MALCOLM X
By: Yusuf Siddiqui
Translation by: Néstor Pedraza
English Original: http://www.islamreligion .com/articles/88/viewall /
History of one of the most important figures in African-American revolutionary, and his discovery of true Islam and how it solves the problem of racism.
"I am and have always been a Muslim. My religion is Islam. "-Malcolm X
Early
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. His mother, Louis Norton Little, was a homemaker occupied with his family of 8 children. His father, Earl Little, was a Baptist minister and avid supporter of the black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey. The civil rights activist Earl earned him death threats from white supremacist organization Black Legion, forcing the family to relocate twice before Malcolm age 4. Despite Little's efforts to elude the Legion, in 1929 home in Lansing, Michigan, was burned to the ground, and two years later came the maimed body of Earl on the tram from the city when Malcolm was only 6 years. Louis suffered an emotional breakdown several years after the death of her husband and was committed to a mental institution. Their children were divided into different foster homes and orphanages.
Malcolm was a smart and dedicated student, graduating high school as the best in its class. However, his favorite teacher told him his dream of becoming a lawyer was not a realistic goal for a black, so Malcolm lost interest in school and finally retired at the age of 15 years. Learning the street life, Malcolm met thugs, thieves, drug dealers and pimps. He was sentenced to 20 for robbery and remained in prison until 27. While in prison he tried to train as a self-taught. Moreover, at this time in prison, he met the Nation of Islam and joined her, studying the teachings of Elijah Muhammed. He was released made a new man in 1952.
The 'Nation of Islam "(NOI for its acronym in English, Nation of Islam)
After his release, Malcolm went to Detroit and joined the daily activities of the sect, receiving training directly from Elijah Muhammad himself. Malcolm's personal commitment helped build the organization around the country, as he became an international figure. He was interviewed on major television shows and magazines around the country speaking at various universities and other forums. His power was in his words, vividly describing the plight of blacks vehemently incriminating whites. When a white person was referring to the fact that some Southern university had accepted black students without bayonets, Malcolm reacted with disdain:
"When I retired, the show's launch bait: Ah! Indeed, Mr. Malcolm X, can not deny that this is an advance for your race!
then I must be emphatic. I can not turn to see without hearing something about some 'civil rights advance'! White people seem to think that black men should be shouting Hallelujah! For 400 years the white man has had his long knife in the back of the black man, and now the white man starts to get a little knife. Is it supposed to be grateful black man? Why, if even when men White completely remove the knife, this will still leave a scar? "
Although Malcolm words often were painful to the injustices against blacks in America, the equally racist views of the Nation of Islam kept him from accept any sincere white or able to help the situation. For 12 years preached that the white man was the devil and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was the messenger of God. Unfortunately, many images of Malcolm current focus on this period of his life, despite the transformation that was about to experience and to provide an important message and completely different the American people.
The Change to True Islam
On 12 March 1964, driven by internal jealousies of the Nation of Islam and revelations of Elijah Muhammad's sexual immorality, Malcolm left the Nation of Islam with the intention of starting his own organization.
"I feel like a man who has been asleep somewhat and under the control of someone else. I feel that now I think I speak for myself. Before, it was led by another, now I think on my own. "
Malcolm was 38 when he left the Nation of Islam of Elijah Muhammad. Reflecting on events prior to its abandonment, said
"In one or another university or college, usually in the informal gatherings after I had spoken, perhaps a dozen generally white-skinned people approached me, identified themselves as Muslims and Arabs, the Middle East or North Africa who were visiting, studying or living in the United States. They told me that despite my incriminating statements against whites, felt that I was sincere in considering me as a Muslim myself, and felt that if I exposed what they always called the true Islam, I would understand and embrace. Automatically, as a follower of Elijah, he always set aside what I said. But in the privacy of my own thoughts after several similar experiences, I wondered to myself: If one is sincere in professing a religion, why should resist expanding their knowledge of that religion?
These orthodox Muslims he had met, one after another, had urged me to meet Dr. Mahmoud Youssef Shawarbi and talk to him. Then one day, a journalist, I introduced Dr. Shawarbi. He was cordial. I had said followed in the press, said he had heard about it, and we talked for 15 or 20 minutes. Both appointments we had to go to meet we had, when dropped on me something whose logic never would get out of my head. He said: 'No man has believed perfectly until he desires for his brother what he wishes for himself' (a saying of Prophet Muhammad, that the mercy and blessings of Allah be upon him). "
The Effect of the Pilgrimage
Malcolm continued to talk about the Pilgrimage:
"The pilgrimage to Mecca known as Hajj is a religious obligation that every orthodox Muslim fulfills, if able, at least once in their life.
