charges were made that Elijah had been responsible for this murder, and threats were made against Elijah's life. To further confuse the image of Elijah and his organization, a few days later at the annual convention of the NOI in Chicago, Elijah's dissident son Wallace apologized for his previous accusations against his father and was reaccepted into the NOI.
At present, approximately 5,000 cult followers attend meetings of the 37 numbered temples and 31 unnumbered groups, the majority of which are located in the East and the Midwest. Nearly half of the total membership belong to only six temples.
Each temple is led by a minister, a Fruit of Islam (FOI) captain, and as many other, lesser officials as are necessary. Within each temple, the male members compose the FOI and the females compose the Muslim Girls Training (MGT). Both are operated under strict, military-type discipline.
All NOI activities are keyed to the raising of money. Each member is required to contribute to several special funds of his temple. Each member's regular contributions vary among the individual temples from about $6 to $13.50 per week and are used to operate the local temple and to support Elijah and the national headquarters in Chicago. Other revenue to support "the Nation" comes from bazaars and rallies, sales of the cult newspaper, and from the profits of businesses run by the temples.
iv
