Editing Nuwaubian Nation (section)

==History==
===Dwight York and the Ansaar Pure Sufi===

Dwight York claimed to have been born in Sudan on June 26, 1945.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=4}} A [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (FBI) report accepts this birthdate but maintains that York was born in [[Maryland]].{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=4}} The Muslim heresiologist [[Bilal Philips]] believed that York was actually born in 1935, but later claimed to be younger so that his birth might fit a particular Muslim prophecy about the Mahdi.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=4}} In early life, he was exposed to religions claiming an Islamic identity; according to one claim, the young York was involved in the [[Moorish Science Temple of America|Moorish Science Temple]], a black-oriented American new religion.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=12}} During part of his teens and early twenties, York was also involved with the [[State Street Mosque]], a [[Sunni Islam|Sunni Muslim]] establishment in [[Brooklyn]] run by [[Daoud Ahmed Faisal]].{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=12}} York has claimed he started attending Friday prayers at that mosque in 1957, when he was 12;{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=13}} there are also reports that York's mother was involved with that mosque.{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=13}}

{{Quote box
| quote = I began publishing the pamphlets of peace. I wrote, typed, illustrated, reproduced and distributed them almost single handedly. I diligently treaded [sic] the streets of New York and the surrounding area as I propagated Sufi Islaam [sic]. I was blessed with the 'gift of the gab' and combined with a sense of humour and charisma that draws people of all walks of life to me.
| source=Dwight York{{sfn|Barrett|2001|p=255}}
| width = 25em
| align = right
}}

York later noted that as a teenager he was involved in New York's gangs.{{sfnm|1a1=Palmer|1y=2010|1p=5|2a1=Palmer|2y=2021a|2p=345}} In June 1964, he was charged with [[statutory rape]] and in October 1964 with possession of a dangerous weapon and the assault of a police officer.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=5}} In January 1965 he was convicted and received a three-year prison sentence, being paroled in October 1967.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=5}} He then began working as a street trader, selling body oils, perfumes, and incense in [[Harlem]] and Brooklyn, meanwhile developing his own ideas.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=6}} 

At some point between 1967 and 1969 he established a group called Ansaar Pure Sufi and an associated bookstore.{{sfnm|1a1=Palmer|1y=2010|1p=6|2a1=Knight|2y=2020|2p=15}} He then adopted the title of Isa Abdullah for himself.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=6}} A centre for the group was established at 25 Bedford Avenue.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=6}} Early members began wearing green and black tunics and adopting a symbol of an intertwined crescent, Star of David, and ankh.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|pp=6-7}} They called themselves "Moors" and wore fez hats, reflecting an influence from the Moorish Science Temple.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=12}} York rejected existing translations of the Quran and instead promoted his own.{{sfn|Gabriel|2003|p=152}}

===The Nubian Islamic Hebrew Mission in America===
By 1969, York had changed the name of his group to the Nubian Islamic Hebrew Mission in America (NIHMA).{{sfnm|1a1=Palmer|1y=2010|1p=7|2a1=Knight|2y=2020|2p=15}} In 1971 he established its headquarters at 452 Rockaway Avenue in [[Brownsville, Brooklyn]].{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=15}} The group also changed their typical appearance, its men beginning to dress in dashikis and fez hats, accompanied by nose rings and small bones piercing the ear.{{sfnm|1a1=Palmer|1y=2010|1p=7|2a1=Knight|2y=2020|2p=16}} NIHMA women wore face veils.  
York began referring to himself as Isa Abd Allah bin Abu Bakr Muhammad,{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=16}} or just "Imam Isa" – Isa being the Arabic name for Jesus.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=7}} He subsequently clarified that he did not see himself as the rebirth of Jesus, but did draw comparisons between them; for York, [[John the Baptist]] heralded the coming of Jesus just as [[Elijah Muhammad]], former leader of the Nation of Islam, heralded the coming of York himself.{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=20}} 

