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Saviours' Day is a holiday of the Nation of Islam commemorating the birth of its founder, Master Wallace Fard Muhammad (W. D. Fard), officially stated to be February 26, 1877. It was established by Elijah Muhammad.
The Community of Imam Warith Deen Mohammed (American Society of Muslims) observed a similar celebration, observed on the last weekend of February. Warith Deen Mohammed (son of Elijah Muhammad) changed the name of the celebration to Survival Day in 1976 [1] and then to Ethnic Survival Day from 1979 to 1980 and made it a week long celebration. The change formed part of his rejection of his father's portrayal of Fard as a divine savior. [2] [3]
Warith Deen Mohammed eventually discontinued the celebration of Survival Day for his community and eventually returned to the celebration of Saviours' Day with the emphasis being on the history of the Nation of Islam and Elijah Muhammad and not W. D. Fard. Warith Deen Mohammed re-instituted Saviours' Day for his community on Feb 26, 2000, after joining the Nation of Islam's Saviours' Day that year.
Louis Farrakhan reconvened Saviours' Day in 1981 when he reestablished the Nation of Islam under his leadership. [4] Under Farrakhan's leadership, the annual commemoration has become a three-day gathering with speakers, seminars and workshops. [5] Since 2010, it has included a Dianetics Auditor graduation ceremony, overseen by officials from both the Nation and also the Church of Scientology. Under Farrakhan, Dianetics has been advocated publicly since 2010, and it has been embraced by his followers, over a thousand of whom are now trained in Dianetics auditing. [6]
When Elijah Muhammad started the celebration, he called it Saviour's Day. Farrakhan moved the apostrophe, changing it to Saviours' Day to add Elijah Muhammad as a saviour along with Master Fard Muhammad.
Other, smaller Nation of Islam communities not related to Minister Farrakhan also hold Saviour's Day celebrations.
The Nation of Islam uses the British spelling version of the word saviour, rather than the American spelling savior. The Nation of Islam under Louis Farrakhan's leadership places a possessive apostrophe at the end of the word, emphasising the plural to indicate that “Black men and women must be the ‘saviours’ of themselves and their communities.” This plural form of the spelling was announced in 1983 to represent that responsibility. [7] However, the original spelling with the apostrophe before the "s" is also used. [8]
The Nation of Islam (NOI) is a religious and political organization founded in the United States by Wallace Fard Muhammad in 1930. A black nationalist organization, the NOI focuses its attention on the African diaspora, especially on African Americans. While it identifies itself as promoting a form of Islam, its beliefs differ considerably from mainstream Islamic traditions. Scholars of religion characterize it as a new religious movement. It operates as a centralized and hierarchical organization.
Louis Farrakhan is an American religious leader, black supremacist, anti-white and antisemitic conspiracy theorist, and former singer who heads the Nation of Islam (NOI). Prior to joining the NOI, he was a calypso singer who used the stage name Calypso Gene. Earlier in his career, he served as the minister of mosques in Boston and Harlem and was appointed National Representative of the Nation of Islam by then NOI leader Elijah Muhammad. He adopted the name Louis X, before being named Louis Farrakhan.
A number of organizations and academics consider the Nation of Islam to be antisemitic, stating that it has engaged in Holocaust denial and antisemitic interpretations of the Holocaust, and exaggerates the role of Jews in the African slave trade, whereas mainstream historians, such as Saul S. Friedman, have said Jews had a negligible role. The Nation of Islam has repeatedly rejected charges made against it as false and politically motivated.
Wallace Dodd Fard, also known as Wallace Fard Muhammad or Master Fard Muhammad, was the founder of the Nation of Islam. He arrived in Detroit in 1930 with an obscure background and several aliases, and taught an idiosyncratic form of what he considered Islam to members of the city's black population. In 1934, he disappeared from public record, and Elijah Muhammad succeeded him as leader of the Nation of Islam.
Elijah Muhammad was an American religious leader, black separatist, self-proclaimed Messenger of Allah, who led the Nation of Islam (NOI) from 1934 until his death in 1975. Muhammad was also the teacher and mentor of Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan, Muhammad Ali, and his own son, Warith Deen Mohammed.
Warith Deen Mohammed, also known as W. Deen Mohammed, Imam W. Deen Muhammad and Imam Warith Deen, was an African-American Muslim leader, theologian, philosopher, Muslim revivalist, and Islamic thinker (1975–2008) who disbanded the original Nation of Islam (NOI) in 1976 and transformed it into an ostensibly orthodox mainstream Islamic movement, the Bilalians (1975), World Community of Al-Islam in the West (1976–77), American Muslim Mission (1978–85), which later became the American Society of Muslims. He was a son of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam from 1933 to 1975.
