Malcolm X in Death Became an Unexpected Martyr of Reconciliation

 

                                        Malcolm X's body is taken to an ambulance by New York City Police after his assignation at the Audubon Ballroom.

On February 21, 1965 Malcolm X, the militant Muslim who scared the hell out of White Americans and  challenged Martin Luther King for ideological leadership of the Black community, was cut down in a hail of gunfire by three assailants loyal to Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam.  He had just risen to speak to a crowd of about 400 at a meeting of The Organization of African American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City.  

His stories, as told in The Autobiography of Malcolm X, co-authored by Alex Haley and in Spike Lee’s bio flick starring Denzel Washington have become iconic.  

He was born Malcolm Little in 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska to a local leader of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association and a very light skinned mother.  The family was harassed for his father’s involvements, forced to move from Omaha, and threatened in their new home in Lansing, Michigan.  Malcolm’s father’s death after being run over by a street car may have been the result of an attack by the racist Michigan Black Legion.  

Malcolm Litte's mug shot.

Without his father, Malcolm drifted into crime and was sentenced to 10 years in prison for burglary and gun charges in Massachusetts in 1946.  While serving time he fell under the influence of another inmate who encouraged him to improve himself through reading and who introduced him to the teaching of an ex-con Elijah Muhammad.  After being released from prison in 1952 he met the leader of The Nation of Islam in Chicago, forsook his slave name, and became Malcolm X.

Malcolm X quickly rose to be Elijah Muhammad's closest advisor and the most public face of the Nation of Islam fueling its rapid growth.

He rose rapidly in the organization and soon became Elijah Muhammad’s most trusted lieutenant and public spokesperson.  The Nation of Islam taught a brand of African American nationalism and separation from the White Devils who oppressed them.  

Under Malcolm’s influence the Nation of Islam grew from 500 to more than 25,000 members.  He scored a great coup when he successfully recruited the Heavy Weight Champion of the World Cassius Clay and dubbed him Muhammad Ali.  

Malcolm X recruited Cassius Clay to the Nation of Islam.  As Muhammad Ali the boxer helped bring Black Muslims mainstream.

During the Civil Rights era he was harshly critical of Martin Luther King and other leaders for both seeking integration and for their nonviolent tactics.  After being publicly censured by Elijah Muhammad for saying that the assassination of John F. Kennedy amounted to “the chickens coming home to roost,” Malcolm broke with the Nation of Islam. 

Malcolm X and Dr, Martin Luther King were viewed as rivals for Black leadership.  Each came to respect the other and even to play off of each other as a sort of good cop/bad cop team that helped enact the Voting Rights Act of 1965
 
He founded his own Islamic organization, the Muslim Mosque and the Organization of African-American Unity as a secular and political organization.  As he worked on his Autobiography with Haley, he began to advocate the “careful use of the ballot” as a means of African American advancement.  

Malcolm was approached by orthodox Sunni Muslims and urged to study the Koran which led him to repudiate the many un-Islamic innovations of the Nation of Islam.  He converted and undertook the required pilgrimage to Mecca.  While there he observed how believers of all races were respected, welcomed, and treated equally.  He came to believe the Islam could be the means by which racial reconciliation could take place. 

 

 As an orthodox Sunni Muslim, Malcolm's Haj to Mecca dramatically changed his world view and teachings.

This new outlook, and the fact that Malcolm was both attracting his followers and overshadowing him in public, made him a marked man with Elijah Muhammad. 

Although top leadership in the Nation was never directly connected to the assassination, three members were convicted in the shooting.

The posthumously published Autobiography of Malcolm X co-written by Alex Haley was widely read in the Black Community and by young white leftists like your scribe.

Alex Haley finished the Autobiography and it was published to wide acclaim later in the year.

In 2021 members of Malcolm X’s surviving family announced that a death bed letter written by a former New York City police officer stated that the NYPD and FBI were complicit in his 1965 murder..                                    
 

Malcolm X Died an Unexpected Martyr of Reconciliation— Focus on Black History Month 2021

Malcolm X's body is taken to an ambulance by New York City Police after his assignation at the Audubon Ballroom.

Note—Yesterday after this post was drafted member of Malcolm X’s surviving family announced that a death bed letter written by a former New York City police officer stated that the NYPD and FBI were complicit in his 1965 murder.

On February 21, 1965 Malcolm X, the militant Muslim who scared the hell out of White Americans and had challenged Martin Luther King for ideological leadership of the Black community, was cut down in a hail of gunfire by three assailants loyal to Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam.  He had just risen to speak to a crowd of about 400 at a meeting of The Organization of African American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. 

His stories, as told in The Autobiography of Malcolm X, co-authored by Alex Haley and in Spike Lee’s bio flick starring Denzel Washington, has become iconic. 

He was born Malcolm Little in 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska to a local leader of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association and a very light skinned mother.  The family was harassed for his father’s involvements, forced to move from Omaha, and threatened in their new home in Lansing, Michigan.  Malcolm’s father’s death after being run over by a street car may have been the result of an attack by the racist Michigan Black Legion. 

Malcolm Litte's mug shot.

