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Wee ee a Essentially they are religious bodies, opposing the Christian faith. Members of the Moorish American Soience Temple insist that they are not Negroes and avoid the use of the word or of "black® when referring to thea- . selves, maintaining that they are really Moors and that their skin is “olive-mied." On the other hand, the Islamites not only call themselves Negroes but are proud of the name, contending that the Negro is "the original man." Weither endorses the "Back to Africa™ Movement. Jn 1925 a small] Negro wearing a flaming red fez similar to thomworn by ks appeared in empty lots and on street corners of Chicago's South Side © proclaim a startling new doctrine. He was NobleYDrew ili, born Timothy ew in North Carolina. Prophet of Islam, and founder ofthe Moorish tamerican Science Temple. Little is known of Drew Ali's early history. He is reputed to have been an expressman in Newark, New Jersey, where he is said to have founded the first Moorish American Science Temple as early as 1913. There is also some evidence to indicate that he had established branches of his cult in Pittsburgh and Detroit before he came to Chicago. Drew's main contention was that the people commonly known in America as Negroes are of Moorish descent and thus Asiatics. Act six of his "Divine Constitution and By-Laws" reads: ‘With us all members mist declare their nationally and their Divine Creed that they may know that they are a part and partial (sic) of this said government and that they are not Negroes, Colored Folks, Black People or Ethiopians, because these names were given to slaves, by slave holders in 1779 and lasted until 1665 dur- ing the time of slavery, but this is a new era of time now, and all men must proclaix their free national name to be recognized by the government in which they live and the nations of the earth, this is the reason why Allah the Great God of the universe or- dained Noble Drew Ali, the prophet, to re- — deam his people from their sinful ways, The Moorish Americans are the descendants of the - ancient Moabites who inhabited the North Western and South Western shores of Africa. Prophet Nobel Drew Ali did not inmediately rally many disciples to his banner, the Moorish star and crescent on a field of red. But he persisted, and st length was able to set up permanent headquarters. Though semi~literate, ier ee gece em ama ge tA SREP TE Ee