WI: Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X as orthodox Sunni Imams

Really quick, for those unfamiliar with the backgrounds, here are the biographies of Elijah Muhammad (Poole) and Malcolm X (Little):
http://www.danielpipes.org/341/how-elijah-muhammad-won
http://www.biography.com/people/malcolm-x-9396195

Long story short, ITTL Elijah Poole was active in organizations like Marcus Garvey's United Negro Improvement Association and the Black Shriners, as well as the Moorish Science Temple of America cult. Eventually, he became the leader of Wallace Fard's Allah Temple of Islam (later, the Nation of Islam), the largest faction of the MSTA after it broke apart in the wake of Timothy Drew's death. And Malcolm Little followed a similar path.

However, around the same time that Elijah Poole was getting involved on MSTA, orthodox Sunni Islam was gaining some of it's first serious footholds in the Detroit area.

So, what if Poole, got involved in one of the early Detroit mosques instead of Fard's Allah Temple of Islam? And assuming he was able to draw on his talents as per OTL, was able to grow orthodox Sunni Islam like he was NoI or better? Especially assuming the he managed to attract Malcolm Little, as per OTL.
 
Interesting POD.

Beyond wiki-walking to get Elijah Muhammad's story- you're effectively butterflying the Black Power aspect of Elijah Muhammad's religious journey.
The problems NoI had with violence and criminal aspects continued from its predecessor organizations MSTA and ATI. EM wasn't the cause, but he certainly didn't clean it up. IMO Elijah Muhammad was another cult leader mixing and matching whatever sounded good to make his own cult of personality.

IMO, Malcolm X had a genuine religious epiphany during his hajj and tried mightily to get NoI on a path closer to orthodox Islam. He wanted NoI members to be good Muslims and the Muslim-oriented businesses aboveboard, bettering their communities, but EM was afraid of losing power and being held accountable for deviating from orthodox Islam.

Basically, AIUI, your POD is that the NoI takes more of a community-service angle from an Islamic bent.
This makes a few radical departures in the 1960's in how NoI is received and perceived by mainstream black and white society. NoI's no longer about separating from mainstream society to make their own enclave but improving the overall community.

It's about using Islam as a corrective for the perceived faults of Christian society, dealing with racism, poverty and vice, recruiting intensively from prison populations to help them turn their lives around and build a community that supports their rehabilitation.
You could see an almost Australian divide within the movement between the folks who converted in prison and turned their lives around and the folks who led respectable lives throughout as time goes on and NoI becomes more established.

Depending on leadership and how well they manage NoI's image, they could be a powerful moral force working with Christian and Jewish charities to tackle social ills and exerting political pressure to make them political priorities.

YMMV from mine.
 
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