The astronomical growth of the Islamic Movement among African Americans can be attributed to sociological rather than religious phenomena. Among the most salient ones are the need to look beyond the Western tradition that was responsible for their slavery, to their African origins. There is a hint of rebellion involved in the mix as well; the example of controversial Islamic leaders such as Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan are strong draws for young blacks searching for communal voices to look up to. In the U.S., the language of the black Islamic movement has been a revolutionary one, and revolutionary words are bound to elicit a response from an oppressed populace. As this paper will demonstrate, the growth of Islam among African Americans has as more to do with sociology than with religion. In fact, the Orthodox Islamic faith has gone so far as to denounce the Black Muslim movement as being anathematic to the true tenets of Islam. Nevertheless, the fact remains that Black Muslims are included in all surveys of the growth of Islam in the United States. Thus, this paper will explore the Black Muslim movement's growth in the U.S., their conflict with the Orthodox Islamic faith, and the future of the movement.
The general growth of the Islamic movement in the United States will be examined first. In the year 1900, there were 100,000 Muslims in the U.S. In the next seventy years, this number grew eight fold to 800,000 (1996 Britannica Book of the Year 781-785). However, between 1970 and 2000 the Islamic population in the U.S. skyrocketed to 6.5 Million (Dallas Morning News 4). According to Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) president Abdullah Idris Ali, "if you compare American Muslim groups ten years ago to Muslim groups now, you will see a world of difference. This is like an Islamic Renaissance we are experiencinga" (Aymer 1). Contributing greatly to this renewal of interest in Islam are African Americans, who acc...