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Moorish Science Temple of America

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Attendees of the 1928 Moorish Science Temple Conclave in Chicago. Noble Drew Ali is in the front row center.

The Moorish Science Temple of America is an American religious organization founded in the early 20th-century by Timothy Drew. He claimed it was a sect of Islam but he drew as well from Buddhism, Christianity, Freemasonry, Gnosticism and Taoism. Its primary tenet was the belief that African Americans had descended from the Moors (rather than sub-Saharan Africans) and thus were originally Islamic. The organization combined elements of major religious traditions to develop a message of personal transformation, racial pride and uplift. Adherents to the religion are called Moors.[1]

Timothy Drew, calling himself the Prophet Noble Drew Ali, founded the Moorish Science Temple in 1913 in New Jersey. He moved to Chicago, establishing a center there, as well as temples in other major cities, where it expanded rapidly during the late 1920s. The African-American population and culture of the North and Midwestern United States had been increasing rapidly since World War I, as a result of the Great Migration from the South. The expansion of the Moorish Science Temple arose from the search for identity as hundreds of thousands of African American from the rural South sought to establish themselves in urban regions of the United States. There they had to compete for work and housing with new European immigrants and ethnic Europeans, and deal with racial discrimination and segregation. The Temple was their creation.

Competing factions developed among the congregations and leaders, especially after the death of charismatic founder Noble Drew Ali, whose disciples included Wallace Fard Muhammad, founder of the Nation of Islam, and Elijah Muhammad, who was Fard's successor and who later employed Malcolm X as a speaker of the Nation. Members followed various leaders into different groups, but the main body of the Moorish Science Temple continued. In the 1930s membership was estimated at 30,000, with one third of them in Chicago. The founding of the Nation of Islam also created competition for members. The Moors continued to increase members in the postwar years, but at a slower rate.

By the late 20th century, demographic and cultural changes had decreased the attraction of young people to the Moorish Science Temple. In the early 2000s, it is estimated that there may be 800 Moorish Americans in four major cities.[2] The organization states it has 260 temples and approximately one million members nationwide.[3]

Drew's early life

Timothy Drew was born on January 8, 1886 in North Carolina, USA.[4] Accounts of Timothy Drew's ancestry variously described his being the son of two former slaves, who was adopted by a tribe of Cherokees,[5] or his being the son of a Moroccan Muslim father and a Cherokee mother.[6]

Founding the Moorish Science Temple

Drew reported that during his travels, he met with a high priest of Egyptian magic. In one version of Drew's biography, the leader saw him as a reincarnation of the founder, while in others, the priest considered Drew a reincarnation of Jesus, the Buddha, Muhammad and other religious prophets. According to the biography, the high priest trained Drew in mysticism and gave him a lost section of the Koran.

This text came to be known as the Holy Koran of the Moorish Science Temple of America (note: this text is never spelled Qur'an). It is also known as the"Circle Seven Koran because of its cover, which features a red "7" surrounded by a blue circle. Drew took parts of his book from the Rosicrucian work, Unto Thee I Grant, and most of it from The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ, published in 1908 by esoteric Ohio preacher Levi Dowling. In The Aquarian Gospel, Dowling described Jesus's supposed travels in India, Egypt, and Palestine during the years of his life which are not accounted for by the New Testament. Drew and his followers used this material to claim, "Jesus and his followers were Asiatic." ("Asiatic" was the term Drew used for all dark or olive-colored people; he labeled all whites as European. He suggested that all Asiatics should be allied.)[7]

Drew created Moorish Science out of a variety of sources, a "network of alternative spiritualities that focused on the power of the individual to bring about personal transformation through mystical knowledge of the divine within."[7] In the inter-war years in Chicago and other major cities, Drew used these concepts to preach racial pride and uplift. His approach appealed to thousands of African Americans who had left severely oppressive conditions in the South and faced struggles in new urban environments.[7]

Drew claimed to have been anointed Noble Drew Ali, the Prophet. He launched into his career as head of the Moorish Science Temple of America. Drew taught his followers to "face east when praying, regard Friday as their holy day, and call their god Allah and their leader Prophet. Moorish-Americans are not obligated to follow Islam completely. They pray five times a day, and travel to Mecca only if they choose to do so. "[2] Many hymns sung are recognizable as adapted from traditional Christian hymns common in black churches.[2]

Practices

Drew Stated that African Americans were all descended from the ancient inhabitants of Moab (ancient Moabites), that Islam and its teachings are more beneficial to their earthly salvation, and that their true nature had been withheld from them. In the traditions he founded, male members of the Temple wear a fez as head covering; women wear a turban. They added the suffixes Bey or El to their surnames, to signify Moorish heritage as well as their taking on the new life of claiming their identity as Moorish Americans. It was also a way to claim and proclaim a new identity other than that lost to slavery of their ancestors in the United States. Thus a Moor could accept that his African tribal name may never be known to him/her, and that the European names they were given were not theirs, either.

The ushers of the Temple wore black fezzes. The leader of a particular temple was known as a Grand Sheik, or Governor.

As Drew began his version of teaching the Moorish-Americans to become better citizens, he made speeches in which he urged them to reject derogatory labels, such as "Black", "colored", and "Negro". He urged Americans of all races to reject hate and embrace love. He believed that Chicago would become a second Mecca.

Drew Ali was known to have had several wives.[8] According to the Chicago Defender, he took the power to marry and divorce at will.[9]

History

Noble Drew Ali

Early history

In 1913 Drew Ali formed the Canaanite Temple in Newark, New Jersey.[10] He left the city after agitating people with his views on race.[11] Drew Ali and his followers migrated, while planting congregations in Philadelphia; Washington, D.C., and Detroit. Finally Drew Ali settled in Chicago in 1925. He said the Midwest was "closer to Islam."[12] The following year he officially registered Temple No. 9.

There he instructed followers not to be confrontational but to build up their people to be respected. He was creating a way for African Americans to make their place in the United States by teaching them their true cultural identity and to be themselves.[13] In the late 1920s, journalists estimated the Moorish Science Temple had 35,000 members in 17 temples in cities across the Midwest and upper South.[14] It was reportedly studied and watched by the Chicago police.

Building Moorish-American businesses was part of their program, and in that was similar to Marcus Garvey's UNIA and the later Nation of Islam.[15] By 1928, members of the Moorish Science Temple of America had obtained some respectability within Chicago and Illinois, as they were featured prominently and favorably in the pages of the Chicago Defender, an African American newspaper, and conspicuously collaborated with African American politician and businessman Daniel Jackson.[16] Drew attended the 1929 inauguration of the Illinois governor. The Chicago Defender stated that Drew's trip included "interviews with many distinguished citizens from Chicago, who greeted him on every hand."[17] With the growth in its population and membership, Chicago was established as the center of the movement.

The death of Drew Ali

In early 1929, following a conflict over funds, Claude Green-Bey, the business manager of Chicago Temple No. 1 split from the Moorish Science Temple of America. He declared himself Grand Sheik and took a number of members with him. On March 15, Green-Bey was stabbed to death at the Unity Hall of the Moorish Science Temple, on Indiana Avenue in Chicago.[18] Drew was out of town at the time, as he was dealing with former Supreme Grand Governor Lomax Bey (professor Ezaldine Muhammad). Bey had also supported Green-Bey's attempted coup.[19] When Drew Ali returned to Chicago, the police arrested him and other members of the community on suspicion of having instigated the killing. No indictment was sworn for Drew Ali at that time.

