Allah Lives
In the two previous years from June of 1969, Allah had risen to become a very powerful figure within New York City. He had achieved a kind of international celebrity status; Canadian television did a story on him; a sociologist from Sweden interviewed him and he had plans to meet with Chinese representatives on June 20, 1969.
The young Five Percenters were fast presenting a growing problem among the City’s black youth. They defied authority and taught other black youth that they didn’t need a whiteman’s education or job. The Police Department and the Board of Education had difficulties in finding people who were both street-wise and sufficiently schooled in Black nationalist philosophy to establish relationships with these youth to redirect their activities and thinking. They were aware of the controversial racial questions involved. The controversial means of dealing with rebellious black youth with pacification programs of recreation, job recruitment, remedial education, and traditional social work wasn’t enough.
Within the white power structure Allah was being viewed as a dangerous man. In 1967, Allah began to teach the brothers that they were Gods also, as he had realized in himself. He had them change their names from Muslim names to come in the name of Allah as their family name and take a name from their mathematics or alphabets to go with it. Thus, for example, a Five Percenter with a name like I Islam was renamed Um Allah, Hakiem was renamed Born Allah, Dihoo was renamed Knowledge Allah, and so on. Allah was very particular at distinguishing his nation from the Muslims. He taught the sisters that the earth is the Blackwoman’s twin in nature. Thus Five Percenter women are called Earths. The Black woman is symbolic to the earth in many ways the earth is the only planet in our solar system that is capable of reproducing life the moon, the earth’s counterpart, reflects the light of the sun in much the same way that the woman reflects the teachings of her man. Five Percenter women wear long dresses so that they are clothed with three fourths of their body covered symbolic of the earth being three fourths covered with water. Earths were encouraged to study nutrition so that they could provide a healthy environment for their family.