5
Black Islam R Turner, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA ß 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. The involvement of black Americans with Islam reaches back to the earliest days of the African pres- ence in North America. The history of black Islam in the United States includes successive and varied presentations of the religion that document black Americans’ struggles to define themselves indepen- dently in the context of global Islam. This article is a historical sketch of black Islam that focuses on the following topics: Islam and transatlantic slavery, early 20th-century mainstream communities, early 20th-century racial separatist communities, and mainstream Islam in contemporary black America. Islam and Transatlantic Slavery Muslim slaves – involuntary immigrants who had been the urban-ruling elite in West Africa, constituted at least 15% of the slave population in the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries. Their religious and ethnic roots could be traced to ancient black kingdoms in Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. Some of these West African Muslim slaves brought the first mainstream Islamic beliefs and practices to America by keeping Islamic names, writing in Arabic, fasting during the month of Ramadan, praying five times a day, wearing Muslim clothing, and writing and reciting the Qur’an. The fascinating portrait of a West African Muslim slave in the United States who retained mainstream Islamic practices was that of a Georgia Sea Island slave, Bilali. He was one of at least 20 black Muslims who are reported to have lived and practiced their religion in Sapelo and St. Simon’s Islands during the antebellum period. This area provided fertile ground for mainstream Islamic continuities because of its relative isolation from Euro-American influences. Bilali was noted for his religious devotion: for wear- ing Islamic clothing, for his Muslim name, and for his ability to write and speak Arabic. Islamic tradi- tions in his family were retained for at least three generations. Fascinating portraits of outstanding African Muslim slaves in the United States, which exist in the his- torical literature, also include Job Ben Solomon (1700–1773), a Maryland slave of Fuble Muslim ori- gins; Georgetown, Virginia, slave Yarrow Mamout, who was close to 100 years old when his portrait was painted by Charles Wilson Peale; Abd al-Rahman Ibrahima (1762–1825), a Muslim prince in Futa Jallon, who was enslaved in Mississippi; Omar Ibn Said (1770–1864), a Fuble Muslim scholar who was a slave in North Carolina and pretended a conversion to Christianity; and numerous others. By the eve of the Civil War, the black Islam of the West African Muslim slaves was, for all practical purposes defunct, because these Muslims were not able to develop community institutions to perpetuate their religion. When they died, their presentation of Islam, which was West African, private, with main- stream practices, disappeared. But they were impor- tant nonetheless, because they brought black Islam to America. Early 20th-Century Mainstream Communities In the late 19th century, the Pan-Africanist ideas of a Presbyterian minister in Liberia, Edward Wilmot Blyden (1832–1912), which critiqued Christianity for its racism and suggested Islam as a viable religious alternative for black Americans, provided the politi- cal framework for Islam’s appeal to black Americans in the early 20th century. Moreover, the internation- alist perspective of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association and the Great Migration of more than one million black southerners to north- ern and midwestern cities during the World War I era provided the social and political environment for the rise of black American mainstream commu- nities from the 1920s to the 1940s. The Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam, a heterodox missionary commu- nity from India, laid the groundwork for mainstream Islam in black America by providing black Americans with their first Qur’ans, important Islamic literature and education, and linkages to the world of Islam. Mufti Muhammad Sadiq, the first Ahmadiyya mis- sionary to the United States, established the American headquarters of the community in Chicago in 1920. He recruited many of his earliest black American converts from the ranks of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association. By the mid-1920s, Sadiq and black American converts, such as Brother Ahmad Din and Sister Noor, had established The Muslim Sunrise, the first Islamic newspaper in the United States, and thriving multiracial communities in Detroit, Michigan; Gary, Indiana; and St. Louis, Missouri. There were several dynamic early 20th-century communities to which black American Sunni Mus- lims can trace their roots. These communities – the Islamic Mission to America, Jabul Arabiyya, and the First Cleveland Mosque – were influenced by Muslim Black Islam 55

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Page 1: Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics || Black Islam

Black Islam 55

Black Islam

R Turner, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

� 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The involvement of black Americans with Islamreaches back to the earliest days of the African pres-ence in North America. The history of black Islamin the United States includes successive and variedpresentations of the religion that document blackAmericans’ struggles to define themselves indepen-dently in the context of global Islam. This article isa historical sketch of black Islam that focuses onthe following topics: Islam and transatlantic slavery,early 20th-century mainstream communities, early20th-century racial separatist communities, andmainstream Islam in contemporary black America.

