Arabian Knights around the campfire (Black Muslims)....Ray

Submitted by Survivor of Jihad (United States), Oct 14, 2005 at 07:12

From what I have read, Elijah Mohammad took the NOI and made it what it is today. This process began sometime in the early to mid 20's in the USA.

When I first heard of Malcolm X, he was yelling, in Washington DC, a phrase I would soon adopt as my own. "By any means necessary". If you were there, in Washington, to see the brutality, that a "peaceful demonstration" of a Black America, who were fighting for basic human rights, but met with virulent racism, hate and brutality, after Dr. King, Jr left the Podium, it would have had an impact on you, too. When Malcolm X happened onto the scene, and yelled this particularly wonderful phase, it was a light beaming in a sea of darkness. Police were stunned at someone who had the audacity to stand up, and attack Law Enforcement, when they were depriving Black Americans of their HUMAN rights. I was close enough to Malcolm that I could see him, surrounded by other NOI members, and the reality of seeing him charge against attacking, brutal Police, made me feel as if he was a hero. I still believe that. Police were stunned and began to back off.

I had to meet him, and I eventually did. Not before I sat and observed him from a distance, watched him with other Black Muslims, and though white America feared the racist rhetoric of Malcolm, I learned to respect and love him, and I agreed with his philosophy. There was a difference between the Malcolm X, White America feared, and the man who assisted his Family, of Black Americans, deprived of their rights. The depth of his empathy, and assistance, I have never again seen anywhere in this World. I saw in Malcolm, a man of love, concern, and power. Power to make a stand which most of White America could not come to terms with. I was for anything that would stop an atrocity against a group of people, Black Americans, that I deemed as suffering beyond human comprehension. If I could feel love, empathy and concern, and be white, why couldn't others? Race was not a factor, Psychology was.

When 3 Black Muslims gunned that man down, in a Mosque, because Malcolm was able to see, that Islam was not about Black Americans but included people of all colors, Elijah Mohammad considered him an Apostate. I didn't KNOW that in February 1965, and I continued to stop in periodically to Mosques, to find out exactly what it was, with Islam, that would make them extinguish the very person, who gave the NOI National and International attention, and that was Malcolm X. It took me 2 more years to realize about Fatwa's. In February, 1965, to the best of my knowledge, Shari'a was instituted in America for the first time, against someone I considered a hero. It took me that long to also realize that when Elijah Mohammad felt "threatened", he could issue a death warrant on anyone he wished. In death, Malcolm became a draw for the NOI, and it is incomprehensible to me, that it did so while he was alive, too. Malcolms personal home was bombed also by Black Muslims, but he and his family were not home when it happened.

I cannot forgive Islam or the NOI, for removing Malcolm from life by Force, based on their Fascist Ideology.

I can agree that the NOI began, during the Civil Rights Movement, to reject the notion of turning the other cheek. I never believed in turning the other cheek when faced with aggression from another person. That refusal is what drew me to it, and to adapt that philosophy when I was very young. I still do, today.

Not the rest of it. I do not believe I have a right to kill, and I have to personally question the mental soundness of a person who is willing to do it. I do believe I have the right to self defense, and I take that right very seriously.

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