In the beliefs of the Nation of Islam (NOI), Yakub was a black scientist who lived 6,600 years ago and began the creation of the white race. He is said to have done this through a form of selective breeding which is referred to as "grafting", while he was living on the island of Patmos. The Nation of Islam's theology states that Yakub is the biblical Jacob.
The Fruit of Islam (FOI) is the security and disciplinary wing of the Nation of Islam (NOI). It has also been described as its paramilitary wing. The Fruit of Islam wear distinctive blue, brown or white uniforms and caps and have units at all NOI temples. Louis Farrakhan, as head of the Nation of Islam, is commander-in-chief of the Fruit of Islam, and his son, Mustapha Farrakhan Sr., is second in command as the Supreme Captain. The women's counterpart to the Fruit of Islam is Muslim Girls Training (MGT).
The Mosque Cares is a non-profit Islamic da'wah project founded by Imam Warith Deen Muhammad (1933–2008), a former leader of the Nation of Islam and a son and successor to its first Supreme Minister Elijah Muhammad (1897–1975).
Muhammad Speaks was one of the most widely read newspapers ever produced by an African-American organization. It was the official newspaper of the Nation of Islam from 1960 to 1975, founded by a group of Elijah Muhammad's ministers, including Malcolm X. After Elijah Muhammad's death in 1975, it was renamed several times after Warith Deen Mohammed moved the Nation of Islam into mainstream Sunni Islam, culminating in The Muslim Journal. A number of rival journals were also published, including The Final Call under Louis Farrakhan, claiming to continue the message of the original.
Clara Muhammad was born in Macon, Georgia, the daughter of Mary Lou (Thomas) and Quartus Evans. She was the wife of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad. They married in Georgia in 1917, before he changed his name from Elijah Poole. Between 1917 and 1939, Elijah and Clara Muhammad had eight children: six boys and two girls, including Warith Deen Muhammad.
This article is about the beliefs and theology of the Nation of Islam.
Muhammad University of Islam (MUI) is a Nation of Islam (NOI)-affiliated preschool to 12th Grade school in the South Shore area of Chicago, Illinois, United States, located next to Mosque Maryam. Every major NOI mosque has a MUI. The schools are headed by the Nation of Islam's Ministry of Education, led by Dr. Larry Muhammad. Established in 1930, MUI is the first Islamic Black school system in America.
The American Society of Muslims was a predominantly African-American association of Muslims which was the direct descendant of the original Nation of Islam. It was created by Warith Deen Mohammed after he assumed leadership of the Nation of Islam upon the death of his father Elijah Muhammad. Imam W. Deen Mohammed changed the name of the Nation of Islam to the "World Community of Islam in the West" in 1976, then the "American Muslim Mission" in 1981, and finally the "American Society of Muslims".
Tynnetta Muhammad was a scientist, writer, researcher, scholar, and spiritual leader of the Nation of Islam. In the 1960s, she wrote articles and columns for the Nation of Islam (NOI) newsletter Muhammad Speaks. She was wife of Elijah Muhammad, and mother of four of his children.
Ishmael Muhammad, is an American member of the Nation of Islam, and son of Elijah Muhammad and Tynnetta Muhammad. He is the Nation of Islam national assistant minister to Louis Farrakhan. In 1995, Muhammad was a speaker at the Million Man March.
Akbar Muhammad was an associate Professor Emeritus of history and Africana studies at Binghamton University in New York. He specialized in African history, West African social history, as well as the study of Islam in Africa and the Americas. He is the co-editor of Racism, Sexism, and the World-System, along with Joan Smith, Jane Collins, and Terrence K. Hopkins. His own writings focused on slavery in Muslim Africa, Muslims in the United States, and integration in Nigeria through the use of education. He holds a notable role in the history of the Nation of Islam.
Black nationalism is a type of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that black people are a race, and which seeks to develop and maintain a black racial and national identity. Black nationalist activism revolves around the social, political, and economic empowerment of black communities and people, especially to resist their assimilation into white culture, and maintain a distinct black identity.
African-American Muslims, also colloquially known as Black Muslims, are an African American religious minority. About 1% of African Americans are Muslims. Nonetheless, African American Muslims account for over 20% of American Muslims. They represent one of the larger minority Muslim populations of the United States as there is no ethnic group that makes up the majority of American Muslims. They are represented in Sunni and Shia denominations as well as smaller sects, such as the Nation of Islam. The history of African-American Muslims is related to African-American history in general, and goes back to the Revolutionary and Antebellum eras.
Muhammad Ali was initially raised as a Baptist before entering Islam.