Why I Am A Five Percenter Epub
Why i am a five percenter. A thoughtful, insider view of The Five Percenters-a deeply complex and misunderstood community whose ideas and symbols influenced the rise of hip-hop. Misrepresented in the media as a black parallel to the Hell's Angels, portrayed as everything from a vicious street gang to quasi- Islamic revolutionaries.
Author by: Michael Muhammad KnightLanguage: enPublisher by: PenguinFormat Available: PDF, ePub, MobiTotal Read: 90Total Download: 786File Size: 49,9 MbDescription: A thoughtful, insider view of The Five Percenters-a deeply complex and misunderstood community whose ideas and symbols influenced the rise of hip-hop. Misrepresented in the media as a black parallel to the Hell's Angels, portrayed as everything from a vicious street gang to quasi- Islamic revolutionaries, The Five Percenters are a movement that began as a breakaway sect from the Nation of Islam (NOI) in 1960s Harlem and went on to impact the formation of hip-hop. References to Five Percent language and ideas are found in the lyrics of wide-ranging artists, such as Nas, Rakim, the Wu-Tang Clan, and even Jay-Z.
For the most part, the criminal element of the Five Percenters exists in departments of corrections including the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Several departments have validated the group as a Security Threat Group (gang) and have placed all known members of the group in administrative segregation. Misrepresented in the media as a black parallel to the Hell's Angels, portrayed as everything from a vicious street gang to quasi-Islamic revolutionaries, The Five Percenters are a movement that began as a breakaway sect from the Nation of Islam (NOI) in 1960's Harlem and went on to impact the formation of hip-hop.
The Five Percenters are denounced by white America as racists, and orthodox Islam as heretics, for teaching that the black man is Allah. Michael Muhammad Knight ('the Hunter S. Thompson of Islamic literature' -The Guardian) has engaged this culture as both white and Muslim; and over the course of his relationship with The Five Percenters, his personal position changed from that of an outsider to an accepted participant with his own initiatory name (Azreal Wisdom). This has given him an intimate perch from which to understand and examine the controversial doctrines of this influential movement. In Why I Am a Five Percenter, Knight strips away years of sensationalism to offer a serious encounter with Five Percenter thought.
Encoded within Five Percent culture is a profound critique of organized religion, from which the movement derives its name: Only Five Percent can act as 'poor righteous teachers' against the evil Ten Percent, the power structure which uses religion to deceive the Eighty- Five Percent, the 'deaf, dumb, and blind' masses. Questioning his own relationship to the Five Percent, Knight directly confronts the community's most difficult teachings. In Why I Am a Five Percenter, Knight not only illuminates a thought system that must appear bizarre to outsiders, but he also brilliantly dissects the very issues of'insiders' and 'outsiders,' territory and ownership, as they relate to religion and privilege, and to our conditioned ideas about race. Author by: Michael Muhammad KnightLanguage: enPublisher by: Oneworld PublicationsFormat Available: PDF, ePub, MobiTotal Read: 63Total Download: 734File Size: 41,6 MbDescription: With a cast of characters ranging from Malcolm X to 50 Cent, Knight’s compelling work is the first detailed account of the movement inextricably linked with black empowerment, Islam, New York, and hip-hop. Containing unrivalled insider access to the movement’s elders, oral histories, and community literature, this fast-paced investigation uncovers the Five Percenters’ icons and heritage, and examines their growing influence in urban American youth culture. Including coverage of Brooklyn turf gangs, the Attica prison uprising, 1980s crack empires, and the stars of Five Percenter rap, Knight explores the origins and development of this controversial community, and reveals the hidden reality behind the myths, rumours, and hearsay. Michael Muhammad Knight converted to Islam at the age of sixteen after reading the autobiography of Malcolm X.
