African American Muslims are simultaneously celebrated, demonized, and perhaps most potently, delegitimized as authentic Muslims. These processes seem conflicting; what ties them together is the way in which institutions and individuals readily exploit black American Muslims. This tradition began with the historical erasure of the enslaved African Muslim population, examined in chapter 2. Erasure gave way to demonization and delegitimization in the 1930s, and garnered national attention in the 1950s with the rise of the Nation of Islam. Led by Elijah Muhammad and the charismatic Malcolm X, the Nation of Islam's membership swelled in the late 1950s. Its message of black nationalism, empowerment, and self-sustaining community resonated deeply with a population ravaged by poverty, Jim Crow, and the residual effects of slavery.

Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Unde…, loc. 437