Islam is an Antichrist Counterfeit Religion of Confusion – Little X by Sonsyrea Tate
by Sabrina Dawkins
In Little X (1997), Sonsyrea Tate, using her childhood voice, recounts her experience growing up in the Nation of Islam. And this is several years after the assassination of Malcolm X.
“When [Wallace Fard] Muhammad arrived on the scene, all of America was depressed—economically speaking—and her Negroes were doubly devastated. So it was easy enough to believe in a man like Mr. Muhammad. Peddling silk scarves and self-esteem door-to-door, Mr. Muhammad built a sizable enough base in Detroit’s ghettos. He established his first Temple of Islam. Then in 1934 he mysteriously disappeared, and his devout disciple, Elijah Poole, took over leadership of the organization and assumed the last name Muhammad” (pp. 1–2). It’s significant that Sonsyrea Tate says that he was peddling self-esteem during a time when Negroes were desperate for money and flattery.
“‘Elijah Muhammad told the people what they needed to hear at the time,’ my grandmother told me. ‘They needed somebody to make them feel good about themselves. Somebody to tell them yes, they were good. Whereby the white man had treated us so bad and made us out to be the bad ones. Well, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad came along and did the reverse'” (pp. 2–3). According to Tate, “the individual god within each black person was acknowledged and respected. In the Nation little black boys and girls appeared well mannered because in school they were trained to believe that they were little gods and goddesses who would someday be leaders” (p. 3). Not only were they taught that they were gods; in Muslim schools, the children were also taught that they were “kings and queens in Asia while white men still were running around uncivilized and naked in caves” (p. 4).
In the Muslim church and in their economic and emotional desperation, Jesus was portrayed as a white man who had abandoned them: “Brothers and sisters, I’m here to tell you, stop praying to some man on the cross. How’s he going to save you? Has that white man come down from his cross to save you from sickness and suffering and indignation? No” (p. 18).
In Muslim school, Tate was taught history according to Elijah Muhammad’s teachings: “The histories of Christianity and Buddhism, according to his lessons, dated back 551 and 35,000 years, respectively, while the history of Islam was timeless. (…) Islam, we were taught, was the very first religion, from which all other religions evolved” (p. 31). How is that possible when Islam partially relies on the Bible for its content?
I was disappointed by the author’s conclusion: “I found that I enjoy gospel music on Sunday mornings in my home. Occasionally I attend a church service because I enjoy the fellowship. When my Christian relatives suggest I need to commit myself to a particular church or at least a particular religion—choosing one over another—I explain to them the main lesson I learned growing up: they’re all good. I’m happy to see Elijah Muhammad’s son, Warith Deen Muhammad, promote interfaith conferences in cities across America now. He encourages congregations to celebrate their own understanding of God and to celebrate their neighbor’s understanding, too” (p. 229).
I suppose if one does not know the truth, it would seem reasonable to be tolerant of different religions. It seems that her experience within the Nation of Islam has left her without a religion, without a stable belief system, which is sad.
Because Malcolm X had such a profound effect on my understanding of the godless and foreign system I had grown up in, I passively assumed that his belief system was some kind of bridge to true Christianity. But having read this book and others on the history of Islam, the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad, and other African-American syncretic belief systems, I now realize that although Malcolm X was a bridge and an aid to my understanding true Christianity, his belief system was not—it was an antichrist, syncretic belief system to bolster black American self-esteem at the expense of truth. Therefore, it fostered confusion and a falling away from Christianity. Granted, American Christianity is false Christianity, but the Bible itself is not false.
Malcolm was well-read and was consequently able to give me pieces of a history that had been stripped from African Americans. Though he promoted a false religion, his wisdom was somewhat otherworldly, as if he were part beast, part angel in order to relate to fallen Israel in its shame and spiritual darkness. The relevant books I’ve studied are listed below the reference as affiliate links, meaning if you click the link and purchase a book, I will receive a small commission with no additional cost to you.
Reference:
Tate, S. (1997). Little X: Growing up in the Nation of Islam (1st ed.) [E-book]. HarperCollins Publishers Inc. https://archive.org/details/littlexgrowingup00tate/mode/2up
Affiliate Links:
Little X: Growing Up in the Nation of Islam by Sonsyrea Tate https://bookshop.org/a/126317/9781621904069
The Dead Are Arising : The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne and Tamara Payne (at Books-A-Million) https://www.tkqlhce.com/click-101832173-42121?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booksamillion.com%2Fp%2FDead-Arising%2FLes-Payne%2F9781324091059
Islam in the African-American Experience by Richard Brent Turner https://bookshop.org/a/126317/9780253216304
Remembering Malcom by Benjamin Karim and Peter Skutches and David Gallen (at Books-A-Million) https://www.tkqlhce.com/click-101832173-42121?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booksamillion.com%2Fp%2FRemembering-Malcolm%2FBenjamin-Karim%2F9780345471659
The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad by Karl Evanzz https://bookshop.org/a/126317/9780307805201
The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley (at Books-A-Million) https://www.kqzyfj.com/click-101832173-42121?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booksamillion.com%2Fp%2FAutobiography-Malcolm-X%2FMalcolm-X%2F9780345350688
Malcolm X film by Spike Lee (DVD at Gruv.com) https://www.jdoqocy.com/click-101832173-15735954?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgruv.com%2Fproducts%2Fmalcolm-x-dvd-_1000154264%3F_pos%3D2%26_sid%3D56303c0c2%26_ss%3Dr