The 20th Century's Most Mysterious Religious Leader

The first of the many ironies that shroud the Nation of Islam (NOI) is that its founder and god-in-the-flesh savior of the black race, W. D. Fard, was not even a black man.

Fard remains the most mysterious religious leader of the 20th century. Although Malcolm X tried to claim that Fard was a mulatto, and therefore 50% black (but 100% God!), this cannot be established. There is no definitive birth record or documentation concerning his origins.  All evidence, including police records and the statements of Fard's successor and a long-time head of the NOI — Elijah Mohammed — point to Fard as being an Arab immigrant.

The earliest known facts of Fard are that he was a street peddler selling tamales in Oregon in the 1910s, and then a bootlegger in 1920s Los Angles, for which he ended up doing three years in San Quentin.

At the approximate age of 40, Fard next surfaces in a Detroit ghetto in the summer of 1930. Posing as a peddler of Arab silks, Fard found that by claiming the garments were the same as those worn by Africans, he could increase sales. Soon Fard began claiming he was not only a peddler, but a prophet as well. Fard began holding meetings in the living rooms of down-and-out depression-era blacks. The more bitter and hateful anti-white doctrine he preached, the more successful Fard became in converting donation-giving blacks.

Fard carefully tailored his brand of Islam to fit his audience of disenchanted blacks (we will not attempt to compare genuine Islam with the so-called Islam of the NOI. The two have almost nothing in common, and real Muslims are embarrassed and disgusted by the teachings of the Nation of Islam. See M. Amir Ali, Ph.D., Islam or Farrakhanism? The Institute of Islamic Information & Education, 4390 N. Elston Ave., Chicago, IL 60641).

According to Fard, The black man was the original man. His preeminence on the Earth was being temporarily usurped by the white blue-eyed devils, but soon Allah would destroy all whites and return the black man to his rightful place on Earth. Within four years, Fard had established a sizable enough following in Detroit to open Temple Number One and even a *University of Islam,* in reality a combination elementary/high school devoted to Fard's peculiar brand of mathematics, astronomy and the ending avoid civilization.

One of Fard's earliest converts was a bitter hater of whites named Elijah Poole. Poole soon became Fard's second in command, often serving as a substitute public speaker when Fard was forced into hiding to avoid arrest. NOI propaganda teaches that Fard was a victim of politically motivated police harassment, although from the evidence of the day it seems more likely that Fard was not only building his Temple and University from free-will offerings, but from heroin sales as well.  Those familiar with present-day NOI leader Louis Farrakhan know that Mr. Farrakhan never appears in public unless surrounded by his security personnel — who sports pseudo-fezzes emblazoned with an FOI emblem. Let it be stated that FOI stands for Fruit of Islam, the name Fard gave to his security personnel — who worked, in all likelihood, as drug-runners.

In 1932 Fard gave Poole the new name of Elijah Muhammad and appointed him Supreme Minister of the Nation of Islam. Muhammad was then sent to Chicago to establish Temple Number Two. The history of the NOI from 1932-1934 is a sordid tale of rumors, suspicions and arrests that culminate in the disappearance of W. D. Fard.

As best as can be determined, it appears as Muhammad was in Chicago establishing a new Temple, Fard was arrested in connection with the death of a black Muslim. It has been alleged that Fard ordered the ritual sacrifice of a member of his *flock* (it is a matter of record that Fard's "Muslim* doctrine included sacrificial killing). It seems the Detroit police had little solid evidence with which to prosecute Fard, so on 26 May 1933 they simply ordered him to leave the city.

Given the hints that Fard may have been dealing heroin, it seems highly likely that the order for a sacrificial killing may have simply been a religious ruse used by Fard to coerce a gullible black muslim into committing what was in reality a drug war execution.

It also seems likely that Muhammed was sent to Chicago to set up Temple Number Two as a cover for Fard's expansion into the Chicago heroin market. After his expulsion from Detroit, Fard moved to Chicago and sent Muhammed back to Detroit. During 1933 Fard was seeing less and less, then, in 1934, he simply vanished. To this date, state and federal authorities have been unable to solve the mystery of Fard's disappearance.