Without his father, Malcolm drifted into crime and was sentenced to 10 years in prison for burglary and gun charges in Massachusetts in 1946.  While serving time he fell under the influence of another inmate who encouraged him to improve himself through reading and who introduced him to the teaching of an ex-con Elijah Muhammad.  After being released from prison in 1952 he met the leader of The Nation of Islam in Chicago, forsook his slave name, and became Malcolm X. 

Malcolm X quickly rose to be Elijah Muhammad's closest advisor and the most public face of the Nation of Islam fueling its rapid growth.

He rose rapidly in the organization and soon became Elijah Muhammad’s most trusted lieutenant and public spokesperson.  The Nation of Islam taught a brand of African American Nationalism and separation from the White Devils who oppressed them. 

Under Malcolm’s influence the Nation of Islam grew from 500 to more than 25,000 members.  He scored a great coup when he successfully recruited the Heavy Weight Champion of the World Cassius Clay and dubbed him Muhammad Ali. 

Malcolm X recruited Cassius Clay to the Nation of Islam.  As Muhammad Ali the boxer helped bring Black Muslims mainstream.

During the Civil Rights era he was harshly critical of Martin Luther King and other leaders for both seeking integration and for their nonviolent tactics.  After being publicly censured by Elijah Muhammad for saying that the assassination of John F. Kennedy amounted to “the chickens coming home to roost,” Malcolm broke with the Nation of Islam. 

Malcolm X and Dr, Martin Luther King were viewed as rivals for Black leadership.  Each came to respect the other and even to play off of each other as a sort of good cop/bad cop team that helped enact the Voting Rights Act of 1965

He founded his own Islamic organization, the Muslim Mosque and the Organization of African-American Unity as a secular and political organization.  As he worked on his Autobiography with Haley, he began to advocate the “careful use of the ballot” as a means of African American advancement. 

Malcom was approached by orthodox Sunni Muslims and urged to study the Koran which led him to repudiate the many un-Islamic innovations of the Nation of Islam.  He did convert and undertook the required pilgrimage to Mecca.  While there he observed how believers of all races were respected, welcomed, and treated equally.  He came to believe the Islam could be the means by which racial reconciliation could take place. 

As an orthodox Sunni Muslim, Malcolm's Haj to Mecca dramatically changed his world view and teachings.

This new outlook, and the fact that Malcolm was both attracting his followers and overshadowing him in public, made him a marked man with Elijah Muhammad. 

Although top leadership in the Nation was never directly connected to the assassination, three members were convicted in the shooting.

Alex Haley finished the Autobiography and it was published to wide acclaim later in the year.                                      

  

Malcolm X Died an Unexpected Martyr of Reconciliation

Malcolm X's body is taken to an ambulance by New York City Police after his assasination at the Audubon Ballroom.

On February 21, 1965 Malcolm X, the militant Muslim who scared the hell out of White Americans and had challenged Martin Luther King for ideological leadership of the Black community, was cut down in a hail of gunfire by three assailants loyal to Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam.  He had just risen to speak to a crowd of about 400 at a meeting of The Organization of African American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. 

His story, as told in The Autobiography of Malcolm X, co-authored by Alex Haley and in Spike Lee’s bio flick starring Denzel Washington, has become iconic. 

He was born Malcolm Little in 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska to a local leader of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association and a very light skinned mother.  The family was harassed for his father’s involvements, forced to move from Omaha, and threatened in their new home in Lansing, Michigan.  Malcolm’s father’s death after being run over by a streetcar may have been the result of an attack by the racist Michigan Black Legion. 

Malcolm Litte's mug shot.

Without his father, Malcolm drifted into crime and was sentenced to 10 years in prison for burglary and gun charges in Massachusetts in 1946.  While serving time he fell under the influence of another inmate who encouraged him to improve himself through reading and who introduced him to the teaching of an ex-con Elijah Muhammad.  After being released from prison in 1952 he met the leader of The Nation of Islam in Chicago, forsook his slave name, and became Malcolm  X.

 

Malcolm X quickly rose to be Elijah Muhammad's closest advisor and the most public face of the Nation of Islam fuling its rapid growth.

He rose rapidly in the organization and soon became Elijah Muhammad’s most trusted lieutenant and public spokesperson.  The Nation of Islam taught a brand of African American Nationalism and separation from the White Devils who oppressed them. 

Under Malcolm’s influence the Nation of Islam grew from 500 to more than 25,000 members.  He scored a great coup when he successfully recruited the Heavy Weight Champion of the World Cassius Clay and dubbed him Muhammad Ali. 

Malcolm X recruited Cassius Clay to the Nation of Islam.  As Muhammad Ali the boxer helped bring Black Musslims mainstream.

During the Civil Rights era he was harshly critical of Martin Luther King and other leaders for both seeking integration and for their nonviolent tactics.  After being publicly censured by Elijah Muhammad for saying that the assassination of John F. Kennedy amounted to “the chickens coming home to roost,” Malcolm broke with the Nation of Islam. 

He founded his own Islamic organization, the Muslim Mosque and the Organization of African-American Unity as a secular and political organization.  As he worked on his Autobiography with Haley, he began to advocate the “careful use of the ballot” as a means of African American advancement. 

