Black Muslims, 2005

[FirstCitizen1]

Suppose Malcolm X avoided assasination, while Martin Luther King still was assasinated, and became the de-facto leader of the Civil Rights Movement. Suppose his Sunni, non-Nation of Islam version of Islam became synonymous with a succesful civil rights movement. Further, suppose a large percentage of African Americans became Muslims as a result. (Let's say 50%. I think 90% of blacks are protestant christians today ) How would that effect our time, with the World Wide War on Terror, if major black figures, like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Ect, were all muslims, instead of Christians. Would this have effected the Isralie / Palestenian conflict as well?

 

[Nosb]

The FBI would use all its power to crush it like it did the Black Panthers.

 

[Dave Howery]

I don't think it'd have a huge impact... if they lived like most muslims around the world live, they'd be peaceful enough for anyone. They might get chastised for treating women badly, if they went for the whole 'cloak and hood' thing... but I imagine US muslims would be a lot more tolerant of women's rights than the ME is. Christians and jews might be reluctant to vote for them in some places, but overall, it would come down more to their political views than their religion....

 

[brecarious]

Isreali/Pal Conflict would definitely be differnt.

The United States would definitely lean towards the middle if not completly on the other side of it.

Now now before you say IMPOSSIBLE.

This P.O.D. is the assassination of Malcolm X. Thats 1963.

The Liberty Incident is 1967.

Thats four years for Malcolm to have been consolidating his hold over the Civil Rights movement as a whole and even though the majority of blacks aren't muslim yet. It doesnt matter, He backs the palestinians for the benefits he recieves for standing in solidarity from the muslim world (additional donations, cause he thinks its right whatever). The Black Christian leaders go along with it because its not likely go to a real shooting war and its a small thing for them to do to gain concessions from Malcolm on other issues.

Also the incident happened. It largely didnt blow up into a major issue because the U.S. Government actively moved to get people not to publish it. Once Malcolm X is out there talking about it, getting on TV about it and using his own movements publishing outlets to get the word out even the Pro-Isreali movement has to talk about it just to do damage control.

That turns it from just a matter of the Black minority vs the Jewish minority over which side to support but brings a lot of mainstream America from the 'Just dont care' to the 'Hey they killed our sailors! Why is this happening?'

Now does this mean we back the Palestinians up? Does the U.S. move into a situation where we are competiting with the Soviets for influence in the muslim world?

Does Palestine come into existence and as a compromise the U.S. is building up both Isreal and Palestine economically with a pre-condition to the billions of dollars being peace on the border?

Anyway you look at it. It does get interesting before you even get to 2005 and the war on Terror.

As for the war on terror I dont forsee any major problems that arent already there. Malcolm X wasnt exactly a adherent or proponent of Sharia to my knowledge and your going to end up with a brand of Islam influenced by American Society. Likely ending up with its own sub-designation.

But I really dont know enough (read anything) about the religon to state that to a certainty.

 

[zoomar]

Bad news for US blacks is all I can say. THe US civil rights movement was almost entirely Christian. Probably one of the major factors allowing the gradual change in white attitudes toward racial equality was the fact that the civil rights leadership spoke the same religious language as the white elites. The fact that they were clearly more moderate (in rhetoric at least) than the DeBois and Black Muslim movements also helped. A "civil rights" movement led by Muhammad X and other black Muslims would have continued to alienate many whites, especially given some of the racialistic and separatist overtones of early black muslim rhetoric.

 

[FirstCitizen1]

The overly seperatist tones of early black muslim rehtoric is why I stipulated that Malcolm X came to prominence after his 'moderation'. Nevertheless, you do raise an interesting point. If white found themselves unable to moderate their own feelings towards blacks, due to their islamist bent, what would then happen? I've always suspected that, absent concession by well-meaning whites, the Civil Rights movement would have inevitably turned violent in the 1970s - 1980s. In that time period, with a viable soviet union, and the general concerns of the time-period, how would whites...intent upon maintianing segregation and denying blacks the franchise...have responded?
Genocide of African-Americans might have been viable 1860-1945. If the war in Europe still revealed the holocust, and the soviet union still became a superpower, would genocide of 'uppity blacks' still have been an option, care what their religion? Would it have any implication on the world stage?

 

[zoomar]

I don't see how any black "muslim" could have become the leader of the US civil rights movement in the 1960's and 1970's. Almost certainly, Dr. King's replacement in the hearts and minds of many blacks and 99.9% of whites would have come from the Baptist preachers in the NAACP. It is possible that you might see a much more severe split in the black rights movement, with the accomodationist and moderate NAACP (with its many white and Jewish members) facing off against the more aggressive and less inclusive Black Muslims - and communists. Rather than the entire "civil rights" movement becoming radicalized, you'd see the african-american community split, with one side favoring continued slow change in league with whites and the other arguing for radical and revolutionary action. I suspect what would eventually happen is white accomodation to the "moderate" aims of the traditional civil rights movement (voting rights, desegregation) much as in OTL, but with a much more violent and aggressive stance toward groups which appear to be black separatist or communist-oriented. I don't see a "race war" occurring as much as a more traditional left-right struggle. Also I don't believe that a "holocaust-like" solution would ever have been on the table, at least without a lot of other wierd things happening.