ADVANCE-NEWS
PAGE 5
SUNDAY, MARCH 26, 1972
Muslim Elijah Muhammad Speaks.
Another son, Akbar, 32, abandoned his
Q—Who will live in those homes over pride and serenity that hang about them own circle soon prompted him to move
like an unfailing light." The ratio of to Chicago, where he promptly began father's "concocted religious teachings,
there?
A—Well, we have not quite decided Muslims among blacks in prisons ap- "fishing for the dead," as Muslims call which are far from and in most cases
recruiting.
diametrically opposed to Islam ..." in
yet. Maybe (chuckling) the fellow that proximates one in 20.
Muhammad, who has been involved in 1965 while studying Islamic law in Cairo.
Other blacks have not been so kind
have the biggest pocketbook.
toward the Nation , of Islam. When paternity suits, was imprisoned for draft He is now the director of black studies at
Other replies by Muhammad:
Q—Now you personally a r e a Justice Thurgood Marshall was general evasion. Also imprisoned for that of- Vanderbilt University. His wife is an
counsel for the NAACP, he said the Na- fense in World War II, were his son, Egyptian, and he's a Moslem—not a
millionaire?
A—Man, if I had a million dollars you tion of Islam was "run by a bunch of Emmanuel, and Sharrieff, who' is Black Muslim.
Other Muslims who have broken away
wouldn't have time to talk with me. I'd thugs." Ralph Bunche called them a Supreme Captain of the Fruit of Islam, a
be too busy trying to find out where I'm "cynical and irresponsible group ex- semi-military group. It provides and assailed the leaders have met difgoing to put this million dollars, where is ploiting the Negro's unhappy status," bodyguards for Elijah Muhammad and ferent fates. Malcolm Little joined the
and Dr. Martin Luther King called the others. Another of Muhammad's six Muslims in prison in 1947, then obtained
the best place to spend it. ...
Q—Do you really think white people Muslims "just as dangerous as white sons, Wallace, 38, testified he was a his "X." Malcolm X became Muhamminister but was sent to prison for draft mad's chief spokesman, but after a
supremacists."
are devils?
evasion in 1961. He later quit the move- nasty dispute, he left the movement in
Muhammad,
himself,
is
often
more
A—I don't think it ... I know it.
Q—What is behind these shootings in critical of blacks than whites. He has ment, charging his father with im- 1964 and established his own.
mismanaging
the
After departing, Malcolm X blistered
Baton Rouge where two blacks and two written in his newspaper: "Allah has morality,
deputies were shot in a disturbance made known that the enemy of the Black organization's financial affairs and his former mentor: "I totally reject
Nation is the black professional class. Of berrying the teachings of Allah, but then Elijah Muhammad's philosophy, which
police said involved Muslims?
A—I wasn't there and I don't know these, the preacher is the worse enemy begged forgiveness and was accepted he has labeled 'Islam' only to fool and
misuse gullible people just as he fooled
really how it began. ... Christians been of the truth of our salvation." On Feb. back.
shootin' Christians all my life ... so I 18, he wrote: "My black brothers and
don't see why this should be anything of black sisters, you will hate me for the
news ... that the Muslims shot someone love of the devil. You would kill me, if
you could get to me through the ring of
or someone shot Muslims.
Q—Some Muslims, or former protection that Allah has thrown around
Muslims, wonder why you employ so me. ... The devil respects me; it is you,
black brother, who disrespects me."
many white people.
One source of inspiration for the
A—Because I can get along with both,
By LAURANCE STUNTZ
car.
and the white people1 know their country, Muslims' faith was Timothy Drew, who
The car you will be driving in 10 years
The only changes are the substitution
know their government, know their started the first Moorish-Science may run on electricity, steam, natural of a pressurized gas tank in the trunk
buildings, their material. And if my Temple in 1913 in Newark. He contended gas or even sunlight. But the chances and a change in the carburetor.
people would build those houses over that all Negroes are Asiatics of Moorish are that it will still look pretty much like
Use of electricity from batteries
there, they would have to buy the descent. Male disciples wore red fezzes. your present one, with wheels at all four suffers from the fact that batteries are
material from ... white people. ...