The Quran says:
'is an obligation for men pilgrimage to the House are able to do [physical and economic]. " (Quran 3:97)
'Summon the men to make the pilgrimage, they come unto thee on foot or on camels exhausted all secluded place. " (Quran 22:27)
Each of the thousands of people at the airport, about to leave for Jeddah, was dressed this way. You could be a king or a peasant and no one would know. Some powerful figures, which were brought me quietly, had the same thing I was wearing. Once dressed and we started to proclaim all Labbayka! (Allahumma) Labbayka! (Here I come, O Lord!) Packed in the plane were white, black, brown, red and yellow, blue eyes and blond hair, and my curly red hair, all together, brothers! All honoring the same God, all while giving the same respect to others.
is when I start to reassess for the first time the white man. It was when I began to perceive that 'white man' as the saying goes, means complexion only a secondary form: Mainly describe attitudes and actions. In the U.S., white man means specific attitudes and actions toward the black man, and to all other men who are not white. But in the Muslim world, I saw men with white complexions were more genuinely brotherly than anyone I've ever seen. That morning was the beginning of a radical alteration in my whole conception of the white man.
There were hundreds or thousands of pilgrims from all over the world. They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blondes to black skinned Africans. But all share the same ritual displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe that ever exist between white and non-white. America needs to understand Islam, because this is one religion that erases from its society and the problem of racism. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked and even sit and eat with people in the United States would have been considered white, but which had been removed the attitude of the white from their minds by the religion of Islam . Never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of their color. "
Malcolm's New Vision of U.S.
Malcolm continues:
"Each hour here in the Holy Land enables me to have a greater spiritual awareness of what is happening in America between blacks and whites. The black American can not be blamed for his racial animosities, which is more than the reaction to 400 years of conscious racism of white Americans stop. But as racism leads to the U.S. the suicide path, I believe from the experiences I have had with them, the whites of the younger generation in schools and universities, will see the graffiti on the walls, and many of them will become the spiritual path of truth the only way left for the United States to avoid the disaster that racism inevitably driving.
now I believe God is giving the world called 'white society Cristiana' last chance to repent and atone for the crimes of exploiting and enslaving non-white people in the world. It is exactly as when God gave Pharaoh a chance to repent. But Pharaoh refused to do justice to those oppressed. And as we know, God finally destroyed Pharaoh.
never forget the dinner at home with Dr. Azzam Azzam. The more we talked, the more extensive was his store of knowledge and its variety seemed unlimited. He spoke of the racial lineage of the descendants of Muhammad, that the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, the Prophet, and showed how they were both black and white. He also noted how color and color problems that exist in the Muslim world, exist only where, and to the extent that that area of \u200b\u200bthe Muslim world has been influenced by Western colonization. He said if he was any difference based on attitude toward color, this directly reflected the degree of Western influence. "
The Unity of Man under One God
was during this pilgrimage began to write some letters to his loyal assistants at the newly founded Muslim Mosque in Harlem. He asked that his letter was copied and distributed to the press:
"I've never seen such sincere hospitality and overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient Holy Land, the home of Abraham, Muhammad and all other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures. During the past week, I was completely speechless and fascinated by the kindness shown to me about all the people of all colors ...
You may be surprised that these words come from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I saw and experienced has forced me to rearrange much of my thought patterns previously held, and set aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts and accept reality life as a new experience and new knowledge they develop. I've always kept an open mind, which is necessary for the flexibility that must go hand in hand with all forms of intelligent search for truth.
During the past 11 days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug), while praying to the same God, Muslims whose eyes were the blue, whose hair was more blond and whose skin was the whitest. And in the words, actions and deeds of the Muslims 'white', I felt the same sincerity that I felt among black African Muslims Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana.
We are all really the same (brothers), because their belief in God has removed a 'white' from their minds, how 'white' for their behavior, and how 'white' from their attitude.
I can see from this that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Unity and Oneness of God, then maybe you too could really accept the Oneness of Man, and stop measuring, hinder and harm others in terms of their 'differences' of color.
With the racism suffered by the United States as a cancer incurable, the white heart called 'Christian' American should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem. Perhaps we might be time to save America from imminent disaster, the same destruction that came to Germany by racism that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves.
