Q: Some time ago I saw a pro football player whose last name is (Antwaan) Randle-El. I thought that was unusual, but in the last few days I’ve come across two other people with a last name ending in “-El.” When I Google “–El,” I get nothing. Is there any light you can shed on the meaning or significance of that?
—David Nugent, Canton
A: People who have added "El," "Bey," "Ali," "Dey" and "Al" at the end of their last names sometimes belong to, or are associated with, the Moorish Science Temple of America, its "offshoots and other black nationalist and black Muslim groups," a 2011 Southern Poverty Law Center article states.
Prophet Nobel Drew Ali founded the MSTA in 1913 and taught that Moors were the only inhabitants of the Earth’s original single continent and for its members to be “better citizens,” follow laws and “not to cause any confusion or to overthrow the laws of the said government but to obey hereby,” according to the MSTA’s official website.
The Southern Poverty Law Center article states that a “growing number of black Americans who, as members of outlandishly named ‘nations’ or as individuals, subscribe to an antigovernment philosophy so extreme that some of its techniques, though nonviolent, have earned the moniker ‘paper terrorism.’ They think they are sovereign citizens and have a belief system that argues that most Americans are not subject to most tax and criminal laws promulgated by the government.”
Andy Johnston wrote this column. Do you have a question about the news? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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