Attendees of the 1928 Moorish Science Temple Of America Convention in Chicago. Noble Drew Ali is in white in the front row center.
Noble Drew Ali
Grand Sheik E. Mealy El in an undated photo, ca. 1928
Posted on 07/03/2021 9:18:21 AM PDT by daniel1212
The Moorish Science Temple of America is an American national and religious organization founded by Noble Drew Ali (born as Timothy Drew). He based it on the premise that African Americans are descendants of the Moabites and thus are "Moorish" (sometimes also spelled "Muurish" by adherents) by nationality, and Islamic by faith. Ali put together elements of major traditions to develop a message of personal transformation through historical education, racial pride and spiritual uplift. His doctrine was also intended to provide African Americans with a sense of identity in the world and to promote civic involvement.
An organisation with headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland, claiming to be "the ONLY Moorish Science Temple teaching the full National side of the Moorish Movement",[1] is the Moorish Science Temple, with registered business names of the Divine and National Movement of North America, Inc., and Moorish American National Republic.[2][3] A Facebook page and various documents are titled Moorish Divine and National Movement.[4][5]
One primary tenet of the Moorish Science Temple is the belief that African Americans are of "Moorish" descent, specifically from the "Moroccan Empire". According to Ali, this area included other countries that today surround Morocco. To join the movement, individuals had to proclaim their "Moorish nationality". They were given "nationality cards". In religious texts, adherents refer to themselves racially as "Asiatics", as the Middle East is also western Asia.[6] Adherents of this movement are known as "Moorish-American Moslems" and are called "Moorish Scientists" in some circles.[7]
The Moorish Science Temple of America was incorporated under the Illinois Religious Corporation Act 805 ILCS 110. Timothy Drew, known to its members as Prophet Noble Drew Ali, founded the Moorish Science Temple of America in 1913 in Newark, New Jersey, a booming industrial city. After some difficulties, Ali moved to Chicago, establishing a center there, as well as temples in other major cities. The movement expanded rapidly during the late 1920s. The quick expansion of the Moorish Science Temple arose in large part from the search for identity and context among black Americans at the time of the Great Migration to northern and midwestern cities, as they were becoming an urbanized people.[8]
Competing factions developed among the congregations and leaders, especially after the death of the charismatic Ali. Three independent organizations developed from this ferment. The founding of the Nation of Islam by Wallace Fard Muhammad in 1930 also created competition for members. In the 1930s membership was estimated at 30,000, with one third in Chicago. During the postwar years, the Moorish Science Temple of America continued to increase in membership, albeit at a slower rate.
Timothy Drew was believed to have been born on January 8, 1886 in North Carolina, United States.[9] Sources differ as to his background and upbringing: one reports he was the son of two former slaves who was adopted by a tribe of Cherokee;[10] another describes Drew as the son of a Moroccan Muslim father and a Cherokee mother.[11] In 2014 an article in the online Journal of Race Ethnicity and Religion attempted to link Timothy Drew to one Thomas Drew, born January 8, 1886, using census records, a World War I draft card, and street directory records.[12]
Founding of the Moorish Science Temple
Drew Ali reported that during his travels, he met with a high priest of Egyptian magic. In one version of Drew Ali's biography, the leader saw him as a reincarnation of the founder. In others, he says that the priest considered him a reincarnation of Jesus, the Buddha, Muhammad and other religious prophets. According to the biography, the high priest trained Ali in mysticism and gave him a "lost section" of the Quran.[13]
This text came to be known as the Holy Koran of the Moorish Science Temple of America. It is also known as the "Circle Seven Koran" because of its cover, which features a red "7" surrounded by a blue circle. The first 19 chapters are from The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ, published in 1908 by esoteric Ohio preacher Levi Dowling. In The Aquarian Gospel, Dowling described Jesus' supposed travels in India, Egypt, and Palestine during the years of his life which are not accounted for by the New Testament.[14]
Chapters 20 through 45 are borrowed from the Rosicrucian work, Unto Thee I Grant with minor changes in style and wording. They are instructions on how to live, and the education and duties of adherents.[15]
Drew Ali wrote the last four chapters of the Circle Seven Koran himself. In these he wrote:
The fallen sons and daughters of the Asiatic Nation of North America need to learn to love instead of hate; and to know of their higher self and lower self. This is the uniting of the Holy Koran of Mecca for teaching and instructing all Moorish Americans, etc. The key of civilization was and is in the hands of the Asiatic nations. The Moorish, who were the ancient Moabites, and the founders of the Holy City of Mecca.[16]
Drew Ali and his followers used this material to claim, "Jesus and his followers were Asiatic." ("Asiatic" was the term Drew Ali used for all dark or olive-colored people; he labeled all whites as European. He suggested that all Asiatics should be allied.)[17]