In 1973 York traveled to the Middle East and Africa, undertaking the ''[[umrah]]'' pilgrimage to [[Mecca]].{{sfnm|1a1=Palmer|1y=2010|1p=46|2a1=Knight|2y=2020|2p=19}} He also visited Sudan, where he claimed that he was initiated into the [[Order of Al-Khidr]] and joined the [[Sufism|Sufi]] Order of Khawatiyya.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=46}} He also maintained that at the junction of two Niles, he experienced a vision of [[Khidr]], a legendary figure in Islamic lore, alongside the [[Twenty-Four Elders]] featured in the [[Book of Revelation]].{{sfnm|1a1=Palmer|1y=2010|1pp=46-47|2a1=Knight|2y=2020|2p=19}} On his return to New York, York proclaimed himself the grandson of [[Muhammad Ahmad]], a 19th-century Sudanese political leader who deemed himself the [[Mahdi]],{{sfnm|1a1=Palmer|1y=2010|1p=47|2a1=Knight|2y=2020|2p=17}} and alleged that he had been born exactly a hundred years after this grandfather;{{sfnm|1a1=Palmer|1y=2010|1p=47|2a1=Knight|2y=2020|2p=20}} he also began using the term "Mahdi" for himself.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=7}}

===The Ansaaru Allah Community===

In 1973, York's group again changed its name, this time to the Ansaaru Allah Community (AAC).{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=7}} The term ''Ansaaru Allah'' means "helper of Allah",{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=46}}  and may have appealed to York because it affirmed a link with the [[Ansar (Sudan)|Sudanese Ansar]] movement.{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=19}} This name change did not entail a rejection of their "Nubian Islamic Hebrew" identity;{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=19}} the group's literature continued referring to both the AAC and the Nubian Islamic Hebrews throughout much of the 1980s.{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=21}} Imitating common Sudanese clothing styles,{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=47}} members began wearing white ''jalabeeyah'' robes, with white turbans for men and face veils for women.{{sfnm|1a1=Gabriel|1y=2003|1p=153|2a1=Palmer|2y=2010|2p=46}} On moving to [[Bushwick Avenue]], the group also established its own security force, the Swords of Islam, modelled on the [[Fruit of Islam]] used by the NOI.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=45}} The Swords were used to crack down on drug dealing in the area, something that earned public praise from city mayor [[Ed Koch]] and from the Brooklyn police.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=45}}

{{Quote box
| quote = [York promoted] an Afrocentric Sufism that emphasised local dhikr with the ''duff'' and talking drums, identification with historical Nubia and Sudanese folk Islam, mystically guided apocalyptic anticolonialism, rigorous study of Arabic, claims of a "back to the scriptures" textualist revival, and aesthetics that incorporated Egyptian ankhs, nose rings, tarbushes, bones worn in the ears, and, in the case of [York] himself, tribal scarification.
| source=Scholar of religion Michael Muhammad Knight, 2020{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=34}}
| width = 25em
| align = left
}}

AAC members began to live communally and spent much of their day at the group's mosque.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=46}} Contact with prior friends and family was discouraged as these people were labelled ''[[kaafir|kaafirs]]'' (unbelievers).{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=51}} Any money and furniture a newcomer had would be turned over to the community,{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=51}} while mothers and pregnant women were encouraged to claim public welfare, funds then given to the AAC.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=53}} Members were assigned to single-sex quarters.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=51}} Children were separated from their parents and raised communally,{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=56}} brought up to speak Arabic, Hebrew, and York's invented language of Nubic.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=46}} 

Men sent out as street missionaries and fundraisers were called "propagators";{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=52}} they were given a quota to meet, and those who failed in this were chastised or in some cases beaten.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=52}} Men were rewarded with access to their female "mate" in the group's Green Room.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=57}}
An FBI investigation suggested that, at its peak, around 500 people were living at the AAC's commune.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=47}} 
The AAC also expanded its property ownership across New York City, obtaining around thirty buildings including apartment blocks, two recording studios, restaurants, a grocery store and a laundromat.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=47}} The AAC sent missionaries to other parts of the United States and also established groups in Montreal, Toronto, Port of Spain, Brixton, and in Jamaica.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=48}} 

York began maintaining that he was the only path to salvation, and in his publication ''The Truth: What Do People Say I Am?'' he included pictures of twenty prominent black leaders alongside his own descriptions of their apparent failures.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=26}} 
Although referring to itself as Muslim, some of York's publications in this period drew far more on the [[New Testament]] than either the [[Quran]] or the [[Hebrew Bible]].{{sfn|Knight|2020|pp=19-20}} From the late 1970s and into the 1980s the AAC also began making increasing use of themes regarding the alleged esoteric wisdom and advanced technologies of ancient Egypt, [[New Age]] ideas such as [[chakras]], and extraterrestrial civilisations.{{sfn|Knight|2020|pp=20-21}} From 1983, York was talking about Yanaan or Yaanuwn, an intergalactic [[sheikh]] who sometimes occupied York's body.{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=22}} In the late 1980s, Yaanuwn was given greater prominence and increasingly identified with York himself.{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=22}} In 1988, he told his followers: "I am an extraterrestrial incarnated."{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=22}}

