Nation of Islam's future uncertain as Farrakhan prepares to step down

The fiery leader helped the group become more engaged in US society but didn't groom a successor.

By Amanda Paulson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the February 28, 2007 edition

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CHICAGO - In an address to members of the Nation of Islam at the end of the sect's three-day convention in Detroit, Louis Farrakhan's main subject was the importance of religious unity and peace.

That message, delivered Sunday, is possibly the last address from the fiery leader, who hadn't appeared in public for seven months and who announced he will be stepping down due to health reasons. It may seem less inflammatory than the rhetoric for which Mr. Farrakhan is sometimes known, but some say it was typical of the direction he has been taking the Nation in recent years.

The organization has played an important role in civil rights and African–American empowerment even as it has been criticized for its separatist and sometimes racist views. Now, it faces perhaps its most critical juncture since the split that occurred in the mid-70s, when Farrakhan took over the Nation and many members left to follow Imam Warith Deen (W.D.) Muhammad.

"As with so many other religious movements, the charisma of the leader is extremely important," says Anthony Pinn, a religious studies and humanities professor at Rice University, who said he can't think of anyone positioned within the Nation at this point to assume leadership. "Whoever takes over after the Minister Louis Farrakhan will have rather large shoes to fill. What the Nation of Islam is able to do will depend to some extent on the weight this person will carry."

Farrakhan has been a controversial and powerful leader for the Nation of Islam for nearly three decades. The sect was founded in 1930 by Wallace Fard Muhammad as a separatist black religious and political organization and continued for more than 40 years under the leadership of Elijah Muhammad. Farrakhan reconstituted the Nation after Elijah Muhammad's son – also known as W.D. Muhammad – had dissolved it and moved toward traditional Sunni Islam.

But membership in the organization – while no one knows the exact numbers – is thought to have dwindled to somewhere between 30,000 and 70,000 today. Still, while more African-American Muslims today may follow more mainstream brands of Islam such as Imam W. D. Muhammad's, the Nation's political power and influence persist.

"Whenever African-Americans bump up against racial discrimination, lots of folks within African-American communities assume the Nation of Islam will have something to say," says Professor Pinn. "It still holds the popular imagination of the United States in significant ways, and it still has significance for African-American communities and will for some time."

Farrakhan helped return the Nation of Islam to Elijah Muhammad's controversial teachings: that the original founder was an incarnation of God, for instance, and that a "Mother Plane" – like a UFO – will eventually descend. Farrakhan also helped turn the Nation into a more outwardly focused group.

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