The July 16, 2018 issue of People carried a story about Niki Lopez, a survivor of a Reactionary Black Nationalist cult known as the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors. The cult is largely a rip-off of the Nation of Islam (NOI) and the Moorish Science Temple of America, two bizarre Black religious sects.

Lopez helped weaken the cult. She told her story of childhood physical and sexual abuse to the FBI in 2000. In 2004, the cult’s leader, Dwight “Malachi” York, was “sentenced to 135 years in federal prison.”

The cult relates strongly to ancient Egypt and Nubia. Like some other Reactionary Black Nationalists, they claim that African Americans are America’s true indigenous people. Like the NOI, they believe the White man (or Paleman) is the Devil. And like the NOI, they claim that they are not racist. They are simply speaking the unvarnished Truth, and that Blacks that disagree are simply too brainwashed to understand.

Like the NOI, the Nuwaubian Nation teaches that Whites were bred. According to the Nuwaubians, Whites were designed to live only for 60 years, while other races were to live to 120 years. Blacks were supposed to live for 1,000 years.

Whites were bred as a warrior class to defend Blacks. But they tasted human blood and were never the same. They went insane. Their reproductive levels were reduced, the penises of White men shrank, and White women had sexual desire for Black men. After 6,000 years, Whites were to have been bred out of existence. However, during a period of 600 years, Whites mated with dogs and jackals and became part-beast and part-human.

Like the NOI and its leaders Fard Muhammad and Elijah Muhammad, the United Nuwaubian Nation and its leader have undergone many name changes.

Moreover, like Fard and Elijah Muhammad, Dwight York was a shady ex-con before he embarked on his successful career as a religious leader.

Like the NOI under Elijah Muhammad, when the Nuwaubians were known in Brooklyn as the Ansaru Allah Community, members who did not sell enough of the group’s literature were beaten.

There were too many other disturbing similarities between the NOI and the Nuwaubians. For example, Elijah Muhammad preyed upon young girls sexually. However, York was even worse. York was charged with over 100 counts of child molestation and aggravated child molestation, and one count of rape. More charges accrued, including the transportation off children across state lines for sex.

York’s number one “wife,” Kathy Johnson allegedly molested children and brought them to have sex with her husband, even providing the children with sexual instruction. Other adult women allegedly did the same.

Like other Reactionary Black Nationalists, the Nuwaubians have been successful at garnering the support of Black progressives by claiming that the White authorities are persecuting them. In 1999, Al Sharpton went to their Egyptian-themed compound Tama-Re in Eatonton, Georgia to lend them support. In 2001, Jesse Jackson did the same.

It is disturbing that, in the name of Black unity, so many Black progressives that should know better give aid and comfort to Black charlatans that are clearly exploiting Black people. These progressives seem to salivate like Pavlov’s dogs every time they hear any charges of racism. There seems to be no serious need on their part to seriously investigate the charges, or more importantly, to protect the Black victims of these charlatans. One can only wonder how much aid and comfort these progressives gave to the children that were harmed by cult members.

Humanist Seon Lewis has written about the Nuwaubians in his book From Mythology to Reality: Moving Beyond Rastafari. In fact, Lewis, a native of Grenada residing in Brooklyn, was a Rastafarian and a Nuwaubian. In his second book, Apostate! No More Bazoodee: A Grenadian Quest to Think Outside the Box, Lewis also discusses Nuwaubianism.

In her book, White Nights, Black Paradise, Black atheist and feminist Sikivu Hutchinson uses a work of fiction to discuss the Jonestown Temple in Guyana and its attraction to African American religious believers. There is much more literature needed on Black religionists, group-think and cults.

This all raises the question as to how any rational person is unable to see through the religious nonsense. The poor and most desperate are those that most easily embrace the most bizarre religions. The Nation of Islam built itself up with a literally captive audience – prison inmates. This is an easy population to turn against the powers that be.

It is easy for mainstream religionists to criticize followers of cults and sects. However, why should primitive insanity be preferred over modern insanity? We should all strive to establish strong criteria for examining extraordinary claims, regardless of where those claims are to be found. This would be a major way to combat dangerous cults and even relatively harmless irrational ideas.