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Muslim Girls Training & General Civilization Class (MGT & GCC) is the all-female training program of the Nation of Islam. It is often considered to be the counterpart for girls and women to the Fruit of Islam.
The Muslim Girls Training & General Civilization Class is one of the institutions established in 1933 by Wallace Fard Muhammad, founder of the Nation of Islam. [1] He also established the University of Islam schools and the Fruit of Islam in that year before vanishing in 1934. [2] As the Nation of Islam sought to reshape the Black Muslim identity in America, so too did these classes aim to create a new identity for women in the Nation. [3] MGT & GCC classes operated under the belief that white America was corrupting Muslim women's natural grace and wisdom. [4] Classes are generally held at least once a week. [5] MGT & GCC schools existed throughout much of the United States, including in New York, Detroit, Chicago, and Philadelphia, many remaining till today. [6]
The MGT & GCC classes were organized much like the military: at the top position was the Sister Captain, followed by lieutenants, secretaries, and squad leaders. [7] The leadership ran practices to demonstrate being a proper Muslim woman, which included teaching about motherhood, proper dress and behavior, and relationships. [8] The classes were meant as a way to purity, protect, and support Muslim girls and women, promising shelter from the devil and wicked non-believers. [9]
Sister Captains
Serving at the top of the hierarchy of the MGT & GCC, were routinely monitored by Elijah Muhammad during the time of his life. [10] Sister Captains are the primary figure of authority within the affairs of women of the National of Islam; and they were, and remain to be their job to hold the women within their respective communities to the standards recognized by Elijah Muhammad's. [11]
The students were expected to follow a set of fifteen mandates drawn from the ideology of the Nation of Islam. [12] They include forbidding behaviors such as consuming alcohol, adultery, marrying outside of the faith, and inappropriate dress. [13] Inappropriate dress was mainly characterized as that which is tempting to men, including form-fitting or revealing clothes, makeup, and high heels. [14] The classes were developed to teach domestic duties like cooking and nutrition, sewing, cleaning, housekeeping, child bearing, religious instruction, and personal hygiene. The main themes present throughout the teachings of MGT & GCC classes include modesty, abstinence, and being a proper mother and wife. [15]
Malcolm X was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Islam (NOI) until 1964, he was a vocal advocate for Black empowerment and the promotion of Islam within the Black community. A posthumous autobiography, on which he collaborated with Alex Haley, was published in 1965.
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 Islamic traditions. Scholars of religion characterize it as a new religious movement. It operates as a centralized and hierarchical organization.
In modern usage, hijab generally refers to various head coverings conventionally worn by many Muslim women. It is similar to the tichel or snood worn by Orthodox Jewish women, certain headcoverings worn by some Christian women, such as the mantilla, apostolnik and wimple, and the dupatta worn by many Hindu and Sikh women. Whilst a hijab can come in many forms, it often specifically refers to a scarf wrapped around the head, covering the hair, neck and ears but leaving the face visible. The use of the hijab has been on the rise worldwide since the 1970s and is viewed by many Muslims as expressing modesty and faith; it has also been worn for purposes of adornment. There is a consensus among Islamic religious scholars that covering the head is either required or preferred, though some Muslim scholars and activists point out that it is not mandated.
Wallace Fard Muhammad, also known as Wallace D. Fard or Master Fard Muhammad, was the founder of the Nation of Islam. He arrived in Detroit in 1930 with an ambiguous background and several aliases, and proselytized idiosyncratic Islamic teachings to 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, and self-proclaimed Messenger of Allah who led the Nation of Islam (NOI) from 1933 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).
Islamic feminism is a form of feminism concerned with the role of women in Islam. It aims for the full equality of all Muslims, regardless of gender, in public and private life. Islamic feminists advocate for women's rights, gender equality, and social justice grounded in an Islamic framework. Although rooted in Islam, the movement's pioneers have also utilized secular, Western, or otherwise non-Muslim feminist discourses, and have recognized the role of Islamic feminism as part of an integrated global feminist movement.
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.
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, when she was 20 and he was 22 years old, 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.
Herbert Berg is a scholar of religion. Trained at the University of Toronto's Centre for the Study of Religion in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he is currently a Visiting assistant professor of Religious Studies at Rhodes College. He previously taught as a professor in the Department of International Studies and the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and was the Director of the International Studies from 2011 to 2018. At UNCW, he has been recognized with the University of North Carolina Board of Governor's Award for Excellence in Teaching (2019), the Governor's Award for Excellence for "Outstanding State Government Service" (2013), the Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award (2013), the Board of Trustees Teaching Excellence Award (2012), the Distinguished Teaching Professorship Award (2012), and the Chancellor's Teaching Excellence Award (2006).
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.
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. 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.
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.
Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons is an American activist and retired academic. She is senior lecturer emerita at the University of Florida since her retirement in 2019. Her research has explored Islamic feminism and the impact of Sharia law on Muslim women. She is a civil rights activist who served as a member of both the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Nation of Islam (NOI).
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