Life inside the highly secretive, controversial Nation of Islam. A historical memoir set in the 1970s.
Most Orthodox Muslims dismiss the Nation of Islam as a hoax and its leaders as heritics. Most people outside the Nation of Islam know very little about its teachings, history and practices aside from what can be surmized from the popular movie "Malcolm X". In this book, "Little X: Growing Up in the Nation of Islam," readers get a glimpse inside the world of a Muslim girl as she learns these controversial teachings at school, home, and in the temple.
Excerpt
In order to recite our lessons perfectly in school, we had to rehearse them at home.
"All right, man, Lesson Number Ten: Why does Muhammad and any Muslim murder the devil? What is the duty of each Muslim in regards to the four devils? What rewards does a Muslim receive by presenting four devils at one time?" Uncle Hussein drilled his younger brother, Uncle Wallace, on these lessons at night so they could correctly recite them in class the next day.
I could hear them in their bedroom going over this information while they put on their pajamas. I was already in my pajamas, lying in the twin-size, fold-up, roll-away bed I shared with GrandWillie. The thought of murder frightened me because I knew that black men couldn't go around killing white ones and get away with it.
For a time, I perched myself on a flat rock, comparing my life with the Guyandotte River. Just as its tributaries replenish it daily, changing it in some small—sometimes great—degree, so have the day-to-day occurrences of life changed me. Like the ri