Drew renamed himself Noble Drew corners.
heavy, expensive, short-lived and give a
The Black Muslims teach that the Ali, and when his movement grew, a
Only the engine will be very different. car a range of less than 100 miles. A
black man is the "original" man, that former butler moved Drew's furniture The closed body will also have a steering hybrid gasoline-electric drive has been
some 6,700 years ago a scientist named out of Drew's Chicago headquarters and wheel and brakes, although you may not proposed, but it has the disadvantages of
Yakub grafted the white man from the proclaimed himself the grand sheik. The use these all the time.
both systems.
black man, that all "so-called Negroes usurper was murdered; Drew was
Batteries, however, are perfectly
The rush for a new type of car comes,
are born Muslims, whether they know it arrested but released on bond and soon of course, from the current complaints feasible sources of power for shortor not," that blacks should have their died under mysterious circumstances. about air pollution. Proposed restraints range cars, say for the second or station
own territory in the United States and That was in 1929.
on the emission from gasoline engines car in a suburban household or for urban
live separately from whites (MuhamEnter W. D. Fard, the man whom
will make present automobiles more delivery trucks.
mad lives on a block that's largely Muhammad deified. Moving to Detroit
expensive and balky. Also, oil men say There are two proposals to solve the
white), that the Bible is poison.
from San Quentin, Fard worked as a leadfree gasoline, needed for some types problem of an electric car for longMuhammad teaches that the hog, too, door-to-door peddler, posed as an Arab of emission control, will cost more and distance highway driving.
is poison. His book, "How to Eat to from Mecca, reportedly described give' fewer miles to the gallon. So
One is for a new type of battery which
Live" also says chicken is "not fit" to himself as the reincarnation of Noble everybody is looking for a new kind of could be charged in five minutes, while
eat, although his restaurants and gro- Drew Ali and established the Nation of
engine.
the driver got a cup of coffee. Charging
Islam. He began to replace his
ceries carry it.
Right now, steam power is getting the stations would substitute for filling
Muhammad often prophesies the followers' "slave names" with their publicity. But it is not at all certain what stations along the highways.
collapse of America, but he continues to "original names"— usually for. $10.
type of engine will win out in the end. Another proposal is to mount the
expand. The Nation of Islam recently
Elijah Muhammad says he first met Electric power, liquefied gas, modified automobile batteries in a tray. When the
many properties, including more than bought, for $4 million, an immense Chi- Fard, also known as Professor Ford and gasoline-electric drives are. all in the charge was about exhausted, the driver
5,000 acres of farmland and herds of cago church for conversion iijto a Farad Mohammed, in Detroit on July 4, running. Even spinning flywheels and would go into a replacement station. The
cattle in Michigan, Georgia and Ala- mosque. The Muslims intend to move 1930. The cult came to notice in 1932 solar cells are possibilities, but not good tray of discharged batteries would slide
bama (where Muslim property has been into it in May, after having paid $2 after one member sacrificed another. In
ones.
out, a newly charged tray would slide in
attacked by whites). In Chicago alone, million in cash, the other half to be paid 1933, Detroit police arrested Fard as
And, of course, better emission control and the driver could be on his way. The
Muhammad oversees the operation of in monthly installments of at least "chief of the Voodoo Cult," and au- may keep the ordinary gasoline engine station would recharge the old batteries
two restaurants, a supermarket, $25,000.
thorities told him to leave. He soon
and have them ready for the next man.
on top.
-"'' clothing store, dry-cleaners, bakery and
That the Muslims—or some of them— dropped from sight.
If the fuel is not to be gasoline, the
All this is very ingenious, but there is
several other ventures.
It was Detroit, too, where Muhammad
do have large amounts of money is
easiest substitute would be liquefied one big stumbling block to any quick and
They employ several hundred people, evident: Muhammad's son-in-law was first arrested. In 1934 he was con- natural gas (LNG). This already has general changeover to electric propulnot all Muslims not all blacks.
Sharrieff was robbed of $23,000 in his victed of keeping his children out of pub- been used experimentally by a gas sion. There just isn't enough electricity
The properties are owned by several home two years ago by gunmen who lic school and sending them to the newly
company and some police forces on the for so many cars.
corporations, including Progressive forced their way inside. Last August, founded University of Islam. He was Pacific Coast. The advantages are that
There is already a shortage of electric
Land Developers, United Dynamics and Muhammad himself reported to the po- placed ori probation. A quarrel in his it uses the same engine as a gasoline generation capacity—look at the usual
. Good Foods. The officers are members lice the theft of some $20,000 in cash
of the hierarchy of the Nation of Islam, from his Home.
but incorporation papers do not show
The members of the hierarchy drive
any ownership by members as a whole. expensive cars, and some have more
The president of the Nation of Islam than one. A Nigerian scholar, E. U. Esand the other corporations is a son-in- sien-Udom, quotes; Muhammad as
By LARRY HEINZERLING
law of Muhammad, Raymond Sharrieff, telling him 10 years ago: "The reason I
The boom is most visible in the development plan, designed to maintain
53. The treasurer of the Nation of Islam drive a Cadillac is obvious. Negroes
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — No modern capital of sleek skyscrapers a 7.7 per cent growth rate, and promote
is a son of Muhammad, Herbert, 43. place a high value on things like this, president has slaughtered as many overlooking blue lagoon.s, well-stocked increased development and benefits for
Herbert is an officer of several of the Personally, I would prefer any little old sacred cows in black Africa as the Ivory shopping centers, four-lane highways Ivorians in the economy.
corporations, as is John Hassan, 65. car. ... But if I did so, Negroes would Coast's Felix Houphouet-Biogny.
and the ultraluxurious, $35-million
All this would not be possible without
Hassan and Sharrieff, who are related, begin to say, 'Islam made him poor'."
France and Frenchmen.
For more than a decade, the suave, Ivoire Hotel.
have long worked with Elijah
Another member of the hierarchy who soft-spoken Houphouet, now 66, has
And Houphouet, French-educated, in
The Ivory Co.ast's gross domestic
Muhammad, who bestowed their Holy seems to have abundant resources is persistently pursued policies at home product has almost tripled since in- colonial days a member .of the French
Names. But the most important question Herbert Muhammad. Besides his and abroad clearly repugnant to many dependence, growing by more than 8 per National Assembly and a Cabinet
that one could ask, says Muhammad, is, executive position with the Nation of Is- of Africa's newly independent nations. cent a year—the highest growth rate on minister under Gen. Charles de Gaulle,
•v, "Who is God?" Muhammad's answer: lam and affiliated corporations, he also
is as French as he is African.
It irks his numerous critics that the continent.
Wallace D. Fard, who, Muhammad manages boxer Muhammad Ali, (Elijah Houphouet's controversial policies have
In 1951, nine years before inMost countries in black Africa
maintains, appointed him Messenger. "I 'Muhamrnad suspended Ali three years turned this former French colony into struggle to maintain growth rates of dependence, Houphouet swore to make
was surprised," he allowed recently, ago—"he ran after money too much"— the most prosperous showcase of from 3 to 4 per cent.
-the Ivory Coast "the most splendid and
"because I didn't think I was qualified." and revoked his Muslim name; Ali still development and political stability in
When the final figures are in for 1971, most loyal territory in the French
Fard, who was once convicted for is not restored to membership.) Ques- black Africa.
it is likely the GDP will have passed $1.6 Union."
violating narcotics and bootlegging tioned about his various interests,
France pumps millions of dollars of
For
example,
Houphouet— billion, or about $300, per inhabitant.
laws, regularly identified himself as a Herbert replied: "The Nation of Islam pronounced Who-Fwet—rejects the
The nation's future is charted by the aid into the country each year. But more
white or a Maori, a native New Zealand- has the No. 1 place in my life and in my xenophobic rhetoric of African ambitious $900 million 1971-1975 significant is the human investment
er of Polynesian stock, born in 1891. heart."
nationalism; he is ardently pro-West, an
_^ When his common-law wife, a white,
Herbert and his wife, Antonia, who is a old fashioned "laissez faire" capitalist,
*•
gave birth in Los Angeles, Fard was personal secretary to her father-in-law, as one acquaintance described him, who
listed on the certificate as white. When live with their children in a two-story has no time for "African socialism."
he entered San Quentin prison in 1926, he home in Chicago's South Shore district.
He says Soviet influence in North
again was recorded as white.
He also owns two apartments.
Africa and Chinese penetration of East
UDVtYl
Although Fard disappeared about
Whatever their outside interests, the Africa are the greatest threats facing
1934, Muhammad asserts that Fard Muslim faith has been commended. the continent.
speaks to him from time to time and George Anastaplo, author of "The ConHe dismisses the militant posturing on
even appeared to him in a vision a few stitutionalist," says, "I'm inclined to see "neoeoloialism," "imperialism" and
years ago. Is it really Fard's voice?
By DAVID POLING
the movement as bringing more good other pet concerns of the Organization of
Definitely, replied the 74-year-old than bad. Not only has it frightened African Unity. He considers the OAU's
Muhammad in a recent interview in his some whites into recognizing the plight saber rattling, as one observer put it, as
19-room home on Chicago's South Side. of Negroes, but the very program of the "a waste of time" and "a threat to
An important eyewitness
He said he recognizes Fard's voice Black Muslims has much to commend foreign investment."
to the Crucifixion was a - Cenbecause he spent "three years and near it: the emphasis is placed on clean livturion a t the foot of the
And, to the disdain of his fellow
Cross. He was stationed •
four months with him. ... He's very ing, financial responsibility, self- African heads of state, Houphouet relies
there, with other soldiers, to
much alive. He will be alive probably for discipline and consequently self- heavily on white men, mostly French, to
see that. Pilate's orders were
respect."
400 years yet."
help run this nation of five million on the
carried out.
continent's
western
bulge.
An hour later, when Muhammad was
Another white Chicagoan, Alderman
During the three hours of
requested to pose for a photo below a Leon Despres, observes: "The Nation of
Most controversial of all to Africans is
torture and dying, the Cenportrait of Fard, Muhammad declined, Islam seems to know how to help Houphouet's policy toward white-ruled
turion at the Cross observed
saying that if he were to do so, it might alienated, criminal black men, tough South Africa in which he advocates
the love, compassion, and
seem that he was trying "to make criminals, turn into hardworking peaceful coexistence and "dialogue" incaring of Jesus Christ. The
myself be some kind of a equal."
words and way of the
members of society. It takes men with stead of guerrilla war as urged by
prophet from Galilee reached
Muhammad, who has light skin and very badly damaged! egos, shattered others.
into his heart, and he exfine features, leaned his slight frame selfesteem and degraded images of
Houphouet, who is no supporter of
claimed to those around, him.
forward to catch a question. His health themselves and builds them up."
South Africa's apartheid policies,
"Truly, this was the Son of
has been fragile: he's afflicted with
Professor John Hope Franklin, of the nevertheless sees the arch villain of
God."
He became the first
asthma, and he keeps a home in University of Chicago, says of the black African polities' as a bulwark
Gentile witness to affirm that
Phoenix.
Muslims: "I've come to admire and re- against Communist penetration.
Jesus was of God.
Q—Who is next in line to become spect their entrepreneurial activities,
More importantly, say longtime obThe words of the Centurion
Messenger?
their agricultural, commercial and servers here, South Africa also offers
at the foot of the- Cross were
A—Well, that is up to Allah. I can't journalistic enterprises." Dr. Franklin, attractive trade potential to' the Ivory
important—for he was an
answer no such question.
a black, notes, "They seem terribly in- Coast. And continued economic progress
important and distinguished
Muhammad is building a mansion for terested in the careful rearing of their is the motive behind all of the Ivorian
leader of men.
himself next door to the one he now lives children, who are wellmannered and president's policies.
In a world torn.with civil
in, also four homes across the street— at well-groomed."
uncertainty and national upFor his trouble, Houphouet has been
a total cost that he has put at about $2
heaval, the Centurion was
Probably the most
generous branded Africa's "Uncle Tom," a
the remaining center of
million. ("Muhammad Speaks" on Feb. evaluations has come from black author "French puppet" and a "black Frenstrength and unswerving
25: "There is some very foolish and James Baldwin in "The Fire Next chman" by those unhappy over foreign
'loyalty to his post. It is not
irrational talk being spread about the Time." "Elijah Muhammad has been dominance of the Ivorian economy.
surprising that St. Paul uses
Honorable Elijah Muhammad taking able to do what generations of welfare
But Houphouet, who is in firm control
all the symbolism of military
the money from his poor followers and workers and committees and resolutions as leader of the country's only political
out the New Testament, regarb and equipment, worn "by
sponding to the moving of
giving it to his family and top laborers and reports and housing projects and body, the Democratic Party of the Ivory
the Centurion, to describe
the H o l y Spirit, becoming
and depriving his other followers. ... playgrounds have failed to do: to heal Coast, feels he has good reason to ignore
the attributes of the Chrisa "'bridge'' between Gentile
Some of you criticize his use of good and redeem drunkards and junkies, to the barbs.
tian faith: ("take the shield
and Jew.
homes and luxury cars. ... You who convert people who have come out of,
of faith," etc.)
Few, if any, countries in black Africa
Whether at Capernaum, or
speak against his building fine homes do prison and to keep them out, to make can boast an "economic miracle" on a
Centurions appear throughthe baptism of Centurion
so through envy. ..."
men chaste and women virtuous, and to scale evident here after 11 years of ininvest both the male and female with a dependence.
