Freemasonry & American Islamic Nationalism By Muhammed A.A.M. Al-Ahari
				Muhammed al-Ahari El in the innermost shrine of the Mystic Order of Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm
			The Knight Templar were a military order founded in Palestine in 1119 by a group of nine French knights during the Crusades in order to provide protection for Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land.   The King of Jerusalem -- King Baldwin II (reign 1118-31) -- gave them quarters in his palace on the site of Solomon's Temple (thus their name). They took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to none save the Grand Master of the Order (the first was Hugh du Paynes) and the Pope.  The knights were divided into four classes: knights, chaplains, squires, and servants.  The knights wore a white mantle with a red cross, while the lower grades wore a black or brown mantle.  They grew rapidly (from 9 to 30,000) and wealth. Other orders grew jealous of their wealth and prestige.  Some such as the Hospitlars gained the ear of the French King and the Pope.  When the Holy Land city of Acre fell in 1291 and the various orders retreated to Cyprus, the Templars were charged as being allies of the Assassins and with the heresy of Unitarianism.  In 1307 Philip IV (of France) began to confiscate their land and properties with the aide of the Pope who dissolved the order in 1312. The last Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, was burned to death in 1314 with several of his closest followers in the courtyard of Notre Dame.  Modern scholars see the persecution of the Templars as a monstrous, fanatical and homophobic perversion of justice.  Outside of France the Templars were generally acquitted of the charges of heresy or were given time to hide (such is the case in England, York, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales). Sixty years after their suppression, they rose in a peasant revolt against the British Crown.  The eight day revolt was lead by Walter the Tyler (a Masonic title) and the sources of leadership of that brief revolt were not traced to the Templars at that time [Robinson, xii].  In Masonry a Tyler guards the door of a Masonic Lodge against intruders.  Surely a suppressed military order could use such a person. While there is no clear documentation that the Knight Templars framed their structure upon the one developed by the Assassins; there is evidence that the Templars and Assassins made common cause together.  The Templars wished to have Tyre and would have traded Damascus for it.  Once the Christian King of Jerusalem came under the intrigues of the Templars and the Assassins.  The Assassins had been paying tribute to the Templars and sent a message to the King of Jerusalem that they would convert in mass to Christianity if the tribute were lifted.  It wasn't.  Instead the Templars ambushed the King of Jerusalem's envoy to the Assassins and brutally murdered him.   The Ismaeli Rite wasn't the only Assassin at work in the Occident it would seem.  The relationship between the Templers’ Grand Master  and the Assassins was close enough that he likely knew of the whole affair.  [Waite, 50] After their long association in the East, the Templars had became tinted by the East, its lore, theosophy, and hidden rituals.  These were the charges brought against them when they were under direction of Grand Master Jacques De Moley.  Charges of heresy, urinating on crosses, homoerotic unions, and devil worship also were forthcoming.  [Robinson, 125-143] The main heresy they were accused of was Unitarianism.  Further charges of Witchcraft and worship of the idol Baphomat were added to make their persecution seem just.  A group that were once answerable to only the Pope and were declared heretics by him would, of course, wish no intercessor between them and God who would turn on his protectors due only to human lust and greed. These so-called heretics ran for the woods whenever they had a chance.  They had an organization in place.  Except in France, where they were victims of an all out inquisition, the Templars were able to go underground and become mercenaries, shop keepers, traveling clergy, and members of trade guilds.  They carried with them the ability to survive if given chance for escape or refuge.  The years of their association with the intricacies of Byzantine politics, the secret ritual of the Assassins, and the intrigues of the Muslim courts which they met on the battlefield and at conference tables had prepared them for life on the run.  The church with it bloody rejection of protest and social change provided them with many willing to aid them or join their ranks. The secrecy needed in those times is still part of the Masonic ritual today.  A candidate must be: able to keep secrets, be with all limbs, not senile or mentally deficient.  A suppressed military order would have to keep such rules in order to survive underground and not suffer more persecution. To enter one must be interviewed, recommended, and go through a ritual that ensure he is searching for knowledge, self-improvement, and community service.  The candidate strips to trousers and shirt, removes all coins from their clothes, bares his left arm and breast, and rolls his pants leg to the knee.  He then is "cable-towed" and "hood-winked".  After being lead past the Tyler, the Worshipful Master reminds the candidate of the punishments for revealing the secrets of the lodge.  The punishments were the same handed out to the Knight Templars during their persecution.                                                                                                         When the Worshipful Master has questioned the candidate and heard correct answers, the hood is removed due to the candidates answer to "What are you searching for?" being "light".  Upon this the candidate is taught the passwords and signs of his degree and is invested with a white woolskin apron -- a connection to Sufa [wool] and Sufism? or so an old Moorish American told me at a Jan. 8, 1994 birthday celebration for Prophet Noble Drew Ali. After being an Entered Apprentice for a short time, the candidate can rise in the Masonic ranks to be a Fellowcraft or Journeyman.  Originally this was the highest rank and the Master was selected from them.  (This is also true of the Bektashi Sufi Order.)  Only later did the 3rd degree of Master Mason develop [Robinson, 211].  The ritual is similar to that of the Entered Apprentice, but the lecture differs.  Candidates at this level are lead to a Middle Chamber and given a lecture on the heavenly and earthly geometry (knowledge attributed to Solomon but likely through Arab sources).   There he is told the three degrees are symbolic of life: youth (Entered Apprentice), maturation (Fellowcraft), and old age (Master Mason).  The lecture then discusses numerology of which the number seven is stressed (7 liberal arts, 7 heavens, 7 years to build Solomon's Temple, 7 wonders of the world, etc.).  This number is most important to the Ismaeli Assassin's world view and the Masons (formerly Knight Templars) perhaps gained its feeling of importance from them [Robinson, 214]. The Master Mason lecture deals with the murder of Solomon's architect Hiram Abiff by the three Juwes (Jubelo, Jubela, Jubelum).  These names are only the masculine, feminine and neuter for of the noun Jubes -- "He who is punished".  Hiram's body is discarded by the murderers when the failed to get him to tell them the Master Password.  This word is called the lost key to Masonry.  A substitute word Mahabone is given instead.  This word also shows were some Templars hid.  In French Bon Mahania is the name of the port from which the Barbary pirates sailed when they attacked merchant ships in the Mediterranean. In the ritual the candidate plays Hiram Abiff.  Hiram Abiff is the Anglicized version of Hiram a Biffe -- "Hiram who was eliminated".  The candidate is unwrapped and raised to the level of brotherhood (foot to foot, knee to knee, breast to breast, hand to back, mouth to ear) by a masonic grip called the "lion's paw".  This only occurs after he has heard that the three Juwes were being put to death in the manner that they described in oaths were they admitted their wrongs.  Again, these oaths are reminiscent of the punishments dealt to the Knight Templars during their persecution.  The complete ritual is found in many works on Freemasonry. About the lodge itself more should be said.  The lodge refers not to a meeting place, but a safe house for a member of the order.  The floor of the lodge, a black and mosaic, is the final key.  It is a repetition of a black block above a white block below.  The black symbolizes the black world left behind by the order, the white the world of knightly purity they entered.  The gloves are from the Templars also due to their wearing of gloves to keep their hands pure to receive communion.  The travel to the East is but a remembrance of the path the Knights went to fight in the Crusades.  As the Templars prayed in round churches so no one was able to be in a position of higher rank, a compass was retained and became part of the masonic legend of their being an ancient order of freethinkers and mathematicians.  The "G" for Geometry comes from Masons being responsible for rebuilding London after the Great Fire of 1666.  Other communities and proofs that the Masons are the direct descendants of the Knight Templars could be given but the interest reader should go to Robinson's Born in Blood and other such as: Stephen Knight's  The Brotherhood and The Secret Diary of Jack the Ripper for more proofs.      "More than six hundred years have passed since the suppression of the Knight Templars, but their heritage lives on in the largest fraternal organization ever known [Freemasons]."  [Robinson, xix] The direct descendants of the Knight Templars are: 1) the Pirates of Mahadiah; 2) Irish Freemasons; 3) Scottish Freemasons; and, 4) York Rite Masons.  In American the first Scottish Rite Lodge was founded in Charleston S.C. by Stephen Morin in 1801.    Scottish Rite Masonry was first publically promulgated in 1758.  Stephen Morin was granted patents to increase the number of degrees on August 27, 1761.  The Grand Lodge of Perfection was first operated under Isaac De Costa - the Inspector General of South Carolina in 1783.  This lodge did not survive.  In 1801 the lodge was reestablished with a Grand Council under Fredrick Dalcho, John Mitchell, Stephen Morin and others.  The Shriners evolved out of the 33 degree system of Scottish Rite Masonry. Peter Lambourn Wilson tells us in his "Shootout at the Circle Seven Koran" that the first deep source of Moorish Science was Masonry.  Under this section I do not necessarily list all of my sources.  I have read deeply in Occult and Masonic literature and have not been able to remember where I first read the details given.  However, there is a good list of Masonic handbooks in the bibliography.   Freemasonry The Masonry we know today is called "Speculative" Masonry. It replaced "Constructive" (building or Guild) Masonry very gradually. The year 1717 is usually marked as the start of Speculative Masonry. In 1723 the first book of rituals, catechisms and constitutions were issued by Anderson. Masonry is of three degrees: Apprentice, Fellowcraft and Master Mason. All other degrees are added and spurious. They did not exist at the start. One must progress in Masonry by learning the catechisms, listening to charges and study. At each degree one learns certain grips, passwords and a series of questions and answers. Masonry is all theory now. The Craft ritual were destroyed in 1717 and replaced by new rituals such as Anderson's. Negro Freemasonry was started by a West Indian named Prince Hall. His lodges are regular but racists put false claims of heresy and clandestine activities on them. His rituals are nearly identical to White Freemasonry. His first lodge was Boston's Africa Lodge Number 459. (see Islam, Christianity and Free Masonry). The Shriners Many Muslims living in America are under the mistaken impression that members of the Shriners are fellow members of the Faith. The Encyclopedia of Freemasonry has a ten page article dealing with the Assassins that would lead one to believe in an Islamic-Shriner connection. The best source for students of the Shriners is the popular history written by Fred Van Deventer entitled Parade to Glory: The Story of the Shriners and the Hospitals for Crippled Children.  The history of this Masonic order as given by the Shriners is that it was, "...established in Mecca, Arabia and became an acknowledged power in the year 5459, equivalent to the year of our Lord 1698.   The Ritual was compiled and arranged in Aleppo, Arabia and issued by Louis Marracci, the great Latin translator of Mohammed's Al-Koran. The mysterious Order continued to thrive in Arabia from that date to the present. It was revised and instituted in Cairo, Egypt, in 5598, equivalent to June 14, 1837. "The Order was primarily instituted for the purpose of promoting the organization and perfection of Arabic and Egyptian inquisitions, to dispense justice and execute punishment of criminals whom the tardy laws did not reach to measure their crimes. Being designed to embrace the entire pale of the law and composed of sterling and determined men who would upon a valid accusation fearlessly try, judge and if convicted, execute the criminal within the hour-leaving no trace of their acts behind...". [Van Deventer, 35-36]. The text goes on to describe a mythical bond between their group and famous Sufis of the past. These connections with the great sages of Islam is purely farcical, and even their claim to be related to the Bektashi Order of Dervishes has to be taken with a grain of salt. We read, "The most prominent and powerful of those orders is the Bektashy, or Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.  Its offshoots and satellites are the Darkawy, Khowan, AbDel Kader El Baghdadi, and the Issawiye, similar in obligation and purpose.  These are not altogether politico-religious societies as generally supposed by the outside world.  Although ostensibly appearing as such there is a deep and hidden meaning beneath the exposed superficial exterior, as promulgated to the profane" [Van Deventer, 36]. Drew Ali's view of changing Islam to fit the American circumstances is also a Shriner view as we see in the following passage, "The Bektashy, or Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, as it is known in America, is of necessity divested of its inconsistent Islam dogmas and its ritual adapted to the consistencies of Christian institutions and American laws, and is destined to become a powerful order here in America" [Van Deventer, 36]. The Shriners go on to say Hadji Bektash was an Arab (he was a Persian) and tells of the initiation of blessing the Jenessary Corp.  The Shriners also believe the order is called Jenessaries because this means "they were freed captives who were adopted into the faith and the army".  Linguistically this is not true even if this is where most of the members of the corp came from.  In addition they believe that the Mosque at Mecca is the Temple of `Ali and is under control of the chief officer of Alee Temple of Nobles.  This was never true. A member of the Mecca Temple of New York and the U.S. consul to Malta raised quite a furor  by sending letters from 1882 to 1892, giving the translations of ritual from Algiers, Tripoli, Cairo and other temples. The Arabic originals, of course, do not exist and his "pass" or "passport" to various shrines is a fraud. For this he received $500 a year. The truth is the order was started by a British stage actor named William J. Florence and Dr. Fleming of New York in 1870. They were thirty-second or thirty-third degree Scottish Rite Masons.   As show above they concocted legends claiming initiation from persons as diverse as the Grand Sheikh of Mecca (like Drew Ali?), Sultan Selim III, the Illuminati and the Bektashi Sufi Order.  These claims are, of course, blatantly false. This did not stop Duro Cini, an Albanian Shriner and Bektashi from Canada, from trying to tell me of the Bektashi-Shriner connection. Although started in 1876, this order was not an operating order for nearly a decade afterwards. Furthermore, Friedreich von Deventer prints a letter in which Fleming's son said all the Shriner legend was only in his father's head.  His son did not disclose  the errors in the legend, I will briefly do so.  The Bektashis were never in control of Mecca.  There were never Shrines in the Middle East tracing their origin to Imam Ali.  The Bektashis are Turkish.  The terminology of the Shriners is more Hebrew than Arabic.  I could go on but the above easily history is easily refutable. Many who analyze the Shriner ritual fail to realize what they are looking at.  The language used in most cases is Hebrew.  The rituals are based more on the ritual of other Masonic orders and the cult of the number thirteen than any thing else.  Whatever else may be said, the Shriners provided a new form of heresy as a conduit of cultural transfer. A Black version of the Shriners was started by a handful of 32 Degree Prince Hall Masons at the World's Fair in 1893. The organization of the order was an alleged "Arab" named Rofelt Pasha. His origins are unknown and even more shrouded in mystery than Drew Ali's and Fard Muhammad's.   (see African American Freemasons: Why they should accept Islam by Mustafa El-Amin for details.) Some teachings Drew Ali took from the Shriners and other High Degree Masons include his stance (the ritual position of the hands and feet), secret handshakes, headdress, clothing (sash, robe, rings), use of symbols and special greetings and position titles (Sheik, Bey, El, Adept, Governor and Prophet). Pythian Knights/Moorish Knights The only reason this lesser known Masonic order is to be discussed is that Drew Ali's wake and subsequent burial were held at the now defunct Pythian Lodge of Chicago formerly at 3600 State Street. In Drew Ali's teachings, I find no direct connection to their teachings except "Want for your brother what you want for yourself". This teaching is, however, a universal Masonic injunction. The Pythian order was started in Washington D.C. by one J.H. Rathbone on Feb. 23, 1864. In April of that same year the first Grand Lodge was founded.  Rathbone resigned a leader several weeks later as the order was no longer secret as its secret were being sold to the public "wholesale". This order has three degrees: Page, Esquire and Knight. Secret handshakes, grips, passwords and stances are used as in regular Masonry. This order is has banned the use of liquor and gambling and is a firm upholder of the liberal arts. There is little information as to when the first Negro lodge of this order began, but it was sometime after 1869 as a petition for such was rejected by the General Body that year. As this order (and the Shriners) is only open to high degree Masons, the main part of this text has already occurred under that heading. The Grotto (The Mystic Order of the Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm) The "Persian Order" was started by seventeen members of the Hamilton Lodge No. 120 in Hamilton, New York, under the direction of ex-Postmaster General, Thomas L. James. This is the Blue Lodge's playground (for Master Masons and higher ups), much like the Shrine is for the 32nd and 33rd degree Masons. It is mystic in its lessons and method of teaching. It is veiled because all secrets are known but are hidden in the impure heart and are unveiled as the heart is cleansed. The order is an enchanted realm as it is separate from the world and is full of joy as "sorrow burdens any unenchanted realm". The handbook of the Grotto is named "Grotto Creed and Prophets' Compact". It tells us the Grotto was made to encourage Masonic fraternity free of discrimination based on status in life. True fraternity should be based on lodge membership and such membership not be used for advancement of material interest. The Rosicrucians- Mail Order Masonry This movement insists that it is not a religion at all.  They insist that their thought is based on the writings of the mysterios Christian Rosenthal and ultimately the writings of Amenhotep.  The modern organization that spreads Rosicrician thought is AMORC.  The AMORC (Ancient Mystical Order of Rosa Cruces) is a mason-like mail order organization started by H. Spencer Lewis in 1915. He was an advertising executive from New York, belonged to the French Masonic Lodge and was an outstanding organizer. The headquarters of this movement is in San José, California and it includes a university, a press an art gallery, a science museum, a planetarium, an "oriental" Egyptian museum and a research library. No longer is Rosicrucianism or the AMORC a secret cult. The early incarnations of tomes calling for searcher for truth but giving no directions to find the writers  were too closed minded and selective in membership for the modern age. This new order has Atlantean literature, ancient Egyptian psalms and a book of the pharaoh Amenhotep that was secreted to Tibet. The later is a revision of De Lawrence Pub. Company's Infinite Wisdom and is called Unto Thee I Grant. The first printing of this book was in 1925. It is possible that Drew Ali could have sent for a copy of this book. Only a word by word analysis of Infinite Wisdom, Unto Thee I Grant and The Holy Koran of the Moorish Science Temple will yield the answer to what Drew used in compiling his works.  (see Secret Societies ed. Norman Mac Kenzie, pp.130-151.)