Africa, alone among the continents, has a majority Muslim population. Islam also has a significant past and present within Africa. Islam has been present in Africa since the very early days of the faith and continued the practice of roughly 250 million people (Richard 48). The data at the time is all the more surprising considering that those 250 million Muslims have increased over the years, constituting more than twenty-five percent of all Muslims in the world. The history and importance of the Islamic world were often, and still, misunderstood in the West. This paper focuses primarily on Malcolm X finding his way to traditional Islam but also incorporates analyses of the Nation of Islam, and his incisive criticisms of Christianity. Nowadays, North Africa constitutes the more significant majority of Muslims essentially, meanwhile, South Africa consists the majority of Christianity. Therefore, the spread of Islam practices has primarily made a substantial impact even on the citizens of the United States. One can say that the widespread beliefs of Islam in Africa also lead a political figure in American history, Malcolm X, from converting religions.
The presence of Islam in Africa can be traced to the seventh century when the prophet Muhammad advised a number of his early disciples, who were facing persecution to seek refuge across the Red Sea. In the Muslim tradition, this event is known as the first Hijrah or migration. These early Muslim migrants provided Islam with its first major triumph, and the coastline of Eritrea became the first haven for Muslims and the first place Islam would be practiced outside of the Arabian Peninsula. Seven years after the death of Muhammad (in 639 AD) the Arabs advanced toward Africa, and within two generations the Islamic world expanded to include people of the Islamic civilization, inclusive of non-Muslims living in that civilization. Islam was first a minority religion, practiced primarily by traders, it then became the practice of Muslim courts; and finally became the practices of those living in rural areas, farmers, and pastoralists. It was at this point that it became the dominant religion, in the last two to three centuries (Richard 51). Islam has long been known to be a religion that has dramatically interacted with local cultures, enriching them and has impacted them for almost a millennium. The two gateways made the presence of Islam that much more significant, mainly through trade and migration. The spread of Islam throughout the African continent was neither simultaneous nor uniform, but instead followed a gradual and adaptive path. At the time of Mohammed's death, Islam was primarily a local phenomenon. There was very little recognition outside Arabia, but within 100 years after Mohammed's death, it was the empire that stretched from the Atlantic Ocean. Islam was mainly spread by conquering armies because the areas of the invasion were either weak or sparsely populated. Not because the Muslims the armies were warlike. As mentioned before, not many people today realize that the majority of Africans are indeed Muslim. Another reason for Africans following the faith of Islam is that in 1767 Prince Abdullah Kadi Abu Salaam of Tidore, Indonesia, was exiled to the Cape. He wrote a copy of the Quran from memory during his incarceration. He was released from jail in 1793 and establish a madrasah or Islamic school the same year. It is the first madrasah in the country and extremely popular among the slaves and the Free Black community. It played an essential role in converting many slaves to Islam. It was also at this madrasah that the literary teaching of Arabic-Afrikaans emerged (Haghnavaz). This example exhibits the influence a political figure can have on the public, in this case, it was Prince Abdullah who exerted his knowledge of the Qur’an from memory. The slaves saw Islamic faith a chance for redemption. Historically, imprisoned Black male converts to Islam have been known for their seeking of redemption and struggles for religious freedom behind bars. Back in the day, black inmates turned to Islam for a lifestyle transformation by changing their outlook and behavior, fundamentally changing the lifestyle that caused them to end up in jail in the first place.
One of nine children, Malcolm X, was born as Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska. His father, a civil rights activist and Baptist minister, moved the family a number of times during Malcolm's childhood in response to threats from the Black Legion, a white supremacist organization. Malcolm later recalled: "When my mother was pregnant with me, she told me later, a party of hooded Ku Klux Klan riders galloped up to our home. … Brandishing their shotguns and rifles, they shouted for my father to come out” (Marable 3). Although the first time the white supremacists left their house because his father was not home. Later on, the Ku Klux Klan burned his house and murdered his father. Such tragic experiences as a child made Malcolm develop a mistrust for white Americans. Malcolm X had learned at a very early age that African Americans in America do not have the same rights as white US-born citizens even though both were born in the same country. Raised with a terrible childhood, Malcolm X developed a harsh view of whites and the power of rights they possessed in America. Having to learn such an unfair lesson would cause Africans to accept their role in American society or allow themselves to develop an inferior complexity to whites. That mentally had created a mindset that black people were inferior to white people. A mental outcome that many African Americans accepted being second to white citizens. A concept that Malcolm X states, “the white man being superior and black people being inferior” (Decaro). Malcolm X takes issue with various aspects of Christianity. First, he accuses Christianity and its followers of being driven by materialistic motivations when they go on missionary activities. Christians would state the purpose for white missionaries was to spread the gospel among non-white people. Malcolm argues that historically, white missionaries have acted as an opportunity advantage for their colonizing governments. Manipulating Christian doctrines in order to disarm indigenous people of their cultural consciousness, missionaries prepared the ground for formal colonization. After reading various books during his stay in prison, Malcolm X states in his autobiography: “I saw how since the sixteenth century, the so-called "Christian trader" white man began to ply the seas in his lust for Asian and African empires, and plunder, and power. I saw how the white man never has gone among the non-white peoples bearing the Cross in the true manner and spirit of Christ's teachings-meek, humble, and Christ-like. I perceived, as I read, how the collective white man had actually been nothing but a piratical opportunist who used Faustian machinations to make his own Christianity his initial wedge in criminal conquests. (Marable 203-204). Malcolm clearly states how he saw white Christians brand non-white people’s cultures as Christianity. Second, Malcolm X accuses Christianity of having futuristic plans to take away African Americans desire for freedom and make them more accommodative of their oppression. These futuristic notions were an attempt to divert the attention from African Americans from freedom and that there is an inequality between the privileged white perpetrators of these notions, and the poor non-white people who accept them. Malcolm X criticizes their true intentions by stating: “My brothers and sisters, our white slave master's Christian religion has taught us black people here in the wilderness of North America that we will sprout wings when we die and fly up into the sky where God will have for us a special place called heaven. This is white man's Christian religion used to brainwash us black people! … We have embraced it! … And while we are doing all of that, for himself, this blue-eyed devil has twisted his Christianity” (Marable). Malcolm’s critiques come from realizing that African American were always second to white Christians because the whites had deprived them of their language, their religion, and their homeland. Although Islam had a rise in participation among enslaved Africans, it diminished around the start of Civil War era. Instead of traditional Islam making its way to America, a rather self-claimed movement Nation of Islam made a strong statement.
The movement “Nation of Islam” was founded in 1930 in Detroit, Michigan by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad who began the African American political and religious movement as a preacher and advocates for black empowerment by drawing upon the Quran and the Bible. Fard had goals of improving the spiritual, mental, social and guidance of lost African Americans specifically in the United States. This was a time when African Americans were discriminated for basically their existence, and this movement was started to teach the oppressed and unprotected to acquire a comprehensive knowledge of God and their religion. Gaining such experience would educate them about human rights and self-independence through the Muslim Culture. Nation of Islam repeatedly emphasized that by joining them they too will be superior and ultimately be much better than their existing culture. After Fard's disappearance in 1934, the NOI was led by Elijah Poole, better known as Elijah Muhammad. It was Elijah Muhammad who, along with the NOI's controversial spokesman, Malcolm X, brought the organization's militant brand of black nationalism to global prominence during the civil rights and black power movements of the 1960s. Traditional Islam and the NOI share some common theological ground. The same view is the Islamic creed that there is only one God. Also, the belief in the Prophet Muhammad and Allah's other prophets, such as Jesus. Although, one common ground does not justify for the various differences between both claims of Islam. Traditional Muslims do not recognize the followers of the NOI as true Muslims. A key theological difference is that the NOI followers worship its founder, Wallace Fard, as the Messiah, and Elijah Muhammad as God's prophet. For traditional Islam, referring Elijah Muhammad as a prophet violates the Muslim belief that Prophet Muhammad, was the last of God's prophets. One may believe that the NOI had the same views, but Black orthodox Muslims often clashed with the Nation of Islam’s religious concept of race and understanding of Tawheed (the Islamic concept of monotheism) (Copeland 5). Likewise, many Africans behind bars had a presence of Islam and still sought to worship in jail which influenced many inmates to learn the distraught ways as well. The legacy of black men converting to Islam in prison and abandoning their formerly destructive lifestyles was made famous by Malcolm X’s conversion to Islam via the Nation of Islam (Copeland 7).
