AMERICA'S EARLY EXPERIENCE WITH THE MUSLIM FAITH: THE NATION OF ISLAM

Middle East Policy, Fall 2008 by Talhami, Ghada Hashem

A more ambitious surveillance program targeted leading African-American activists such as Martin Luther King, Jr., of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Stokely Carmichael and Rap Brown of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Elijah Muhammad of the NOI and Maxwell Stanford of the Revolutionary Action Movement. The purpose of this large operation, which involved representatives of 41 FBI field offices, was "to prevent the ... growth of militant black nationalist organizations."'4 An FBI memo dated March 4, 1968, read: "An effective coalition of black nationalist groups might be the first step toward a real 'Mau' in America, and the beginning of a true black revolution." It added that the FBI's objective was also to eliminate the possibility of an emergence of a "messiah" capable of galvanizing the black community. It even suggested that, had Malcolm X lived, he "might have been such a 'messiah'; he is the martyr of the movement today." It named Martin Luther King, Stokely Carmichael and Elijah Muhammad as the main aspirants to this role. The memo explained that "King would be a real contender for this position should he abandon his supposed 'obedience' to white, liberal doctrines (nonviolence) and embrace black nationalism ... ."'5

The prophecy of a black messiah, first circulated during the Garveyite movement, had finally drawn the FBI's gaze to Malcolm X. As he began to reflect the views of black nationalist militants and embrace the worldview of Pan-Africanism, his figure loomed larger than that of Elijah Muhammad across the stage of the civil-rights movement. Once his star began to rise, the FBI established a retrospective file on him, illuminating previously neglected facets of his life in the 1950s and 1960s. Malcolm's activities and rhetoric became more alarming once his break with Elijah led him to call for greater black political and economic autonomy through the development of racial pride and communal solidarity. Malcolm X and black nationalist activists were transforming the consciousness of the Afro-American community, demanding rights beyond what was specified in the Constitution.

Malcolm X's critique of the centrist elements within the civil-rights movement did not preclude his cooperation with its more radical wings. During the 1960s, Malcolm's and Elijah's cool reaction to Martin Luther King's emerging national status as a black leader raised alarm in the intelligence community. Malcolm's break with Elijah did not improve relations with Martin Luther King, although some cooperation resulted from a suggestion by the letter's aide that Malcolm assist in securing a UN declaration in support of the rights of Afro-Americans. Malcolm's call for a separatist solution and for a PanAfrican solution based on his rejection of white values aroused a great deal of white concern. His break with Elijah after his return from a celebrated pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964 heightened, rather than dampened, FBI interest in his activities. It was not the Islamic focus of his activism that alarmed the bureau as much as the radical intensification of his racial rhetoric as evident in his new group, the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Not surprisingly, during the years just before he was killed, the direction of his work forced an inevitable merger with such secular and black-liberation groups as SNCC. Eventually, he toured Africa with officers of this organization who discovered that he had already made a strong impression on native advocates of Pan-Africanism. It was in Africa that he seriously began to discuss his plan of making the UN General Assembly look into U.S. violations of AfroAmerican rights.16 In his speech on African-American history before a 1965 meeting of his Organization of African-American Unity, Malcolm made his views on constitutional progress very clear: