In this episode of Based Camp, Malcolm and Simone dive deep into the fascinating and controversial origins of the Nation of Islam. Did you know that one of the largest Black supremacist religions was actually founded by a white man? Join us as we unravel the bizarre history of Wallace Fard Muhammad, his mysterious background, and the strange blend of conspiracy, occult teachings, and social movements that shaped the Nation of Islam.

We explore:

* The true identity and criminal past of Wallace Fard Muhammad

* How elements from white nationalist and occult groups were woven into NOI doctrine

* The infamous Yakub story and its roots in early 20th-century pseudoscience

* The influence of other movements like the Moorish Science Temple and Marcus Garvey’s UNIA

* The evolution of the Nation of Islam, its famous followers, and why many eventually left for mainstream Islam

Expect a wild ride through history, religion, and the psychology of cult leadership, with plenty of humor and critical analysis along the way. If you’re interested in the intersection of race, religion, and American history, this episode is for you!

Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more deep dives and thought-provoking discussions.Episode Transcript:

Malcolm Collins: HELLO SIMONE! You have been excited about this episode since I gave you the dirt because I was like, did you know, because I didn’t know this. I looked at the, everyone’s always joking about the whole Yakob story and Nation and Islam and what a bunch of silly beliefs and. And then somehow I was watching the video and it just dropped, like, and by the way, it was founded by a white guy.

And I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. The largest black supremacist religion. I think it’s the largest on earth right now. Was founded by a white guy. I was like, I need to drill in on that. This one, this, this is

Simone Collins: like fat positivity be being founded by chubby chasers, like by men.

Oh, no,

Malcolm Collins: no, no. It’s worse. It was founded by a white guy. As a joke to troll African Americans.

Simone Collins: So do we have reason to believe it was actually a joke and not, like, not something else?

Malcolm Collins: It was likely a way to make money combined with a joke.

Simone Collins: Okay. So like a scam. Okay. Wow. [00:01:00 ] Wow. Okay. Oh. Let’s get always so excited for this episode.

You have no idea. Yeah,

Malcolm Collins: yeah. Oh, I mean, it gets crazier. Many of the ideas in it were actually lifted from white nationalist conspiracy groups that would do mailers and you could like pay to have like mail sent to you about the way the world really works. You know how like when the internet started you could like.

Pay to get like the schematics for a time machine or something like that? No, in, like, if you go to like the 1920s, this was common for like religious stuff. Like, like, like, okay. I’d say like philosophical society stuff, paranormal society stuff. And a number of them were tied to white nationalist organizations.

Oh, Lord. Lord. And they were the ones that he constructed his religion out of. Oh no. So this is gonna get so crazy, so wild. Let’s dive in. And Simone just believe me, at first, and she had to Google the guy and she was like, no, no,

Simone Collins: no, no. I was like, no, he is definitely, there’s no way this is possible. I was gonna be like, well, actually it [00:02:00 ] was wrong.

Malcolm Collins: Keep in mind, this is like the religion of like Malcolm X and like Muhammad Ali, right? Like this is like major black people have followed this as like a faith structure. I think

Simone Collins: it’s pretty big even in Philadelphia if memory. Oh,

Malcolm Collins: yeah. Yeah. And it, well, it’s, it’s shrinking now. It’s basically falling apart.

It’s probably good

Simone Collins: in light of this. I,

Malcolm Collins: yeah. Okay. So the founder, Wallace d Farrad. Also known as Wally, DOD Ferard, Wallace Ferard, et cetera. He was a mysterious figure who appeared in Detroit in 1930s selling skills door to door in black neighborhoods claiming to be from the Middle East, variously Mecca, the east, the tribe of Shaba Shabaz most contemporary police records.

FBI files newspaper investigations from the 1930 to 1960s and scholarly research. Identify him as Wallace Do. Ford, a white man of New Zealand, European, and possibly mixed British [00:03:00 ] Polynesian descent. What born 1891 to 1893 sources differ. He was either born in New Zealand, Hawaii, or Portland, Oregon.

Conflict. He has a criminal record in California under the name Wally DOD Ford. Arrested multiple times in the 1920s for bootlegging and assault and a 1926 prison sentence in San Quentin for drug dealing. He is described by both court records and ex-wives as Caucasian. So. But note if you’re like, well, maybe he was a little Polynesian or a little something that like, that we know from all of his arrest records.

And when he was in prison, he was described on all of the records during that more racist period of history as Caucasian and all of his exes called him Caucasian. Oh boy. And we’ll, we’ll learn what he thought about black people in a second, which wasn’t a lot. Oh, no. He was married multiple times, two to three wives, some simultaneously and had children and used at least a dozen aliases.

He spoke as a pronounced New Zealand or British type accent. [00:04:00 ] Oh, okay, so, so how did this work? Because I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Yeah, this is start a black supremacist religion. Okay. So, 1930s Detroit Ferra began teaching black residents that they were the original people, the lost tribe of Shabbat.

Stolen from Asia, not Africa, and that white people were devils created by an evil scientist named Yaku. He claimed to be a prophet sent by Allah and eventually declared himself God in person. His teaching mixed elements of the. Garveyism Freemasonry, Jehovah’s Witnesses Islam very loosely, and science fiction like racial mythology.

No kidding fact, thousands of followers. Very quickly in the middle of the Great Depression, Elijah Poole. Later Elijah Muhammad became his most dev devoted disciple and was named a Supreme Minister. A fard disappeared completely in 1934, probably fled Detroit after a human sacrifice scandal involving one of his followers in intense police scrutiny.

The NOI teaches that [00:05:00 ] he quote unquote departed or was Allah, who completed his mission. Elijah Muhammad then took over and built the organization into what it became. Note that the Nation of Islam officially denies that he is white today. They hold that master fraud Muhammad. Was a quote unquote black man born in Mecca.

And that claims that he was con robio something or FBI files. However, virtually all non NOI, the Nation of Islam historians w would say, as well as Carl e Evers Messenger, FBI, files that have been declassified and the 1970s Detroit police records conclude that he was white and the same man as Wallace dod for

Simone Collins: Oh boy.

Okay, so I’m not crazy ‘cause I did a deep dive on the Nation of Islam, like beliefs and I thought he was, he was black. But then of course, that’s what I would’ve been told if I was just looking into the beliefs. So, okay. This is maybe why a lot of people who like found the other crazy stuff didn’t find this.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. Because if you’re digging into it from their [00:06:00 ] own sources and instead, which is crazy enough, yeah. They’re not gonna tell you, you’re like, oh, I wanna learn more of this, this Yakob story. You’re not gonna, and we’re gonna go into where that story came from and everything. Okay?

Simone Collins: Okay.

Malcolm Collins: All right. So of course, you know, the first thing I’m like is, wait, wait, wait.

Why did a white guy start a black supremacist religion? Right? So there’s three reasons that are hypothesized, okay? Four, just pure grift, conman, hustle. He had a long history of scams, bootlegging, and living off of women. Yeah. In early 1930s, Detroit was full of unemployed black migrants from the south who were desperate for hope and identity.

Mm-hmm. By posing as the exotic eastern prophet, he gained money. Followers paid dues and brought products. He sold free housing and sexual access to multiple women in the group. Several early members later said he had a harem like arrangement. This fits the pattern of dozens of cult leaders in American history.

Two influence from [00:07:00 ] earlier Oak Cult and more society teachers. He most certainly knew Noble Drew Ali, the founder of the Morris Science Temple, and may have been a member for a while. And we’re gonna go into these other religions that he drew from because they’re equally fascinating. He also borrowed heavily.

From an occult male order group called the Royal Fraternity of Master Meta Physicians, and from white philosophical writings about lost tribes, Atlantis and Yakob style eugenic stories that were floating around in the 1920s. He simply reversed the racial hierarchy instead of white people being superior.

Black people were the original gods and white people were devils. This was new and electrifying to his audience. And this is the more interesting one here.

Simone Collins: Okay.

Malcolm Collins: Personal revenge or a psychological motive. Some researchers, especially Carl Evans in the Messenger, specula