Imam W. Deen Mohammed, the rebellious son of the late Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad who broke from black nationalism and guided his followers toward mainstream Islam, died Tuesday, according to family members. He was 74.
"Brother Imam," as he was known, was pronounced dead at his home in Markham, Ill., according to a spokesman for the Cook County Medical Examiner. An autopsy was planned.
As Muslims marked the holy month of Ramadan, Mohammed was scheduled to speak Tuesday in Chicago, but many grew concerned when he did not appear. His last speaking engagement was his regular monthly address delivered Sunday in Homewood, Ill., and aired to a live radio audience.
"He was a pioneer in the Muslim American community and was one of the first leaders to get Muslims to think about their faith in context of the larger society," said Rami Nashashibi, executive director of Inner-City Muslim Action Network in Chicago. "He was also a pioneer in getting Muslims to embrace their religious identity at a time when that wasn't very popular."
Mohammed succeeded his father in 1975 as leader of the Nation of Islam, a religious movement that melds black nationalism with the Islamic faith. He immediately tried to move its followers toward traditional Islam, eventually leading to a split between those who agreed with Mohammed's approach and those who joined a revived Nation of Islam under Minister Louis Farrakhan.
"He will be remembered as a person who brought the Nation of Islam carefully and consistently into mainline Islam," said Yvonne Haddad, a professor of the history of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations at Georgetown University. "Eventually, he'd start talking about American Muslims -- how we can be Muslim and American at the same time."
In the later years of his life, Mohammed's profile diminished somewhat. He focused more energy into his nonprofit ministry, the Mosque Cares. He also worked on building interfaith relations, meeting with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in 1996.
Some saw his lessened visibility as the final steps in his efforts to restructure his organization into a loose group of organizations without a central charismatic figure.
Wallace D. Mohammed was born Oct. 30, 1933, in Detroit, the seventh of eight children of Elijah and Clara Muhammad. (He became known later as Imam Warithuddeen Mohammed.)
