Editing Nation of Islam (section)

=== Black nationalism and separatism ===

Ideologically, the NOI is black nationalist,{{sfnm|1a1=Gardell|1y=1996|1p=182|2a1=Soumahoro|2y=2007|2p=40|3a1=Acevado|3a2=Ordner|3a3=Thompson|3y=2010|3pp=124, 147|4a1=McCutcheon|4y=2013|4p=61|5a1=Curtis IV|5y=2016|5p=6}} and has sometimes been perceived as a [[Black Power]] political organization.{{sfnm|1a1=Barrett|1y=2001|1p=252|2a1=Jeffries|2y=2019|2p=2}} Scholar of religion [[Mattias Gardell]] commented that the idea of black unity is "at the very core of the NOI ideology".{{sfn|Gardell|1996|p=321}} It seeks to empower black people by giving them a positive self-identity,{{sfn|Barnett|2006|p=874}} purging ideas of white superiority and black inferiority from its followers.{{sfn|Barnett|2006|p=874}} In the Nation's view, black liberation requires a religious dimension.{{sfn|Soumahoro|2007|p=39}}
It regards African Americans, or black people more broadly, as the Chosen People,{{sfn|Barnett|2006|p=875}} espousing a cosmology in which the black race is superior and the white race inferior.{{sfnm|1a1=Austin|1y=2003|1p=58|2a1=Acevado|2a2=Ordner|2a3=Thompson|2y=2010|2p=142|3a1=Boaz|3y=2018|3p=24}}

{{Quote box
| quote = We want our people in America whose parents or grandparents are descendants from slaves to be allowed to establish a separate state or territory of their own, either on this continent or elsewhere. We believe that our former slave masters are obligated to provide such land and that the area must be fertile and minerally rich.
| source=Elijah Muhammad, 1965{{sfn|McCutcheon|2013|p=69}}
| width = 25em
| align    = left
}}

The Nation is [[Black separatism|black separatist]],{{sfnm|1a1=Allen|1y=1996|1p=4|2a1=Gardell|2y=1996|2p=60|3a1=Soumahoro|3y=2007|3p=40}} rejecting the integration of the black and white races.{{sfnm|1a1=Acevado|1a2=Ordner|1a3=Thompson|1y=2010|1p=145|2a1=Haywood|2y=2017|2p=12}} This racial separatism was at odds with the mainstream civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.{{sfn|Acevado|Ordner|Thompson|2010|p=145}} The Nation was critical of African-American activists who promoted racial integration, such as [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] and the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]],{{sfn|Gardell|1996|p=60}} regarding them as "Uncle Tom Negroes".{{sfn|McCutcheon|2013|p=65}} In contrast to King's calls for non-violent protest against segregation and racial violence, the Nation maintained that self-defence was a moral obligation for African Americans.{{sfnm|1a1=Acevado|1a2=Ordner|1a3=Thompson|1y=2010|1p=147|2a1=Finley|2y=2022|2p=43}}

The NOI called for the creation of a separate, sovereign African-American nation-state in the southern part of what is currently the United States,{{sfnm|1a1=Gardell|1y=1996|1p=60|2a1=McCutcheon|2y=2013|2p=62}} with Elijah Muhammad stipulating that the U.S. should financially support this new country for 20 to 25 years.{{sfn|Finley|2022|p=30}} This is presented as compensation for the unpaid labor of their enslaved ancestors.{{sfn|Gardell|1996|p=310}} Farrakhan has also suggested that the countries of Africa should set aside land on that continent for the African diaspora, characterising this as a reparation for the complicity of West African states in the [[Atlantic slave trade]].{{sfn|Gardell|1996|p=309}} Gardell suggested that any nation-state formed under the Nation's leadership would be [[theocracy|theocratic]], authoritarian, and [[totalitarianism|totalitarian]].{{sfn|Gardell|1996|p=322}}

Unlike the Garveyites and Rastafari who strongly emphasise links between the African diaspora and Africa itself, Elijah Muhammad and the NOI instead focused their attention on the African diaspora in the Americas,{{sfnm|1a1=Soumahoro|1y=2007|1p=42|2a1=Barnett|2y=2006|2p=882}} rejecting a specifically [[Pan-Africanism|Pan-African]] ideology.{{sfn|Austin|2003|p=66}} Elijah Muhammad stated that "where as the Black man in Africa is our brother, our central responsibility is with the Black man here in the wilderness of North America".{{sfnm|1a1=Austin|1y=2003|1p=65|2a1=Soumahoro|2y=2007|2p=42}} Rather than treating Africa as a homeland, the Nation's origin myths present Mecca as the original home of African Americans;{{sfn|Barnett|2006|p=883}} Africa itself is often portrayed in Nation writings as the least desirable of the Original Asiatic lands.{{sfn|Austin|2003|p=65}}