I asked what had impressed me most of Hajj ... I said, 'The brotherhood! People of all races, colors and from all over the world united as one! This has proven to me the power of the One God ... Everyone ate and slept as one as one. Everything about the pilgrimage atmosphere acentuaba la Unidad del Hombre bajo Un Dios.”
Malcolm regresó del peregrinaje como El-Hajj Malik al-Shabazz. Se había apasionado con una nueva visión espiritual. Para él, la lucha había evolucionado de una lucha de un nacionalista por los derechos civiles, a la lucha por los derechos humanos de un internacionalista y humanitario.
Después del Peregrinaje
Los reporteros blancos y otros estaban ansiosos de conocer las opiniones recién formadas de El-Hajj Malik respecto a ellos mismos. Les costaba creer que el hombre que había predicado contra ellos por tantos años, de repente había changed so much to call them brothers. To these people, El-Hajj Malik had this to say:
"are asking me 'Do not say that now accept white men as brothers?" Well, my answer is that in the Muslim world, I saw, felt and wrote home how my thinking had been extended. As I wrote, I shared the true love and brotherhood with many white-skinned Muslims never showed a single thought about race or skin color of another Muslim.
My pilgrimage broadened my vision. I was blessed with a new vision. In two weeks Holy Land, I saw what he had never seen in 39 years here in America. I saw all races, all colors, from blue-eyed blondes to black-skinned Africans in true brotherhood. United! Living as one! Praying as one! Without segregation, not being liberal, but because they never knew how to interpret the meaning of such words.
In the past, yes, I made generalized allegations all white people. Never be guilty of it again, now that I know white people who is really sincere, some of them capable of providing true brotherhood to a black man. The true Islam has shown me that a general accusation against white people is as bad as when whites make generalized accusations against blacks. "
For blacks who saw it increasingly as a leader, El-Hajj Malik preached a new message the opposite of what he had preached as a minister in the Nation of Islam:
"The True Islam taught me that it needs all the ingredients or characteristics of religious, political, economic, psychological, to complete the Human Family and the Humane Society.
I told my audience in the street Harlem that only when mankind is subject to the One God Who created all mankind, only then will reach the "peace" that batch is talk but little action toward which we have seen. "
Too Dangerous to Last
The new universal message of El-Hajj Malik was the worst nightmare for the American establishment. Not only was appealing to the masses of blacks, but for intellectuals of all races and colors. So it was demonized by the press as "inciting violence" and being "militant," although he and Dr. Martin Luther King were moving ever closer in their views:
"The goal has always been the same, with approaches as different as mine and non-violent marches of Dr. Martin Luther King, which dramatized the brutality and the evil white man against defenseless blacks. And in the racial climate in this country today, nobody knows what the "extreme" approaches black man's problems might personally meet a fatal catastrophe first: that of non-violence of Dr. King or calling 'violent' me. "
El-Hajj Malik knew that was the target of many groups. Despite this, never afraid to say what he had to say when he had to say. As a kind of epitaph at the end of his autobiography, says:
"I know that societies often have killed people who have helped to change. And if I can die having brought any light, having exposed any meaningful truth that will help destroy the racist cancer is a malignant tumor in the body of the United States, then all the credit goes to God. Only the mistakes have been mine. "
The Legacy of Malcolm X
Although El-Hajj Malik knew he was targeted for assassination, he accepted this fact without asking for police protection. On February 21, 1965, while preparing to give a lecture at a hotel in New York, was shot three black men. He took three months to age 40. While it is clear that the Nation of Islam had something to do with this murder, many people believe that more than one organization was involved. The FBI, known for its bias against the black movement has been suggested as an accomplice. We will never know for sure who was behind the assassination of El-Hajj Malik, or in fact, the murder of other national leaders at the beginning of the decade 1960.
Malcolm X's life has affected Americans in many important ways. The interest of African Americans in their Islamic roots has flourished since the death of El-Hajj Malik. Haley, who wrote Malcolm's autobiography, later wrote the epic "Roots," about the experience of an African Muslim family to slavery. More and more African Americans are becoming Muslim, adopting Muslim names, or exploring the African culture. Interest in Malcolm X has seen a recent increase thanks to the movie "X" by Spike Lee. El-Hajj Malik is a source of pride for African Americans, Muslims and Americans in general. His message is simple and clear:
"I'm not a racist in any way. I do not believe in any form of racism. I do not believe in any form of discrimination or segregation. I believe in Islam. I'm Muslim. "
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