by NU’MAN ABD AL-WAHID
“Parents are outraged over teachers at PS 201 in Flushing, Queens, not allowing their children to write about Malcolm X (right), seen here with Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay.” PHOTO/John Peodincuk/New York Daily News
“Malcolm had an inclusive secular approach to the African-American struggle and not an exclusive religious approach rooted in the superiority of any given religion.”
The only way we can assess if Malcolm X became an Islamist or his political trajectory was heading towards that direction is to unpack what he said or did not say after his split Elijah Muhammad’s ‘Nation of Islam’ (NOI). It goes without saying that for as long as he was a member of the NOI he was the leading advocate of its distinctive cultural, social, economic and political theology and/or ideology.
First of all what do we mean by Islamism and/or radical political Islam? According to the scholar Oliver Roy in a study for the United Nations, Islamism “is the brand of modern political Islamic fundamentalism which claims to recreate a true Islamic society, not simply by imposing sharia, or Islamic law, but by first establishing an Islamic state through political action.” Earlier in the study he had unpacked and defined “fundamentalism” as “a call for the return of all Muslims to the true tenets of Islam (or what is perceived as such): this trend is usually called ‘salafism’ (‘the path of the ancestors’).” Individuals who uphold this ideology are referred to as Islamists of one variety or another.
Split with NOI
Malcolm X’s split with the NOI began with a suspension for ninety days following his now famous comment, “chickens coming home to roost” with regard to the assassination of President Kennedy on the 2nd December 1963.[1] The NOI hierarchy had previously sent out instructions to its ministers not to say anything on the assassination.
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Ballot and the Bullet
In the month between the 12th March 1963 and his departure for Cairo enroute to making the Muslim pilgrimage (Hajj) in Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia on April 13th 1964, Malcolm delivered one of his most famous speeches, “the Ballot and the Bullet.”
In this speech which stressed the importance of African-Americans voting wisely and moulding their collective vote for their united benefit. He argued that the majority white vote is equally split therefore the minority black vote used collectively contains within it the balance of power. He argued African-Americans should pool their franchise together and become a deciding force in elections. In effect become a voting bloc to be taken seriously. Furthermore, he argued that the civil rights movement should widen its horizons and campaign for African-American human rights: “When you expand the civil-rights struggle to the level of human rights, you can then take the case of the black man in this country before the nations in the UN.”[11]
He also had this to say about religion:
“Although I’m still a Muslim, I’m not here tonight to discuss my religion. I’m not here tonight to try and change your religion. I’m not here to argue or discuss anything that we differ about, because it’s time to submerge our differences and realize that it is best for us to first see that we have the same problem, a common problem – a problem that will make you catch hell whether you’re a Baptist, or a Methodist, or a Muslim, or a nationalist…We’re all in the same boat…Whether we are Christians or Muslims or nationalists or agnostics or atheists, we must first learn to forget our differences, let us differ in the closet.”[12]
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