So I wake up this morning, cough up the left lung, light a smoke and turn on the news.
Michael Jackson converted to NoI last night.
So what does it take? And could he have done it for protection in prison (assuming he thinks he’s heading there)?
Yeah, that’s not sitting right, is it?
Funny thing is… his brother, Jermaine Jackson, has already converted to Islam recently. What’s up with that?
On this geocities site the interviewer asks:
“What was the reaction of your brother Michael Jackson?”
to which Jermaine answers:
“On my way back to America, I brought a number of books from Saudi Arabia. Michael Jackson asked me himself for some of these books for study. Before this, his opinion was influenced by the propaganda of American media against Islam and the Muslims. He was not inimical towards Islam, but he was not favorably disposed towards Muslims either. But after reading these books, he would keep mum and not say anything against Muslims. I think perhaps this is the impact of the study of Islam that he diverted his business interests towards Muslim traders. Now, he has equal shares with the Saudi billionaire prince Waleed bin Talal, in his multi-national company.”
Well, NOI is to mainstream Islam as Jews for Jesus is to Judaism.
So, he’s not really a Muslim, truely.
This is exactly why I posted this query. What exactly IS converting to NoI? Is it an established religeon, a philosophical group, a social/civil rights group, a gang?
I guess the first question should have been what is NoI, then ask what does it take to convert.
NoI must have dropped its no whites policy.
Jermaine calls his own brother ‘Michael Jackson’? Or is he even called ‘Jermain’ anymore?
Nation of Islam is a real religion, although a relatively young one. It was founded in the late 1920’s by Wallace Fard Muhammad. However, W.F. Muhammad did not leave any direct writings and most of what we know about his beliefs were written by one of his disciples, Elijah Muhammad, after W.F. Muhammad died and Elijah Muhammad succeeded him as leader of the faith. There are questions about how much of his own beliefs Elijah Muhammad may have incorporated into his writings.
Under Elijah Muhammad, the faith grew and became more public. The religion had an active social program for reaching out to poor blacks, including black prisoners. One of the converts from this period was Malcolm X, who later ousted Elijah Muhammad as leader of the faith, and Louis Farrakhan. Malcolm X later appeared to be leading the NOI towards a more orthodox form of Islam. When he was killed (many speculate at the order of Farrakhan) there was a split in the faith. Elijah Muhammad’s son, Wallace Deen Muhammad, was named as the leader of the Nation of Islam but, like Malcolm X, was moving towards more traditional Islam. Eventually, one branch of the Nation of Islam split off under the leadership of Louis Farrakhan and the rest remained with W.D. Muhammad under the name the Muslim American Society.
The Nation of Islam obviously has a number of beliefs in common with mainstream Islam. Its main differences are that NOI believes Wallace Fard Muhammad was a prophet and that blacks are Allah’s chosen people. Mainstream Islam believes that Muhammad was the last prophet and that all races are equal. In real world terms, NOI and Islam have approximately the same relationship as Catholicism and Protestantism; in some cases they are the bitterest of enemies, in others they join together under the common heading of Christianity.
Thank you , Little Nemo. Most concise. I knew I could get a succinct answer to this here
Thank you , Little Nemo. Most concise. I knew I could get a succinct answer to this here.
Now, can you tell me how one converts? I have no plans to, but I know what’s involved in converting to Catholocism. Are there similar rites? You seem to have a good grasp on NoI, can you expound on joining?
A slight error in this part. Malcolm X never ousted Elijah Muhammed. Instead he broke with the NOI in 1964, forming a couple of organizations of his own ( Muslim Mosque, Inc and the Organization of African American Unity - both pretty much died with their founder ).
- Tamerlane
Little Nemo, excellent post.
As a footnote may I add that NOI has at most 10,000 members while Iman Wallace Deen Muhammad has over 100,000.
(And who gets the press coverage?)
Thank you for the kind words. I do want to point out that my post is from an outsider’s viewpoint; I’ve never been a Muslim or a member of the NOI. There are believers in these faiths who would dispute some of what I wrote. For example, some members of the Nation of Islam dispute that Wallace Fard Muhammad and Elijah Muhammad are dead; they believe because of their divine nature neither man could die. (Admittedly, no one is claiming to know the facts about W.F. Muhammad’s death; he disappeared in 1934.)
As I understand it, converting to Islam is easy; all it requires is a public declaration that Allah is supreme and a subsequent willingness to follow the main laws of Islam as set forth in the Koran.
I’ll admit I’m not sure if converting to the Nation of Islam is equally simple. From some of what I’ve heard it is. I’ve also seen the question about whether whites can convert to the NOI. Some people seem to suggest it is possible.
I don’t totally agree with that. Mainstream Muslims seem to have a consistently poor opinion of NOI; I’ve never seen them “join together”. Also, the number of NOI adherents is questionable. I think I’ve heard that it’s somewhere in the thousands, although NOI claims a far higher number. Compare that to the nearly 1 billion Muslims worldwide, and NOI is tiny compared to mainstream Islam; not really like Catholicism and Protestanism.
As a point of reference, in this thread we discussed whether the Nation of Islam and other non-mainstream groups are generally considered to be within the Muslim community.
As to Nation of Islam, most Muslims would consider them not to be an Islamic group because they reject the five pillars of Islam.