Due to Malcolm's troubling childhood, he ended up committing a crime. Along with his friend, he and Jarvis were arrested and convicted on burglary charges and sentenced in 1946. Malcolm was sentenced to eight to ten years in prison. Although, after seven years in prison he was granted parole in 1953. As stated in his autobiography, Malcolm knew he was not going to jail for robbery, but because he stole a white man’s woman. Shortly after arriving in prison he earned the nickname "Satan" for his seething hatred and cursing of God, the Bible, and all things religious. It was not until he met a cellmate called “Bimbi,” who spoke intellectually of certain subjects. He would prove that the only difference between outside people and us was that they had been caught (Haley). Bimbi’s logic on religion ended Malcolm’s nickname that he earned from vicious cursing. Although, it was not until Malcolm received a letter from his brother that truly ended his atheist views. The letter mentioned that his brother had discovered a natural religion for the black man called “the Nation of Islam.” When he joined the Nation of Islam in prison in 1948, Malcolm had grown a hatred for white people and believed the black man to be superior. During his time in prison, Malcolm empowered many African-Americans within the community to stand up for their fundamental human rights and challenge those who threaten these rights. The teachings of the Nation of Islam are that the African-American race is superior to the Caucasian race, and that “the Black Man will endure forever, for he is born in righteousness” (Marable). During the era of the Civil War, the presence of the Nation of Islam grew with its extreme offensive views of white people in the US. Malcolm X argued for black power, black self-defense, and black economic integration, and encouraged racial pride. It gradually allowed the work of organizations wanting integration and created a wider acceptance instead of ‘black nationalism’ that the Nation of Islam offered. In one of his most famous speeches, "Our History was Destroyed by Slavery," he explained how slavery made them lose their tribal names, which is why he changed his last name from Little to X to symbolize the lost tribal name. During this period, Malcolm X created a voice for African-Americans within the community that motivated more participating in the civil rights movement. Malcolm X pushed for the unity which gave African-Americans a greater sense of power to change things that it had not seen before in the USA, “All of us are black first, and everything else second” (Decaro). During those years, Malcolm X had established himself as one of the most prominent black figures in America by becoming Minister of the Nation of Islam's Temples in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, and Assistant Minister of Nation of Islam’s Detroit Temple (Marable). Even though Malcolm rose in rankings in NOI, Elijah Muhammad was not profound of the more significant fame that Malcolm possessed over him. On March 8, 1964, Malcolm X publicly announced his leave from the Nation of Islam. He did state he was still a Muslim but felt that the Nation of Islam had reached its limit of teaching. Several weeks after his departure, Sunni Muslims encouraged Malcolm to learn the real faith of Islam.
After leaving the Nation of Islam in March 1964, he made Hajj, an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, which helped change his perspective on whites and racism completely. Malcolm left the NOI for not being able to extend teachings and being restricted by Muhammad. Malcolm was confined from what he could say at speeches, but after his departure from NOI led him to be threatened ever since. Malcolm still wanted to explore the true teachings of Islam that he had not been exposed to before, which is why he decided to make the historical pilgrimage to Mecca. Before Malcolm completed Hajj, he believed in segregation between whites and blacks, but in an equal way. His unforgiving views appealed to many people, which led them to listen to what he said and to trust him. While he was completing Hajj, he saw the beauty of the unity of humanity and embraced true Islam. At his first stop, Malcolm witnessed Malcolm witnessed what he claims he never saw in the United States: men of all color and nationalities treating each other equally. Muslims from everywhere, all going to the pilgrimage “were hugging and embracing.” During his journey, he wrote “Letters from Abroad” three letters that began redefining Malcolm’s philosophy of Islam; one from Saudi Arabia, one from Nigeria and one from Ghana. In one of the letters, one can see Malcolm’s different views on the racial injustice occurring in America during that time. On his first pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964, he writes that the religious experience made him realize he had been wrong to reprimand people by their skin color. Malcolm describes the crowds praying as being of "all colors, bowing in unison" and that watching them he was "not conscious of color for the first time in my life." He also added: "The whites don't seem white." His journal entries indeed showed how Malcolm realized that it was not the race but a person's intentions that mattered.
He begins to self-reflect on not only himself but of all the people who see race as a significant obstacle to overcome. He states, “Each hour here in the Holy Land enables me to have greater spiritual insights into what is happening in America between black and white. The American Negro never can be blamed for his racial animosities–he is only reacting to four hundred years of the conscious racism of the American whites. But as racism leads America up the suicide path, I do believe, from the experiences that I have had with them, that the whites of the younger generation, in the colleges and universities, will see the handwriting on the walls and many of them will turn to the spiritual path of truth–the only way left to America to ward off the disaster that racism inevitably must lead to” (Marable). Rather than Malcolm expecting for society to change its ways quickly, he sees hope that the younger generations will not grow up with the same racial mentality that the country possessed at that time. Even today, with higher racial tensions than usual, Malcolm X’s speech can be seen as the potential for society to change their ways. During his trip, he converted to traditional Islam and again changed his name, this time to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. He returned to the US in 1964 with a more optimistic view on an agreement of unity between all people. Upon his return to America, he publicly renounced the teachings of the Nation of Islam. Soon after Malcolm founded the Organization for Afro-American Unity as a support system to connect the experience of black Americans to the Third World, he states, “This religion recognizes all men as brothers. It accepts all human beings as equals before God, and as equal members in the Human Family of Mankind. I totally reject Elijah Muhammad’s racist philosophy, which he has labeled ‘Islam’ only to fool and misuse gullible people as he fooled and misused me. But I blame only myself, and no one else for the fool that I was, and the harm that my evangelical foolishness on his behalf has done to other”. One can see that his view has truly changed because he does not blame Elijah Muhammad for following the wrong path, but rather blames himself for not realizing sooner. I believe when one comes to realize not to blame others for the mistakes he has committed shows his progression from an earlier confused state of mind. Later, Malcolm had come to the realization that when he stopped eating pork in prison, unconsciously, he had taken his first pre-Islamic submission. The Muslim teaching, “If you will take one step toward Allah – Allah will take two steps toward you.” On Feb. 21, 1965, at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, Malcolm was shot by three men as he was preparing to speak to an audience of several hundred. Malcolm never had the chance to evolve his newly found philosophy fully. Even today, with higher racial tensions than usual, Malcolm X’s speech can be seen as the potential for society to change their ways. During his trip, after his conversion to traditional Islam and again changed his name, this time to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. He returned to the US in 1964 with a more optimistic view on an agreement of unity between all people. Later, Malcolm had come to the realization that when he stopped eating pork in prison, unconsciously, he had taken his first pre-Islamic submission. The Muslim teaching, “If you will take one step toward Allah – Allah will take two steps toward you.” On Feb. 21, 1965, at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, Malcolm was shot by three men as he was preparing to speak to an audience of several hundred. Malcolm never had the chance to evolve his newly found philosophy fully.
The Civil Rights Movement was primarily affected by Malcolm X, a prominent political figure in the process. He founded organizations, created new visions of Islam, and attracted a whole new crowd of Muslims to the movement. He brought new light to Islam faith as he set on a journey to be open-minded and learn of the unknown. He challenged the Civil Rights Movement by having a different influence on people, both good and bad during his times. Even after his death, his autobiography impacted the black community, which laid the foundation for the Black Power movement. The movement can go back to the early times when Islam was first being introduced to countries in Africa. The expansion of Muslims not only expanded into Africa but as one can see extensively broadened across the oceans to the United States of America. One can argue, but without the expansion and understanding of beliefs of Islam, Malcolm X changed the Civil Movement direction and growth of faith. People can beg to differ, but Malcolm X was arguably one of the most articulate and powerful leaders of black America during the 1960s.