III.

The Nation of Islam

The Nation of Islam has established accredited schools in more than 45 cities. The organization has sent the produce of their farmland by their own trucks and airplanes throughout the United States. The Final Call, a weekly newspaper founded as Muhammad Speaks, has a wide national circulation and an Internet version. The Nation of Islam rehabilitates convicts, drug addicts, and alcoholics through the so-called doing-for-self philosophy. Although no membership records are kept; estimates of membership range widely, from 10,000 to 200,000 followers.

In the early 1990s Farrakhan became an increasingly controversial figure. He was quoted as calling Judaism a “gutter religion” and referred to German dictator Adolf Hitler, who was responsible for killing millions of Jews (see Holocaust), as a “great” man. Although Farrakhan’s defenders later attempted to clarify that he was using the term in the sense of “historically significant,” his controversial remarks on the radio and at press conferences were widely condemned by other black leaders.

In 1995 Farrakhan organized the Million Man March in Washington, D.C., to draw attention to the plight of black men in the United States. In 1999 Farrakhan battled prostate cancer. In February 2000 he returned to the public stage when he reconciled with his longtime rival Warith Deen Mohammed. Their reconciliation was part of a reported effort by Farrakhan to move the Nation of Islam closer to the mainstream of Islamic belief and practice.

Radiation treatment was successful in treating Farrakhan’s cancer, but it damaged other organs of his body. In August 2006 Farrakhan’s poor health forced him to turn over control of the Nation of Islam to an executive committee. In February 2007 he gave what was described as his “last major address” to a meeting of the Nation of Islam.