Shortly after his release by the police, Drew Ali died at age 43 at his home in Chicago on July 20, 1929.[20] Although the exact circumstances of his death are unknown, the autopsy ruled that Noble Drew Ali died from pneumonia and tuberculosis.[citation needed] Despite the official report, many of his followers speculated that his death was caused by injuries from the police or from other members of the Moorish community.[21] Others thought it was due to pneumonia.[22] One Moor told the Chicago Defender, "The Prophet was not ill; his work was done and he laid his head upon the lap of one of his followers and passed out."[23]

Succession and schism

At the Unity Conference later that year, the governors of the Moorish Science Temple of America declared Charles Kirkman Bey as the successor to Drew Ali and named him Grand Sheik. When John Givens El, Drew's chauffeur, declared that he was Drew reincarnated, there was a division within the temples.[24]

On September 25, 1929, the Chicago police, accompanied by two Moorish Americans, were investigating the apparent kidnapping of C. Kirkman Bey. Arriving at the home of Ira Johnson, they were met by gunfire. The attack escalated into a shoot-out that spilled into the surrounding neighborhood. In the end, a policemen as well as a Moorish American were killed in the gun battle, and a second policeman later died of his wounds.[25] The police took 60 "Negroes" into police custody, and a reported 1000 police officers patrolled the Chicago South Side that evening.[26] Johnson Bey and two others were later convicted of murder.[27]

Nation of Islam

The community was further split when Wallace Fard Muhammad, known within the temple as David Ford-El,[28] also claimed (or was taken by some) to be the reincarnation of Drew Ali.[29] When his leadership was rejected, Ford-El broke away from the Moorish Science Temple. He moved to Detroit, where he formed his own group, an organization that would become the Nation of Islam. It differed from Ali's foundation, because Ali considered Irish people part of the "Asiatic" race.[30]

The 1930s

Despite the turmoil and defections, the temple continued to grow in the 1930s. It is estimated that membership in the 1930s reached 30,000. There were major congregations in Philadelphia, Detroit, and Chicago.[31] One-third of the members, or 10,000, lived in Chicago, the center of the movement. There were congregations in numerous other cities where African Americans had migrated in the early 20th century. The group published several magazines: one was the Moorish Guide National. During the 1930s and 1940s, continued surveillance by police (and later the FBI) caused the Moors to become more withdrawn and critical of the government.[32]

FBI surveillance

During World War II, the Moorish Science Temple (specifically the Kirkman Bey faction) came to the attention of the FBI, who falsely suspected the Moorish Americans of collaborating with Japan. The FBI was alarmed by their doctrines that the world order would one day invert and put Asians back in charge, as the Temple taught was the original order of things. The FBI created a file on the Temple; it grew to 3,117 pages.[33] They never found any evidence of any connection or much sympathy of the temple's members for Japan.

Scholars estimate that in the 1950s, the community had 60,000 members in 35 temples.[34] Due to its prison ministries, some temples showed a slow but steady growth in the 1950s and early 1960s.[35] In the latter part of the 20th century, however, membership began to decline.

El Rukn connection

In 1976 Jeff Fort, leader of Chicago's Black P Stone Nation gang, announced at his parole from prison in 1976 that he had converted to Islam. Moving to Milwaukee, Fort associated himself with the Moorish Science Temple of America. It is unclear whether he officially joined or was instead rejected by its members.[36]

In 1978, Fort returned to Chicago and changed the name of his gang to El Rukn ("the foundation" in Arabic), also known as "Circle Seven El Rukn Moorish Science Temple of America"[37] and the "Moorish Science Temple, El Rukn tribe".[38] Scholars are divided over the nature of the relationship, if any, between El Rukn and the Moorish Science Temple of America.[39] Fort reportedly hoped that an apparent affiliation with a religious organization would discourage law enforcement.[40]

Since 1980

In 1984 the Chicago congregation bought a building from Buddhist monks in Ukrainian Village. It continues to be used for Temple No. 9. Demographic and cultural changes have decreased the attraction of young people to the Moorish Science Temple. Only about 200 members attended a convention in 2007, rather than the thousands of the past. In the early 2000s, the temples in Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit and Washington, DC had about 200 members each, and many were older people.[2]

