ABSTRACT
Who is Dr. Malachi Zador York? Forty years ago in New York City, a young man of 22 named Dwight York
was released from jail and founded a spiritual circle with his close friends called “Ansar Pure Sufi.” Since then it has grown, changed names, and mutated rapidly. Over the years York has led his movement through its many phases, trying on and then discarding charismatic titles as if they were masks. His prison wardens know him as Inmate #17911, serving a 135-year sentence in the “supermax” security federal prison in Florence, Colorado, known as the “Alcatraz of the Rockies.” Sheriff Howard Sills of Eatonton G.A., who assisted in York’s arrest, brands him, “the most heinous criminal in the history of the United States.” Journalists portray York as a “cult leader” or “con artist” who exploits the gullible members of his “black militant,” “quasi-religious” “sect.” Orthodox Sunnis denounce York as a fake Muslim, as a Mahdi “pretender” and “blasphemer.”
