ISNOINews
Independent Scientology and Nation of Islam news
The partnership between the Church of Scientology and the Nation of Islam. discussed in the academic article:
"What would Ron choose from the Islamic basket? Notes on Scientology's construction of Islam"
June 2015 Temenos 51(1):95-121
DOI: 10.33356/temenos.49514
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326190209_What_would_Ron_choose_from_the_Islamic_basket_Notes_on_Scientology's_construction_of_Islam
[PDF] What would Ron choose from the Islamic basket? Notes on Scientology’s construction of Islam | Semantic Scholar
What would Ron choose from the Islamic basket? Notes on Scientology’s construction of Islam | Temenos - Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion
* * * * * BEGIN EXCERPT * * * * *
Scientology and the Nation of Islam
Scientology is also associated with Islam in the context of the adoption of Dianetics by the Nation of Islam (NOI), a religious black-nationalist group adhering to Islam and founded in Detroit in 1930 by Wallace Fard Muhammad (1893–? [disappeared in 1934]). He was presented and perceived, inter alia, as the Islamic Mahdi or Prophet (or even Allah). NOI’s leader Louis Farrakhan (b. 1933), who allegedly recognized in 2005 the beneficial effects of Dianetics on a NOI minister in Los Angeles called Tony Muhammad, started encouraging followers in 2010 to take auditing and to become Scientology auditors. According to NOI’s official newspaper the Final Call, in 2012 more than 1,000 members had become certified auditors and another 4,000 were studying ‘some aspect of Scientology’ (Gray 2012). Farrakhan was unconcerned with the fact that Hubbard was white (and at best uninterested in the social causes promoted by NOI if not blatantly racist); he regarded Dianetics as a useful technology, ‘a tool that I can use to help our people’ (Hallowell 2012).
All this resonated with a Scientology policy aimed at proselytizing among black communities that included founding churches in Harlem and Inglewood, California, as well as discounts for NOI members (Gray 2012). It has been suggested that NOI and Scientology already enjoyed some affinity. NOI’s beliefs also include UFO-related narratives (such as that a ‘Mother Plane’ is alluded to in the Book of Ezekiel ) and greatly emphasises self improvement. Moreover, NOI similarly perceives itself as under attack by malignant media (Gray 2012).
_________________________________
26. ‘12. WE BELIEVE that Allah (God) appeared in the Person of Master W. Fard Muhammad, July, 1930; the long-awaited ‘Messiah’ of the Christians and the ‘Mahdi’ of the Muslims’ (Nation of Islam 2015).
27. In her autobiographical Little X. Growing Up in the Nation of Islam author Sonsyrea Tate recalls ‘Ma […] would later become a minister in the Church of Scientology, explaining that its philosophies in no way contradict those of Islam. She preaches universal love and universal understanding and forgiveness now’ (Tate 1997, 227).
28. See Elijah Muhammad 2010 [1973].
29. For a polemical viewpoint see Ortega 2001a. For media coverage on part of NOI’s newspaper see Muhammad 2013, Muhammad 2012, Muhammad 2011. See also Warikoo 2013.
* * * * * END EXCERPT * * * * *
"What would Ron choose from the Islamic basket? Notes on Scientology's construction of Islam"
June 2015 Temenos 51(1):95-121
DOI: 10.33356/temenos.49514
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326190209_What_would_Ron_choose_from_the_Islamic_basket_Notes_on_Scientology's_construction_of_Islam
[PDF] What would Ron choose from the Islamic basket? Notes on Scientology’s construction of Islam | Semantic Scholar
What would Ron choose from the Islamic basket? Notes on Scientology’s construction of Islam | Temenos - Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion
* * * * * BEGIN EXCERPT * * * * *
Scientology and the Nation of Islam
Scientology is also associated with Islam in the context of the adoption of Dianetics by the Nation of Islam (NOI), a religious black-nationalist group adhering to Islam and founded in Detroit in 1930 by Wallace Fard Muhammad (1893–? [disappeared in 1934]). He was presented and perceived, inter alia, as the Islamic Mahdi or Prophet (or even Allah). NOI’s leader Louis Farrakhan (b. 1933), who allegedly recognized in 2005 the beneficial effects of Dianetics on a NOI minister in Los Angeles called Tony Muhammad, started encouraging followers in 2010 to take auditing and to become Scientology auditors. According to NOI’s official newspaper the Final Call, in 2012 more than 1,000 members had become certified auditors and another 4,000 were studying ‘some aspect of Scientology’ (Gray 2012). Farrakhan was unconcerned with the fact that Hubbard was white (and at best uninterested in the social causes promoted by NOI if not blatantly racist); he regarded Dianetics as a useful technology, ‘a tool that I can use to help our people’ (Hallowell 2012).
All this resonated with a Scientology policy aimed at proselytizing among black communities that included founding churches in Harlem and Inglewood, California, as well as discounts for NOI members (Gray 2012). It has been suggested that NOI and Scientology already enjoyed some affinity. NOI’s beliefs also include UFO-related narratives (such as that a ‘Mother Plane’ is alluded to in the Book of Ezekiel ) and greatly emphasises self improvement. Moreover, NOI similarly perceives itself as under attack by malignant media (Gray 2012).
_________________________________
26. ‘12. WE BELIEVE that Allah (God) appeared in the Person of Master W. Fard Muhammad, July, 1930; the long-awaited ‘Messiah’ of the Christians and the ‘Mahdi’ of the Muslims’ (Nation of Islam 2015).
27. In her autobiographical Little X. Growing Up in the Nation of Islam author Sonsyrea Tate recalls ‘Ma […] would later become a minister in the Church of Scientology, explaining that its philosophies in no way contradict those of Islam. She preaches universal love and universal understanding and forgiveness now’ (Tate 1997, 227).
28. See Elijah Muhammad 2010 [1973].
29. For a polemical viewpoint see Ortega 2001a. For media coverage on part of NOI’s newspaper see Muhammad 2013, Muhammad 2012, Muhammad 2011. See also Warikoo 2013.
* * * * * END EXCERPT * * * * *
Last edited: