CHICAGO — Imam W. Deen Mohammed, one of the most prominent African-American Muslim leaders in the nation and the son of the late Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad, died Monday, sources told the Chicago Tribune.
“Brother Imam,” as he was affectionately known, was 74. There was no immediate confirmation of his death by his family. The Cook County medical examiner confirmed that a Wallace Mohammed was pronounced dead at his home in Markham, Ill., a spokesman said.
Muslim community leaders said Mohammed was scheduled to speak Tuesday in Chicago, and many grew concerned when he did not appear.
Mohammed inherited from his father the Nation of Islam, a religious movement crafted out of black nationalism and bits and pieces of Muslim practice. He immediately tried to move its followers toward mainstream Islam, eventually leading to a split between those who agreed with Mohammed’s approach and those who joined a revived Nation of Islam under Louis Farrakhan.
Mohammed was a spiritual wanderer who was banished several times by his father for filial impiety — once for remaining close to Malcolm X, Muhammad’s prized disciple who turned into a critical voice within the Nation of Islam before he was slain.
In 1961, Mohammed refused to serve in the U.S. military and went to prison in accordance with his father’s teaching that African-Americans shouldn’t defend a land of lynching and segregation.
While incarcerated, Mohammed studied the Koran and found its teachings at considerable variance with his father’s. After his father’s death, Mohammed in 1975 aligned the Nation of Islam with mainstream Muslim beliefs.
In 1976, he made a public appearance carrying an American flag. He proclaimed the time had come for black Americans to celebrate America.
Mohammed rejected his father’s sometimes overtly anti- white preaching — a rhetorical style continued by the fiery Farrakhan, Mohammed’s rival for leadership of African-American Muslims. Farrakhan and Mohammed long traded barbs and theological jabs before publicly reconciling at a joint worship service in 2000.
During his final years, Mohammed lived quietly in a modest home in south suburban Markham. He headed a charitable organization, Mosque Cares, and spoke to congregations across the nation.
