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Why
The Million Family March Reaches Out In Peace to Humanity
By Dina Rashed
It was a message of love and unity, and not hatred and violence, that Nation of Islam's leader Minister Louis Farrakhan delivered on Monday, October 16, 2000. The Million Family March was a celebration of love and tolerance towards people of all races, ethnicities, religions and philosophies.
Speakers - from Native Americans to Arabs, Muslims to Jews, seniors to the young - attracted families of all colors and races to hear the African American Minister.
"Humanity seems to be frozen on a sub-human level," said the 66-year-old Farrakhan, who spoke without written notes, drawing upon the idea of diversity as mentioned in the Qur'an. Arguing that white supremacy has denied Caucasians the growth into humanity and divinity, he added that Black inferiority has denied Blacks that same growth.
Condemning no race or ethnicity for the ills facing African Americans or Africans, his speech preached reconstruction and reconciliation.
Since the beginning of the year, Farrakhan has been gradually introducing his new discourse during speaking engagements. "Only through our act of atonement can we be forgiven for what we have said or done to injure other human beings - a member of another race or a member of another religious group, another nation or another ethnic group," said Farrakhan when he met with reporters last January to announce an end to the Nation of Islam's (NOI) violence and hatred.
Some say the change of heart can be attributed to his near death experience in his fight against prostate cancer. However, I think it is due to a bigger transformation that the minister has been going through that has produced in him a better understanding of the faith and its universal call.
He apparently has come to understand the real message of Muhammad Ibn Abdullah (PBUH), the "mercy to mankind," that Islam is all about. The word Islam itself is derived from the same root as Salaam, the Arabic word for peace.
Yes, near death experiences do change people's views as they make them conscious of the weaknesses of the human body, which often awakens the soul.
But the Minister's journey towards awakening started long before he faced his malignant illness. Over three years ago in the summer of 1997, he announced in a conference held by NOI and the World Islamic Peoples Leadership Council in Chicago, that it was time for the NOI to move towards mainstream Islam by fully adopting the set of beliefs that is recognized throughout the Islamic Ummah.
Though recognized by its followers as part of the international Islamic family, for the greater part of its history, the movement has not been recognized by many Muslim leaders and scholars because of its interpretation of the faith and its practices.
For some time, the NOI's adherents believed that its founder, Master W. D. Fard, was God in the flesh, a mujaded (renewer), or a mahdi (guided one), and Elijah Muhammad was his inspired messenger.
Following the 1995 Million Man March, in a tour of African, Arab and Islamic countries, the Minister was hailed for his struggle against oppression by some leaders, but he did not receive the same welcome from others who perceived him as distorting Islam.
In his transition to the teachings of orthodox Islam, Farrakhan first reached out to the Muslim American Society led by Warith Deen Muhammad, the son of Elijah Muhammad who had taken over the leadership of the NOI following his father's death in 1975.
W. Deen later started a move towards orthodox Islam and changed the name of his organization to the Muslim American Society (MAS). Three years following that change, Farrakhan established a separate movement that revived the original ideas of Elijah Muhammad under the original name of the NOI. He has been leading the organization since.
The MAS has been opposed to the NOI under Farrakhan for the same reason that other Muslim leaders have not accepted it. The role and identity of Elijah Muhammad himself has been the subject for much of their clashing beliefs.
Last February, the two movements started to knit closer ties after Farrakhan's decision to move towards orthodox Islamic beliefs, including a recognition of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as the last messenger of God, and not Elijah Muhammad. The NOI has been holding Friday prayers on a regular basis since then, and has reverted to the Prophet's teachings rather than those of Elijah Muhammad.
Afraid of losing his base of support - many of whom didn't fully understand the new teachings or, to say the least, were not ready to abide by them - Farrakhan promised his people that he would continue leading them and would never abandon them.
On Monday, during his speech, which contained quotations from the Qur'an and the Bible, he pinpointed the moral weaknesses of humanity at large, particularly acknowledging the vulnerability of the oppressed and the underprivileged. He expounded on the notion of the Islamic Ummah, where Muslims are obligated to attend not only to the problems of their local communities, but to those of the international Islamic community and all of humanity as well.
In reference to the Qur'anic ayat that God does not change a people until they change themselves, Farrakhan spoke of the maladies of our society, which start with our families - the main nucleus.
The rights and responsibilities of women in building the Ummah, and a need for improved education, the empowerment of our youth, and clean entertainment were his main themes. Keenly aware of the importance of economic power, he called for the establishment of an Economic Development Fund, and stated a goal of raising one billion dollars in a year.
Whether or not Farrakhan will be able to fulfill this aspiration depends on the acceptance of his followers to the change in his teachings, and on his continued ability to mobilize and lead them.
Support from other Muslim communities will, in large, depend on his ability to convince them of his sincerity regarding the NOI's practice of orthodox Islam. Although they have differed with him on this core issue, other Muslim leaders and communities do respect his ability to mobilize and lead the African American minority.
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