May 29 was the birthday of Malcolm X. I saw his poster on Instagram, which read: “I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against.” Malcolm X was merely 40 years old when he was martyred. His life was filled with odds at each step. Born in a black family at the darkest time for black people in America, he did not get any opportunity for education as his parents had left him. He was 21 when he along with his friend Shorty was tried on charges of theft. He was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment then. Surprisingly, he was a changed man; he began reading books inside the jail, getting education which he was deprived of since his birth. In 1952, he was released from the jail. He joined The Nation of Islam. For the 13 years afterwards until his martyrdom in 1965, he had been working tirelessly for his people.
A video from Minneapolis, showing the police arresting a black man named George Floyd on charges of committing a $20 fraud went viral on the net and things have not quite been the same in the USA ever since. The video shows how the police officers pinned him down, with an officer suffocating him under his knee. George kept crying helplessly, “I am suffocating”, “I can’t breathe”, “leave me. I will die”. But the policeman remained unmoved. He kept him in that position for 2 to 3 minutes even after George fell unconscious. Meanwhile, the 4th police officer prevented the bystanders from intervening. This news initiated protests far and wide that kept getting forceful and violent. The protestors reached the White House; the historical St. Johns Church also called “Church of Presidents” was vandalised and set on fire. The conditions deteriorated so much that President Trump was taken to the safety bunker of the White House.
Malcolm X comes again to the minds of the people. They remember that he had once told: “If a man puts his arms around me voluntarily, that’s brotherhood, but if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that’s not brotherhood, that’s hypocrisy.” Malcolm X had also said once: “I believe that it is a crime for anyone to teach a person who is being brutalised to continue to accept that brutality without doing something to defend himself.” He also said: “A man who stands for nothing will fall for everything.” These protests grabbed the attention of the entire world, the police was tormented by guilt, Houston police chief publicly said, “Shut up Trump” when the American President threatened to crush the protestors. The police in Miami and New York fell to their knees expressing their anguish over the incident and solidarity with the oppressed.
The story of Malcolm X is full of white atrocities against the black community. His father survived repeated attempts by white radicals to kill him till his father was brutally stumped by a car. The police called it an accident and refused to take any action. The insurance company called it a suicide and refused to issue the promised policy. His mother fell into depression, was sent to a mental hospital in 1938. Malcolm X and his siblings were sent to different orphanages and welfare organisations. Malcolm wandered from place to place and house to house, polishing shoes and working as a waiter in hotels. Once, he got an opportunity to get into a good school, he got excellent grades but no appreciation. Once in a school, when Malcolm X told his teacher that he wanted to become a lawyer, his teacher responded, saying: “At least you should be realistic in your life, the maximum you can think of is to become a carpenter.” This incident took place when he was just 15 years old. Referring to this, Malcolm once said: “In this society of whites, there is no place for a black child no matter how talented and hardworking he might be.”
As Malcolm X grew up, he crossed paths with Shorty who misled him into drugs business. After working for some time with him, he got arrested in 1946 and was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment. Before he went to jail, Malcolm was ashamed of his black origin and tried to cut all his connections with the black community and culture. He led an artificial life struggling to match with the whites. Once in jail, Malcolm read all the books in the jail library. In the last days of his imprisonment, his brother introduced him to the Nation of Islam working for the Black Nationalism and black rights. After his release in 1952, he joined them. He changed his name from Malcolm Little to Malcolm X (someone who has lost his identity). Soon, he became one of the prominent people in this organisation. His popularity among the locals boosted the image and membership of this organisation. When he joined, there were only 400 members and 8 years later, the membership count stood at 40,000. After a long association with the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X left it and soon he started getting invitations from the heads of several countries. He emerged from being a local leader to being an international leader representing his community.
On 21 February 1965, Malcolm was assassinated while delivering a lecture in a public gathering in Manhattan city. His dissenting voice, which was getting very popular, was forcefully silenced. Malcolm X spoke about discrimination based on caste and complexion. He pointed out the solution to this problem in his diary. It expands over his last years when he went to the Hajj as the official guest of Prince Faisal of Saudi Arabia, touring many African and Arab countries on the way. He writes about that trip: “Islam brings together in unity all colours and classes. The Hajj is the best example of this: only the Muslims, true believer (true brothers) enter Makkah. Everyone shares what he has; those who have help, those who have not. Those who know teach those who don’t know.”
He writes later: “If the Hajj alone were properly pictured to the outside world (taking first into the account the psychology of the outside world) millions of converts would be added yearly to the ranks of Muslims. Just as the Muslims now see the necessity of modern roads, buildings, schools (even modernising the great mosque itself) I pray they will also see the necessity of modernising the methods to propagate Islam, and project an image that the mind of the modern world can understand.”
His words summarise that Islam has the solution to all problems, and it’s the only solution. It is time we propagate Islam in an understandable manner to the world. There are thousands of people in dire need of divine guidance to lead a peaceful life. There are millions of the Malcolm Xs waiting to become the Malik Al Shahbazs.