Although Baldwin admires many aspects of the Nation of Islam, he is also somewhat critical of their ideology. What are some of Baldwin’s specific doubts and criticism regarding the Nation of Islam?

Initially Baldwin feels remote from Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam movement simply because he, Baldwin, does not see himself as a religious believer. Baldwin, though brought up in a strict Christian home, has rejected organized religion as an adult, and he does not feel the urge to convert to Islam, as many other African Americans have done.
However, Baldwin's criticisms of the Nation of Islam go further than this. He sees the separatism of the movement as another form of prejudice. Baldwin himself does not wish to reject white people as a whole and believes to do so would be to fall to the same level as the whites who have oppressed and marginalized African Americans. Furthermore, he regards the Nation of Islam's separatist agenda as simply unworkable. It does not seem realistic to Baldwin to think that African Americans can create a separate society or, as Elijah Muhammad planned, a new country for themselves on American soil. Even if they could do so, Baldwin does not see this as a form of progress for black people.
Baldwin wrote The Fire Next Time at a point in history when the Civil Rights Movement had only recently begun in earnest. He was prescient in seeing that an equal, multiracial society was, in fact, possible, and one can only hope his vision will be completely realized some day, since, as many would acknowledge, there is still some distance to go.