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Why I Am a Five Percenter
A thoughtful, insider view of The Five Percenters-a deeply complex and misunderstood community whose ideas and symbols influenced the rise of hip-hop. Misrepresented in the media as a black parallel to the Hell's Angels, portrayed as everything from a vicious street gang to quasi- Islamic revolutionaries, The Five Percenters are a movement that began as a breakaway sect from the Nation of Islam (NOI) in 1960s Harlem and went on to impact the formation of hip-hop. References to Five Percent language and ideas are found in the lyrics of wide-ranging artists, such as Nas, Rakim, the Wu-Tang Clan, and even Jay-Z.
The Five Percenters are denounced by white America as racists, and orthodox Islam as heretics, for teaching that the black man is Allah. Michael Muhammad Knight ("the Hunter S. Thompson of Islamic literature" -The Guardian) has engaged this culture as both white and Muslim; and over the course of his relationship with The Five Percenters, his personal position changed from that of an outsider to an accepted participant with his own initiatory name (Azreal Wisdom). This has given him an intimate perch from which to understand and examine the controversial doctrines of this influential movement. In Why I Am a Five Percenter, Knight strips away years of sensationalism to offer a serious encounter with Five Percenter thought.
Encoded within Five Percent culture is a profound critique of organized religion, from which the movement derives its Only Five Percent can act as "poor righteous teachers" against the evil Ten Percent, the power structure which uses religion to deceive the Eighty- Five Percent, the "deaf, dumb, and blind" masses. Questioning his own relationship to the Five Percent, Knight directly confronts the community's most difficult teachings. In Why I Am a Five Percenter, Knight not only illuminates a thought system that must appear bizarre to outsiders, but he also brilliantly dissects the very issues of"insiders" and "outsiders," territory and ownership, as they relate to religion and privilege, and to our conditioned ideas about race.
The Five Percenters are denounced by white America as racists, and orthodox Islam as heretics, for teaching that the black man is Allah. Michael Muhammad Knight ("the Hunter S. Thompson of Islamic literature" -The Guardian) has engaged this culture as both white and Muslim; and over the course of his relationship with The Five Percenters, his personal position changed from that of an outsider to an accepted participant with his own initiatory name (Azreal Wisdom). This has given him an intimate perch from which to understand and examine the controversial doctrines of this influential movement. In Why I Am a Five Percenter, Knight strips away years of sensationalism to offer a serious encounter with Five Percenter thought.
Encoded within Five Percent culture is a profound critique of organized religion, from which the movement derives its Only Five Percent can act as "poor righteous teachers" against the evil Ten Percent, the power structure which uses religion to deceive the Eighty- Five Percent, the "deaf, dumb, and blind" masses. Questioning his own relationship to the Five Percent, Knight directly confronts the community's most difficult teachings. In Why I Am a Five Percenter, Knight not only illuminates a thought system that must appear bizarre to outsiders, but he also brilliantly dissects the very issues of"insiders" and "outsiders," territory and ownership, as they relate to religion and privilege, and to our conditioned ideas about race.
306 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 13, 2011
29 people are currently reading
207 people want to read
About the author
Michael Muhammad Knight
35 books142 followersMichael Muhammad Knight (born 1977) is an American novelist, essayist, and journalist. His writings are popular among American Muslim youth. The San Francisco Chronicle described him as "one of the most necessary and, paradoxically enough, hopeful writers of Barack Obama's America," while The Guardian has described him as "the Hunter S. Thompson of Islamic literature," and his non-fiction work exemplifies the principles of gonzo journalism. Publishers Weekly describes him as "Islam's gonzo experimentalist." Within the American Muslim community, he has earned a reputation as an ostentatious cultural provocateur.
He obtained a master's degree from Harvard University in 2011 and is a Ph.D. student in islamic studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
He obtained a master's degree from Harvard University in 2011 and is a Ph.D. student in islamic studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 1, 2014
Interesting points. I've been interested in the Five Percenters since hearing about it through music and regular trips to New York in the late 90s/early 00s. I'm not going to lie, I was hesitant to pick this up because I'm never really sure what I'm going to get when reading something like this from the perspective of a white man, but it wasn't too bad. The chapter that interested me the most was "Battlefield Earth: Five Percenter Feminism". Definitely an interesting chapter and good use of quotations, but I could have been happier with a little less reflection to his own upbringing (although I guess it does provide an opinion/experience that some might not be familiar with, even though I am and could care less).
October 22, 2021
It's been a number of years since I've read one of Knight's books and I appreciate his writing more as time goes on. I also identify with it more. In addition we're nearly the same age and I can relate to a lot of his questions, insights and approaches to the language of religion. The title is somewhat misleading. Yes and no to his being five percent. It's more about his accepting all languages pointing towards The Ultimate as valid. From that, this is a deep-dive into a particular language which gives Knight passion and energy. The reasons for that are part of the story. Whatever tools or languages you use to find your meaning, your Self, your Ultimate doesn't count for anything compared to the actual finding.
November 19, 2024
"It felt like a ritual washing away of my whiteness"
The book is thoroughly researched and packed with information but serves an extremely offensive narrative. This is a book by a white Ivy League scholar about a Black Power movement for the white middle class. His goal is changing the group's foundational beliefs for his own Ego and a spicy book subject.
The 5 Percenters' #1 doctrine is that the black man is a living God without any equal. Their #2 belief is that the white man is the Devil incarnate. Their #3 belief is that they do not belong to the religion of Islam or follow the Qur'an because "they are Allah". The writer Michael "Muhammad" Knight plays with loose, often hypocritical interpretations to suggest white people are also God... by citing the teachings of Islam and the Nation of Islam, which the 5 Percenters reject. Knight will exploit the words of Malcolm X to argue he should be a member of this black organization, when 5 Percenters' disapproval of that speech is the exact reason the organization started!
The book is really the egocentric quest of an outsider of a an already fringe culture - their perceived enemy, trying to find a way to make celebrity and money off joining. Whats also problematic is the way he denigrates Islam and the Nation of Islam to patronize 5 Percenters and prove himself as a member, then extensively uses those groups' outliers to demand liberal reforms for whites in a pro-black group. Its tone-deaf, privileged and racist. Its also ironic that he can't find any such arguments within the 5 Percenters' actual literature.
The book is full of holes and contradictions. He insults all of Sunni Islam as racist & ignorant then praises the NOI's mass defections to a pro-Israel & patriotic form of Sunnism,when the 5 Percenters are a NOI-spinoff who totally reject Sunni Islam. He tries to argue to Muslims that man can be God when the 5 Percenter understanding is an atheistic definition. Knight exposes himself and fails as an idealogue by trying to belong to many opposed groups while claiming he alone has the proper understanding of them all. He tries to find an underlying thought that will make them identical groups in his own image of a white human God and its not there and actually destructive to each group. He only confirms their worst suspicions about a person like him.
Its dangerous because Knight is really trying to exorcize his own white guilt and push this group towards a white middle class Secular Humanism very obviously because he failed within Islam and the NOI. So the off-shoot of the off-shoot becomes "the truth" and he's the white messiah savior of these foolish people by correcting their beliefs, while pretending they were closest to the truth already. Its intellectually insulting and I'm sure very few within the organization fell for it.
Some of his propose reforms come off sincere. But they could find these corrections inside the 2 groups they spring from but vehemently demonize. Knight wants to integrate black people in this ill-conceived Black Supremacist group into White Supremacy so they won't re-integrate themselves into Islam or even the Nation of Islam. That plays wonderfully to the preppy audience who will most likely pick up this book. But it will only infuriate and possibly radicalize its subjects, who are rarely addressed as intelligent people who can make their own reforms and reinterpretations.
The book is thoroughly researched and packed with information but serves an extremely offensive narrative. This is a book by a white Ivy League scholar about a Black Power movement for the white middle class. His goal is changing the group's foundational beliefs for his own Ego and a spicy book subject.
The 5 Percenters' #1 doctrine is that the black man is a living God without any equal. Their #2 belief is that the white man is the Devil incarnate. Their #3 belief is that they do not belong to the religion of Islam or follow the Qur'an because "they are Allah". The writer Michael "Muhammad" Knight plays with loose, often hypocritical interpretations to suggest white people are also God... by citing the teachings of Islam and the Nation of Islam, which the 5 Percenters reject. Knight will exploit the words of Malcolm X to argue he should be a member of this black organization, when 5 Percenters' disapproval of that speech is the exact reason the organization started!
The book is really the egocentric quest of an outsider of a an already fringe culture - their perceived enemy, trying to find a way to make celebrity and money off joining. Whats also problematic is the way he denigrates Islam and the Nation of Islam to patronize 5 Percenters and prove himself as a member, then extensively uses those groups' outliers to demand liberal reforms for whites in a pro-black group. Its tone-deaf, privileged and racist. Its also ironic that he can't find any such arguments within the 5 Percenters' actual literature.
The book is full of holes and contradictions. He insults all of Sunni Islam as racist & ignorant then praises the NOI's mass defections to a pro-Israel & patriotic form of Sunnism,when the 5 Percenters are a NOI-spinoff who totally reject Sunni Islam. He tries to argue to Muslims that man can be God when the 5 Percenter understanding is an atheistic definition. Knight exposes himself and fails as an idealogue by trying to belong to many opposed groups while claiming he alone has the proper understanding of them all. He tries to find an underlying thought that will make them identical groups in his own image of a white human God and its not there and actually destructive to each group. He only confirms their worst suspicions about a person like him.
Its dangerous because Knight is really trying to exorcize his own white guilt and push this group towards a white middle class Secular Humanism very obviously because he failed within Islam and the NOI. So the off-shoot of the off-shoot becomes "the truth" and he's the white messiah savior of these foolish people by correcting their beliefs, while pretending they were closest to the truth already. Its intellectually insulting and I'm sure very few within the organization fell for it.
Some of his propose reforms come off sincere. But they could find these corrections inside the 2 groups they spring from but vehemently demonize. Knight wants to integrate black people in this ill-conceived Black Supremacist group into White Supremacy so they won't re-integrate themselves into Islam or even the Nation of Islam. That plays wonderfully to the preppy audience who will most likely pick up this book. But it will only infuriate and possibly radicalize its subjects, who are rarely addressed as intelligent people who can make their own reforms and reinterpretations.
July 18, 2022
Peace to all the gods out there,
This text is a scholarly work on the Western Afro-Arab Mystical Street System of unique symbols, numbers, and letters that form the substrate for Islam in North America which, in many ways, also functions as a liberatory technology that critiques the mechanism of religion (particularly the slave-making religion of the Christians but also the more fundamentalist flavors of Islam a la Saudi Disney). The Five-Percenter System (or anti-system) gives the Moslem secret insights and mystical powers from knowledge of the letters, numbers, and symbols around them. Michael M. Knight's writing style is crisp and clear, relatable and easy-to-follow, translating obtuse and occult Five-Percenter and Sufi concepts into a more readable format. "Why I am a Five Percenter" will shake your view of religion and stimulate the religious anarchist dormant within every person who lacks knowledge of self.
This text is a scholarly work on the Western Afro-Arab Mystical Street System of unique symbols, numbers, and letters that form the substrate for Islam in North America which, in many ways, also functions as a liberatory technology that critiques the mechanism of religion (particularly the slave-making religion of the Christians but also the more fundamentalist flavors of Islam a la Saudi Disney). The Five-Percenter System (or anti-system) gives the Moslem secret insights and mystical powers from knowledge of the letters, numbers, and symbols around them. Michael M. Knight's writing style is crisp and clear, relatable and easy-to-follow, translating obtuse and occult Five-Percenter and Sufi concepts into a more readable format. "Why I am a Five Percenter" will shake your view of religion and stimulate the religious anarchist dormant within every person who lacks knowledge of self.
November 15, 2018
A compelling book about an alternative Islamic community.
Want to read
August 24, 2019Peace to all the Gods and Earths out there I'm the God BornAllah saying this is a wonderful book please read it
February 10, 2013
Another in the series of Michael Muhammad Knight's intellectual history. This work should be read by anyone who has any interest at all in the 5%ers, as Knight outlines the group and his own growth within it. In many ways it's also essential reading for anyone white who is interested in African American life and culture, for Knight's thoroughly considered approach, which includes explanations of how he came to the positions, provides food for thought for virtually any white Americans who need to grapple with their own positions of privilege.
Is it perfect? Is he perfect? No to both. But as usual, Knight's engaging style with make the reader feel as if he or she is spending time with a good friend, one with an especially interesting life.
Is it perfect? Is he perfect? No to both. But as usual, Knight's engaging style with make the reader feel as if he or she is spending time with a good friend, one with an especially interesting life.
November 2, 2015
Being recommended this by a friend I was extremely excited to read it, and through out the book I was excited to turn onto the next page. I came into reading this book knowing barely anything about 'The Five Percenters' except a few things from frequent runs in and out of New York and in music and after reading, I feel more educated on them. Learning and reading about them has helped me open my eyes more and understand everyday things in different perspectives. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for another way to view the world, any open minded wonderers who can deal with a little bit of racism, and Wu Tang Clan fans wanting to know more about their musical background and de-dunk some lyrics.
May 22, 2012
Knight revisits one of his longtime fascinations (the Nation of Gods and Earths, aka Five Percenters) in the conversational first-person style that he employs in nearly all of his writing. This time out, however, there's a good deal of scholarly muscle powering the punches; Knights fleshes out his personal impressions and reminiscences with plenty of solid research and thoughtful social commentary. Coupled with some unusually crisp, sharply focused writing, this makes for one of Knight's most briskly readable books ever - and a highly educational one at that. The opening chapter alone (in which Knight somehow navigates between Sherman Jackson and RZA) is worth the price of admission.
March 18, 2014
there was a lot i loved here and some dissapointment. if you are writing about a culture talking to a woman from that culture would be a good thing (if nowhere else at least in your chapter on feminism)
April 6, 2012
An interesting first person perspective on how Knight grappled with Five Percenter thought, and ultimately embraced it, in the context of being a white, convert, Sunni Muslim.
January 30, 2018
Interesting introduction into the 5% nation.
Read
December 9, 2011Don't even know where to begin...
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews