The Miami-based Nation of Yahweh was founded in 1979 by former Nation of Islam minister Hulon Mitchell Jr., who went by the name Yahweh ben Yahweh.

Khalil Amani was a member of Nation of Yahweh, which some viewed as a religious organization and others viewed as a cult. Amani was deeply involved in the organization — a predominantly African-American offshoot of the Black Hebrew Israelite religious movement — that is, until he turned government informant against the Nation of Yahweh. 

At one point, the Nation of Yahweh had thousands of members nationwide and owned several properties. By the mid-1980s, the Nation of Yahweh was a $250 million empire, according to “Uncovered: The Cult of Yahweh Ben Yahweh,” a TV special which aired on the Oxygen Channel in 2019. Amani was interviewed in “Uncovered.”

Rumor has it that Amani, who joined the Nation when he was 20, turned snitch after he found out that his wife had become sexually involved with Yahweh. But Amani has claimed he turned informant because he thought the events at the Nation of Yahweh were wrong.

However, Amani is on the record saying on “The Mel Robbins Show” in 2020, that he was totally enthralled by the Nation of Yahweh and thought “Yahweh ben Yahweh was Jesus in the flesh.”

Amani also said that Yahweh ben Yahweh used the Bible to justify violence and murder. Yahweh ben Yahweh would quote a scripture, Amani said, that read that God “told these people to go and cut all their heads off and put them in baskets and hang up on trees.” Yahweh ben Yahweh explained that this was in the Bible as a commandment from God.

Amani told Miami ABC affiliate WPLG Local 10 in 2019 that his wife had called him after he was sent to Newark, New Jersey, to recruit new members. She told him about a violent incident that had taken place on the Nation of Yahweh compound. When Amani returned to the Nation’s headquarters, he found he had been relocated to separate living quarters, away from his wife. It was then he said he knew Yahweh had taken his wife.

According to Amani on his blog, “The Khalil Amani Reader,” he didn’t turn against Yahweh ben Yahweh because of his wife. Amani wrote that he “became a federal informant, not because Yahweh Ben Yahweh was screwing his wife, as these ignorant-ass YouTubers want to paint the picture… Khalil Amani became a federal informant because it was the right thing to do! As for Yahweh Ben Yahweh banging my wife? By the time I learned about this sexcapade,” he wrote, he himself was already involved with other women.

Amani told “The Mel Robbins Show” that he too was a victim of abuse ordered by Yahweh ben Yahweh.

Authorities said the Nation of Yahweh was involved in various illegal activities, violence against members, and murder. Yahweh ben Yahweh was indicted in 1990 on three counts of federal racketeering and extortion charges. There were several Miami killings linked to the Yahwehs. 

When Amani escaped the Nation, he left behind children and his wife, who he said didn’t want to leave, and became an FBI informant. “I was in the Nation for five years, but it was after four years I realized I was in a cult,” he said on “The Mel Robbins Show.” 

When Amani left, he went to the FBI to offer information on the violence he had witnessed. “Someone had to do something about this thug acting as a religious leader,” Amani told the Oxygen Channel.

Amani cooperated for six years before any indictments took place.

After agreeing to testify against Yahweh, Amani was put in witness protection for three years before leaving the program. “I had to see my son and my daughter again,” he told Miami New Times.

Between 1990 and 2001, Yahweh ben Yahweh served 11 years of an 18-year sentence on a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) conviction after he and several other Nation of Yahweh members were convicted of conspiracy for their role in more than a dozen murders.

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