In my latest book, I offered readers a poem, The Racial Element of War, which contained the following lines:

It was a street vendor in Detroit, Wali Fard, who founded the "Nation of Islam" in 1930 and who even called himself the "Great Mahdi.

I had other topics to touch on in this poem and I left this particular topic as it was-, but some Muslim friends in Kandy asked me if I had read up on Wali Fard and whether I had a fuller story to tell. Yes, I have, but I didn’t think it would matter so much. But I could be wrong. We have today class wars and race wars - and the objective of the ‘Nation of Islam" is wholly racist as well as being political and religious.

It was during America’s depression era that the shadowy figure of Wallace Fard emerged to set up his ‘"Nation of Islam." He said he was Wali, if only to give his name a stronger Muslim overtone. He claimed to be a silk merchant from Makkah and peddled his wares to American-African homes and preached against Christianity to his customers. Christianity, he said, was nothing but a tool of white oppression. He called on black people to return to Islam, the religion of their ancestors, and fight to set up their own State within America. "We must have a Nation of Islam,"’ was his cry.

But in 1934, Fard mysteriously vanished. His "ministry" was taken over by one of his followers, Elijah Muhammad - a charismatic teacher who consolidated Fard’s agenda into a doctrine of selfdiscipline and black co-operation- He also recruited black ‘ ministers’ among them being Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan.

I will not say that this Nation of Islam is an offshoot of orthodox Islam. What Fahd, and after him, Muhammad, created was a strange, hybrid theology, apparently borrowing from Islam, Christianity, pantheism, science fiction, and the doctrine of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Nation of Islam holds that Earth was originally inhabited by only black people until an evil scientist named Yacub created a mutated strain of pale-skinned people who, it was declared, "were bleached of the essence of humanity and had no souls." They are destined to oppress humanity for centuries, until the blacks, led by Fard and later, Muhammad, would rise up and take control.

Naturally, many orthodox Muslims revile such teaching. After all, it is a true Muslim belief that all races are equal.

The Nation of Islam made much headway in the 1960s when black radicalism was on the march in the USA. Many young blacks embrace its teachings to this day because of its militaristic clean-cut image and emphasis on the pride of the black man. It also began to run housing projects for blacks only as well as anti-drug programmes.

In 1964, the new world heavyweight boxing champion, Cassius, Clay, also became the Nation of Islam’s [shall we say NOI hereafter?] most famous celebrity; and as we know, he changed his name to Muhammad Ali.

NOI membership soon grew to 40,000, boosted by the inspirational speeches of Malcolm X. The membership has slumped to 10,000 today, but over fifty percent of America’s black are now following a new leader, Louis Farrakhan.

How Farrakhan [pictured right] took over the NOI is interesting. He was born Louis Eugene Walcott in 1933 and is not all-black as he claims to be. His father was of white Portuguese descent. He died when Eugene was three. Eugene grew up in Boston, raised by his mother. There is much to be said for him: He is a gifted musician and even played violin with the Boston Civic Symphony when he was only thirteen. Dropping out of college, he became a nightclub calypso singer, calling himself The Charmer. He met Malcolm X in 1956 and was recruited to the NOI, changing his name to Louis Farrhakan to make it sound more Arabic. As an ardent recruit, Farrhakan was resolutely loyal to the teachings of Elijah Muhammad.

In 1963, Malcolm X renounced racism and quit the NOI. Farrakhan publicly condemned and declared, "Such a man is worthy of death!" Strangely enough, Malcolm X was shot dead a few weeks later.

When Elijah died in 1975, Farrakhan set about organising the NOI on his own terms. He campaigned to rid US cities of drug dealers and received a good press, but he caused much unease with his 1995 Million Man March. Thousands of marching blacks brought Washington to a standstill and suddenly Farrakhan was, to the world, an important civil rights leader.

All in all, Farrakhan is as conservative as any Christian Bible-wallah. He preaches a gospel of discipline and self-reliance. His followers must wear neat suits, bow ties, and polished shoes. They must abstain from drink, drugs and extramarital sex. Farrakhan himself does not drink or smoke, eats only one meal a day, and has been married to the same woman for 43 years. He has nine children. He also abhors abortion and homosexuality, condemns welfare payments for single mothers and does not believe in tolerance for criminals. But he is a shameless bigot and an extremist rabble-rouser when it comes to race. This is where he is not only hated but also feared by the West. When he wished to visit in 200 1, he was refused entry, but he contrived to obtain a High Court ruling to overturn the ban. He calls all white men "blue-eyed devils" and "vicious beasts" and has even called the Christ’s apostles "a whole lot of white faggot boys."

He has demanded that the US fence off seven or eight States purely for black people who must also be supported by the whites in recompense for the horrors of slavery. Also, he has a special hatred for Jews. He calls them "bloodsuckers" and just before his Million March, he shouted against the Jews, demanding: "Everybody talks about what Hitler did to you! What did you do to Hitler? What made that man so mad at you?" These views are shared by many US blacks and today, 40% say they have no good feelings about Jews.

In England, thousands think Farrakhan is some kind of a nutcase. But they are also scared that the black people take him seriously. The British find much of Farrakhan’s rhetoric pure nonsense. This cannot be faulted, for Farrakhan has made some weird claims. He says that once a month, he is beamed up to a flying saucer so that he can commune with Elijah Muhammad! At his Million Man March he also made some queer observations:

"In the background is the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorial Each of these monuments is 19 feet high. Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president and Thomas Jefferson was the third... and 16 and 3 make 19 again. What is so significant about 19? When you have 9, you have a pregnant womb, and where there is a I standing by, there is some secret that has to be brought to light"

Try to make sense of this if you can.

England also has up to 2,000 NOI adherents, but, as we know, class in Britain tends to be a bigger obsession that race. Also, England’s black population is smaller and less politicised than in America. Also, the races in England tend to coexist, with up to 50% British-Caribbean men in mixed relationships. But the British NOI does tempt disaffected black youth. It has its own mosques, runs an organic food chain called "Respect for Life" as well as three all-black schools that have received no authority from the Department of Education.

In these NOI schools, boys attend "Boys into Manhood" classes and are told of the perils of drugs and criminality. Girls follow "‘Muslim Women in Training" classes with lessons in cooking and childcare. Both sexes must learn karate. Young adult women students must wear the headscarf and floor-length skirt and must pledge to marry within the N01 and stop work once they have children.

What stares us in the face? Is all society to be at the mercy of such fanatics and rabble-rousers? A large vein of fanaticism runs remorselessly in all that is propounded, although the outer skim may seem so alluring. Our world is in one hell of a mess, isn’t it? I return to my poem and offer you these lines - a squaring up between white and black. Let"s call them W and B:

This clash of civilisations is coming- Of this I have little doubt.