Drew Ali crafted Moorish Science from a variety of sources, a "network of alternative spiritualities that focused on the power of the individual to bring about personal transformation through mystical knowledge of the divine within".[17] In the inter-war years in Chicago and other major cities, he used these concepts to preach racial pride and uplift. His approach appealed to thousands of African Americans who had left severely oppressive conditions in the South through the Great Migration and faced struggles in new urban environments.[17]
Ali believed that African Americans are all Moors, who he claimed were descended from the ancient Moabites (describing them as belonging to Northwest Africa as opposed to Moab as the name suggests).[18] He claimed that Islam and its teachings are more beneficial to their earthly salvation, and that their 'true nature' had been 'withheld' from them. In the traditions he founded, male members of the Temple wear a fez or turban as head covering; women wear a turban.[19]
They added the suffixes Bey or El to their surnames, to signify Moorish heritage as well as their taking on the new life as Moorish Americans. It was also a way to claim and proclaim a new identity over that lost to the enslavement of their ancestors. These suffixes were a sign to others that while one's African tribal name may never be known to them, European names given by their enslavers were not theirs, either.[citation needed]
As Drew Ali began his version of teaching the Moorish-Americans to become better citizens, he made speeches like, "A Divine Warning By the Prophet for the Nations", in which he urged them to reject derogatory labels, such as "Black", "colored", and "Negro". He urged Americans of all races to reject hate and embrace love. He believed that Chicago would become a second Mecca.[citation needed]
The ushers of the Temple wore black fezzes. The leader of a particular temple was known as a Grand Sheik, or Governor. Noble Drew Ali had several wives.[20] According to The Chicago Defender, he claimed the power to marry and divorce at will.[21]
Early history
In 1913, Drew Ali formed the Canaanite Temple in Newark, New Jersey.[22] He left the city after agitating people with his views on race.[23] Drew Ali and his followers migrated, while planting congregations in Philadelphia; Washington, D.C., and Detroit. Finally, Drew Ali settled in Chicago in 1925, saying the Midwest was "closer to Islam".[24] The following year he officially registered Temple No. 9.
There he instructed followers not to be confrontational but to build up their people to be respected. In this way, they might take their place in the United States by developing a cultural identity that was congruent with Drew Ali's beliefs on personhood.[25] In the late 1920s, journalists estimated the Moorish Science Temple had 35,000 members in 17 temples in cities across the Midwest and upper South.[26] It was reportedly studied and watched by the Chicago police.
Building Moorish-American businesses was part of their program, and in that was similar to Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League and the later Nation of Islam.[27] By 1928, members of the Moorish Science Temple of America had obtained some respectability within Chicago and Illinois, as they were featured prominently and favorably in the pages of The Chicago Defender, an African-American newspaper, and conspicuously collaborated with African American politician and businessman Daniel Jackson.[28]
Drew Ali attended the January 1929 inauguration of Louis L. Emmerson, as 27th Governor of Illinois in the state capital of Springfield. The Chicago Defender stated that his trip included "interviews with many distinguished citizens from Chicago, who greeted him on every hand."[29] With the growth in its population and membership, Chicago was established as the center of the movement. Internal split and murder
In early 1929, following a conflict over funds, Claude Green-Bey, the business manager of Chicago Temple No. 1 split from the Moorish Science Temple of America. He declared himself Grand Sheik and took a number of members with him. On March 15, Green-Bey was stabbed to death at the Unity Hall of the Moorish Science Temple, on Indiana Avenue in Chicago.[30]
Drew Ali was out of town at the time, as he was dealing with former Supreme Grand Governor Lomax Bey (professor Ezaldine Muhammad), who had supported Green-Bey's attempted coup.[31] When Drew Ali returned to Chicago, the police arrested him and other members of the community on suspicion of having instigated the killing. No indictment was sworn for Drew Ali at that time. The death of Drew Ali
Shortly after his release by the police, Drew Ali died at age 43 at his home in Chicago on July 20, 1929.[32] Although the exact circumstances of his death are unknown, the Certificate of Death stated that Noble Drew Ali died from "tuberculosis broncho-pneumonia".[33] Despite the official report, many of his followers speculated that his death was caused by injuries from the police or from other members of the faith.[34] Others thought it was due to pneumonia. One Moor told The Chicago Defender, "The Prophet was not ill; his work was done and he laid his head upon the lap of one of his followers and passed out."[35][36]
Succession and schism Grand Sheik E. Mealy El in an undated photo, ca. 1928
The death of Drew Ali brought out a number of candidates to succeed him.
