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Alternative Spirituality and Religion ReviewVolume I Issue 1 2009__________________________________________________________________

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The Five Percenters: Islam, Hip Hop and the Gods of New York . Michael Muhammad

Knight. Oxford: Oxford Oneworld. $19.95 Paperback. 311 pp + illustrations/photos.ISBN 978-1-85168-615-5,

Michael Muhammad Knights book about the Five Percenters movement provides afascinating reading that uncovers essential and fairly unknown aspects of Afro-Americanhistory (with a special focus on New York). It includes also material on a number of newreligious movements and ideologies that are directly or indirectly influenced by Islamand Afro-American religiosity (for example, the Moorish Science Temple of Americaand the Nation of Islam). Although the subculture of Islam in America has been the topicof an increasing number of academic studies, to my knowledge this is the first book onthe Five Percenters, also known as the Nation of Gods and Earths.

Instead of presenting his findings in a traditional and rather dry academic style,Knight outlines the story of Clarence 13X (known as Allah), the founding father of theFive Percenters movement, in the style of reportage or a road novel. The author, who isalso known for his book The Tawacores and Blue-Eeyed Devil: A Road Odyssey through

Islamic America , takes the reader back to New York from the beginning of the twentiethcentury until today. Knights approach is reader-friendly, but it is also difficult to followhis argumentation and evaluate the sources he presents. The material used for his book mainly consists of interviews with members and media reportages of relevance to the

movement. From the presentation it is clear that it is very difficult to reconstruct the pastand that eyewitnesses tell different stories: the sources therefore contain oftencontradictory information about crucial events in the history of the Five Percenters.

With the help of numerology and an expansion of existing theological systems of movements such as the Nation of Islam, Allah (Clarence 13X) formulated an ideology orreligion stating that the traditional Western understanding of God is wrong. To believe inthe unseen (God, ghosts, phantoms, etc.) is just a way of pacifying and oppressing theblack man. Like the theology of the Nation of Islam, Nation of Gods and Earths teachesthat the original black man is God and the original black women earth. The name Five

Percenters is based on the assumption that 85 percent of humankind is ignorant andenslaved by the ten percent who know the truth, but deny it by preaching that God is atranscendent power who will reward the faithful after death. The remaining five percentknow the truth about the original black man. The basic teaching of the movement isverbally taught to the followers, and they inculcate the lessons the Supreme


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Mathematics, Supreme Wisdom and the 121 lessons/degrees that are believed to go

back to Allah (i.e. to Clarence 13X). This material is by and large a developed version of the basic teachings of the Nation of Islam.Even though the Five Percenters and the Nation of Gods and Earths uses a vocabulary

that is filled with references to Islam, the interpretations advocated by the followers arevery different from traditional Sunni and Shia Muslim exegesis. Besides referring to theblack man as God, the movement interprets the word Islam as I Self Lord Am Masterand Allah as Arms Legs Legs Arms Head. The map of New York is also made to fitthe geography of Islamic history, and Harlem is consequently referred to as Mecca,Brooklyn as Medina and Queens as the desert. The religion or ideology of the movementis clearly a product of the streets, and it does not take any theological education of seminaries to learn the truth. The tension between traditional religions and the FivePercenters is illustrated by the following quotation:

The bloodsucking Ten Percenters, peddlers of the Mystery God, rule theEighty-Five Percent with priests, imams, ministers, mullahs and theologians,trained experts in phantoms, selling what cannot be seen. An old man whohas only been an MTA bus driver all his life cannot stand up in a mosque andgive khutbh on what he learned while struggling in the city and supporting afamily. Its not enough; he has to go to Al-Azar, perfect his Arabiyya, mastertajwid , eat up medieval scholars, fill his head with fiqh and learn all theschools of thought. But in the new Mecca of Harlem, he can come to the frontof the Harriet Tubmans auditorium in his MTA work jacket and hes God asit. (pp. 264-265)

Through a thorough and detailed expos that takes the reader through Afro-Americanhistory, Knight is able to demonstrate that the Five Percenters and Nation of Gods andEarths is not the first black movement to have argued that the black man is God. Butunlike earlier examples, this movement was able to spread the message to a large

audience. Hip hop and rap artists such as 50 Cent, Wu-Tang Clan and Busta Rhymespicked up the ideas of the Five Percenters in the streets of New York and started to referto the concepts and teachings of the movement in their lyrics. The more popular themovement became, the more threatening it became to the state. Knights book is also adetailed account of how, under J. Edgar Hoover, the American administration harassed


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all movements that were perceived as deviant and anti-American. Several members of the

Five Percenters were, for example, arrested and placed in mental institutions, and Allahwas incarcerated for several years in the Matteawan State Hospital for the CriminallyInsane during the 1960s.

In conclusion, Knights book is a well-written and very interesting piece of work thatcasts important light on Afro-American history, modern American history, new religiousmovements and marginalised groups with a bearing on modern Islamic theology. Theonly objection I have to the book is the way that the material is presented: sometimes thearrangement makes it very difficult to follow the argumentation and timeline or toevaluate the sources used. Still I have no problems with recommending this book to allresearchers and students who are interested in Afro-American history, black theology,Islamic sects, popular culture and new religious movements. From this point of view,The Five Percenters. Islam, Hip Hop and The Gods of New York is a pioneering piece of work.

Gran LarssonUniversity of Gothenburg

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