Moorish Science Temple of America

Along with what may be termed the rise of Orthodox or Sunnite Islaam in America, there has also appeared in the Twentieth century a variety of cults and sects all claiming to represent true Islaam. Most of these groups have or have had strong nationalist overtones and anti-white sentiments in their teachings, which is not surprising, since the vast majority of those who enter the fold of Islaam in America have been Black Americans and the reverberations of white supremacy on which the nation was built, were quite intense throughout the country until recently. The earliest of these groups is the “Moorish Science Temple of America” founded by Timothy Drew from North Carolina (1886-1929). Drew renamed himself Prophet Noble Drew Ali and opened the first branch of his cult in New York in 1913. [E.U., Essien-Udom, Black Nationalism, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962), p. 33]

Drew taught that Black Americans were really “Moorish Americans” or “Moors” and that he had been commissioned by the King of Morocco to preach Islam to Black Americans. [Eric Lincoln, Black Muslims, (Boston: Beacon Press, 1961), p.52]