Malcom was approached by orthodox Sunni Muslims and urged to study the Koran repudiate  which led him to repudiate the many un-Islamic innovations of the Nation of Islam.  He did convert and undertook the required pilgrimage to Mecca.  While there he observed how believers of all races were respected, welcomed and treated equally.  He came to believe the Islam could be the means by which racial reconciliation could take place.  

 

As an orthodox Sunni Muslim, Malcolm's Haj to Mecca dramatically changed his world view and teachings.

This new outlook, and the fact that Malcolm was both attracting his followers and overshadowing him in public, made him a marked man with Elijah Muhammad. 

Although top leadership in the Nation was never directly connected to the assassination, three members were convicted in the shooting.

Alex Haley finished the Autobiography and it was published to wide acclaim later in the year.                                      

The Crescent Moon of Ramadan Rises Over Gaza Mayhem

Observation of the rising of the crescent new moon marking the begining of the month officially begins Ramadan.

Note—Yesterday as the United States opened its new embassy in Jerusalem presided over by Presidential daughter Ivanka, her husband Jarred, an assortment of apocalypse-rooting, anti-Semitic Evangelical preachers, a Chief Rabbi who thinks Blacks are monkeys, and gloating ghoul Benjamin Netanyahu, at least 54 unarmed Palestinians were murdered on the Gaza border.  Today is the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War which established the State of Israel and which is marked by Palestinians as the beginning of the Nakba—the Catastrophe—in which a whole people were deprived of their nation, made homeless, and forced into generations of harrowing existence in refugee camps.  Tiny, crowed Gaza would be the home of many of those refugees.  Today will also herald the beginning of Ramadan, the holiest month of Islam in most of the world.  Ponder the multiple ironies.

The perfect wordless meme describes Amerian hypocracy and collusion in crimes against humanity on the eve of Ramadan.

In most of the Islamic world sun down tonight will start Ramadan, the ninth month of the Muslim Calendar, a holy period of fasting.  The date is calculated by the first sighting of the crescent after the New Moon.  Since this can vary in different parts of the world, so can the marked beginning of the month.  In the United States the western calendar date is May 15.

A movement to mark the beginning by astronomical calculation, rather than by visual confirmation thus standardizing the observance is embraced in some of the Islamic world, but bitterly resisted by some traditionalists. 

This year in deeply traditional Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates religious leaders observe the new crescent using powerful telescopes are expected to spot the moon in the usual crystal-clear skies over the desert.  Religious authorities there will declare that tomorrow May 16, will be the first full day of of Ramadan for Hijri year 1439. 

Because it is calculated by a lunar, rather than the western solar calendar, Ramadan floats backward 10 or 11 days each year in relationship to the Gregorian Calendar.

Ramadan was the month in which the first verses of the Qur’an were revealed to the Prophet Mohammad. 

The month of fasting is a period of cleansing as the faithful rededicate themselves to Allah by emphasizing patience, humility, and spirituality by an absolute fast observed by all Muslims over the age of puberty each day between dawn and dusk.  The observant are also called to be more reverent and fervent in prayer.  During Ramadan the entire Qur’an is often read in mosques in 30 installments. 

British Muslims share an Iftar meal breaking the fast of Ramadan after sunset.

Dawn to dusk fasting is significantly longer every day for Muslims in northern latitudes where the day is longer than close to the equator.  This affects the growing number of believers across North America, northern Europe, and parts of Russia and China.  That has caused tensions between traditionalists and moderates in some countries.  In Britain moderate scholar Dr. Usama Hasan of the Quillian Foundation issued a Fatwa—simply a ruling or opinion by a recognized Islamic scholar—that Muslims there should observe the hours of fasting at Mecca, around 12 hours a day, instead of during the up to 20 hours of daylight in the northern Scotland.  Traditionalists in Great Britain’s diverse Muslim population still demand a dawn to dusk fast.  It is unclear how many believers will embrace the new Fatwa.

Islam is the world’s fastest growing religion due to a population explosion across much of its traditional territories, migrations, and conversions particularly in Africa and North America.  And that, along with the emergence of violent fundamentalist movements, causes much anxiety. 

In the United States resentment against Muslims is on the rise yet fueled by xenophobic hysteria and exploited by Donald Trump. 

American Muslims in Oklahoma observe the duty to provide charity by feeding the needy during Ramadan.

Customs connected to the Ramadan observance vary somewhat culturally and between Sunni and Shi’a traditions.  In more secular Islamic countries evenings after the fast are often filled with feasting and entertainment, while attendance to evening services following a modest breaking of the fast is customary in more traditional societies.  Acts of charity to the poor are encouraged.  

The joyous embrace after final Ramadan prayers on Eid=al-Fitr.

The holiday of Eid-al-Fitr marks the end of the fasting period of Ramadan and the first day of the following month, after another new moon has been sighted, 29 or 30 days after the onset of Ramadan.  This is the most festive of Islamic holidays marked by the donning of new clothes, feasting, and family gatherings.

The proprietor of this blog sincerely wishes his Muslim friends Ramadan Mubarak!