He is the author of The Taqwacores, the cult novel credited with inspiring 'Muslim Punk Rock'. Author by: MARTIN A M. GANSINGERLanguage: enPublisher by: Anchor Academic PublishingFormat Available: PDF, ePub, MobiTotal Read: 17Total Download: 903File Size: 42,5 MbDescription: This book is discussing patterns of radical religious thought in popular forms of Black music. The consistent influence of the Five Percent Nation on Rap music as one of the most esoteric groups among the manifold Black Muslim movements has already gained scholarly attention. However, it shares more than a strong pattern of reversed racism with the Bobo Shanti Order, the most rigid branch of the Rastafarian faith, globally popularized by Dancehall-Reggae artists like Sizzla or Capleton. Authentic devotion or calculated marketing? Apart from providing a possible answer to this question, the historical shift of Bobo adherents from shunned extremists to firmly anchored personifications of authenticity in mainstream Rastafarian culture is being emphasized.
A multi-layered comparative case study attempts to shed light on the re-contextualization of language as well as expressed dogmatic perceptions and symbolism, attitude towards other religious groups and aspects of ethnic discrimination. Further analysis includes the visibility of artists and their references to practical and moral issues directly derived from two obscure ideologies that managed to conquer airwaves and concert halls. Author by: Michael Muhammad KnightLanguage: enPublisher by: Soft Skull PressFormat Available: PDF, ePub, MobiTotal Read: 60Total Download: 101File Size: 45,8 MbDescription: When Michael Muhammad Knight sets out to write the definitive biography of his “Anarcho-Sufi” hero and mentor, writer Peter Lamborn Wilson (aka Hakim Bey), he makes a startling discovery that changes everything.
At the same time that he grows disillusioned with his idol, Knight finds that his own books have led to American Muslim youths making a countercultural idol of him, placing him on the same pedestal that he had given Wilson. In an attempt to forge his own path, Knight pledges himself to an Iranian Sufi order that Wilson had almost joined, attempts to write the Great American Queer Islamo-Futurist Novel, and even creates his own mosque in the wilderness of West Virginia. He also employs the “cut-up” writing method of Bey’s friend, the late William S.
Burroughs, to the Qur’an, subjecting Islam’s holiest scripture to literary experimentation. Burroughs vs. The Qur’an is the struggle of a hero-worshiper without heroes and the meeting of religious and artistic paths, the quest of a writer as spiritual seeker.
Why I Am A Five Percenter Epub File
Author by: Ebony A. UtleyLanguage: enPublisher by: ABC-CLIOFormat Available: PDF, ePub, MobiTotal Read: 38Total Download: 183File Size: 47,8 MbDescription: This book provides an enlightening, representative account of how rappers talk about God in their lyrics—and why a sense of religion plays an intrinsic role within hip hop culture.
A bibliography of cited sources on rap music and hip hop culture. An index of key terms and artists.
A discography of rap songs with religious themes. Author by: Michael KnightLanguage: enPublisher by: Soft Skull PressFormat Available: PDF, ePub, MobiTotal Read: 19Total Download: 788File Size: 40,8 MbDescription: Michael Muhammad Knight embarks on a quest for an indigenous American Islam in a series of interstate odysseys. Traveling 20,000 miles by Greyhound in sixty days, he squats in run-down mosques, pursues Muslim romance, is detained at the U.S.-Canadian border with a trunkload of Shia literature, crashes Islamic Society of North America conventions, stink-palms Cat Stevens, and limps across Chicago to find the grave of Noble Drew Ali, filling dozens of notebooks along the way. The result is this semi-autobiographical book, with multiple histories of Fard and the landscape of American Islam woven into Knight’s own story. In the course of his adventures, Knight sorts out his own relationship to Islam as he journeys from punk provocateur to a recognized voice in the community, and watches first-hand the collapse of a liberal Islamic dream. The book’s extensive cast of characters includes anarchist Sufi heretics, vegan kungfu punks, tattoo-sleeved converts in hard-core bands, spiritual drug dealers, Islamic feminists, slick media entrepreneurs, sages of the street, the grandsons of Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X, and a group called Muslims for Bush.
