM Publications 1995 page 20
  7. ^ Bilalian News Muslim Journal September 29, 1978
  8. ^ Evolution of a Community. WDM Publications, 1995. pages 28-30
  9. ^ a b Stephen C. Finley, Torin Alexander, African American religious cultures, ABC-CLIO, 2009, p.84
  10. ^ Evolution of a Community. WDM Publications, 1995. pages 33-35
  11. ^ Jet, May 20, 1985
  12. ^ Jocelyne Cesari, When Islam and Democracy Meet: Muslims in Europe and in the United States, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, p.197.
  13. ^ "Imam W. D. Muhammad, Leader of the American Society of Muslims Resigns". Jet, Sep 22, 2003, Vol. 104, No. 13
  14. ^ Parsons, Monique. "The Most Important Muslim You've Never Heard of". Beliefnet.com. Retrieved 2012-09-19.
  15. ^ The Wall Street Journal, Vol. CIV, No. 6, Friday, July 9, 1999
  16. ^ Lincoln, C. Eric. (1994)The Black Muslims in America, Third Edition, William B. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans Publishing Company) page 275
  17. ^ Rosemary Skinner Keller et al., Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America, Indiana University Press, 2006, p.752
  18. ^ Evolution of a Community, WDM Publications 1995 page 15
  19. ^ Zakiyyah Muhammad, "Faith and Courage to Educate our Own", in Joyce Elaine King, "Black Education: A Transformative Research and Action Agenda for the New Century", American Educational Research Association. Commission on Research in Black Education, Routledge, 2005, p. 264.
  20. ^ 20th Anniversary of Mohammed Schools in Atlanta, Jan 20, 2000, Religious Diversity News The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
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