The Nuwaubian Nation, Nuwaubian movement, or United Nuwaubian Nation () is an American religious organization founded by Dwight York circa 1967. Since then the group has repeatedly changed its name, teachings and practices. Scholars of religion have characterized it as a new religious movement and a black nationalist group. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Nuwaubian beliefs are eclectic and have changed over time. York—who promoted his teachings through writings called "scrolls"—initially claimed to be the grandson of Muhammad Ahmad, the 19th-century Sudanese Mahdi. He later claimed to be an extraterrestrial named Yaanuwn. Although it has promoted references to "Allah" and "God", its teachings are materialistic, dismissing the existence of a spiritual realm. Race is a key part of its black nationalist worldview, which focuses on African Americans especially. White people are regarded as having a fundamentally separate origin. The group is millenarian, with York prophesying that an apocalypse in the 2000s would see the righteous 144,000 be saved. Many of the movement's teachings revolve around the use of Nubic, a language which York developed. York had a background in Sunni Islam but established his own group, initially called the Ansaar Pure Sufi, in New York City around 1967. By 1969 the group had been renamed the Nubian Islamic Hebrew Mission in America and by 1973 the Ansaaru Allah Community. Establishing a commune in Brooklyn with its own security force, the group presented itself as being Islamic but faced much opposition from other Muslim organizations in the city. Over the following years it integrated ideas from New Age and UFO religions, with York announcing that he was an extraterrestrial. In 1992 York transformed his movement into the Holy Tabernacle Ministries, increasingly foregrounding Jewish themes. The following year, it became the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors and relocated to Georgia, where it began claiming to be a Native American nation and established Tama-Re, an Ancient Egypt-themed compound and tourist attraction. The movement also incorporated sovereign citizen concepts. In 2004, York was convicted of child molestation, racketeering and fraud, receiving 135 years in federal prison. Although Tama-Re was demolished and group membership declined, the movement has survived as the United Sabaeans Worldwide. Over the course of its history, the Nuwaubian movement has attracted thousands of followers, with estimates suggesting that core support has peaked at around 500 members in any given period. It has also exerted an influence on a number of African American musicians. The movement has faced much scrutiny from U.S. law enforcement, journalists, the anti-cult movement, Muslim organizations and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which have varyingly accused it of being a black supremacist hate group, cult and criminal enterprise.
Definition Over the course of their history, the Nuwaubians have operated under various different names, with the sociologist of religion Susan Palmer referring to this phenomenon, in its various institutional forms, as "the Nuwaubian movement". Similarly changing have been its use of symbols and the clothing worn by its members. Another sociologist of religion, David V. Barrett, noted that the group's development was "complex and (certainly for outside observers) muddled". The Nuwaubian movement draws influence from the New Testament, the Hebrew Bible and the Quran, in addition to elements from UFO beliefs, Black Freemasonry, the writings of Edgar Cayce and Patriot movement conspiracy theories. Palmer believed that the movement's teachings became more eclectic in their influences as it aged. Although the various changes that the Nuwaubian movement has undergone throughout its history mean that the Nuwaubian movement defies easy categorization, scholars of religion have classified it as a new religious movement. The movement emerged within the context of American black nationalism, with the scholar of religion Kathleen Malone O'Connor arguing that it was best understood in "the black prophetic, millennial, and messianic traditions of the Moorish Science Temple,[...] the Nation of Islam[...] and the Five Percent Nation of Gods and Earths". Palmer also described it as part of a broader "Black cultic milieu", through which it interacted with Rastafari, the Nation of Islam and the Black Hebrew Israelites. From the late 1960s through to the late 1980s, the movement presented itself as a Muslim group—although its interpretation of Islam would be considered heretical by mainstream Muslims—while in the early 1990s it was often characterized as going through a Jewish phase. The Nuwaubians also amalgamated ideas from the sovereign citizen movement and was classified as a Moorish sovereign citizen group. Members of the movement used typical sovereign citizen tactics, such as refusing to produce driver's licenses when arrested for traffic violations. By the 2000s, various scholars of religion were describing it as a UFO religion. During the 1990s, founder Dwight York spoke retroactively about the various phases as representing different "schools" through which he and his followers had progressed.
History
Dwight York and the Ansaar Pure Sufi
York claimed to have been born in Sudan on June 26, 1945. A Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) report accepts this birthdate but maintains that York was born in Maryland. The Muslim heresiologist Bilal Philips believed that York was actually born in 1935, but later claimed to be younger so that his birth might fit a particular Muslim prophecy about the Mahdi. In early life, York was exposed to religions claiming an Islamic identity; according to one claim, he was involved in the Moorish Science Temple, a black-oriented American new religion. During part of his teens and early twenties, York was also involved with the State Street Mosque, a Sunni Muslim establishment in New York City run by Daoud Ahmed Faisal. York has claimed he started attending Friday prayers at the mosque in 1957, when he was aged 12; there are also reports that York's mother was involved with the mosque.
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