One can expect, then, that the Black Muslims will become more “Islamic” and more “political” in the days just ahead. The new emphasis on traditional Islam will be primarily a matter of ritual and temple organization; the new “political” attitude will be an attempt at a social ethic that would place the Muslims in favor with the black masses without committing them to “integration” causes. But this is a holding operation, something the Black Muslims, like God, suffer to be so. They are going to effect an accommodation with the Negro Revolt, but they are certain that the American white power structure will defraud us all. Then the Nation of Islam can say, “We told you so,” and sound the bugle for Armageddon. How sound would such a new policy be? From an organizational point of view I think it would make sense. Not only is it the most liberal position they can possibly accommodate, but it shows that some--perhaps quite a few people--inside the movement are thinking creatively. As a non-Muslim, I have much the same reservations about the new policy as I had about the old. I don’t share their total pessimism on how the Negro Revolt will end. I can foresee a situation in which the white power structure fails to yield and Negroes start trouble; that not only can happen, but it probably will happen in isolated pockets before the race issue is settled. I doubt that the trouble will be nation-wide, but even widespread rioting would not necessarily mean the triumph of the Black Muslims. To state it bluntly, Negroes, as we have done in the past, can have a race riot without becoming Black Muslims! Let there be no denying that such a tragedy will play into the hands of the Black Muslims; there are, indeed, grave risks involved, and the best way to avoid them is to see to it that the tragedy doesn’t occur. _Peace Be Unto You_ The Black Muslim movement is undeniably a sect, if for no other reason than that it is dominated and run by charismatic leadership. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is the mystical and powerful presence of the movement, the meaning around which everything else occurs and orbits. Elijah Muhammad has never claimed immortality; thus even the Black Muslims know he will eventually die. Critics of the movement predict that there will be a frenetic, perhaps bloody, scramble for leadership at Muhammad’s death. My prediction is that the Black Muslim hierarchy will gather in conclave and that they will come out with a new leader. That leader will not be Malcolm X. Rather, I suggest that Malcolm, John, and Sharrieff will be retained in the posts they now occupy and a younger man--almost certainly one of Muhammad’s sons--will be the new Messenger. There are three reasons why I feel this will prove true: