W. Deen Mohammed, Son of NOI Leader, Dies

Mohammed was excommunicated by his father. He embraced the World Community of al-Islam in the West the following year.

[Passings]

Warith Deen Mohammed, who broke with his father, Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad, died this week Tuesday, it was reported.

Mohammed, who changed the spelling of his last name and later embraced a more orthodox version of Islam, was 74 years old.
The cause of death, in Chicago, was not given.

He was born Wallace Muhammad.

The Nation of Islam (NOI) split after the murder of its greatest and charismatic member Malcolm X in 1965 and after the death of Muhammed in 1975; while Mohammed veered into mainstream Islam, Louis Farrakhan emerged as the unchallenged leader of the NOI. Mohammed was excommunicated by his father. He embraced the World Community of al-Islam in the West the following year.
NOI was founded by Wallace D. Fard.

W. Deen Mohammed had a rare joint public appearance with minister Farrakhan in 2000, in Chicago.

Mohammed was born in 1933 in Detroit. Information about survivors was not immediately available.