Islam and Transatlantic Slavery

Muslim slaves – involuntary immigrants who hadbeen the urban-ruling elite in West Africa, constitutedat least 15% of the slave population in the UnitedStates in the 18th and 19th centuries. Their religiousand ethnic roots could be traced to ancient blackkingdoms in Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. Some ofthese West African Muslim slaves brought the firstmainstream Islamic beliefs and practices to Americaby keeping Islamic names, writing in Arabic, fastingduring the month of Ramadan, praying five timesa day, wearing Muslim clothing, and writing andreciting the Qur’an.

The fascinating portrait of a West African Muslimslave in the United States who retained mainstreamIslamic practices was that of a Georgia Sea Islandslave, Bilali. He was one of at least 20 black Muslimswho are reported to have lived and practiced theirreligion in Sapelo and St. Simon’s Islands during theantebellum period. This area provided fertile groundfor mainstream Islamic continuities because of itsrelative isolation from Euro-American influences.Bilali was noted for his religious devotion: for wear-ing Islamic clothing, for his Muslim name, and forhis ability to write and speak Arabic. Islamic tradi-tions in his family were retained for at least threegenerations.

Fascinating portraits of outstanding African Muslimslaves in the United States, which exist in the his-torical literature, also include Job Ben Solomon(1700–1773), a Maryland slave of Fuble Muslim ori-gins; Georgetown, Virginia, slave Yarrow Mamout,who was close to 100 years old when his portraitwas painted by Charles Wilson Peale; Abd al-RahmanIbrahima (1762–1825), a Muslim prince in Futa Jallon,

who was enslaved in Mississippi; Omar Ibn Said(1770–1864), a Fuble Muslim scholar who was aslave in North Carolina and pretended a conversionto Christianity; and numerous others.

By the eve of the Civil War, the black Islam of theWest African Muslim slaves was, for all practicalpurposes defunct, because these Muslims were notable to develop community institutions to perpetuatetheir religion. When they died, their presentation ofIslam, which was West African, private, with main-stream practices, disappeared. But they were impor-tant nonetheless, because they brought black Islamto America.

Early 20th-Century MainstreamCommunities

In the late 19th century, the Pan-Africanist ideas ofa Presbyterian minister in Liberia, Edward WilmotBlyden (1832–1912), which critiqued Christianityfor its racism and suggested Islam as a viable religiousalternative for black Americans, provided the politi-cal framework for Islam’s appeal to black Americansin the early 20th century. Moreover, the internation-alist perspective of Marcus Garvey’s Universal NegroImprovement Association and the Great Migrationof more than one million black southerners to north-ern and midwestern cities during the World WarI era provided the social and political environmentfor the rise of black American mainstream commu-nities from the 1920s to the 1940s. The AhmadiyyaMovement in Islam, a heterodox missionary commu-nity from India, laid the groundwork for mainstreamIslam in black America by providing black Americanswith their first Qur’ans, important Islamic literatureand education, and linkages to the world of Islam.

Mufti Muhammad Sadiq, the first Ahmadiyya mis-sionary to the United States, established the Americanheadquarters of the community in Chicago in 1920.He recruited many of his earliest black Americanconverts from the ranks of Marcus Garvey’s UniversalNegro Improvement Association. By the mid-1920s,Sadiq and black American converts, such as BrotherAhmad Din and Sister Noor, had established TheMuslim Sunrise, the first Islamic newspaper in theUnited States, and thriving multiracial communitiesin Detroit, Michigan; Gary, Indiana; and St. Louis,Missouri.

There were several dynamic early 20th-centurycommunities to which black American Sunni Mus-lims can trace their roots. These communities – theIslamic Mission to America, Jabul Arabiyya, and theFirst Cleveland Mosque – were influenced by Muslim

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56 Black Islam

immigrants and their own constructed presentationsof mainstream Islam in black communities.

Four things influenced the Islamic Mission toAmerica in New York City: the local Muslim immi-grant community; Muslim sailors from Yemen,Somalia, and Madagascar; the Ahmadi translationof the Qur’an; and the black American community.Shiek Daoud was born in Morocco and came tothe United States from Trinidad. Daoud’s wife,‘Mother’ Sayeda Kadija, who had Pakistani Muslimand Barbadian roots, became president of theMuslim Ladies Cultural Society. The Islamic Missionto America published its own literature about main-stream Islam. Sheik Daoud believed that blackAmerican Muslims should change themselves notonly spiritually, but also in ‘‘language, dress, andcustoms’’ to connect them to Islamic civilizationand revivalism in Asia and Africa. Daoud immersedhimself in the complex experiences of, and bound-aries between, Muslim immigrants and black con-verts to Islam in New York City and Brooklyn fromthe 1920s to the 1960s.

Muhammad Ezaldeen, an English teacher and prin-cipal, was a Moorish Science Temple member inNewark, New Jersey, in the 1920s. After severalyears of Arabic and Islamic studies in Egypt, hereturned to the United States to promote the Islamicconnections between Arab and black American cul-ture in the Adenu Allahe Universal Arabic Associa-tion. In 1938, he and his followers establishedJabul Arabiyya, a Sunni Muslim community ruledby Islamic law in rural West Valley, New York.Communities of this association were founded inNew Jersey (Ezaldeen Village); Jacksonville, Florida;Rochester, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;and Detroit, Michigan. These communities empha-sized the hijra – the movement of early ArabianMuslims from Mecca to Medina in 622 C.E. – as thecenterpiece of their spiritual philosophy.

Tensions between black American and immigrantleaders in the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam resultedin the establishment of the Sunni First ClevelandMosque by Imam Wali Akram in 1936 and the FirstMuslim Mosque in Pittsburgh by Nasir Ahmad andSaeed Akmal in the same period. Wali Akram wasone of the first black American Muslim converts tosever all ties with the immigrant community in orderto establish mainstream Islam in a black Americancommunity. The imam and his wife, Kareema, learnedArabic and taught the language and the recitationof the Qur’an to black converts. One of Akram’sunique contributions to the black American commu-nity was the Muslim Ten Year Plan, which utilizedthe faith and discipline of Sunni Islam to get blackpeople off welfare and to make black American

Muslim communities economically and socially self-sufficient.

In 1943, Wali Akram conducted the first sessionof the Uniting Islamic Society of America in Phila-delphia. This national group was established tounify disparate black American mainstream organi-zations against the agenda of foreign Muslims. TheUniting Islamic Society of America met several timesfrom 1943 to 1947 to develop a united platform ondoctrine, politics, women’s issues, leadership, andrelations with the immigrant community. Ultimately,this organization failed because of personality con-flicts and different visions of the black Americanmainstream Islamic community.

The grassroots work of these mainstream groupswith their emphasis on study of the Arabic languageand the Qur’an, the transformation of domesticspace and community life, adoption of Islamic dressand customs, and cosmopolitan travels to Egypt,Morocco, Trinidad, India, Barbados, Jamaica, andNew York City are key to understanding the Muslimlifestyles of these early Sunni black American con-verts as expressions of global Islam. These early blackAmerican Sunni communities were overshadowedby the successful missionary work of the heterodoxAhmadiyya movement and later by the ascendancy ofthe Nation of Islam in the 1950s. Mainstream Islamdid not become a popular option for black AmericanMuslims until the 1960s.

Early 20th-Century Racial SeparatistCommunities

Noble Drew Ali (1886–1929) was the founder ofthe Moorish Science Temple of America in Newark,New Jersey, in 1913. This was the first mass religiouscommunity in the history of black American Islamand the black nationalist model for the Nation ofIslam. In the late 1920s, the Moorish American com-munity in the United States grew to approximately30 000 members and was the largest Islamic commu-nity in the United States before the ascendancy of theNation of Islam in the 1950s.

The Moorish Americans, who established branchesof their community in several northern cities andmade their headquarters in Chicago in the 1920s,claimed to be descendants of Moroccan Muslimsand constructed a nationalist identity by changingtheir names, nationality, religion, diet, and dress.Their esoteric spiritual philosophy was constructedfrom Islam, Christianity, and black Freemasonry. In1927, Ali wrote their sacred text, the Holy Koran ofthe Moorish Science Temple, also called the CircleSeven Koran, to teach his followers their preslaveryreligion, nationality, and genealogy. To support his

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Black Islam 57

case for a Moorish American identity, he emphasizedtwo important points: first, black Americans werereally ‘Asiatics’ – the descendants of Jesus, and sec-ond, the destiny of western civilization was linkedto the rise of the ‘Asiatic’ nation – Asians, Africans,Native Americans, and black Americans.

In the Holy Koran of the Moorish Science Temple,Noble Drew Ali also argued that truth, peace, free-dom, justice, and love were the Islamic ideals thathis followers should emulate. The Moorish ScienceTemple survived in factions after Noble Drew Ali’smysterious death in 1929 and received official recog-nition for its Islamic linkages to Morocco fromthe Moroccan ambassador to the United States in1986. Major communities exist today in Baltimore,Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles.

The Nation of Islam began in Detroit, Michigan, in1930 as the Allah Temple of Islam – a small blacknationalist Islamic movement founded by W. D. Fard,an immigrant Muslim missionary, who preached aphilosophy of political self-determination and racialseparatism to the newly arrived black southernersof the Great Migration. Fard believed that Westerncivilization would soon end in a race war, and heestablished an institutional framework – the Fruit ofIslam, The Muslim Girls Training Corps, and theUniversity of Islam to separate black Muslims fromwhite Christian America. Although his ethnic andIslamic identity remains undocumented, Fard mighthave been a Druze, a sectarian branch of the IsmailiShii Muslims, who have a long documented traditionof human divinity and esoteric interpretations of theQur’an.

A victim of police brutality, he disappeared mys-teriously in 1934, after he assigned leadership ofhis community to Elijah Muhammad (1897–1975),who led the Nation of Islam from 1934 to 1975from its Chicago headquarters and was an impor-tant figure in the development of black nationalismand Islam among black Americans in the 20th cen-tury. The members of the Nation of Islam believedthat their descendants were the Asiatics, who werethe original Muslims and the first inhabitants of theearth, and they claimed a divine identity for theirfounder, W. D. Fard, and prophetic status for ElijahMuhammad.

During World War II, the Nation of Islam’s mem-bership decreased dramatically as Elijah Muhammadand his son, Herbert, became involved politically withSatokata Takahashi, a Japanese national organizeramong black Americans, and they were prisonersin the federal penitentiary in Milan, Michigan, from1943 to 1946. In the 1950s and 1960s, as blackAmericans and Africans cracked the political powerof white supremacy in the United States and abroad,

Elijah Muhammad’s institutional quest for economicpower made the Nation of Islam into the wealthiestblack organization in American history. In this era,the Nation of Islam provided a community modeland political inspiration for the black power move-ment. Malcolm X’s phenomenal organizing effortsamong young lower-class black men and women inthe northern cities created powerful constituenciesfor the Nation of Islam across the United States,and the Muhammad Speaks newspaper, which wasedited by a leftward-leaning staff, provided exem-plary coverage of international news and anticolonialstruggles in Asia and Africa. Malcolm X provided apowerful message of racial separatism, self-discipline,and black community development in the midst of theintegrationist strategies and nonviolent demonstra-tions of the civil rights movement. However, as thepolitical tactics and strategies of the civil rights andthe black power movements became more sophisti-cated Elijah Muhammad’s economic agenda for hiscommunity resulted in a conservative vision regard-ing political activism; this was one of the primaryfactors that led to Malcolm X’s departure from theNation of Islam.

In the wake of President Kennedy’s assassina-tion in 1963, a public controversy between ElijahMuhammad and Malcolm X evolved into a perma-nent separation. Establishing a new spiritual andpolitical identity, Malcolm abandoned the heterodox,racial-separatist philosophy of the Nation of Islamand converted to multiracial Sunni Islam during thelast year of his life.

In March, 1964, he founded the Sunni MuslimMosque, Inc. in Harlem as the base for a spiritualprogram to eliminate economic and social oppressionagainst black Americans. Then, Malcolm made thehajj, the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia,in April 1964. There, he changed his name fromMalcolm X to El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, whichsignified the adoption of a new identity that waslinked to mainstream Islam. Malcolm’s Sunni Islamicidentity became a significant model for many blackAmericans who have converted to mainstream Islamsince the 1960s.

After Mecca, Malcolm traveled extensivelythrough North and West Africa establishing impor-tant religious and political linkages with Third Worldnations. These profound international experiencesdeepened his Pan-African political perspective. WhenMalcolm returned to the United States, he foundedthe Organization of Afro-American Unity in NewYork City on June 29, 1964, to promote his politicalperspective, which linked the black American strug-gle for social justice to global human rights issuesin Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

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58 Black Islam

During the final weeks of Malcolm’s life in 1965,he began to talk about the black American freedomstruggle as an aspect of ‘‘a worldwide revolution’’against racism, corporate racism, classism, and sex-ism. Because of his potential (if he had lived) to unitemany black Muslims and black Christians in Americaand abroad in a global liberation struggle that couldhave involved the United Nations, there is no ques-tion that the American intelligence community hadthe incentive to be involved in Malcolm X’s murder.

Since 1978, Louis Farrakhan has led the revivedNation of Islam and published the Final Call news-paper. Farrakhan speaks fluent Arabic and travelsfrequently to the Middle East and West Africa topromote the issues of black American Muslims. Hisgreatest achievement as leader of the Nation of Islamwas the Million Man March in 1995, which broughtthe healing spirit of Islam to more than one millionblack men who gathered in Washington, D.C. Thiswas the largest political gathering of black Americansin American history. On Saviours’ Day in Chicagoin February 2000, Farrakhan announced changes inthe Nation of Islam’s theology and ritual practicesthat will bring his community closer to the center ofmainstream Islam in North America.

Major factions of the Nation of Islam are ledby John Muhammad in Highland Park, Michigan;Silis Muhammad in Atlanta, Georgia; and EmmanuelMuhammad in Baltimore, Maryland. The FivePercenters, also called the Nation of Gods and Earths,are popular among rap musicians and the hip-hopcommunity; they were founded by Clarence 13X inNew York City in 1964.

Mainstream Islam in ContemporaryBlack America

Large numbers of black Americans have turned tomainstream Islamic practices and communities sinceMalcolm X’s conversion to Sunni Islam in 1964. LikeMalcolm X, black American Sunni Muslims seethemselves as part of the mainstream Muslim com-munity in the world of Islam and study Arabic, fastduring the month of Ramadan, pray five times a day,make the hajj to Mecca, practice charity and socialjustice, and believe in one God and Muhammad as hislast prophet. The dramatic growth of mainstreamIslam in black America is also related to the arrivalof more than three million Muslims in the UnitedStates after the American immigration laws werereformed in 1965.

Elijah Muhammad’s son, Warith Deen Mohammed,has played an important role within mainstreamIslam in the United States. He became the SupremeMinister of the Nation of Islam after his father’s

death in 1975. During the first years of his leadership,he mandated sweeping changes, which he calledthe ‘‘Second Resurrection’’ of black Americans, in or-der to align his community with mainstream Islam.He refuted the Nation of Islam’s racial-separatistteachings and praised his father for achieving the‘‘First Resurrection’’ of black Americans by introdu-cing them to Islam. But now the community’s missionwas directed not only at black Americans, but also atthe entire American environment. The new leaderrenamed the Nation of Islam the ‘‘World Communityof Al-Islam in the West’’ in 1976; the AmericanMuslim Mission in 1980; and the ‘‘American Societyof Muslims’’ in the 1990s. Ministers of Islam wererenamed ‘imams’, and temples were renamed ‘mos-ques’ and ‘masjids’. The community’s lucrative finan-cial holdings were liquidated, and mainstream ritualsand customs were adopted. Although Warith DeenMohammed’s positive relationships with immigrantMuslims, the world of Islam, and the American gov-ernment are important developments in the history ofmainstream Islam in the United States, his group hasdiminished in members since the 1980s, and heresigned as the leader of the American Society ofMuslims in 2003. In the wake of Mohammed’s depar-ture, Mustafa El-Amin, a black American imam inNewark, New Jersey, has attempted to revive thisblack mainstream Islamic community.

Darul Islam, founded in Brooklyn, New York, in1962 and having branches in many major Americancities, is probably the largest and most influentialcommunity of black American Sunni Muslims. Pres-tige and leadership are based on knowledge of theQur’an, the hadith, and the Arabic language. DarulIslam is a private decentralized community, whichdid not allow immigrants in its midst until themid–1970s. The Hanafi Madh-hab Center, foundedby Hammas Abdul Khalis in the 1960s, is a blackAmerican Sunni group that made headlines in the1970s because of its conversion of the basketballstar Kareem Abdul Jabbar and the assassinationof Khalis’s family in their Washington, D.C., head-quarters. Siraj Wahhaj leads an important blackSunni community in Bedford Stuyvesant in Brooklyn,New York.

Although black American Muslims populate multi-ethnic Sunni masjids and organizations across theUnited States, reportedly there are subtle racial andethnic tensions between black American and immi-grant Muslims. Immigrant Muslims talk about ‘acolor- and race-blind Islam’ and the Americandream, whereas black American Muslims continueto place Islam at the forefront of the struggles forsocial justice, as the United States has entered a newcentury of frightening racial profiling and violence

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Blaming and Denying: Pragmatics 59

in a post–September 11 world. Certainly, blackAmerican and immigrant Muslims have a lot tolearn from each other and need to present a unitedfront on social justice issues, as mainstream Islam’sappeal and ascendancy in the United States in thiscentury may depend on American Muslims’ abilityto claim a moral and political high ground on socialjustice and racial issues that have historically dividedthe American Christian population. In the wake ofpost–September 11 legislation, such as U.S. PatriotAct that has enabled the detention of Muslim immi-grants and Muslim Americans, black American Mus-lims are probably in the strongest position to refutearguments that claim there is a clash of civilizationsbetween Islam and the West because of the ethnicgroup’s history of contributions to the Americanexperience.

Although there are no conclusive statistics, someobservers estimate that there are six to sevenmillion Muslims in the United States and that blackAmerican Muslims comprise 42% of the total popu-lation. Finally, the future of American Muslim com-munities in the 21st century may be determinedsignificantly by the conversion experiences and so-cial-political perspectives of young black Americans.According to A report from the Mosque StudyProject 2000, published by the Council on American–Islamic Relations, black Americans constitute thelargest percentile of the yearly converts to main-stream Islam, and many of these converts are youngblack men and women who reside in urban locations.

Blaming and Denying: PragmaticsR Wodak, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, and

Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

� 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Definition of Terms

Blaming and denying, frequent and constitutive fea-tures of conflict talk, are expressed in many differentdirect or indirect linguistic modes, depending on thespecific broad and narrow contexts of the conversa-tions, on the functions of the utterances, and on theformality of the interactions. Moreover, the usagesand functions of blaming and denying are dealt within many disciplines (psychoanalysis, sociopsychology,political sciences, sociology, anthropology, psychia-try, linguistics, argumentation studies, history, andso forth). For example, the specifics of blaming and

See also: Islam in Africa; Islam in East Asia; Islam in

Southeast Asia; Islam in the Near East; New Religious

Movements; Religion: Overview.

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Clegg C A III (1997). An original man: the life and times ofElijah Muhammad. New York: St. Martin’s.

Dannin R (2002). Black pilgrimage to Islam. New York:Oxford University Press.

Diouf S A (1998). Servants of Allah: African Muslimsenslaved in the Americas. New York: New York Univer-sity Press.

Essieu-Udom E U (1962). Black nationalism: a search foridentity in America. Chicago: University of ChicagoPress.

Haddad Y Y (ed.) (1991). The Muslims of America. NewYork: Oxford University Press.

Haley A (1965). The autobiography of Malcolm X. NewYork: Ballantine Books.

Lincoln C E (1994). The black Muslims in America (3rdedn.). Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.

McCloud A B (1995). African-American Islam. New York:Routledge.

Nimer M (2002). The North American Muslim resourceguide: life in the United States and Canada. New York:Routledge.

Turner R B (2003). Islam in the African-American experi-ence (2nd edn.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

denying can be related to psychological and psychiat-ric syndromes, wherein certain patterns are viewed ascompulsive and out of control, and to political debatesand persuasive discourses, in which blaming and de-nying, by serving to promote one group and to debaseor attack the opposition, are carefully and strategi-cally planned and serve positive self-presentation andnegative other-presentation. Thus, the linguistic anal-ysis of those verbal practices that construct a dynamicof ‘justification discourses’ requires methodologiesthat are adequate for the specific genre and context(speech act theory, conversation analysis, discourseanalysis, text linguistics, argumentation analysis,rhetoric, and so forth) (for overviews of some impor-tant features of conflict talk in specific domains fromvarying perspectives, see Austin, 1956/1957; Gruber,1996; Kopperschmidt, 2000) (see also Discourse Mar-kers; Psychoanalysis and Language).