The Messenger, page 64
59. FBI HQ file on Clara Muhammad.
60. Ibid.
61. FBI Public Source Material file on Elijah Muhammad.
62. Supra, note 10, Elijah Muhammad Meets the Press.
63. Brashler, “Black on Black,” 48; Gardell, In the Name of Elijah Muhammad, 410, n. 188.
64. Chicago Sun Times, March 26, 1972, section 2, 3.
65. New York Times, January 21, 1972.
66. “Black Professionals Hear Muslim Plea for Unity,” New York Times, October 2, 1972.
67. Ibid.
68. “Muslims Purge Police Members; Order Is Said to Fear They Were Undercover Agents,” New York Times, October 29, 1972.
69. “Now the Black Mafia Bilks Banks,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 24, 1975.
70. Ibid.
71. Ibid.
72. Ibid.
73. Ibid.; also see Mobfathers (PBS documentary).
74. “Black Muslim Leader in Newark Shot to Death; Two Men Sought,” New York Times, September 5, 1973, A50.
75. Ibid., October 27, 1973.
76. “Decapitated Bodies of 2 Found in a Newark Park,” New York Times, October 19, 1973, A47. Just as Malcolm X had been killed only weeks after Farrakhan wrote that he was worthy of death, the decapitated Muslims were discovered less than three weeks after Farrakhan implied during a radio address that McGregor’s murderers deserved decapitation. Claiming to quote the Holy Quran, Farrakhan said: “Cut off their heads, roll it [sic] down the street and make the world know that the murderer of a Muslim must be murdered.…” See Magida, Prophet of Rage, 99–102.
77. Ibid. September 8, 1973 (New Jersey edition).
78. Make It Plain (documentary). Interview with Ella Collins.
17. IN THE NAME OF ALLAH
1. Holy Bible, King James version. The commandments aren’t numbered per se, but this one is considered the sixth in Christianity and the seventh in Judaism. “There Are 10, but Their Order Isn’t Carved in Stone,” Washington Post, February 21, 1998, D08.
2. Farrakhan’s speech, which is sold on videotape and audiocassettes at Muslim-owned stores, was recorded on February 20, 1993. He was referring, in general, to the assassination of Malcolm X by members of the NOI twenty-five years earlier.
3. Holy Quran, trans. Maulana Muhammad Ali, “The Cow,” section 2, 10.
4. “Muhammad Meets the Press!” Muhammad Speaks, January 14, February 4, and February 11, 1972; reprinted in booklet form as Elijah Muhammad Meets the Press.
5. Ibid., January 14, 1972.
6. “Hanafi Muslim Chief Quit Key Muslim Post,” Washington Post, February 2, 1973, A01
7. See, generally, Nanji, The Muslim Almanac.
8. Supra, note 6.
9. Based on data in author’s files.
10. See, in general, Abdul-Jabbar, Giant Steps.
11. Ibid., 222–35.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid., 226.
14. See Appendix B in this book for full text of letter.
15. Ibid.
16. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
17. See William Christian v. United States, 394 A. 2nd 1 (1978); also see John Sansing, “Hanafi Massacre, Hanafi Siege,” Washingtonian magazine, February 1980, 87–96.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. This reconstruction of the crime is based on news accounts, firsthand interviews, trial transcripts in United States v. Christian, et al., and appellate actions.
22. “Seven ‘Executed’ in District’s Biggest Mass Murder,” Washington Post, January 19, 1973, A01.
23. “Jury Probes Massacre of 7 Moslems,” January 27, 1973.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.
26. “Muslims Linked to Pa. Rapes,” Washington Post, January 30, 1973, A01; also see United States v. William Christian et al., D.C. Sup. Ct., Criminal No. 47900–73 through 47906–73 (1973).
27. Ibid., United States v. Christian et al.
28. Sansing, “Hanafi Massacre, Manafi Siege.”
29. Farrakhan’s warning was issued in the middle of the murder trial, and just five days after James Price was contacted by a Muslim minister posing as an attorney. The minister was identified as David Pasha of Cincinnati. “Witness Balks at Testifying,” Washington Post, March 30, 1974, B01; “Black Muslim Traitors Warned of Vengeance,” Washington Post, April 5, 1974, B01; also see Washington Post, January 29, 1973, A01; New York Times, January 29, 1973, A57.
30. Ibid.
31. Supra, note 17. All of the defendants were career criminals. “7 Slaying Suspects Have Long Records,” Washington Post, August 20, 1973, A01.
32. “Black Muslim Informer Slain in Philadelphia Prison Cell,” Washington Post, December 31, 1974, A01.
33. “Saviour’s Day 1973” (videotape and audiotape).
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid.
36. See Appendix B.
37. “Saviour’s Day 1973” (videotape and audiotape).
38. Ibid.
39. Ibid.; also see Muhammad, Message to the Blackman, 103–22.
18. KEYS TO THE KINGDOM
1. Bloom, The American Religion, 248.
2. George Santayana, The Life of Reason (1905–1906).
3. “Spirits Known and Unknown” by Leon Thomas (Flying Dutchman Records, 1969).
4. “Saviour’s Day 1973” (videotape and audiotape).
5. Shoemaker, Russia, Eurasian States, and Eastern Europe 1995, “The Repubic of Azerbaijan,” 140–45.
6. W. Muhammed, As the Light Shineth from the East, 29.
7. This is a flagrant falsehood. Non-Muslims were barred from Mecca, but not whites. White-skinned Muslims are as welcome as black-skinned Muslims. See Wolfe, One Thousand Roads to Mecca.
8. E. D. Beynon, “The Voodoo Cult Among American Negro Migrants in Detroit,” American Journal of Sociology 43, no. 6 (May 1938): 894.
9. The following statement appeared on the NOI’s Web site on March 28, 1996: “When America entered the era of the Great Depression, beginning in 1929 and the early 1930s, during the administration of President Herbert Hoover, a Wise Master came to America from the East and met with the former President. He revealed Himself publicly for the first time in 1930” (http://www.noi.org/history.html). The article, entitled “Brief History on the Origin of the Nation of Islam in America,” has been corrected.
10. Hakim, True History of Elijah Muhammad, 41.
11. Query by author of admissions office officials at the University of Southern California at Los Angeles.
12. FBI HQ file on Wallace D. Fard.
13. Ibid., memo to Chicago from director dated March 12, 1963, 1; also see Marriage Indices for Multnomah County, p. 224 of Marriage Index for Period July 1910 to October 1915. Marriage Certificate #28247 was issued to Fred Dodd and Pearl Allen on May 9 in Marion County, Oregon. The license was requested on April 14, 1914.
14. FBI interview with Hazel Barton Ford, as reflected in FBI HQ file on Wallace D. Fard.
15. FBI HQ file on Wallace D. Fard.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. FBI Public Source Material file on Wallace D. Fard; also see “White’s Black Record; ‘Prophet’ of Muslims Afoul of Law in L.A.,” Los Angeles Herald Examiner, July 28, 1963, A01.
19. Ibid.
20. 14th Census Report of the United States (1920), Los Angeles County; also see Census Card for Wallace Dodd Ford.
21. FBI HQ file on Wallace D. Fard.
22. Donaldson denied ever living outside of Los Angeles, but this is contradicted by his criminal record, a microfilmed copy of which is maintained as part of the California State Archives.
23. Office of Naval Intelligence report on Chatterjee. Also see Washington, Madame Blavatsky’s Baboon, 88–89. The interesting thing about Farr’s connection to Chatterjee is that W. B. Yeats, who fell under Blavatsky’s spell in the early 1900s, was very fond of a woman named Florence Farr, an ardent admirer and associate of Chatterjee. That Florence Farr and George Farr were both linked to Chatterjee concurrently may be entirely coincidental. Other than the Chatterjee connection and the fact that Florence Farr lived in London (where Fard claimed to have spent part of his youth), no leads were uncovered. I should note, however, that my research was only cursory. See Jeffares, W. B. Yeats: A New Biography (including photo of Florence Farr).
24. Hill, Marcus Garvey Papers, vol. 2, 233–39, 311–12, 338–39, 477–79, 678.
25. Ibid., 234.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid., 235.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid.
30. Criminal record of Edward Donaldson, obtained from California State Archives division.
31. Fard is listed as “restaurant keeper” on some documents, and “owner” on others. The restaurant’s name obviously suggests ownership. FBI HQ file on Wallace D. Fard.
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid.
34. Ibid.
35. FBI main file on Wallace D. Fard, memo from Los Angeles SAC to director dated August 29, 1963, 1–6; also see FBI Chicago file on Wallace D. Fard, and FBI Detroit file on same.
36. Chicago police department. FBI Chicago file on Wallace D. Fard, memo from Chicago SAC dated August 28, 1957, 1.
37. Ahmad, “The Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam” (brochure); also see Braden, They Also Believe, 461–62.
38. Agents queried by the author about the evidence explained that it was misplaced or possibly discarded. Given the vast number of items seized as evidence, the misplacement of a sixty-year-old item is certainly understandable.
39. A copy of the birth certificate appears in the FBI HQ file on Wallace D. Fard.
40. FBI HQ file on Wallace D. Fard. Agents pursued this angle in 1957, but by then all the leads were cold.
41. According to several accounts, Wallace asserted: “Master Fard Muhammad is not dead, brothers and sisters. He is physically alive and I talk to him whenever I get ready. I don’t talk to him in any spooky way. I go to the telephone and dial his number.” Bloom, The American Religion, 248–49; also see Magida, Prophet of Rage, 56–57.
42. This, according to an on-line English-Urdu dictionary.
43. Author’s search of Washington Post database on July 22, 1997, and May 19, 1998.
44. Ibid.
45. Nanji, The Muslim Almanac, 55; also see note 42, supra.
46. Nyrop, Pakistan: A Country Study, 24.
47. Sorrenson, Maori Origins and Migrations, 59.
48. Ibid.
49. Nyrop, Pakistan: A Country Study, 10.
50. Ibid., 128; literature obtained by author from the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington, D.C.
51. Ibid.
52. Ibid.; also see Khaalis’s letter in Appendix B in this book.
53. Hakim, History of the Nation of Islam, 5–6; Muhammad, History of Jesus’ Birth, Death, and What It Means (a reprint of his Pittsburgh Courier newspaper column of July 27, 1957), 2–3.
54. Lending further credence to arguments that Fard was of Pakistani origin was his insistence that the Holy Quran of Maulana Muhammad Ali was the most accurate. See Muhammad, History of Jesus’ Birth, 4; also see Hakim, True History of Elijah Muhammad, 51; This statement appears in the preface of the Holy Quran used by Elijah Muhammad: “And lastly, the greatest religious leader of the present time, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, has inspired me with all that is best in this work” (iii). And this excerpt from a book review appears on the same page: “A careful comparison of Mr. Pickthall’s translation with that of the Ahmadiyya translator, Maulana Muhammad Ali, shows conclusively that Mr. Pickthall’s work is not very much more than a revision of the Ahmadiyya version.” Also see Magida, Prophet of Rage, 231, n. 24.
55. Barboza, American Jihad, 106.
56. Author’s interviews.
57. Author’s interviews.
58. Muhammad, The Supreme Wisdom, vol. 1, 53.
59. Muhammad, History of the Nation of Islam, 4–5.
60. Exhibit 176 was among the items that the FBI says have been misplaced or otherwise lost. It was described in detail in the Bureau’s Chicago file on Wallace D. Fard, Correlation Summary dated November 15, 1957, 32; also see FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
61. Her description accurately depicts Fard as he appeared in a mugshot taken on May 26, 1933. FBI’s Detroit file on Wallace D. Fard, memo from Los Angeles SAC to director dated October 18, 1957, 1–5.
62. FBI HQ file on Wallace D. Fard.
63. Fard’s name appears as “Farr” in a few FBI records, but these instances apparently were overlooked during the investigations.
64. FBI HQ file on the SDOO.
65. FBI HQ file on Wallace D. Fard.
66. FBI NY file on Malcolm X.
67. Muhammad, The Supreme Wisdom, vol. 1, 15; Elijah Muhammad, “Christianity vs. Islam” (audiocassette).
68. FBI Chicago file on Wallace D. Fard.
69. This contradiction was a major bone of contention between Wallace and his father. “You talk black, black, black, but you still can’t see anything but white, white, white. You’d rather have a white Dr. Fard and go back in the jungles of primitive understanding than to stay in the light and get into the mainstream of America with a Bilalian-looking Wallace Deen Muhammad.” W. Muhammad, As the Light Shineth from the East, 147.
19. A CON FOR A CON
1. “Ball of Confusion,” by the Temptations (Gordy, 1969).
2. “Saviour’s Day 1974” (audiocassette); Barboza, American Jihad, 271; FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad, summary memo from Chicago SAC to U.S. Secret Service dated May 24, 1974, 4–9.
3. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
4. Scott’s family owned more than thirty black-oriented newspapers in the South, including the Atlanta Daily World. See Obituaries: Stanley S. Scott, 59, Nixon and Ford Aide, New York Times, April 7, 1992, B08.; Ploski and Kaiser, The Negro Almanac, 1415–16.
5. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.; FBI Public Source Material file on Elijah Muhammad.
9. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Muhammad, The Fall of America, 125–45.
14. William Brashler, “Black on Black: The Deadly Struggle for Power,” New York, June 9, 1975, 44–57; also see Barboza, American Jihad, 271.
15. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.; FBI Public Source Material on Elijah Muhammad.
19. “Nation Mourns Muslim Leader” (cover story), Jet, March 13, 1975, 20–22.
20. Elijah Muhammad Meets the Press, 13–15.
21. “Saviour’s Day 1975” (audiocassette and videocassette); FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
22. “Nation Mourns Muslim Leader,” Jet, March 13, 1975, 16; FBI Public Source Material file on Elijah Muhammad; Chicago Defender, February 27, 1975.
23. Clegg, An Original Man, 340.
24. Chicago Tribune, March 1, 1975, A04.
25. Chicago Daily News, March 7, 1975, A42; Chicago Tribune, March 11, 1975, A05.
26. Author’s interview with Farrakhan’s aides, September 19, 1979.
27. New York Amsterdam News, cited on-line at http://www.muhammadspeaks.com.
28. Ibid.
29. Washington Post, March 8, 1975.
30. Ibid., July 1, 1975.
31. Church Committee Report, book 3, 33.
32. Ibid., book 6, 37.
33. “Saviour’s Day 1995” address of Farrakhan; Larry Muhammad, “Louis Farrakhan: Muslim Leader or Hypocrite?” Sepia, April 1980, 30–33. More than 200 movies with black themes were released between 1970 and 1980. The majority were low budget, and some raked in astronomical profits. One film, Uptight!, starred a controversial black activist (Julian Mayfield) and theme (that bad things happen to government informants), and the FBI tried to prevent its release. See, in general, Gerald Martinez, et al., What It Is … What It Was! The Black Film Explosion of the 70s in Words and Pictures (New York: Hyperion, 1998); FBI HQ on COINTELPRO: Black Extremists.
34. Bloom, The American Religion, 249; Magida, Prophet of Rage, 56–57.
35. “The Muslims: Five Years After Elijah, Sepia, March 1980, 31–37.
36. United States v. Nathaniel Muhammad et al., U.S. Dist. Ct., Western Div. (Mo.), Criminal No. 75 CR 220-W-4 (1975); Washington Post, September 26, 1975.
37. Washington Post, February 3, 1976.
38. Author’s interviews with eyewitness.
39. Lee, By Any Means Necessary, 62.
40. In the Matter of the Estate of Elijah Muhammad, Deceased, October 13, 1978, testimony of Emmanuel Muhammad, 2–26.
41. Lucille Rosary v. Elijah Muhammad, Superior Court of Los Angeles, #D652479 (1964), “Order to Show Cause,” dated July 6, 1964, 3.
42. Supra, note 40, 8.
43. Washington Post, March 1, 1976.
44. “Chief Executive Officer, The Lost-Found Nation of Islam,” at http://members.aol.com/akankem/Ceo.htm, 1–3.
45. Ibid.
46. Peter Noel, “One Nation?” Vibe, February 1996, 70; also see www.vibe.com/vibe/archive/feb96/docs/noi.html.
47. Muhammad, Theology of Time, Introduction.
48. Ibid.
49. Ibid.
50. From advertisment published in Your Black Books Guide, February 1997; Fardan, Yakub and the Origin of White Supremacy.
EPILOGUE: VIRTUAL RELIGION
1. Philo Judaeus, Alexandrian philosopher (20 B.C.–45 A.D.?), cited by Seldes in The Great Thoughts, 329.
2. From the World Wide Web site of the United Nation of Islam on October 1997 (http://www.unoi).
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. “A Brief History on the Origin of the Nation of Islam,” from the World Wide Web site of the NOI (faction directed by Farrakhan) on March 8, 1998 (http://www.noi.org).
6. Ibid.
7. See, in general, T. Muhammad, The Comer by Night.
8. The Web site is run by a faction of the NOI that appears to be close to or controlled by John Muhammad (www.muhammadspeaks.com). As of this writing in March 1998, a copy of Elijah Muhammad’s death certificate is posted on the Web site run by Elijah Muhammad’s brother John. A copy of his headstone also appears in the article.
