In previous posts I've kept track of the Dwight York/Nuwaubian Moor trial. Look here and here for a refresher on the trial. My "Islam in America" class is getting ready to read about the history of various African-American Islamic sectarian movements, so in the process of researching the Ansaru Allah folks (York's older movement before they became Nuwaubians), I came upon an article published by the Southern Poverty Law Center that covers the whole mess pretty thoroughly: York as God, the Mahdi, Muslim, Black Hebrew, Christian, cowboy, indian, moor, egyptian, space alien, con man, child molester, racist, militant, businessman, and charismatic leader, to name a few. It also reveals some of the weird cooperation between scary white kooks and scary black kooks, who would otherwise regard each other as evil, inhuman etc...One thing it doesn't do, is give a sense of the intense and schizophrenic character of York's theology. If you want to see that for yourself just google "Malachi Z. York" and take a peek at some of what you get. It's dizzying.
More on this to come.
