Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian,soc.culture.pakistan,soc.culture.bangladesh
Subject: Letter from Malcom X (RE:Idols...)
From: yea027@marshall.wvnet.edu
Date: 15 Dec 92 11:24:33 -0500
Organization: Marshall University

Bismillahe rahmaano rahmeem
Salam alaikum,
	I have been asked to post the following letter written by Al-Hajj
 Malik El-Shabazz to his loyal assistants in Harlem when we was in Mekkah for 
the Pilgrimage.

	"Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and overwhelming 
spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colours 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 colours.
	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 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 colours, from blue-eyed blonds 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 believer never could 
exist between the white and non-white.
	Americans need to understand Islam, because this is the one religion 
that erases from its society the race problem.  Through 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 colours together, irrespective of their colour.
	You may be shocked by these words coming from me.  But on this 
pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearange much 
of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous 
conclusions.  This is 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's 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 Muslim, 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 and in the deeds of 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 mind, 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 colour.
	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 int American 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 honoured.  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 honours-honours that in 
American would be bestowed upon a King-not a Negro.
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all the Worlds.
Sincerely,
Al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcom X)"

Perhaps we can all learn from the words of this wise man.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian