Moorish Science Temple of America

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! he Moorish Science Temple of America is an American religion founded in the early 20th-century by Timothy Drew. He based it on the belief that African Americans had descended from the Moors and were originally Muslims. Drew put together elements of major traditions to develop a message of personal transformation, racial pride and uplift. Founded in New Jersey in 1913 by self-proclaimed Prophet Drew Ali (born Timothy Drew in the United States), the Moorish Science Temple blossomed in Chicago and other major cities during the late 1920s, when the African-American population and culture of the North and Midwest was increasing rapidly as a result of the Great Migration from the South. Its creation can be seen as part of the era's search for identity as African Americans sought to establish themselves in new regions of the United States, at a time when racial discrimination and segregation were severe. Membership in the Moorish Science Temple gave people a positive community in which to build their lives. As in Protestant sects, competing factions developed, especially after the death of the charismatic founder Noble Drew Ali in 1929.