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A Torchlight for America is a religious text of the Nation of Islam, written by Louis Farrakhan.
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A Torchlight for America is a religious text of the Nation of Islam, written by Louis Farrakhan.
Farrakhan gave a speech titled A Torchlight for America on October 18, 1992, at the Georgia Dome with 55,000 people attending. [1] In 1993, Farrakhan publish an expanded form of the speech through FCN Publishing. [2]
The book is anti-prison, suggesting that rehabilitation is best achieved through Islam, in particular for Black Muslims. [3] It also refers to the teachings of Elijah Muhammad as an important source for remedying crime and drug addiction. [4]
Mattias Gardell described A Torchlight for America as Farrakhan's "vision to rid America of classism, racism, and sexism". [5]
In his text, Terror and triumph: the nature of Black religion, Anthony B. Pinn writes that Farrakhan's work "connotes a mainstream take on national developments. This is the case because it highlights problems within the American system that many outside the Nation of Islam would recognize as valid points of discussion, based on a system of ethics and morality, of corporate accountability, not uncommon in dominant political discourse." [6]
C. Eric Lincoln, the author of The Black Muslims in America, wrote that "the essence of Farrakhan is formally spelled out" in A Torchlight for America [7]
Cornel West called the text, "a call for dialogue." [8] [ page needed ]
Gilles Kepel wrote that, in his text, Farrakhan "presented the community model of the Black Muslims as an example for the whole of the country, which he envisaged as a series of communities living side by side." [8] [ page needed ]
The text has been controversial due to its opposition to homosexuality and abortion. [9] [10] Farrakhan writes that, "We must change homosexual behavior and get rid of the circumstances that bring it about." In the text, Farrakhan also equates abortion to murder. [11]
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 describing itself as Islamic, its religious tenets, while phrased in Islamic terminology, differ considerably from mainstream African-American 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 who heads the Nation of Islam (NOI), a black nationalist organization. Farrakhan is notable for his leadership of the 1995 Million Man March in Washington, D.C. and for his rhetoric that has been widely denounced as antisemitic and racist.
A number of organizations and academics consider the Nation of Islam (NOI) to be antisemitic. The NOI has engaged in Holocaust denial, and exaggerates the role of Jews in the African slave trade; mainstream historians, such as Saul S. Friedman, have said Jews had a negligible role. The NOI has repeatedly rejected charges made against it as false and politically motivated.
Elijah Muhammad was an American religious leader, black separatist, and 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 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.
According to 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 mythology 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).
Saviours' Day is a holiday of the Nation of Islam commemorating the birth of its founder, Master Wallace Fard Muhammad, officially stated to be February 26, 1877. It was established by Elijah Muhammad.
The Hayer affidavits are two affidavits made by Talmadge Hayer—also known by the name Thomas Hagan—the convicted assassin of Malcolm X. The statements give Hayer's account of his involvement in the planning and execution of the murder.
How To Eat To Live is a series of two books published by Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad in the 1960s, which are still in print. (ISBN 978-1884855160) The books cover his philosophies on healthy eating and the Black Muslims' prescribed diet.
Muhammad Speaks was a Black Muslim newspaper published in the United States. It 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.
Hans Bertil Mattias Gardell is a Swedish historian and scholar of comparative religion. He is the current holder of the Nathan Söderblom Chair of Comparative Religion at Uppsala University, Sweden. He was the first Lenin Award laureate in 2009, and received The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities Award for Distinguished Research in the Humanities, the Royal Gold Medal, in 2003.
The Nation of Islam (NOI) is a black nationalist religious group founded in the United States by Wallace Fard Muhammad in 1930. 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. It has been characterized by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League as a black supremacist hate group.
Ava Muhammad was an American Black Muslim. In 1998 she became the first female Minister to preside over a mosque and region in the history of the Nation of Islam (NOI). Her job as national spokesperson for Minister Farrakhan is among the most prominent in the nation — a post formerly held by Malcolm X under Nation of Islam patriarch Elijah Muhammad. Minister Ava Muhammad is also a member of the Muslim Girls Training (MGT).
Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, born Ernest Timothy McGhee, was leader of the Hanafi Movement, a Black Muslim group based in Washington, D.C.
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. Warith 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" in 1988.
Tynnetta Muhammad was an American writer. In the 1960s, she wrote articles and columns for the Nation of Islam (NOI) newsletter Muhammad Speaks. She was one of Elijah Muhammad’s wives, 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.
African-American Muslims, also colloquially known as Black Muslims, are an African American religious minority. 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.
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