Even the FBI admitted internally that drawing additional attention to the NOI may have backfired, making the organization and its leaders Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X even more popular. There was also a larger context to the movement's growth. The US prosecution of the Cold War, its manipulation of newly independent African and Asian states, the beginning of the Vietnam conflict, and the lack of real progress on social equality at home made the religious and political critique of the NOI convincing to many both inside and outside the movement.

XREF: The Streisand effect—attempts to suppress attention backfire and amplify it. Parallels to counterproductive surveillance/COINTELPRO operations.

Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ Th…, loc. 406