By MERV BLOCK
CHICAGO (AP) — Elijah Muhammad
teaches the blacks should help themselves and live simply so they can give
more money to the movement. Yet he
and his advisers live in handsome homes
and have abundant resources.
His followers are Black Muslims and
his cult the Nation of Islam, but they do
not follow the creed of Moslems, who believe in Islam, the faith founded by
- Mohammed.
Elijah Muhammad preaches black
supremacy; he prays to a man who
identified himself as white.
He denounces whites as devils and
bedevils blacks who don't accept his
dogma.
Those who do accept, attracted by the
apparent prosperity and strength of the
^ Nation of Islam, by the promise of selfimprovement; perhaps by the slogan,
"freedom, justice, equality," are asked
to follow an austere discipline. Members
are supposed to attend at least three
meetings a week, recite prayers five
times a day, eat only one meal a day,
abstain from drugs, alcohol, tobacco,
gambling, illicit sex and soul food; they
"* must pay dues plus frequent—and
sizable—assessments; they must be
clean, cooperative, obedient.
Estimates of the number of members
range from 1.5 million by Walter Turner, a nonMuslim, who is Muhammad's
director of press delations) down to 7,500
_ (by police). The Muslims keep their
enrollment secret (along with many
details of their activities.
Muhammad talks—by tape— on radio
stations across the country for a halfhour every week, and he appears on
television in Washington, D.C. He
operates 56 temples in 52 cities (some
have only a few dozen members). His
weekly tabloid newspaper "Muhammad
Speaks" reports a paid circulation of
529,930—at 20 cents a copy. He
distributes the paper from Chicago with
the help of the Nation's SuperConstellation plane and the zeal of
members who have to pay for copies
they can't sell.
s
Muhammad's influence is also
projected through his management of
and misused me." Less than a year after
- the split, Malcolm X was assassinated.
Convicted of the crime were two Black
Muslims and a man believed to be one.
Last year, about 25 Muslims walked •
out of Muhammad's Temple No. 2 in
Chicago with the complaint that not
enough money collected from members
was reaching poor blacks. One of the
dissidents was shot to death in Chicago,
and another, who went to Oakland,
Calif., was murdered there. Last October, someone fired at Muhammad's
chief deputy, Sharrieff, and nicked him.
What's the outlook for the Nation of
Islam? Much, of course, depends on how
strongly the leaders pursue their business interests and, especially, who will
next step forward to assert that he hears
, the voice of Fard—and has the power to
enforce his claim.
Car Of The Future?
summer brownouts and blackouts. The
Edison Institute estimates that if all
gasoline cars were to be converted to
electricity, two more power stations
would have to be built for every one now
in existence. In other words, the nation
would have to triple its power capacity.
Solar cells have been used to power a
tractor on an experimental basis. A
canopy over the tractor was covered
with the cells, which convert sunlight
into electric current. But that means
staying home on cloudy days, and no
night driving at all.
Closer to reality is steam power,
which was the original way of moving
vehicles. The Stanley
Steamer
automobile is part of American folklore
even though the company went out of
existence during the Depression. The
Stanley held the 105-mile-an-hour record
in 1906.
Well, the steam engine is back—two of
them, in fact. One steam bus already
toured the country.on-exhibition and is
now carrying passengers in California.
The other is a steam turbine for
automobiles, promised by William Lear.
It has driven a 50-passenger bus but
hasn't had the exposure of the other bus.
The first steam bus, built by Brobeck
and Associates, uses diesel oil and burns
it more completely than an ordinary
diesel engine does, the builders say.
However, fuel consumption is
reported to be twice as high as a regular
bus and it takes 10 minutes to get up
enough steam to start out in the m'ofning.
Africa's Uncle Tom, Or Its Savior???
they uoalkeo
here of thousands of individual Frenchmen.
•/
At independence in 1960, the number
of French in the Ivory Coast was
estimated at 10,000. Today, estimates go
as high as 50,000 including som'e 7,000 invovled in the administration of the
country. Most run the major corporations as well as bakeries and bars,
restaurants and barber shops and
hundreds of other small businesses.
Houphouet keeps the French because
he does not believe in placing untrained
Africans in critical posts. The few
Ivorians that do get jobs at the top are
"extremely efficient and competent,"
says one economist. "They get jobs on
merit rather than through favors."
The Centurion at the Cross
Cornelius or a t the foot of the
Cross, military men find the
presence of a higher power
and a greater command—the
spiritual reality of the Son
of God.
(NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN.)