LOS ANGELES -- Islam's two preeminent African American leaders, separated by two decades of rivalry before reconciling two years ago, reaffirmed unity Friday in their first joint appearance in Los Angeles.
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and W.D. Muhammad of the Muslim American Society offered stark contrasts -- one a fiery orator of political polemics and black empowerment; the other a low-key leader who resolutely sticks to religion. Once united under Nation founder Elijah Muhammad, they split 25 years ago over doctrine, with W.D. Muhammad rejecting his father's blend of Islam and black nationalism and moving into orthodox Sunni Islam. The two men, who together command the nation's single largest group of Muslims -- African Americans -- vowed Friday to join forces to build up the black community. Creating an Islamic movement in pluralistic America could be a global model, they said as they kicked off the Nation of Islam's Saviour's Day convention.
"We are going to stick with Minister Farrakhan all the way to the promised land," declared Muhammad as he led Friday prayer before thousands of Muslims at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
For Farrakhan, 69, the appearance with Muhammad reinforced the conciliatory theme he has struck all week: Wednesday and Thursday, he urged peace among gang members in Watts, exhorted hip-hop artists to sanitize their lyrics and performed a Beethoven violin concerto in his second public performance in 42 years. The convention offered several workshops pegged to the theme of healing and reconciliation -- such as one on religion that featured panelists of Jewish, Christian, Sikh and both Sunni and Shia Islamic backgrounds.
Farrakhan set the stage for the conciliatory events with the violin concerto Wednesday, which he said he offered to the public because music "is a universal language ... with the power to bind." He likened the orchestra -- disparate elements brought together in harmony for a common musical aim -- to the vision he now promotes of bridging racial and religious divides.
The minister told reporters this week that the Nation was evolving, just as a thorn-scarred rose grows into "a beautiful flower." He said all major religious movements have started out narrowly and broadened their reach into a universal message, and that the Nation of Islam was doing the same. Indeed, in recent months Farrakhan has begun moving into the universal message of orthodox Islam. He has been aided by Muhammad, whose followers have helped train Nation forces in prayer, Koranic reading, the art of Friday sermons and other orthodox practices.
But major theological differences remain. Just as evangelical Christians view Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses as deviations of their faith, orthodox Muslims reject the Nation's core beliefs that Elijah Muhammad was a divine messenger and that his teacher, W. Fard Muhammad, was God incarnate. Orthodox Muslims reject the idea of human divinity and believe the Prophet Muhammad was God's final messenger.
The differences have inhibited some orthodox Muslim groups from supporting Farrakhan, financially and otherwise. But Farrakhan seemed to hint Friday that he would begin moving his flocks away from those ideas, calling Elijah Muhammad's teachings "very near correct ... (but) nothing that is near correct is correct."
"You don't have a nation of Islam without a proper recognition of the Prophet Muhammad," Farrakhan said.
Now that Farrakhan is leaving behind his controversial religious and racial doctrines, Muhammad said, he is headed toward the status of Malcom X as one of the black community's leading consciences.
Muhammad said the two movements will probably never merge, however. "He's a political figure; (I'm) a religious figure, and that's the way it's going to stay," Muhammad said.