In addition to the group's commune, York also had a personal property at West 29th Street on [[Coney Island]].{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=46}} He managed the AAC with his inner circle, which comprised his ministers, his "wives" or concubines, and his personal security force, the ''mujahid''.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=52}} In 1979, he founded a music group, Dr York and the Passion, which began performing at New York nightclubs.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=67}} York also had a music studio, Passion, attached to his living quarters; attractive young women joining the AAC would often be assigned to work there, thus becoming another of his concubines.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=57}} In 1983, York purchased 80 acres of land in the [[Catskills]], on which the AAC established a summer retreat called Camp Jazzir Abba;{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=48}} the name was a reference to [[Aba Island]] in Sudan.{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=22}} The following year, York formed a Sufi order within his broader movement, the Sons of the Green Light.{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=21}} Between 1987 and 1991 the AAC also began referring to itself as the Original Tents of Kedar.{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=21}} In 1988, York retired as the imam of the AAC's Brooklyn mosque and hence spent more time at Camp Jazzir Abba.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=48}}

====Growing opposition====

Over the course of the 1970s, the AAC began attracting negative attention from other Muslim groups active in New York, who criticised it as heretical.{{sfnm|1a1=Palmer|1y=2010|1p=26|2a1=Knight|2y=2020|2p=18}} In 1973, members of the [[Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood]], an African-American Sunni group, attacked AAC members for selling their newspapers in [[Manhattan]].{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=18}} In response to growing Islamic criticism, in 1989 York issued a ''A Rebuttal to the Slanderers'', in which he maintained that all previous translations of the Quran were false and that his own "19th translation" offered the "Supreme Code of the Quran". He further maintained that other Muslims were concealing the fact that Muhammad was a black African and denounced the first three [[Caliph]]s to succeed Muhammad as "usurpers", instead tracing the line of succession from Muhammad through to Muhammad Ahmad, the Sudanese Mahdi, and hence to himself.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|pp=26-27}}

Tensions with the authorities escalated in the late 1970s, particularly after Horace Green—a man who had refused the AAC's attempts to buy his building—was murdered. A member of the AAC's ''mujahim'' was suspected, but nobody was convicted.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=64}} A network of groups concerned about the AAC began to develop, incorporating ex-members, orthodox Muslim groups, the [[New York Police Department]], the [[Internal Revenue Service]], the [[United States Immigration and Naturalization Service|Immigration and Naturalization Service]], the [[Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives]], and the FBI.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=65}} In 1993, the FBI produced a report expressing their view that the AAC was a criminal enterprise masquerading as a religious community, and characterising the ''mujahim'' as a [[protection racket]].{{sfn|Palmer|2010|pp=65-66}}

===The Holy Tabernacle Ministries===

{{Quote box
| quote = We do not want in any shape, form, or fashion to be associated with any anti-government or terrorist groups of Muslims, Moslems, Hebrews or the like, not even with our own brothers of Sudan. We are only Islaamic [sic] in the sense that we are in a state of peace when practicing our cultural observances passed down to us by Abraham, which makes us true Hebrews.
| source=''The Savior'', a Holy Tabernacle Ministries journal, 1995{{sfn|O'Connor|2000|p=122}}
| width = 25em
| align = right
}}

In 1992, York disbanded the Ansaaru Allah Community.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=7}} The group's publications then began referring to the movement as the Tents of Abraham and the Tents of Nubia,{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=22}} and in 1993 it reestablished itself as the Holy Tabernacle Ministries.{{sfnm|1a1=Palmer|1y=2010|1p=7|2a1=Knight|2y=2020|2p=23}} In this form, York's group increasingly emphasised Hebrew and Jewish-derived themes,{{sfnm|1a1=O'Connor|1y=2000|1p=120|2a1=Palmer|2y=2010|2p=7}} with various observers calling this the movement's "Jewish" phase.{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=22}} Increasingly, York also began referring to his teachings as "Factology,"{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=63}} and gave increased attention to the themes of ancient Egypt and of extraterrestrial civilizations.{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=23}} He presenting himself as Yaanuwn, an extraterrestrial from the planet Rizq in the galaxy of Illyuwm.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=7}} 

Islamic elements to the group were pushed aside: York distributed a lecture tape titled "Islam is Poison,"{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=23}} in one incident threw a Quran to the floor and stamped on it,{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=63}} and maintained that Sunni Arabs would never accept the equality of African American Muslims.{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=23}} The rejection of Islamic themes may partly have been down to what York believed was a planned attempt on his life by the Egyptian Muslim militant [[Sayid Nosair]] in 1992.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=68}} He began to state that the group's earlier Islamic identity was never intended to be permanent and would increasingly place the community in danger as Americans increasingly associated Islam with terrorism.{{sfn|O'Connor|2000|p=121}} Despite these shifts, York still wrote of how he was restoring Islam to its "pristine purity," used the Quran as a source in his teachings, and spoke positively of Muslim-identified figures he admired like Elijah Muhammad and Daoud Faisal.{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=23}}

York largely abandoned his Arabic names and began calling himself Dr Malachi Z. York,{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=22}} or elsewhere Rabboni Y'shua Bar El Haady.{{sfnm|1a1=Gabriel|1y=2003|1p=151|2a1=Knight|2y=2020|2p=22}} He ceased referring to himself as the Mahdi.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=7}} The Jazzir Abba retreat was renamed Mount Zion,{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=22}} while the group established a ceremonial sanctuary that they claimed was modelled on the [[Temple of Solomon]].{{sfn|O'Connor|2000|pp=131-132}} Islamic dress styles were abandoned;{{sfn|O'Connor|2000|p=120}} instead, members adopted what they considered the "attire of the Israelites", which included a nose ring and a light veil over the head and shoulders for women, and a long-sleeved split tunic with loose trousers, skullcap, and golden girdle or sash for men.{{sfn|O'Connor|2000|p=133}} The group began observing Jewish holidays,{{sfn|O'Connor|2000|pp=129-130}} and celebrating [[bar mitzvah]]s for adolescent males.{{sfn|O'Connor|2000|p=131}}
It was also in 1992 that York founded an inner fraternal order for male Nuwaubians, the Lodge 19 of the Ancient and Mystical Order of Melchizedek;{{sfnm|1a1=O'Connor|1y=2000|1p=120|2a1=Palmer|2y=2010|2p=20}} York identified [[Melchizedek]] as being the same figure as Khidr.{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=178}}

===The United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors and Tama Re===

In 1993, the Holy Tabernacle Ministries was renamed the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, a term later shortened to the United Nuwaubian Nation.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=7}} The group sold its Brooklyn property and relocated to an area near [[Eatonton, Georgia]], where it had bought 475 acres of land for $975,000.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|pp=7, 71}} Around 100 followers moved there with York,{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=71}} erecting a compound built by voluntary labor between 1993 and 2000.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=72}} Rejecting their previous styles of clothing, they began dressing in cowboy hats and boots.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=7}} By 2002, about 400 people were living there.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=72}}

[[File:TamaRe.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Aerial view of the Tama-Re compound as it stood in 2002]]

York began referring to his followers as the Yamassee Native American Moors of the Creek Nation,{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=7}} maintaining that their Georgia land represented a "Sovereign Nation".{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=68}} He alleged that his followers were descended from the first humans to settle the Americas, having walked there from ancient Egypt at a period before [[continental drift]] had separated Africa from the Americas.{{sfn|Gabriel|2003|p=155}} They filed for recognition with the [[Bureau of Indian Affairs]], but were rejected.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=147}} He began claiming to descend from [[Pocahontas]] on his maternal side, and was now referred to by his followers as "Maku" or "Chief Black Eagle."{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=7}}

As part of this new origin story, York claimed that his followers, and not contemporary Egyptians, were the true descendants of ancient Egypt.{{sfn|Gabriel|2003|p=156}} Increasingly, he started foregrounding ancient Egyptian motifs, symbols, and paraphernalia into his movement,{{sfn|Gabriel|2003|p=155}} maintaining that the teachings he was promoting came from an ancient Egyptian deity, Neteru.{{sfn|Gabriel|2003|p=155}} 
York started calling himself the "Supreme Grand Hierophant of the Ancient Egyptian Order".{{sfn|Gabriel|2003|p=156}}
It was in Georgia that the Nuwaubians built a [[theme park]], [[Tama-Re]].{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=71}} This included a museum of black history, a sphinx, a gold pyramid, and a larger, 40-foot high pyramid;{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=71}} this was black with gold trim, a design some have compared to the [[Kaaba]] in Mecca.{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=4}} The group called this an "Egiptian village" and advertised it as "the Mecca in the West".{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=7}} Tama Re's function was as both a revenue-raising visitor attraction and also a [[pilgrimage]] site.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=72}} Pilgrims subsequently came from the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean, and the UK, with their numbers rising from 2000 in 1999 to 5000 in 2001.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=73}} Although some pilgrims were committed Nuwaubians, they also included many black people interested in their racial heritage.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=xxxiv}}

In 1996, York published the Nuwaubian holy book, ''[[The Holy Tablets]]''.{{sfn|Knight|2020|p=219}}
During this period, the group maintained Holy Tabernacle stores "in more than a dozen cities in the U.S., the United Kingdom, and Trinidad," and continued to gain revenues from them.<ref name= meets /> York purchased a $557,000 mansion for his own use in [[Athens, Georgia]], about 60 miles away.<ref name= meets />

After the move to Georgia, there was a wave of defections from the group. Many of those defectors complained of unpaid labor, poor living conditions, and both financial and sexual exploitation within the group.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=84}} By 2001, a network of ex-members had formed, centring under the leadership of York's son Jacob, who had left alongside his mother and three siblings in 1990.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|pp=84-85}} Jacob set up a [[halfway house]] for those leaving Tama Re in [[Atlanta, Georgia]], through which he helped them establish a life outside the Nuwaubian community.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=86}}

==== Local tensions ====

In Georgia, the Nuwaubians met substantial local opposition.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=68}} From 1997, many of the issues revolved around breaches of building regulations. In 1998, Victor Greig, the group's administrator in charge of construction, was fined $45,750 for violating building code regulations in the erection of a social club.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|pp=75-76}} In 1999, York then appeared in court on a contempt motion filed by the county, but this was dismissed.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|pp=77-78}}

Initially, the Nuwaubians were considered "eccentric" yet tolerable by their neighbors. Tensions increased locally, when the group distributed [[Pamphlet|leaflets]] attacking whites and claiming [[Ethnic conflict|racially-motivated persecution]] in a [[zoning]] conflict (they had set up an illegal [[nightclub]] in a [[warehouse]] on their property). These actions alienated many residents of the area, both black and white, among other ethnicities and races.<ref name= meets /> In 1998, the county sought an [[injunction]] against construction under any use that violated zoning policies. Subsequently, the Nuwaubian community increased its leafletting of Eatonton and surrounding areas, charging white officials with racial discrimination and striving to increase opposition to them. Threats mounted and an eviscerated dog carcass was left at the home of the [[District attorney|county attorney]].<ref name= meets>{{cite journal| url= https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2002/united-nuwaubian-nation-moors-meets-its-match-georgia |title= United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors Meets Its Match in Georgia |last=Moser |first=Bob |date= September 20, 2002 | publisher= [[Southern Poverty Law Center]]| journal= Intelligence Report| number= 107 | access-date= August 19, 2020| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20050301090734/http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid%3D41%26printable%3D1 |archive-date=March 1, 2005}}</ref>

In 1999, the Nuwaubians launched their own local publication, ''The Putnam News'',{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=78}} and the following year fielded candidates, associated with the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]], for the Putnam County elections.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=81}}<ref>{{cite journal| last= Palmer| first= Susan| title= Cult Fighting in Middle Georgia| url= http://www2.trincoll.edu/csrpl/RINVol9No1/Cult%20Fighting%20in%20Middle%20Georgia.htm| journal= [[Religion in the News]] | date= Summer 2006| volume= 9| number= 1| access-date= August 19, 2020| via= trincoll.edu| publisher= [[Trinity College (Connecticut)|Trinity College]] | place= Hartford, Connecticut}}</ref> This contributed to local fears that the Nuwaubians were attempting a political takeover of the area, akin to that which the [[Rajneesh movement|Rajneesh]] followers had allegedly done in [[Oregon]].{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=82}} Local newspapers gave the Nuwaubians overwhelmingly negative coverage,{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=82}} while various journalists and attorneys who were deemed hostile to the group reported receiving death threats, property damage, or being stalked.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|pp=82-83}} 

Amid these tensions, the Nuwaubians pursued links with the African-American community more broadly; in 1999, they invited prominent community leaders [[Al Sharpton]] and [[Tyrone Brooks]] to visit Tama Re and speak on their behalf,{{sfn|Palmer|2010|pp=78-79}}<ref name= meets /> with [[Jesse Jackson]] then doing the same in 2001.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=83}} The Nuwaubians also built links with the white-dominated [[Montana Freemen]], a [[Christian Patriot movement|Christian Patriot]] [[American militia movement|militia]]. One of the Freemen, Everett Leon Stout, visited Tama Re and encouraged the Nuwaubians to call on the county coroner to arrest the local sheriff and to file multi-million dollar lawsuits against various local officials.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=80}}

===York's prosecution and the demolition of Tama Re===

Based on allegations of child molestation made by ex-members, from 1997 the FBI had been building a criminal case against York.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=84}} On May 8, 2002, the FBI raided Tama Re, using over 300 agents from the FBI, the ATF, and the county sheriff's department.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|pp=87, 89}} Five teenagers were taken into [[protective custody]].{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=91}} That same morning authorities arrested York in a supermarket in [[Milledgeville, Georgia|Milledgeville]].{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=90}} He was initially charged with 116 counts pertaining to child molestation, although these were later reduced to 114;{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=91}} prosecutors subsequently added charges under the [[Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act]] in November 2002.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=126}} In October 2002, York pled not guilty,{{sfn|Palmer|2010|pp=99-100}} but at the advice of his attorney, Ed Garland, in January 2003 he changed his plea to guilty in return for a promised 15-year sentence.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|pp=xvii, 99-100}} This [[plea bargain]] was subsequently rejected by the High Court judge, [[Hugh Lawson (judge)|Hugh Lawson]].{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=100}} 

[[File:Florence ADMAX.jpg|thumb|left|York was incarcerated at ADX Florence in Colorado]]

As a result of substantial negative media attention directed at the Nuwaubians, the original jury pool was declared tainted and the trial was relocated to [[Brunswick, Georgia]], where it began in January 2004.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|pp=104-107}} There, the prosecution brought forth witnesses who claimed York had committed abuse from 1988 onward.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=111}}
In the trial, York's defence attorney Adrian Patrick highlighted the lack of physical evidence for any molestation and claimed that those making the allegations were part of a conspiracy connected to Jacob, who was motivated by a grievance against his father.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|pp=110, 114}} 

The jury ultimately found York guilty on four counts of racketeering and six child-molestation related charges.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=114}} In April, Judge [[C. Ashley Royal]] sentenced York to a 135-year sentence, which would be served in the [[ADX Florence]] federal prison in [[Colorado]].{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=1, 115}} In July, Royal issued an order allowing the state seizure of Tama Re, deeming it to be among York's personal assets. Its structures were demolished and the land was sold at auction.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=121}} In September 2005, York's conviction was upheld by the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit]].{{sfn|Palmer|2010|pp=124-125}}

Following the conviction, three witnesses for the prosecution retracted their testimony;{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=xxxix}} the prosecution's star witness, Abigail Washington, recanted her testimony and declared York innocent, only to then rescind her recantation.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|pp=117-120}} Many of York's followers maintained that he was the innocent victim of a conspiracy by the "White Power Structure" and disgruntled ex-members.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=xv}} A solidarity meeting brought Nuwaubians together with representatives of the [[New Black Panther Party]], [[Universal Zulu Nation]], the [[Prince Hall Masons]], and the [[Moorish Science Temple]].{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=xxx}} York's supporters subsequently established fundraising groups committed to securing his release.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=xv}} 

{{As of|2024}}, the original Bushwick, Brooklyn, compound continues to function as both a bookstore and a place of religious service under the group "United Sabaeans Worldwide", with their bookstores now spread across the globe.<ref>{{Cite web |date= |title=Global Bookstores |url=https://unitedsabaeansworldwide.com/contact-us/book-stores/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240408232941/https://unitedsabaeansworldwide.com/contact-us/book-stores/#99c228d6f02b6c541 |archive-date=April 8, 2024 |access-date=April 8, 2024 |website=United Sabaeans Worldwide}}</ref>