posted on Sep, 7 2003 @ 05:34 PM
Officially: United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, but the movement also goes by other names, including ''Right Knowledge'' and ''Ancient Mystic
Order of Malchizedek.'' A quasi-religious cult based in Georgia, USA. Bills itself as a "fraternal organization." Watchman Fellowship describes
the movement as follows:
Ancient Mystic Order of Malchizedek, Malachi Z. York (AMOM, Nuwaubians, the Nubian Nation of Moors, Right Knowledge) A UFO group whose leader, (a.k.a.
Dwight York) claims to be form the 19th galaxy called Illyuwn. A 1993 FBI report has surfaced calling the group a ''front for a wide range of
criminal activity, including arson, welfare fraud and extortion.'' York group has also operated under other names and organizations including Nubian
Islaamic [sic] Hebrew Mission and the Ansaaru Allah Community, (an Islamic sect with doctrines similar to Nation of Islam), and the Original Tents of
Kedar.
Index of Cults and New Religions, Watchman Fellowship
- Selected Media Descriptions -
The Nuwaubians, primarily consisting of African Americans, first came to Putnam County in 1993 from Brooklyn, N.Y., where the group was known as the
Ansaru Allah community, a segregationist religious sect which incorporated Muslim traditions. Nuwaubian leader Malachi York was then known as Isa
Muhammad.
Nuwaubians initially dressed in cowboy-type garb and claimed York was an extra-terrestrial from the planet "Rizq."
The group since has claimed heritage to the Native Americans and the Egyptians.
At times they claim to be a religious group but at others say they are a fraternal organization.
In some Nuwaubian literature, York is referred to as their savior or god.
Who They Are, The Macon Telegraph, June 24, 2000
The members call themselves the Yamassee Native American Nuwaubians and claim to have created a utopian society on their 476-acre compound of
Egyptian-style architecture.
(...)
The group's founder, Dwight York, who calls himself Malachi Z. York, served time in New York in the 1960s for assault, resisting arrest and
possession of a dangerous weapon.
York has claimed to be from a galaxy called Illyuwn and has said that in 2003 spaceships are going to descend from the sky and pick up a chosen
144,000 people for a rebirth. Most recently, York has referred to himself as Chief Black Eagle, a reincarnated leader of the Yamassee Indians.
"It's a constantly opportunistic evolving ideology," the sheriff said. "We've gone from an extraterrestrial to a Christian pastor to an Indian
leader with willful and wanton resistance to legal authority time and time again."
The group's spokeswoman, Renee McDade, and Marshall Chance, who is referred to as the Nuwaubians' leader, distance themselves from the space
prophecies of York, who lives on the compound and refuses to give interviews.
"We're all awaiting the coming of the real Messiah," Chance said. "We are a biblical people. If it's not in the Bible, then we're not concerned
about it."
The group moved to Georgia in 1993 from New York, where it had operated under other names, including the Ansaru Allah Community. A 1993 FBI report
linked that group to a myriad of crimes, including arson and extortion.
Georgia Sect Alarms Neighbors, Washington Post/AP, July 27, 1999
''I am the lamb, I am the man,'' declares Dr. Malachi Z. York, 54, on his website. ''I am the Supreme Being of This Day and Time, God in
Flesh.'' And by the way, says the native of the planet Rizq, a spaceship is coming on May 5, 2003, to scoop up believers. The believers have been
making quite a spectacle in the tiny town of Eatonton, Ga. (pop. 5,000), seat of the not much larger Putnam County (pop. 17,000). There, the man born
Dwight York, of Sullivan County, N.Y., decreed the founding of Tama-Re, Egypt of the West, a 19-acre evocation of the ancient land, complete with
40-ft. pyramids, obelisks, gods, goddesses and a giant sphinx. It is the holy see of the Nuwaubians.
But don't call them a religion. The Nuwaubians describe themselves as a ''fraternal organization'' of people of different religions, including
Christians, Muslims and others who just happen to share a few extra tenets.
Space Invaders : Strangers from the North send a Southern town into a tizzy from TIME Magazine, July 12, 1999