Does the Nation of Islam have a positive or negative impact on the black community?
I probably have emotional issues that always seem to land me defending anything that can be in the same ballpark as Robin Hood or Zorro, the righteous defender of the underdogs, specifically political oppression; its my nature, and admitting it retrieves it from pathology.
That said, I do not not Farrakhan as nutsy as most. First of all, the Black Muslim movement in this country is simply the history of a religion--new, yes but born of legitiment cause--political, economic and racial oppression, and this religion, given a sounding by a neutral mate, can be argued to be far more beneficial to its believers than many of our own highly curious religious enterprises, many of which have more infamily bookkeepers that bona fide chelates.
In those regards, America's Black Muslims are most like the Mormons and Seventh Day Adventists, who forbid drinking and smoking, and encourage the eating of a sensible diet, and not one the grease peddlers like Twinkies promote. Little Debbie Cakes, for instance, deals almost exclusively in debilitating, disease encouraging junk food that only a Borkian Republican could deny; Little Debbie cakes is owned by the Baptists, Southern, I believe.
The Black Muslims through Elijah M., Malcolm and Louis Farrakhan have been arguably far more effective in truly changing the hearts of criminals in prison than Colson has. Whites hate and fear the race element in the Black Muslims, but Colson's ranks have few Blacks because, well, wink wink. Of the two, operating on different frequencies of politics, I would say Colson is the more political.
I won't even mention the effects the religion has on the self-esteem, specifically, of Black males, because it takes somebody free of racist tendency who has read some on the subject from BLACK authors to understand how, in so many ways, the Whites have castrated the Blacks.
Farrakhan does not need to be locked in an unforgiving iron cage like Ezra Pound, but many Whites, relying only on input from their fear, would like him to be.
Oh, and Toms won't speak up for him, but they are under the thumb.
And if anybody is bothered by the fact that Farrakhan and all the Muslims are not for Jesus, you might ask yourself whether or not those who carry the banner for Jesus, at least, have failed them.
