Elijah Muhammad, the Leader of the Nation of Islam

Elijah Muhammad, the Leader of the Nation of Islam For more than forty years, human rights activist and Muslim minister, Elijah Muhammad stood at the helm of the Nation of Islam- a religious organization that combined the teachings of Islam with a strong emphasis on morality and self-sufficiency for African-Americans. Muhammad, a devout believer in black nationalism once even said, â€Å"The Negro wants to be everything but himself[...] He wants to integrate with the white man, but he cannot integrate with himself or with his own kind. The Negro wants to lose his identity because he does not know his own identity.† Muhammad Rejects the Jim Crow South Muhammad was born Elijah Robert Poole on October 7, 1897 in Sandersville, GA. His father, William, was a sharecropper and his mother, Mariah, was a domestic worker. Muhammad workforce in Cordele, GA with his 13 siblings. By the fourth grade, he had stopped attending school and began working a variety of jobs in sawmills and brickyards. In 1917, Muhammad married Clara Evans. Together, the couple had eight children. By 1923, Muhammad had grown tired of the Jim Crow South saying, â€Å"I seen enough of the white man’s brutality to last me 26,000 years.† Muhammad moved his wife and children to Detroit as part of the great migration and found work in an automobile factory. In Detroit, Muhammad was drawn to the teachings of Marcus Garvey and became a member of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. The Nation of Islam In 1931, Muhammad met Wallace D. Fard, a salesman who had begun teaching African-Americans in the Detroit area about Islam. Fard’s teachings connected the principles of Islam with black nationalism- ideas that were attractive to Muhammad. Soon after their meeting, Muhammad converted to Islam and changed his name from Robert Elijah Poole to Elijah Muhammad. In 1934, Fard disappeared and Muhammad assumed leadership of the Nation of Islam.  Muhammad established Final Call to Islam, a news publication that helped build the membership of the religious organization. In addition, Muhammad University of Islam was founded to educate children. The Temple of Islam Following the disappearance of Fard, Muhammad took a group of the Nation of Islam’s followers to Chicago while the organization broke off into other factions of Islam. Once in Chicago, Muhammad founded Temple of Islam No. 2, establishing the town as the headquarters of the Nation of Islam. Muhammad began preaching the philosophy of the Nation of Islam and began attracting African-Americans in urban areas to the religious organization. Soon after making Chicago the national headquarters for the Nation of Islam, Muhammad traveled to Milwaukee where he established Temple No. 3 and Temple No. 4 in Washington D.C. Muhammad’s success was halted when he was imprisoned in 1942 for refusing to respond to a World War II  draft. While imprisoned, Muhammad continued to spread the teachings of the Nation of Islam to inmates. When Muhammad was released in 1946, he continued to lead the Nation of Islam, claiming that he was Allah’s messenger and that Fard was in fact, Allah. By 1955, the Nation of Islam had expanded to include 15 temples and by 1959, there 50 temples in 22 states. Until his death in 1975, Muhammad continued to grow the Nation of Islam from a small religious organization to one that had multiple streams of income and had gained national prominence. Muhammad published two books, Message to the Black Man in 1965 and How to Eat to Live in 1972. The organization’s publication, Muhammad Speaks, was in circulation and at the height of the Nation of Islam’s popularity, the organization boasted a membership of an estimated 250,000.   Muhammad also mentored men such as Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan and several of his sons, who were also devout members of the Nation of Islam. Muhammad died of congestive heart failure in 1975 in Chicago. Sources Muhammad, Elijah. How to Eat to Live - Book One: From God In Person, Master Fard Muhammad. Paperback, Reprint edition, Secretarius Memps Publications, August 30, 2006. Muhammad, Elijah. Message to the Blackman in America. Paperback, Secretarius Memps Publications, September 5, 2006.

Flyting - Definition and Examples of Flyting in English

Flyting s of Flyting in English A verbal slanging match: a ritualized form of invective in which insults are exchanged. Its as if a verbal space has been cordoned off, says Ruth Wajnryb. Inside this space a sanctioned kind of swearing can take place . . . where taboos are knowingly and legitimately flouted, providing a linguistic and psychological safety valve for a public letting off of steam (Expletive Deleted: A Good Look at Bad Language, 2005). Etymology: from the Old English, argue. Examples and Observations: Although the language is often gross, even grotesque and astonishingly scatological, there is also a certain element of play. . . . [Flyting] is the verbal equivalent of virtuoso sword-play. . . .[In the farce] Gammer Gurtons Needle (acted 1566) . . . we find the new idioms of what the devil, how a murrain [plague], go to, Fie shitten knave and out upon thee, the pox, bawdy bitch, that dirty bastard, the whoreson dolt, for Gods sake, thou shitten knave and that dirty shitten lout. The violent altercations between Grandma Gurton and Dame Chat show the closest affiliations to flyting:Gammer​Thou wert as good as kiss my tail,Thou slut, thou cut, thou rakes, thou jakes,[You whore, you jade, you bawd, you shit-house]will not shame make thee hide thee?ChatThou skald, thou bald, thou rotten, thou glutton,[You scold, you hairless thing, you rubbish, you pig]I will no longer chide theeBut I will teach thee to keep home.​(G. Hughes, Swearing: A Social History of Foul Language, Oa ths and Profanity in English. Blackwell, 1991) The Slanging Match in Henry the Fourth Part One Seventeenth-century playwrights regularly provided their audiences with such contests, knowing that they would be well received. There is the well-known exchange in Shakespeares Henry the Fourth Part One (2:iv) between prince Hal and Falstaff. Hal comments on Falstaffs size and weight, calling him: clay braind guts, though knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson, obscene, greasy tallow catch. He also points out that Falstaff is: a bed-presser, a horse-back-breaker, a huge hill of flesh. Falstaff retaliates by remarking on Hals thinness: you starveling, you eel-skin, you dried neats tongue, you bulls pizzle, you stockfish, you tailors yard, you sheath, you bow case, you bile standing tuck.​(Leslie Dunkling, Dictionary of Epithets and Terms of Address. Routledge, 1990) Playing the Dozens The tradition of ritualized swearing, very much like flyting, continues in a number of places in the modern world. It is perhaps most notable in black American communities, where it is called sounding or signifying or playing the dozens. Variations of this kind of flyting provide social distinctions between in-group and out-group members. But they also act as lyrical cornerstones for much of the anthemic rap (particularly gangsta rap) that defines gang neighbourhoods, including communities of young people from other ethnic backgrounds who admire gang values. . .This style is also called capping and cracking on and is found as well in urban Aboriginal English in Australia.(Ruth Wajnryb, Expletive Deleted: A Good Look at Bad Language. Free Press, 2005)