Editing Nation of Islam (section)

===Conversion===

The NOI refers to its proselytising efforts as "fishing for the dead".{{sfn|Gardell|1996|p=63}} To this end, the Nation holds regular open meetings, mass rallies, street-corner lectures, and prison outreach,{{sfn|Gardell|1996|p=63}} seeking new recruits in "jails and penitentiaries, pool halls and barbershops, college campuses and street corners".{{sfn|Akom|2003|p=311}} It has used books by Elijah Muhammad, radio broadcasts, and audio-recorded speeches to promote its message.{{sfn|Gardell|1996|p=64}} Through this, it has sought to attract unemployed, disenchanted black youth,{{sfn|Tinaz|2006|p=161}} as well as disenfranchised Christians.{{sfn|Soumahoro|2007|p=41}}

The NOI's recruitment efforts have proven particularly effective among drug addicts and incarcerated criminals.{{sfnm|1a1=Gardell|1y=1996|1p=306|2a1=Akom|2y=2003|2p=311}} The Nation was active in prison ministry by the 1950s, with its numbers of imprisoned followers rising steadily in the latter part of that decade;{{sfn|Colley|2014|p=394}} many members, including Malcolm X, were recruited while in prison.{{sfnm|1a1=Curtis IV|1y=2002|1p=181|2a1=Colley|2y=2014|2pp=393–394}} Farrakhan stepped up the prison ministry in the 1980s in response to the growing incarceration of young black men under Reagan's administration.{{sfn|Gibson|2012|p=105}} By the early 1960s, prison authorities were raising concerns that the NOI was exacerbating racial tensions in prisons.{{sfn|Colley|2014|pp=394, 405}} Some incarcerated members have claimed to have experienced discriminatory treatment from prison authorities because of their religion,{{sfnm|1a1=Gardell|1y=1996|1pp=307–308|2a1=Colley|2y=2014|2pp=404–405}} and in some cases have filed legal action as a result.{{sfn|Vaught|2017|pp=53, 57}}

Ula Y. Taylor, a scholar of [[Black studies|African American studies]], suggested that female members were attracted by the Nation's offer of a "stable family life" and the opportunity to get involved in "the development of a new black nation".{{sfn|Taylor|2017|p=105}} The historian Zoe Colley thought that it offered men living in poverty the "opportunity to reclaim their manhood and sense of pride", thus partly explaining its appeal.{{sfn|Colley|2014|p=409}} It also attracted followers with its offer of a separate schooling system where African-American children would not suffer the racism found in the mainstream public school system.{{sfn|Taylor|2017|p=37}}