{"product_id":"why-i-am-a-five-percenter-isbn-9781585428687","title":"Why I Am a Five Percenter","description":"\u003cb\u003e A thoughtful, insider view of The Five Percenters-a deeply  complex and misunderstood community whose ideas and symbols influenced  the rise of hip-hop. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003eMisrepresented 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe 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 \u003ci\u003eWhy I Am a  Five Percenter\u003c\/i\u003e, Knight strips away years of sensationalism to offer  a serious encounter with Five Percenter thought.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEncoded within Five Percent culture is a profound critique of  organized religion, from which the movement derives its name: 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 \u003ci\u003eWhy I Am a Five  Percenter\u003c\/i\u003e, 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eMichael Muhammad Knight\u003c\/b\u003e has studied Islam at a madrassa in Pakistan, the Allah School in Harlem, and Harvard University. His work has been censored, boycotted, confiscated, and threatened with legal action. This is his seventh book.","brand":"Tarcher","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303237013733,"sku":"NP9781585428687","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781585428687.jpg?v=1767744268","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/why-i-am-a-five-percenter-isbn-9781585428687","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}