Encyclopedia of Islam

Nation of Islam

  

523  J

---

As a final note, the NOI and other parallel 

groups have often been labeled collectively “Black 

Muslims.” These include such related communi-

ties as the Moorish Science Temple (begun before 

the NOI in 1913 in Newark, New Jersey, by Noble 

Drew Ali, born Timothy Drew), the Five Percent 

Nation of Gods and Earths, or Five Percenters (an 

offshoot of the NOI started in 1964 by ex-NOI 

member Clarence “Pudding” 13X, born Clarence 

Jowars Smith, killed in 1969), and the Ansaaru 

Allah Community (an apocalyptic and theologi-

cally eclectic community founded by Isa Muham-

mad, aka Malachi Z. York, born Dwight York ca. 

1935). The term Black Muslim was coined by an 

early scholar on the NOI, C. Eric Lincoln in 1961 

and came to be commonly associated with various 

sectarian African-American Muslim communities, 

but particularly the Nation of Islam. This usage 

was intended to distinguish the Nation of Islam 

from the immigrant, expatriate, and white convert 

population of the American Sunni majority who 

have tended to claim “Moslem” or “Muslim” for 

themselves.

See also  a

Frican

  a

mericans

,  i

slam

 

among

; 

s

Unnism

.

Kathleen M. O’Connor