The community was further split when Wallace Fard Muhammad, known within the temple as David Ford-el,[43] also claimed (or was taken by some) to be the reincarnation of Drew Ali.[44] When his leadership was rejected, Ford El broke away from the Moorish Science Temple. He moved to Detroit, where he formed his own group, an organization that would become the Nation of Islam.[45] The Nation of Islam denied any historical connection with the Moorish Science Temple until February 26, 2014, when Louis Farrakhan acknowledged the contribution(s) of Noble Drew Ali to the Nation of Islam and their founding principles.[46]
If I was still in the mainstream media the Executive Producer would have told me it was a “white supremacist group” and go with that bringing in experts on “anti-government extremism” to discuss the matter.
Attendees of the 1928 Moorish Science Temple Of America Convention in Chicago. Noble Drew Ali is in white in the front row center. Noble Drew Ali
Grand Sheik E. Mealy El in an undated photo, ca. 1928
Akin to that, many comments on the Boston Globe labelled them as Trump supporters.
Note that the link to Wikipedia at the top is actually to a copy which may be older, https://wikimili.com/en/Moorish_Science_Temple_of_America, since FR rejects articles from Wikipedia, but accepts copies of its content, as it should in such informative cases as this. Admin please allow.
Why don’t black supremacists migrate to Africa. They could live like kings there. There should be a Back to Wakanda movement.
These are mostly peaceful Moorish jihadis, all you white supremacist extremist insurrectionists.
Happened a mile from me, moor or less.
A Farrakhan type thing?
Fake Muslims like Nation of Islam
If proudly claiming your a descendent of black jihadist kings is diversity, but being a free American citizen and hardly mentioning your white skin color makes you horribly RAAAASSSSIIIISSSSST ... you might be a Democrat.
more or lessish
Peaceful jihadis? Isn’t that a contradiction of terms? Ooh, wataminnit, you mean peaceful until your back is turned.
Why don’t they return to Africa? Easy. They’ve got such a sweet deal here in the New World. These “Moors” like to claim they’re North African or — a particular favorite — Cherokee. The fotos clearly show them to be garden variety black Americans with bees in their elaborate bonnets.
Liberia was started that way. After CivilWar money was offered to blacks to return to Africa — on US tab. Some took it and went. Consider it a tiny part of reparations that have already been paid.
As to article, my understanding was that many of Caribbean and American (N&S) slaves were from Ivory coast area. Kidnapped there by other tribes and sold to Moslems in all directions, north and west — the latter where they were bought and sailed across the Atlantic. However, if this dude is claiming that a lot are Moorish, then is he not admitting that American slave trade was driven by Moslems?
Just a couple of weeks ago, a new homeowner in Newark NJ found her house, under renovation, occupied / squatted by persons titling themselves ‘Moorish Sovereign Citizens’ and claiming the residence as their “ancestral home.” As she was of sufficient darkness, she was able to have the Newark SWAT assist in reclaiming her new house!
This group is making a name for themselves! Perhaps they are jealous of BLM?
Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo?
So...a cult? David Koresh wonders from his seat above.
Here lies Les Moore...
This means actual slaves (not their purported descendants) were offered reparation and rejected it because life in America was so good.
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