Notes

  1. ^ http://www.ccky.org/PDF%20Files/prison/Moorish%20Science%20Temple%20of%20America.pdf "Moorish Science Temple of America"], Catholic Council of Kentucky
  2. ^ a b c d Paghdiwala, Tasneem (November 15, 2007). "The Aging of the Moors". Chicago Reader. Vol. 37, no. 8. Retrieved October 13, 2009.
  3. ^ "Moorish Science Temple of America" (PDF). Retrieved November 5, 2009. {{cite news}}: Text "PDF document for prisons" ignored (help)
  4. ^ Wilson, p. 15; Gomez, p. 203; Paghdiwala; Gale Group.
  5. ^ Wilson, p, 15.
  6. ^ Gomez and Paghdiwala give both versions.
  7. ^ a b c Nance, Susan. (2002) “Mystery of the Moorish Science Temple: Southern Blacks and American Alternative Spirituality in 1920s Chicago”, Religion and American Culture 12, no. 2 (Summer): 123-66, accessed 29 Aug 2009
  8. ^ Chicago Tribune (1929) and Chicago Defender (1929).
  9. ^ Chicago Defender (1929).
  10. ^ Paghdiwala, p. 23.
  11. ^ Paghdiwala
  12. ^ Wilson, p. 29.
  13. ^ Gomez, Michael A. (2005) Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas, Cambridge University Press, p. 219, accessed 29 Aug 2009
  14. ^ Chicago Tribune, May 14, 1929.
  15. ^ Gomez, Michael A. (2005) Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas, Cambridge University Press, p. 260, accessed 29 Aug 2009
  16. ^ Nance (2002), p. 635-637
  17. ^ Chicago Defender, January 1929.
  18. ^ Chicago Tribune
  19. ^ Gale
  20. ^ Chicago Defender, July 27, 1929.
  21. ^ McCloud, p. 18; Wilson, p. 35. The Chicago Defender, whose news articles had turned critical of the Moorish Americans, said that "it is believed that the ordeal of the trial together with the treatment he received at the hands of police in an effort to obtain true statements are directly responsible for the illness which precipitated his death" (July 27, 1929).
  22. ^ Scopino
  23. ^ Quoted by Paghdiwala, p. 24. Also quoted by Nance (2002, p. 659, note 84) with a reference to "Cult Leader Dies; Was in Murder Case", Chicago Defender, July 27, 1929.
  24. ^ McCloud, p. 18. Gardell, p. 45.
  25. ^ "Patrolmen Jesse D. Hults and William Gallagher", Officer Down Memorial Page
  26. ^ Chicago Tribune, September 1929. Washington Post, September 1929.
  27. ^ Hartford Courant.
  28. ^ Prashad, p. 109.
  29. ^ Ahlstrom (p. 1067), Abu Shouk (p. 147), Hamm (p. 14), and Lippy (p. 214) all state that Fard claimed or was considered by many Moors to be the reincarnation of Noble Drew Ali.
  30. ^ Ahlstrom (p. 1067) and Lippy (p. 214)..
  31. ^ Paghdiwala, p. 26.
  32. ^ Nance, p. 659.
  33. ^ [1]
  34. ^ McCloud, p. 17.
  35. ^ Hamm, p. 16.
  36. ^ Nash (p. 167) says Fort did join the Milwaukee temple. Hamm (p. 25) states otherwise: "Fort tried to join the Moorish Science Temple in Milwaukee but Temple elders refused to have him."
  37. ^ Chicago Tribune, "El Rukn street gang joins drive to register voters", August 25, 1982, p. 17.
  38. ^ Shipp, New York Times (1985).
  39. ^ Blakemore, et al. (p. 335) says that "The Moorish Science Temple of America has always denied such a connection."
    See also Nashashibi ("In 1982 the El Rukns dropped their affiliation with the Moorish Science Temple of America and moved closer toward a more orthodox understanding of Sunni Islam.")
    See also the 1988 court case, Johnson-Bey et al. v. Lane et al. ("The sinister El Rukn group is a breakaway faction from the Moorish Science Temple of America ... apparently it no longer has any connection with the Moorish Science Temple.").
  40. ^ Main, Chicago Sun-Times (2006).

