A second factor involved in the Black Muslim search for a new policy turns on Akbar Muhammad, the youngest son of Elijah, who has just returned to America after two years of study at Egypt’s famed Al-Azhar University. Al-Azhar is the cultural center of orthodox Islam, and its professors are the brains of that faith. It is beyond question that Elijah’s position has been enhanced by Akbar’s period of study there; it is just as certain that the Black Muslim movement will be affected by Akbar’s return. At this writing Akbar has been home less than a month. He is in the company of Malcolm X and will make a nation-wide tour of Muhammad’s temples, where he will lecture on traditional Islam and the influence of Africa in current world affairs. Already his influence is being felt. “Akbar Comes to Harlem” was the billing for a major Black Muslim rally held shortly after his return. The New York press, Negro and white, was filled with ads and special announcements inviting people to come out and hear Akbar Muhammad, the youngest son of Elijah Muhammad, report on his sojourn and studies in Africa and Egypt. Much was made of the fact that Akbar had been a student at Al-Azhar University. Even more was made of the fact that he had attended the recent summit meeting of African heads of state as a correspondent for the Muslim newspaper, _Mr. Muhammad Speaks_. Observers of the movement were certain that his speech would be heavily pro-African, that he would argue for a closer relationship between the Black Muslim movement and traditional Islam, and that he once again would remind American Negroes of their African heritage. But Akbar Muhammad’s two-hour talk before some four thousand Negroes on that Saturday afternoon in Harlem proved to be a complete surprise; further, it laid bare the only real schism there is within the Black Muslim movement. After a highly charged introduction by Malcolm X the distinguished speaker rose. Twenty-five-year-old Akbar Muhammad is much like his father, medium brown, diminutive, slightly built. He stood at the lectern stroking his goatee during the three-minute ovation from the crowd. Then he spoke: “_As-Salaam-Alaikum_.” His Arabic was exquisite. His inflection alone was enough to let the black masses know they were hearing something different from the southern-accented “Peace be with you” they hear from the ordinary Black Muslims. All up and down the block Muslims leaped into the air with ecstasy, praising Allah for the “back home” diction one of their leaders had acquired. Akbar had been speaking a scant five minutes when the crowd became strangely silent. Elijah’s son was clearly giving a new teaching, a gospel that contradicted much of what Malcolm X and others had been saying for the past few years. “We must have unity among Negroes,” Akbar said.