Dwight D. York (born June 26, 1945),also known as Malachi Z. York,Issa al-Haadi al-Mahdi,
is an American musician, and writer best known as the founding leader
of several black Muslim groups in New York, most notably the Nuwaubian
Nation, a new religious movement that has existed in some form since the
1960s. He was a convicted of child molestation
York began founding several black Muslim groups in the late 1960s. In 1967 he was preaching to the "Ansaaru Allah" in Brooklyn, New York, during the period of the black power movement. He founded numerous religious movements under various names between the 1960s and 1980s.These were at first based on pseudo-Islamic themes and Judaism (Nubian Islamic Hebrews). Later he developed a theme derived from "Ancient Egypt", mixing ideas taken from black nationalism, cryptozoology, Christianity, UFO religions, New Age, and popular conspiracy theories. He last called his group the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, Nuwaubian Nation, or Nuwabians.
Around 1990, York and the Nuwaubian Nation relocated to rural Putnam County, Georgia, where they built a large complex. They came under scrutiny in the early 1990s, after they built Tama-Re,
an Egyptian-themed "city" for about a hundred of his followers in
Putnam County. Before York's trial, the community had been joined
directly and in the
area by hundreds of other followers from out of state, while alienating
both Black and White local residents.
The community was intensively
investigated after numerous reports that York had molested numerous
children of his followers. He and his group were originally based in Brooklyn, New York and some of them relocated to Athens, Georgia after his arrest. York was convicted in 2004 of child molestation and violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. He is serving a 135-year sentence.