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Islam was founded in the seventh century
AD by the prophet Muhammad. Muhammad spent many years in contemplation
in the desert and became convinced, through revelations, that
he had been appointed by God, or Allah, to lead his people away
from idolatry. In 622 AD he left Mecca in an exile, called the
Hegira, to Medina, where he established a new religion as the
prophet of Allah. Eight years later he led an army to attack Mecca
and conquered it in the name of Islam. Although Muhammad died
only ten years after Hegira, he managed to set the stage for a
uniting of the Arab world, which had been hopelessly divided,
with a basic law of brotherhood. Islam makes five basic demands
on its followers, confession of the oneness of God and his prophet
Muhammad, prayer five times each day, giving of alms to the poor
and to the house of worship called a mosque, fasting during the
daylight hours during the month of Ramadan, and at least one lifetime
pilgrimage to Mecca. Not long after Mohammed's death, disagreements
over the succession of the prophet divided Islam into two main
groups: Sunni and Shiite. Followers of Islam are called Muslims,
from an Arab word meaning "one who submits."
The Nation of Islam, also known as the Black Muslims, believes that Allah is permitting the white man to rule for a specific period of time, scheduled to end with the coming of the next millennium, and that the black man will then resume his rightful leadership role. There are no official membership numbers for the Nation of Islam. Scholars estimate the number at no more than 20,000. Orthodox Islam does not endorse racial separatism and does not recognize the Nation of Islam as a legitimate branch of the religion. On October 24, 1989, at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Washington, DC., Louis Farrakhan stated that had a vision of being abducted in 1985 by an invisible pilot in a UFO and carried up on a beam of light to a "human built planet" known as the Mother Wheel . There the voice of Elijah Muhammad informed him that the president and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, under the direction of Gen. Colin Powell, were planning a war, which Farrakhan said he later came to realize was "a war against the black people of America, the Nation of Islam and Louis Farrakhan. "
"I saw a city in the sky," Farrakhan said, after
which the UFO "brought me back to Earth and dropped me off
near Washington...to make The Announcement. "
Occult Traditions of Islam:
Sufis
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The nation of Islam was founded in
Detroit in 1930 by a man named W. D. Fard, who claimed to be the
reincarnation of Noble Drew Ali, founder of the black separatist
Moorish Science Temple of America. Like the Moorish Scientists,
Fard, who took the name W. Fard Muhammad, and his successor, Elijah
Muhammad, taught that a mad black scientist named Yakub created
the 'white beast,' or Caucasians, 6,000 years ago.
Louis Farrakhan, Leader of the Nation of Islam
