9781422277799

With his Islamic faith serving as the guiding force behind his life and work, Malcolm X made a soul- searching pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in the spring of 1964 to visit the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad, the religion’s founder. The Prophet Muhammad’s teachings are contained within the Islamic holy scriptures, written in Arabic.

the religion of Islam. However, the Nation of Islam differs from orthodox Islam in many ways, due to the additional teachings of the Nation’s founder, W.D. Fard, and his successor, Elijah Muhammad. They wanted to create a separate black nation within the United States. Likemost followers of the Nation of Islam (who are known as Black Muslims), Malcolm had learned to view all whites as “devils” and had indicated his allegiance to the Nation by changing his name from Malcolm Little to Malcolm X. (For many Black Muslims, bold-looking letter Xs are used to replace the surnames given to their ancestors by slave owners.) Malcolm X, however, had recently separated from the movement and altered his views on America’s racial problems. He had converted to a mainstream form

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