Malcolm X was once an American Black Muslim minister. He also was one of the leaders of the Nation of Islam. It is the disparity between these two belief systems that has led to some confusion about what Malcolm X did & did not believe. The Nation of Islam was separatist, believing that white people are the products of the devil and that black people were supposed to be atop the social order. However, after a pilgrimage to Mecca, in 1964, X became a Sunni Muslim & left the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X now viewed Muslims of different races as equal & thought that all could get along eventually. (Excluded, however, were persons of differing faiths.)
This quotation from Autobiography describes his religious & social outlook:
My thinking had been opened up wide in Mecca. I wrote long letters to my friends (about) my search for truth and justice. “I’ve had enough of someone else’s propaganda,” I had written to these friends. “I am for truth, no matter who tells it. I am for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I am a human being first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” ... I believe in anger. I believe it is a crime for anyone who is being brutalized to continue to accept that brutality without doing something to defend himself. ...(L)et me remind you that when the white man came into this country, he certainly wasn’t demonstrating non-violence."
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