Overcoming Captivity to the Worst in Us : Nation of Islam: Its leader’s rhetoric may be unsettling, but its anti-gang, anti-drug message is a positive force.

Minister Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, comes to Los Angeles today to make a speech. His arrival will be marked by controversy.

Farrakhan’s organization, which is viewed with suspicion and fear by some Americans, arose in the 1930s as a response to white racism and structured inequality. The tenets of the religion offer clues to the conditions that stimulated its growth and development: self-pride, collective effort and economic self-sufficiency. Spiritual resurrection, self-examination, self-analysis and self-correction are emphasized. Members are known for humility and respect for others. The “uniform” of male members is a suit and tie. Gender relationships are viewed as egalitarian, although men and women have tightly prescribed roles and responsibilities.

Perhaps most significant is the fact that the Nation of Islam works and works well. Whereas most American institutions consider certain segments of the African American community incorrigible, the Nation focuses on the downtrodden--the unemployed, the gang member, the drug dealer, the incarcerated felon--and seeks to transform these lowliest members of our society into productive citizens. Their success abounds.

The late Malcolm X, a self-educated former felon, was the charismatic leader of the Nation who best symbolized the transformation of former criminals into religious and civic leaders. Today, positive Muslim influence is pervasive in U.S. prisons.

Children attend schools in uniform and appear to succeed academically. In Los Angeles, efforts by the Nation have produced reductions in gang participation and graffiti. Men and women who join the Nation renounce drug use and become part of a community committed to economic and psychological self-sufficiency.

Although the Nation of Islam has succeeded in transforming portions of the African American community into productive citizens, it feels under siege by law- enforcement agencies that are too quick to call for reinforcements, too quick to arrest and too quick to shoot to kill.

Last week, Oliver Beasley, a member of the Nation of Islam in Los Angeles, was fatally shot by a sheriff’s deputy. His death exacerbates the strained relations between law enforcement and the African American community and illustrates the continuing frustration among inner-city blacks--and the real and potential role of the Nation of Islam in America.

The killing of an African American man by law-enforcement officers is not unusual. The media have successfully drawn an exaggerated portrait of the inner city as plagued by crime, drug abuse, violence and homicide. Law-enforcement officers are, not surprisingly, paranoid. The killing of a member of the Nation, however, is incongruous because of the group’s reputation for obeying the law and living morally.

Some of the language of the Nation’s leadership scares many Americans. The late Elijah Muhammad, considered the Nation’s prophet, spoke of “the fall of America,” and Farrakhan asks, “Can America save herself?” On closer examination, one can see that these statements are rhetorical. In the context of Farrakhan’s messages, the question is not threatening but an expression of fear: “Can America save herself--from herself?” In this respect, the Nation of Islam may be viewed as America’s conscience, and this may account for the frequently strong opposition to its perceived purposes. After all, its leadership repeatedly denounces many of our cherished ideals and institutions.

America was founded in a climate of racial separation and white supremacy, a legacy that we continue to struggle to overcome. Thus, American proclamations of freedom and democracy ring hollow for those who have experienced structured inequality, and the Nation of Islam and its leadership unabashedly attacks this profound hypocrisy.

Its objective of racial separation, therefore, is more properly viewed as an acquiescence to the separatism imposed by whites. The Nation of Islam merely seeks justice and equal opportunity. Instead of being a hate group, it is an anti-hate group.

Some statements by Farrakhan are more problematic, and many people understandably regard them as anti-Semitic. These statements--which may, in part, be reflective of a long-standing conflict between Islam and Judaism in the Middle East--unfortunately broaden the chasm between African Americans and Jewish Americans. Farrakhan must find language that solves this conflict, but more important, Jewish Americans must bring pressure to bear on Israel to end its abhorrent ties to South Africa. Moreover, Farrakhan is much more critical of African Americans than any other group in his quest for individual and social change.

The Nation of Islam consciously avoids blaming the dominant culture for the plight of African Americans (although such blame is not without merit), and instead seeks to transform the individual from within. Thus, the goals of the Nation are not subversive of the state, but subversive of the individual’s captivity to hedonism, materialism, racism and sexism.

We should observe and listen closely to the Nation of Islam. It offers a program of individual and social change that could be used as a model to produce long-term solutions to the plight of the poor and to end the inconsistency between our words and deeds concerning freedom and justice in America.