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Would Malcolm have become the man that we know and admire absent his practice of Islam? Was Islam not a moralizing force in his life? Did it not give him an expansive view of human possibility? Did it not inform his political consciousness? https://twitter.com/DabSquad_Slank/status/1386762004904435724
This raises a number of potent questions about the conceptual factors which shape Black revolutionaries. Consider the Christianity of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner's or Denmark Vessey, or even Boukman's Vodun (possibly syncretized with Islam).
Doubtlessly their religious beliefs shaped their conception of themselves, the world, and the struggle of their people. In this way, the question of religious beliefs is critical in informing aspects of their worldview.
I would argue that rather than being deterministic, African revolutionaries' engagement w/ non-African religions, especially Abrahamic ones, are mediated by a range of other factors incl. their own cultural traditions, political & economic developments, & their aims & objectives.
Thus, the religious practice is a mediator of indigenous concerns (i.e., Black liberation, cultural continuity, moral correction, etc.), while also being a medium for such things to gain expression (i.e., Bishop Turner's conception of Black self-defense as a divine action).
In the case of Malcolm X, not only does the above also apply, but Malcolm's spiritual practice enabled for him conceive of and strive for two ideals, one social, the other political--the ummah as an exemplar of human unity and Pan-Africanism as an expression of African unity.
Malcolm didn't seek for African ppl or their concerns to be subsumed by Islam or those of the broader Islamic world. Rather he saw Islam as an anchor in an African past pre-dating the enslavement of his ancestors, a catalyst for moral regeneration, & a potent politicizing force.
Central to the critiques of Islam (and Abrahamic religion in general) is the idea that these are alien traditions, which facilitate the alienation of African people. While these are impassioned arguments, the scholarship of Diop, Faraji, and others a nuanced view.
Though I think that Abrahamic traditions can be a source of alienation, I also believe that corrupted indigenous traditions can be as well.
The key, which Malcolm taught us through his actions, is to place one's people's interest at the center of all that one does.
Hence Malcolm became a Muslim, but not a proxy for alien interests. He was a Black nationalist and a Pan-Africanist, and these were enriched, not impoverished by Islam--his spiritual grounding.
