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https://www.wsj.com/articles/american-caliph-review-a-holy-war-on-hollywood-11672269551
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Ever since emancipation, blacks in America have oscillated between the desire for integration with white society and, when spurned, the appeal of separation. The most conspicuous of the separatists has been the Nation of Islam, the Black Muslim sect founded by a visionary hustler called Master Fard Muhammad and, after Fard’s disappearance in 1934, transformed into a movement by Elijah Muhammad and his eloquent disciple, the martyred Malcolm X. But for all their stress on self-reliance, the aura of violence has always clung to the Black Muslims.
Elijah’s hit men gunned down Malcolm X in Harlem in 1965 after he broke with the leader. And a dozen years later, a holy war of sorts among the group’s adherents and a breakaway Muslim sect culminated in a set of deadly sieges in Washington, D.C., one of the most violent incidents ever in the nation’s capital. The spark that ignited it all was a big-budget movie about the historical prophet Muhammad supported by the Black Muslims but damned as blasphemous by an angry apostate.
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This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.