I recently had an opportunity to build with Author Paul Lawrence Guthrie about his book Making of the Whiteman, his documentary series via the World Dhamma Foundation and various other sciences of life. We've agreed to make a portion of our dialogue available to the public. There are Five Percenter newborns, others within our Nation and members of other conscious groups who are not familiar with his contributions in regards to KOS Knowledge of Self.
I wanted to highlight some of those contributions. Also, over the years the Five Percenters have often been labeled Muslims and Mr.
Guthrie's work, particularly clarifying some of the source material of the Nation of Islam's teachings and 120 lessons, has been very helpful in addressing this label. Do the knowledge! Saladin Allah: True indeed.
In addition to the book itself one of the best parts to me were the numerous sources you cited in the back. I read the book in one day yet invested many days researching the sources. Some of the books I found in my local library hadn't been taken out in almost twenty years. With the development and expansion of the internet, we now have a Millennial Generation born as social media natives. For many, web surfing and social networking has begun to replace the traditional fact finding missions of exploring local libraries, bookstores, visiting people and etc.
To gain knowledge. What does this technological paradigm shift mean for our present and future generations? How does this shift positively and/or negatively effect ones journey who is seeking knowledge? Since the rise of the internet, literacy has been in decline. And even literacy itself, is changing.
Reading words printed on paper (in books) is a different process than reading online. When I first began to read online I had to almost re-learn the kind of thought processes used while reading from books. It took me several months to re-learn how to mentally process online information.
Computers throw the information at you at a different speed and with a different flavor. It's not the same; it comes at you from a different angle. I promote that people use paper printed books (while they’re still available), and maybe supplement their reading with online sources. Saladin Allah: Several years ago in 2008 through the World Dhamma Foundation you began to share a series of videos related to your research on W.D.
Fard, also known as Master Fard Muhammad; co-founder of the Nation of Islam. In those videos you elaborate in detail on his origins in India, not Arabia and his teachings correlation to Buddhism, not Islam. How did you begin to make these correlations and what in particular within the Supreme Wisdom book and specific degrees within 120 lessons made you come to this conclusion? The 120 or Supreme Wisdom lessons is a coherent body of teachings. A pattern or paradigm.
In my view, Buddhist principles and practices run throughout the lessons from start to finish. When I look at the terminology used throughout them; as well as the principles and practices, they are consistent throughout with Buddhism. I think it's significant that W. Fard mentions no Islamic principles or practices. If we call the lessons “Islam” we should know it’s very different from what the rest of the world calls Islam. And it’s okay to do so, however for me it seems more coherent to refer to those principles and practices as perfectly consistent with Dhamma. In your videos about W.D.
Fard you talked about how the lessons only mention about a few Islamic words in comparison to ten thousand other words, and not in a traditional Muslim context. Another point you elaborated on, in addition to Fard's handwriting being Urdu, not Arabic, is that in his 'Instructions to the Laborers' he specifically defined the teachings as 'mixed.' In my own research I also found correlations between some of the lessons and what Madame HP Blavatsky taught within the Theosophy Society such as her being educated by hidden masters in the East during the time of Fard's childhood, the 25,000 calendar and etc. Did you also come across these correlations?
What other correlations did you find throughout these 'mixed' teachings other than Buddhism? Paul Guthrie: Yes, in the lessons you can see evidence of the trends of that time. And as you've noted, Blavatsky’s Theosophical Movement is one such trend. Blavatsky's Isis Unveiled was published in 1877, and the same is officially recognized as W. Fard's birth year.
Blavatsky is said to have borrowed the title Isis Unveiled, from the title of Anacalypsis, by Godfrey Higgins. The full title is: '.' It's reported that W. Fard frequently used the text Anacalypsis during his talks. Both Anacalypsis and Isis Unveiled focus on Buddhist India. Regarding groups ceasing to issue the Supreme Wisdom lessons: maybe they believe they’ve exhausted the value contained in those lessons. Sometimes religious organizations ban or otherwise de-emphasize their source material for political reasons.
