I should have thought to ask this question before Collounsbury disappeared, hopefully somebody else can help me.
I’m sure the Nation of Islam and its’ offshoots are extremely obscure outside of the U.S., but is there any official line or consensus among Moslem scholars? Is it regarded as a valid expression of Islam? An heresy? An American cultural curiosity?
He already responded. He said that they’re as “Islamic as Baptists.” The search engine is going very slow right now, but if you do a search on “Baptists” and his name, you’ll get that thread–although I’m sure he made the same points at other times.
I don’t recall if I have seen the Louis Farrakhan issue resolved on these boards, although I suspect that a search using “farrakhan AND mecca” would turn up the information.
Actually I may be incorrect about this, as I can’t find another source for this (the claim appeared on British TV during the recent refusal to allow Farrakhan in).
He had been kicked out of the NOI when he went to Mecca (though he probably didn’t mind since he had been gradually losing faith in Elijah Muhammad anyway) AND he travelled under an assumed name.
Slightly OT, but an interesting related link: FOIA FBI files on Elijah Muhammad