nation of islam

They are Nation Of Islam. They are not seen as true muslims by mainstream muslims. They twisted islam with some black nationalism and racism against non blacks. They also have new prophet Elija Muhammed i believe, but not sure though.

The NOI are very distinct from Islam. Without going into detail, They are probably further from Islam than either Judaism or Christianity.

I always wondered, In USA there are about 3 millions black muslims. Are they NOI or mainstream muslims? Or maybe some of them are NOI and rest are mainstream?

Nation of Islam is pretty weird. All this putting one race above another... complete anathema to Islamic teachings. Islam basically teaches that all races are equal in the eyes of Allah/God/Jehovah/'higher intelligence'.

I can understand the NOI's appeal among certain African Americans (that term is just strange, since it applies to people who haven't even been to Africa, neccessarily). But what the NOI teaches is still not right.

do the NOI also observe the 5 salaat?

Black Muslim is a misnomer. They are Muslim, at least all I have met are.

However, I am aware that many NOI call themselves Muslim and some call themselves Black Muslims. It does lead to some confusion in trying to determine how many Muslims are in the USA. From my understanding the census figures are taken from attendance at Mosques. From what I have seen it is easy to seperate Masjid's from NOI Mosques as they call them "Nation of Islam Mosques"

The beliefs of the NOI do differ considerably from Islam.

Although Farrakhan's organization claims to be the authentic Nation of Islam, there are three other organizations making this same claim. John Muhammad, Elijah Muhammad's blood brother, heads one, based in Detroit. A second organization is based in Atlanta and headed by Silas Muhammad. Emanuel Abdulla Muhammad established a third organization in Baltimore.

The most recognized of the four organizations is that founded by Louis Farrakhan.

Doctrine

I. The Nature of God

A. God is not Spirit, but a man.

"God is a man and we just cannot make Him other than man, least we make Him an inferior one... A spirit is subjected to us and not we to the spirit."13

"Allah came to us from the Holy City of Mecca, Arabia, in 1930. He used the name Wallace D. Fard, often signing it W. D. Fard.... He came alone."14

B. God is not eternal (He lives and dies)

"Well, we all know that there was a God in the beginning that created all these things and do know that He does not exist today. But we know again that from that God the person of God continued until today in His people, and today a Supreme One (God) has appeared among us with the same infinite wisdom to bring about a complete change."15

"There is no God Living Who was here in the Creation of the Universe, but They produce Gods from Them and Their Wisdom lives in us."16

C. God is one of many gods (Polytheism).

"The Black Man's Gods, according to the history He [Allah] taught me, have All been the Wisest."17

"Six thousand years ago, or to be more exact 6,600 years ago, as Allah taught me, our nation gave birth to another God whose name was Yacub."18

II. The Person of Christ

A. Christ was only a mortal man and a prophet, not God.

"He [Jesus] was nothing more than a prophet."19

"Making the Son and the Holy Ghost the equal with the Father is absolutely sinful."20

B. He did not rise from the dead.

"He [Jesus] was nothing more than a prophet, and he has gone back to the earth, never to return alive."21

"We know what happened to him 2,000 years ago. He cannot come back from the grave. He is not in heaven."22

III. The Bible

A. It is incomplete.

"The Bible in not all holy, nor is it all the Word of God!"23

B. It is a poison book.

"The Bible is now being called the Poison Book by God Himself, and who can deny that it is not poison? It has poisoned the very hearts and minds of the so-called Negroes so much that they can't agree with each other."24

"The Bible is the graveyard of my poor people (the so-called Negroes)... The Bible charges all of its Great Prophets with evil, it makes God guilty of an act of an act of adultery by charging Him with being the father of Mary's baby (Jesus), again it charges Noah and Lot with drunkenness, and Lot with getting children by his daughter. What a Poison Book"25

Because the above link is from a site that appears to be giving erroneous information about Islam, I will not post the link. However, if anyone has a bonafide need to have the link I will PM it to them.