BLACK. MUSLIMS TODAY
By Evelyn Sell ~
II.
The typical Muslim congregation has several outstanding features:
(1) The Muslims attract the young. Eighty per cent of the members are between 17-35 years of age, Young ministers are the rule,
(2) The Muslims attract men in contrast to the typical Negro ~ Christian church where women are in the majority.
(3) The Muslims are a working-class group. Very few intellectuals or professionals are interested in temple membership but an increasing number of young college students are joining.
Born in the Northern urban ghetto, the movement has stayed there, concentrating its temples, its businesses and its recruiting in the poorest working-class sections, They remain in the heart of the black ghetto although their present wealth could allow them to move into better areas,
Recruiting is dane in the pool halls, bars, barber shops, stores, street corners and jails. Many Muslims are ex=convicts, dope addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes -=- the derelicts of capitalist society. The movement has astonishing results in rehabilitating these people, A dramatic example of how the movement transformed a former dope addict
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and criminal is provided by Malcolm X, Shabazz, minister of New York's Harlem Temple No. 7 and the second most. important Muslim in the country.
He was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, around 1927. His father, a Baptist minister and an ex-Garveyite, was under constant fire from whites who resented his outspoken militancy against Jim Crow, Malcolm remembers what happened when the Ku Klux Klan burned the family home: "The firemen came and just sat there without making any effort to put one drop of water on the fire, The same fire that purned my father's home still burns my soul,"
Added ftiel to that soul=scorching fire was provided when his father was mysteriously killed. Malcolm was sure racists murdered © him, .
Converted in Prison
The family moved east and during his late teens Malcolm became a successful petty criminal in the Harlem underworld, After several trips to jail he landed in a maximum security prison in Massachusetts. While there he read "thousands of books because I wanted to know what made people the way they are," He didntt find the answer to his needs in the prison library. His brother, a member of the Detroit temple, visited him in prison and converted him to the Muslims,
"T am what you would call an ex-convict," he has said, "I am not ashamed of this because it was all done when I was a part of the white man's Christian world, As a Muslim, I would never have done these awful things that caused me to go to prison. .,. . When I was in the world of the Christians, I behaved as they did; I did what the white man did because, like everybody O80, I thought this was the best thing possible to do,"
A person who becomes a Muslim is literally reborn inwardly and outwardly. The change involves one's name, religion, country, language, code of ethics and cultural values. The first symbol of this rebirth is the casting off of the-slavemaster's name and taking on instead the last name of "X."" Certain highly favored Muslims are granted their. Voriginal names" by Muhammad, Thus Malcolm X was granted the name “Shabazz,' Code of Behavior
A Muslim's personal behavior is distinctive. It is purposely designed to be the opposite of the usual stereotyped picture presented by prejudiced whites, They practice the ideal middle-class morality that the. white middle class. merely talks about.
Muslims are forbidden to smoke, drink liquor, carry weapons, laugh or speak loudly. They must preserve cleanliness of body "inside and outside,"
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Equality between the sexes is emphasized but each sex is assigned its own appropriate role, Sexual morality is strictly enforoed and | very Puritanical., Women are not allowed to wear make-up of revealing clothes, Divorce is allowed but frowned upon,
All Muslims are encouraged to hold steady jobs and practice thrift (buying on credit is forbidden), This responsible attitude toward employment plus their dignified and neat personal appearance have gained them an excellent reputation among employers, The result is that the average Muslim family enjoys a higher standard of living than most Negro working-class families, This increases their self-. esteem and helps fill the temple coffers since every Muslim must contribute a percentage of his earnings to the movement,
Infractions of the rules are punished, The Fruit of Islam group in each temple supervises trials of those accused of adultery, use of narcotics, misuse of temple funds, reporting temple activities to outsiders, eating or selling pork, sleeping during meetings or not attending meetings, etc. Sentences range from performing labor in the temple, to suspension for a period of time, to expulsion.
What the Muslims Want
The entire back page of every issue of Muhammad Speaks is devoted to the Muslim program. Here are some. extracts: :
"We want freedom, We want a full and complete freedom. We want justice, Equal justice under the law. . . We want equality of opportunity. . . We want our people in America whose parents or grandpar~ ents were descendants from slaves, to be allowed to establish a separate state or territory of their own =-- either on this continent or elsewhere. We believe that our former slave masters are obligated to provide such land and that the area must be fertile and minerally rich, We believe that our former slave masters are obligated to maintain and supply our needs in this separate territory for next 20 to ta years == until we are able to produce and supply our own needs...
"We want an immediate end to the police brutality and mob attacks against the so~called Negro throughout the United States. .. As long as we are not allowed to establish a state or territory of our own, we demand not only equal justice under the laws of the United States, but equal employment opportunities -- NOW! ...
"We want the government of the United States to exempt our people from ALL taxation as long as we are deprived of equal justice under the laws of the land,
"Wwe want equal education -- but separate schools up to 16 for boys and 18 for girls on the condition that the girls be sent to women's colleges and universities, We want all black children educated, taught and trained by their own teachers. . .
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"We believe that intermarriage or race mixing should be prohibited,"
A Muslim minister once summed up their aims more succinotly: "To get the white man's foot off my neck, his hand out of my pocket and his carcass off my back, To sleep in my own bed without fear, and to look straight into his cold. blue eyes and call him a liar every time he parts his lips."
How do the Muslims plan to achieve these goals? They don't par ticipate in or organize picket lines or demonstrations,: They don't involve themselves in politics or election campaigns, They will not even challenge Jim Crow through the court system. By what tactical means do they hope to achieve their goals? They are silent about this.
Muhemmad, quoting Fard's revelations to him, says that the white world is doomed, "it's complete disintegration is both imminent and inescapable," Allah has warned his people of. how he would destroy the world created: by the white man, America is scheduled for its apocalypse in 1970.
Are the Muslims merely awaiting Armageddon? No oné bélicves that, The.Federal Bureau of Investigation and local police keep a close watch on the organization, Conservative Negro leaders, constantly needled by the Muslim taunts that they sell out to whites, make dire. predictions about outbreaks of violence from the movement. The ordinary white person, fed hysterical rumors by the oapitalist press, is uneasy about the tightly disciplined power commanded by ‘Muhammad.
A young New York Negro exclaimed, thet. me tell you -- they!ve got somo stuff for The Man (i.e., the white man) even the Mau Mau didn't have! If he tries to crowd them like he's been used to doing the rest of us all the time, they're ‘0 going to lay it on him from here to Littld Rock,".
. [Next week: Relations with Other Groups. ]
TIME MARCHES ON
Japanese competitive power has grown enormously since the eve of World War II. Her precision cameras and electronic goods are listed among the world's "best buys." Now Japan is threatening Swiss and German watchmakers in their home territory. In 1962 Japan sold 19,000 Seiko watches and clocks in Europe, In 1963 the figure was 60,000, The figures should soon mount as Japanese mass production methods bring prices still lower.
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THE CONGRESS