Ancient Rome’s conversion to Christianity is one such example. In the case of Christianity, many of the early texts were banned following the Roman conversion. Rome did that for political reasons. The Gnostic school (Knowledge) was replaced by the newly Romanized, Pistos school (Faith). In politics and in religion, authority tends to flow uphill.
Outside of politics and religion, authority normally rests with the individual. I think the lessons speak of that dynamic and guard against it - where the Instructions say, 'I do not want importance among the Laborers nor Officials.' Saladin Allah: Much of what you say conflicts with what people are traditionally taught about Fard and the lessons. What has been the general consensus from those who have been exposed to your research? How has your research been received by the different branches of the Nation of Islam? And I ask because many people are unaware that there are multiple 'Nations' of Islam with various leaders such as the late John Muhammad Elijah's brother, Silis Muhammad, Solomon Royall, The Son of Man Marvin Muhammad, Ahmad A.
Why I Am A Five Percenter Epub Converter
Muhammad, Minister Louis Farrakhan and others. There are a number of Nation of Islam organizations.
I don’t know that any of those organizations have received the Get On Board The Wheel documentary series in a welcoming way. Outside of the people who are already studying with us, the most positive reception has been from the Five Percent.
I value their responses. Especially the older Gods - many of them already know what I’m talking about. Additionally, I’ve heard from many rank-and-file Nation of Islam members; some of them have been very supportive. I value their support too. Saladin Allah: Your research is what sparked a public dialogue and inspired various people to research, write about, lecture and even publicly debate the correlation between Indian or Indus Valley teachings and the original source material of the Supreme Wisdom book and 120 lessons.
As Five Percenters, we are scientists of life, not religious or dogmatic. This is one of the reasons many of us appreciate you; you've added on and continue to add on knowledge to our cipher. Because we are not Muslims and don't base our worldview on a belief system, in our quest for knowledge we strive to be right and exact and stand to be corrected if we're not. If I'm building with another Five Percenter or anybody that's sharing information that either conflicts with or adds onto what I previously learned, I'm open to researching and integrating it into my life if it's right and exact. That attitude and posture is a vital part of the growth and development process.
As far as certain people opposing or not accepting particular ideas - I'm open to that. So far, the main opposition has been emotional opposition. I don’t see much evidence-based opposition.
I suspect that over time the emotional responders will piece together a more coherent opposition. Those kind of emotional reactions are “magnetic”, it's just a way to throw us off course. In Dhamma practices, the magnetic is called clinging and aversion – if you watch, when someone reacts to an issue emotionally, you can see they’re trying to push you or pull you in one direction or the other – to turn you away from the issue. I’m open to critique and to dialogue and learning. I certainly don’t advocate that people agree with a thing until after they’ve thoroughly looked into it for themselves. Saladin Allah: I appreciate that my brother and I'm honored that I've been able to add-on.
Your mention of 'magnetic' reminds me of the 22nd lesson in the 1-40. As you know, it talks about Yacub discovering magnetic while playing with two pieces of steel as a child.
Within that discovery Yacub learned that the piece with the magnetic attracted the piece without. As it correlates to people, it was the piece/people without magnetic who were pushed or pulled and easily led in one direction or the other that the devil was eventually made manifest through. It was also this manifestation that eventually threw the entire human family off course.
I've definitely witnessed and experienced various forms of emotional opposition and knee-jerk reactions to knowledge, especially in the form of social media trolling nowadays. If it occurs I've always strived to not go there because it's nothing more than a proverbial island of Pelon where people are made other than themselves. Paul Guthrie: The last “authorized” version was in 1996 (around that time). Nearly all the copies since then have been bootleg versions (with the exception of maybe 1 or 2).
A few years ago a friend asked me if he could publish a few thousand copies (he owns KHA Books). That’s probably the only “authorized” printing in nearly the last 20 years. I’m not charging him for those. I still own the intellectual property rights to the book and I do know who the bootleggers have been.
I have generally responded to the bootleggers on a case-by-case basis.