References

  • Ali, Noble Prophet Drew (1928), Holy Koran of the Moorish Science Temple of America
  • Abu Shouk, Ahmed I. (1997) "A Sudanese Missionary to the United States", Sudanic Africa, 9:137-191.
  • Ahlstrom, Sydney E. (2004) A Religious History of the American People, 2nd ed., Yale University Press, ISBN 0300100124.
  • Blakemore, Jerome; Yolanda Mayo; Glenda Blakemore (2006) "African-American and Other Street Gangs: A Quest of Identity (Revisted)", Human Behavior in the Social Environment from an African-American Perspective, Letha A. See, ed., The Haworth Press ISBN 978-0789028310.
  • Chicago Defender (1929) "Drew Ali, 'Prophet' of Moorish Cult, Dies Suddenly", July 27, 1929, page 1.
  • Chicago Tribune (1929) "Cult Head Took Too Much Power, Witnesses Say", May 14, 1929.
  • Chicago Tribune (1929) "Seize 60 After So. Side Cult Tragedy", September 26, 1929, p. 1.
  • Gale Group, "Timothy Drew", Religious Leaders of America, 2nd ed., 1999, Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale, 2007.
  • Gardell, Mattias (1996) In the Name of Elijah Muhammad. Duke University Press, ISBN 978-0822318453.
  • Gomez, Michael A. (2005) Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521840953.
  • Hamm, Mark S. (2007) Terrorist Recruitment in American Correctional Institutions: An Exploratory Study of Non-Traditional Faith Groups Final Report, U.S. Department of Justice, December 2007, Document No.: 220957.
  • The Hartford Courant (1930) "Religious Cult Head Sentenced For Murder", April 19, 1930, p. 20.
  • Lippy. Charles H. (2006) Faith in America: Changes, Challenges, New Directions, Praeger Publishers, ISBN 978-0275986056.
  • Main, Frank (2006) Chicago Sun-Times, June 25, 2006, p. A03.
  • McCloud, Aminah (1994) African American Islam, Routledge.
  • Nance, Susan. (2002) “Respectability and Representation: The Moorish Science Temple, Morocco and Black Public Culture in 1920s Chicago” ,American Quarterly 54, no. 4 (December): 623-59.
  • Nash, Jay Robert (1993) World Encyclopedia of Organized Crime, Da Capo Press, ISBN 978-0306805356.
  • Nashashibi, Rami (2007) "The Blackstone Legacy, Islam, and the Rise of Ghetto Cosmopolitanism", Souls, Volume 9, Issue 2 April 2007 , pages 123 - 131.
  • Tasneem Paghdiwala (2007), "The Aging of the Moors", Chicago Reader, November 15, 2007, Vol 37 No 8
  • Prashad, Vijay (2002) Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections and the Myth of Cultural Purity, Beacon Press, ISBN 0807050113.
  • Scopino Jr., A. J. (2001) "Moorish Science Temple of America", in Organizing Black America: An Encyclopedia of African American Associations, Nina Mjagkij, ed., Garland Publishing, p. 346.
  • Shipp, E.R. (1985) "Chicago Gang Sues to Be Recognized as Religion", New York Times, Dec 27, 1985, p. A14.
  • Turner, Richard Brent (2003) Islam in the African-American Experience, Indiana University Press, ISBN 0253216303.
  • The Washington Post (1929), "Three Deaths Laid to Fanatical Plot", September 27, 1929, p. 2.
  • Wilson, Peter Lamborn (1993) Sacred Drift: Essays on the Margins of Islam, City Lights Books, ISBN 0872862755.
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