When a 19-year-old member of a Black Muslim cult assassinated Oakland newspaper editor Chauncey Bailey in 2007, the question was, Why? "I just wanted to be a good soldier, a strong soldier," the killer told police. This book explores one of the most blatant attacks on the First Amendment in American history and the small Black Muslim cult that carried it out. Investigative reporter Thomas Peele examines the Nation of Islam movement from its founding in the early 20th century, to how the great-grandson of Texas slaves reinvented himself as a Muslim leader in Oakland and built the violent cult that the young gunman eventually joined. Peele delves into how charlatans exploited poor African Americans with tales from a religion they falsely claimed was Islam and created a radical religion of bloodshed and fear that culminated in a journalist's murder.--From publisher description.
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