About
Moorish Science Temple of America’s first National Convention, October 15 thru 20, 1928 Chicago, Illinois
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Further Reading
In Search of Nationality by Joseph Jeffries-EL
Noble Drew Ali's solutions for "America's dilemma"
Available exclusively on Amazon
Morocco has a special relationship with the United States that is generally unfamiliar both to Americans and Moroccans. Most Americans are unaware of the special relationship between Morocco and the United States of America that developed sub-consciously through the trans-Atlantic conquests of Moorish-impregnated Spain and consciously through contacts between our early Republic and this old, dilapidated kingdom.1 Even fewer Americans seem aware of the complex contacts between Morocco, at Africa’s northwest corner, and the ancestors of our Negro community.
“Foreign Affairs: Our Strongest African Link?” by C. L. Sulzberger, April 25, 1964. © 1964 by the New York Times Company.
Reprinted by permission.
In 2017, DataMoor.org Moorish Community Survey established a Moorish National Registry for the Reclamation of birthrights of Muslim people of Moorish origin of American birth and of slave ancestry, residing in the United States of America; members of the world community of Muslims and of Islamic Faith; Whose ancestors were unlawfully and forcefully brought to the shores of America against their will and were enslaved; and were eventually freed through the Thirteenth Amendment of 1865; as set forth that all men are created free and equal and are entitled to life, liberty, property, and justice.
Noble Drew Ali taught that the people termed "Negroes" in the United States are "Asiatics" and, specifically, that they are Moors whose forebears inhabited Morocco before they were enslaved in North America. He insisted that "for a people to amount to anything, it is necessary to have a name (nation) and a land." North America is the Negroes' land—it is an "extension" of the African continent. He taught that the "so-called Negroes" must know their national origin and refuse to be called Negroes, black folk, colored people, or Ethiopians. The must call themselves Asiatics, Moors, or Moorish Americans. He believed that before a people can have a God they must have a nationality, and the Moorish Nation is Morocco. He contended that the name is all-meaniful, for by stripping him of his Asiatic name and calling him Negro, black, colored, or Ethiopian, the European robbed the Moor of his power, his authority, his God, and every other worthwhile possession.
The Meaning of Aboriginal Indigenous Moorish Noble Titles [prior to slavery] (SCRIBD.COM):
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ALI—The bringer of law; Most Noble and exalted. Usually this title is given for an act of courage or accomplishment;
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EL—God, Force, Power, Hebrew also means Ra Of the Cosmos giver of the Elohim. Usually for women or men coming back into the knowledge. Represents the feminine principal;
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BEY—Governors of the land in Moorish Civilization; Obey and Enforce Laws; The prophets (means teacher) and foot
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soldiers.
The Moorish Mosque, f/k/a the Moorish Science Temple of America, Inc.—Temple #66 (MSTA), pioneered the development of non-public low-income housing in New York City. On November 20, 1968, the Moorish Science Temple of America formed the Brownsville Housing Development Fund Corporation (BHDFC), a domestic not-for-profit corporation duly organized and existing pursuant to Article XI of the Private Housing Finance Law and the Membership Corporation Law, both of the State of New York.
Brownsville Housing Development Fund Corporation organized a joint venture with Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company (MHT) and the Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA) to provide $12 million in federal financing to develop the Noble Drew Ali Plaza I, named after the founder of the Moorish Science Temple of America. Noble Drew Ali Plaza I, comprising five six-story elevator buildings containing 385 apartments, was the city’s first HUD private housing project in which the sponsor, developer, architect, and contractor were all minority members. The program was established by president Richard Nixon’s Executive Order 11458—issued March 05, 1969: Prescribing Arrangements for Developing and Coordinating a National Program for Minority Business Enterprise.
Moorish Mosque focus now is on transforming New York City Public Housing. The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), North America’s largest public housing authority, home to approximately 500k residents, was created in 1935 to provide decent, safe, sanitary, and affordable housing for low-and moderate-income New Yorkers. Currently, NYCHA housing developments are facing problems of $80 billion in deferred maintenance, unsafe living conditions, high crime, limited access to physical and mental health services, scarce opportunities for economic advancement, and insufficient resources for early childhood development. Moorish Mosque will form local and global partnerships that will target various concerns—from infrastructure improvements and modernization, resident well-being to enhancing safety, sponsoring early childhood development and enable a comprehensive integrated solution for implementation.
Pioneers of Black Nationalism
Noble Drew Ali and Marcus Garvey represent two traditions of black nationalism in the United States. Both sought to create a "central idea" for the race (at least for Americans Negroes). The nationalists differ on this point. Drew Ali had a firm faith in Islam as the central ideal. Garvey believed the focus was Africa although it seems doubtful that he actually wanted his followers to emigrate to Africa. The tradition represented by Noble Drew Ali appealed to the Negro's religious suscepti-bilities and sought to improve the status of the Negro masses through its own version of Islam. Garvey appealed to their economic plight and pointed to the political inferiority of the black race throughout the world. Garvey's declared aim was not only to improve their economic position in the United States but also unite them into a "vanguard for Africa's redemption." Both men are dead, but their teachings form the core of contemporary nationalist ideologies, and both continue to have adherents. Drew Ali was an American citizen. Marcus Garvey was a West Indian. Both began nationalist agitation during the decade of the First World War—a decade of unprecedented Negro migration from the southern rural area to northern cities. The leaders disappeared from the scene shortly before the depression. Garvey was deported from the United States in 1927 and Drew Ali died in 1929.
Excerpts / sourced from
(a) THEY SEEK A CITY, Copyright: 1945 by Arna Bontemps and Jack Conroy; Reprinted by permission of Doubleday & Company, Inc.
(b) BLACK NATIONALISM: A Search for an Identity in America, Seventh printing: August, 1970. Copyright: University of Chicago Press, 1962; Reprinted by arrangement, Laurel, Dell Publishing Co., Inc. By E. U. Essien-Udom.
Marcus Garvey (right) in a military uniform as the "Provisional President of Africa" during a parade on the opening day of the annual Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World at Lenox Avenue in Harlem, New York City. Noble Drew Ali is at the left.
(1922 file photo).