Science Temple of America
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Attendees of the 1928 Moorish Science Temple Conclave in Chicago. Noble Drew Ali is in the front row center.
The Moorish Science Temple of America is a religious organization which states that African Americans were descended from the Moors and thus were originally Islamic.
Founded in New Jersey in 1913 by the Noble Drew Ali, Moorish Science blossomed in Chicago during the late 1920s. However, power struggles and the death of Noble Drew Ali led to the factionalization of the sect, a condition that exists to this day.
Contents[hide]
1 Noble Drew Ali's beginnings
2 History
2.1 Early history
2.2 The death of Drew Ali
2.3 Succession and schism
2.4 Nation of Islam
2.5 The 1930s
2.6 FBI surveillance
2.7 El Rukn connection?
3 Practices
4 Factions
5 Notes
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links
//

[edit] Noble Drew Ali's beginnings
Timothy Drew was born on January 8, 1886 in North Carolina, USA.[1] The accounts of Timothy Drew's ancestry variously describe his being the son of two former slaves who was adopted by a tribe of Cherokees[2] or his being the son of a Moroccan Muslim father and a Cherokee mother.[3]
His mother apparently died while Drew was a young boy, and left him to an abusive aunt.[4] According to the Moorish Science account, at the age of 16 he befriended a band of Roma ("gypsies") with whom he traveled the world,[5] although other accounts state he shipped out on a merchant seaman, became a railway expressman,[6] or joined a circus and became a stage magician.[7] Some researchers wonder whether Drew actually left the States at all.[8]
It was supposedly during these travels that he met the high priest of an Egyptian cult of magic. In one version of Drew's biography, the leader saw him as a reincarnation of the founder of the cult, while in others he considered him a reincarnation of Jesus. According to the biography, the cult trained him in mysticism and bestowed upon him a lost version of the life of Jesus.[9]
This text came to be known as the Holy Koran of the Moorish Science Temple of America (note that this text is never spelled Qur'an). It is also known, somewhat more informally, as the Circle Seven Koran because of its cover, which features a red "7" surrounded by a blue circle.
Drew was anointed the Noble Drew Ali, the Prophet, and launched into his career as head of the Moorish Science Temple.

[edit] History

Noble Drew Ali

[edit] Early history
In 1913 Drew Ali formed the Canaanite Temple in Newark, New Jersey.[10] Forced to flee town for his views on race,[5] Drew Ali and his followers settled in Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Detroit. He settled in Chicago in 1925, ostensibly because the Midwest was "closer to Islam",[11] and the following year he officially registered Temple No. 9.
In the late 1920s it was estimated that the Moorish Temple had 15,000 members in 17 temples,[12] despite scrutiny, and possibly harassment, by the Chicago police. By 1928, the Moors had indeed obtained some respectability within Chicago and Illinois, being featured prominently and favorably in the pages of the Chicago Defender, a black newspaper, and conspicuously collaborating with black politician and businessman Daniel Jackson.[13] Drew even attended the 1929 inauguration of the Illinois governor. The Chicago Defender stated that Drew's inauguration trip ended "with interviews with many distinguished citizens from Chicago, who greeted him on every hand".[14]

[edit] The death of Drew Ali
In early 1929, following a conflict over funds, the business manager of the Chicago Temple, Claude Green Bey, splintered off, declaring himself Grand Sheik and taking a number of members with him. On March 15 Green-Bey was stabbed to death at the Unity mosque on Indiana Avenue in Chicago.[15] Although out of town at the time,[16] Drew was arrested as an instigator along with other members of the community. Allegedly beaten by police, Drew was released on bond pending an indictment.
Shortly after his release, Drew Ali died at his home in Chicago on July 20, 1929.[17] Although the exact circumstances of his death are unknown, it was speculated that his death was caused by injuries received at the hands of the police or from being beaten by other members of the Moorish community,[18] or possibly pneumonia.[19] However, one Moor told the Chicago Defender that "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".[20]

[edit] Succession and schism
At the Unity Conference later that year, the governors declared Charles Kirkman Bey as the successor to Drew Ali, naming him Grand Sheik. However, John Givens El, Drew's chauffeur, declared that he was Drew reincarnated, leading to a division within the temples.[21]
On September 25 of that year, the Chicago police, accompanied by two Moors, were investigating the apparent kidnapping of C. Kirkman Bey, at the home of Ira Johnson when they were met by gunfire from the home. This quickly escalated into a shoot-out that spilled out into the surrounding neighborhood. In the end, a policemen as well as a Moor were killed in the gun battle, with a second policeman later dying of his wounds. Sixty "Negroes" were taken into police custody and a reported 1000 police officers patrolled the Chicago South Side that evening.[22] Johnson Bey and two others were later convicted of murder.[23]

[edit] Nation of Islam
The community was further split when Wallace Fard Muhammad, known within the temple as David Ford-El,[24] also claimed (or was otherwise considered) to be the reincarnation of Drew Ali.[25] When his claim of leadership was rejected, he broke away from the Moorish Science Temple and formed his own group in Detroit, an organization which would eventually become the Nation of Islam.[26]

[edit] The 1930s
Despite the turmoil and defections the church grew in the 1930s. It is estimated that church membership in the 1930s reached 30,000, with major congregations in Philadelphia, Detroit, and Chicago,[27] a community large enough to support two publications: the Moorish Guide National and Moorish Science Monitor.
However, the death of Noble Drew Ali as well as surveillance by police (and later the FBI), caused the Moors to become more withdrawn and critical of the government during the 1930s and 1940s.[28]

[edit] FBI surveillance
During World War II, the Science Temple (specifically the Kirkman Bey faction) got the attention of the FBI, who falsely suspected the Moors of collaborating with Japan. The FBI was alarmed by doctrines and prophecies that the world order would one day invert and put the Asiatics of the world back in charge, as the Temple taught was the original order of things. The FBI created a file on the organization which grew to 3,117 pages,[29] but produced no evidence of any connection or even much sympathy between the Empire of Japan and the temple.
It is estimated that in the 1950s the community had 10,000 members in 15 temples.[30] The Moorish Science Temple showed a slow but steady growth in the 1950s and early 1960s due to its prison ministries.[31]

[edit] El Rukn connection?
When Jeff Fort, leader of Chicago's Black P Stone Nation gang, was paroled from prison in 1976, he announced that he had converted to Islam. Moving to Milwaukee, he associated himself with the Moorish Science Temple there, although it is unclear whether he officially joined or was instead rejected by the church.[32]
In 1978, Fort returned to Chicago and changed the name of his gang to El Rukn ("the foundation" in Arabic), also known as "Circle Seven El Rukn Moorish Temple of America"[33] and the "Moorish Science Temple, El Rukn tribe".[34] Experts, however, are divided over the nature of the actual relationship, if any, between El Rukn and the Moorish Science temple.[35] Nonetheless, Fort reportedly hoped an apparent affiliation with a religious organization would discourage law enforcement.[36]

[edit] Practices
Members of the Temple wear fezes, and a turban (including Drew, who wore a Cherokee feather in his) and add the suffixes Bey or El to their names to signify their Moorish heritage. The ushers of the Temple wore black fezzes, and the leader of a particular temple was known as a Grand Sheik, or Governor. Drew began to teach the Moorish Americans how to become better citizens, and make more impassioned speeches, urging Moors to reject the derogatory labels such as Black, colored, and Negro—and for Americans of all races to reject hate and embrace love. He believed that Chicago would become a second Mecca.
Drew Ali was also known to have had several wives,[37] and according to the Chicago Defender he could marry and divorce at will.[38]

[edit] Factions

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (December 2007)
There are three major factions of the Moorish Science Temple.
Charles Kirkman-Bey became the head of what would eventually be the largest group, and which currently claims the name "Moorish Science Temple of America, Inc". Reportedly the largest faction, as of 1996 MSTA Inc. had 130 temples.[39] This faction of the Moorish Science Temple of America has been particularly successful in the prisons.[citation needed]
Another faction developed into the Reincarnated Temples, led by the Prophet’s former chauffeur, John Givens El, who thereafter called himself "Noble Drew Ali, Reincarnated". Givens El, and the brothers Richardson Dingle-El and Timothy Dingle El who succeeded him, taught that the Prophethood of Noble Drew Ali remained intact and passed on to them at the death of each before them, similar to the succession of authority from father to son or grandson in Shia Isma’ili Islam.[citation needed] From the work of the Dingle El brothers came the splits of the Temple No. 13, and the creation of a faction headed in Baltimore, MD, called the Noble Order of Moorish Sufis [2] in Baltimore. Founded by the former Grand Mufti Sultan Rafi Sharif Bey on July 7, 1957, this group later led to the founding of the Moorish Orthodox Church and the Moorish League. The Order of the Resurrection with its Second Heaven Order of four degrees was co-written by Sheik Rafi Sharif Bey and Sheik Timothy Dingle El. This faction has since reportedly split into seven factions, and as of 1994 were represented by 30 affiliated temples.[40]
The third and smallest faction was lead by Bro. E. Mealy El as the Grand Sheik/Supreme Grand Sheik. This faction is still in existence, but with probably the fewest adherents out of the three; this group claims true lineage to the teachings of Noble Drew Ali, and has various followings by a few separate factions formerly held together by Mealy El's step-grandson D. Bailey El (ex Grand Governor, now expelled for embezzlement), succeeded by Sheiks in Chicago that he appointed prior to his official termination as Grand Governor and Sheik; that particular grand body headed by the National Grand Sheik Dawiyd Ali El, has a few temples throughout the country and are continuing the works of Noble Drew Ali.

[edit] Notes
^ Wilson, p. 15; Gomez, p. 203; Paghdiwala; Gale Group.
^ Wilson, p, 15.
^ Gomez and Paghdiwala give both versions.
^ Wilson, or Gomez, p. 205.
^ a b Paghdiwala.
^ Both Wilson.
^ Wilson, p. 30, who reproduces a 1927 flyer for a "Great Moorish Drama" in which Drew Ali "will be bound with several yards of rope as Jesus was bound at the Temple of Jerusalem . . . and will escape in a few seconds".
^ Gomez, p. 206. Turner, p. 92.
^ Paghdiwala; Wilson.
^ Paghdiwala, p. 23.