It was brought into existence on the belief that the best way to attain justice for African Americans was to do everything possible to make Caucasians more aware of the immorality and unjustness of racial prejudice and discrimination.
The Nation of Islam was founded in the early-1930s by W.D Fard and Elijah Muhammad; one of its most basic premises was that racism was so deeply engrained in Caucasian Americans that it was naive to think that they could be made aware of the unjustness of racial prejudice and discrimination. One of the Nation of Islams aims was to attain cultural as well as territorial separation from Caucasians. Leaders of the Nation of Islam have consistently advocated that African Americans organize into self-defense groups while working to gain economic independence from mainstream Americans. The Nation of Islams membership efforts -- and, consequently, its influence -- have been weakest and less successful among the most educated, culturally assimilated, and economically secure African Americans. Its leader during the 1940s, Elijah Muhammad, was imprisoned during World War II for counseling his followers not to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces.