Letter from Makkah (during his hajj)
Malcolm XApril, 1964
Never have I witnessed 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 the other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have
been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see
displayed all around me by people of all colors.
I have been blessed to visit the Holy City of Mecca, I have made my
seven circuits around the Ka'ba, led by a young Mutawaf named Muhammad,
I drank water from the well of the Zam Zam. I ran seven times back and
forth between the hills of Mt. Al-Safa and Al Marwah. I have prayed in
the ancient city of Mina, and I have prayed on Mt. Arafat.
There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world.
They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blondes to black-skinned
Africans. But we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a
spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led
me to believe never could exist between the white and non-white.
America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion
that erases from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in
the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who
in America would have been considered white - but the white attitude was
removed from their minds by the religion of Islam. I have never before
seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together,
irrespective of their color.
You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this
pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to
re-arrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss
aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for
me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to
face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new
knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which is
necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form
of intelligent search for truth.
During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten
from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept on the same
rug - while praying to the same God - with fellow Muslims, whose eyes
were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose
skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the actions in
the deeds of the 'white' Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt
among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana.
We were truly all the same (brothers) - because their belief in one
God had removed the white from their minds, the white from their
behavior, and the white from their attitude.
I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept
the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the
Oneness of Man - and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in
terms of their 'differences' in color.
With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the so-called
'Christian' white American heart should be more receptive to a proven
solution to such a destructive problem. Perhaps it could be in time to
save America from imminent disaster - the same destruction brought upon
Germany by racism that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves.
Each hour here in the Holy Land enables me to have greater spiritual
insights into what is happening in America between black and white. The
American Negro never can be blamed for his racial animosities - he is
only reacting to four hundred years of the conscious racism of the
American whites. But as racism leads America up the suicide path, I do
believe, from the experiences that I have had with them, that the whites
of the younger generation, in the colleges and universities, will see
the handwriting on the walls and many of them will turn to the spiritual
path of truth - the only way left to America to ward off the disaster
that racism inevitably must lead to.
Never have I been so highly honored. Never have I been made to feel
more humble and unworthy. Who would believe the blessings that have been
heaped upon an American Negro? A few nights ago, a man who would be
called in America a white man, a United Nations diplomat, an ambassador,
a companion of kings, gave me his hotel suite, his bed. Never would I
have even thought of dreaming that I would ever be a recipient of such
honors - honors that in America would be bestowed upon a King - not a
Negro.
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all the Worlds.
Sincerely,
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X)
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12/12/1962- Malcolm lectures at the Harlem Mosque "The Black Man's
History"
-http://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~moritz/Archive/malcolmx/blackmanshistoryspeech.txt
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