> We must also note that Islam and Muslims were here and in other parts
> of the Americas/Western Hemisphere/New World more than 300 years
> before Christopher Columbus' visit. For more on this, consult my book
> titled Keyboard Jihad: Attempts to Rectify the Misperceptions and
> Misrepresentations of Islam (2011). I also have a nice power point
> presentation on the topic.
>
> In Peace Always,
> Karim/.
>
>
>> [Original Message]
>> From: Tracy Flemming <cafenegritude@gmail.com>
>> To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
>> Date: 6/30/2011 11:25:22 AM
>> Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Malcolm X: A Life of
>> Reinvention - Book Review
>>
>> The development of Islam in the U.S. dates back to the Atlantic slave
>> trade and Marable examines the growth of Islam during slavery, the
>> rise of black nationalism in the mid-1800?s, the teachings of Edward
>> Wilmot Blyden, the father of Pan-Africanism, as well as black urban
>> Islamist sects like the Noble Drew Ali?s Moorish Science Temple of
>> America. With the decline of the Garvey movement, which was the
>> largest black led movement in the early 20th century comprised of
>> cultural nationalism and black capitalism, many former Garveyites
>> became attracted to the Lost-Found Nation of Islam (NOI) under the
>> leadership of W.D. Fard and eventually, Elijah Poole, who would later
>> become Elijah Muhammad.
>>
>> Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention - Book Review
>>
>> Jun 27, 2011
>> By Eljeer Hawkins, Harlem, New York
>>
>> Book Review
>> Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention
>> By Manning Marable
>>
>> May 19 marked the 86th birthday of Malcolm X; it has been 46 years
>> since his public assassination. In the hearts and minds of workers
>> particularly black workers, the poor, and youth across the world,
>> Malcolm X remains an icon of revolutionary spirit and commitment to
>> justice, freedom, and liberty for the most oppressed people in the
>> world. Malcolm exposed the racism, white supremacy, and its tragic
>> effects on people of African descent throughout the United States and
>> Diaspora.
>>
>> On April 1, 2011, three days before the release of Malcolm X: A Life
>> of Reinvention, its author, Dr. Manning Marable, succumbed to
>> complications of pneumonia. Marable, a noted scholar of the African-
>> American experience in the U.S. was an activist, editor and author of
>> 20 books, which included the 1983 trailblazing polemic How Capitalism
>> Underdeveloped Black America.
>>
>> In writing the biography, Marable intended to highlight the missing
>> three chapters from Alex Haley?s The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Those
>> chapters are in the hands of Detroit lawyer Gregory Reed, who owns the
>> recently-discovered papers of W.D. Fard, originator of the Lost-Found
>> Nation of Islam. A key task of the new book is to launch a campaign to
>> investigate the wider conspiracy to assassinate Malcolm X and bring to
>> justice one of the assailants who fired the ?kill shot? ending the
>> life of Malcolm on February 21, 1965 at the Audubon Ballroom in
>> Harlem.
>>
>> ?Although in 1966 three NOI members were convicted of the murder,
>> extensive evidence suggests that two of these men were completely
>> innocent of the crime, that both the FBI and the NYPD had advance
>> knowledge of it, and that the New York County District Attorney?s
>> office may have cared more about protecting the identities of
>> undercover police officers and informants than arresting the real
>> killers,? (p. 13).
>>
>> Marable aims to show Malcolm?s struggle to overcome his human flaws
>> and become one of the most important and revered leaders of the black
>> freedom movement in the 20th century. In the build-up to the release
>> of the biography - some 10 years in the making - new detailed
>> information was supposed to be revealed. Marable has been dismissive
>> of works published in the late '80s and '90s on Malcolm X?s life and
>> using the rescued collection of Malcolm X?s diaries, photos, letters,
>> speeches and other material (now archived at the Schomburg Center for
>> Research in Black Culture) to ?reconstruct the full contours of his
>> remarkable life.?
>>
>> The Black Experience in the United States
>> In the early chapters of the book, Marable delves into Malcolm?s early
>> childhood, the conditions African-Americans faced in early 20th
>> century, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and the growth of U.S.
>> capitalism and white supremacy. He deals with the rise of Jamaican-
>> born publisher and journalist, Marcus Garvey and his Universal Negro
>> Improvement Association (UNIA) movement (Malcolm?s parents, Earl and
>> Louise Little, were members) and the development of socialist,
>> communist, trade unionism, culture, art and radical politics in the
>> wider society and the black community in urban centers like Harlem,
>> New York. In the Harlem community ?Negro and white canvassers sidled
>> up alongside you, talking fast as they tried to get you to buy a copy
>> of the Daily Worker (Communist Party USA newspaper): ?This paper?s
>> trying to keep your rent controlled?Make that greedy landlord kill
>> them rats in your apartment?Who do you think fought the hardest to
>> help free those Scottsboro boys?? (p. 52).
>>
>> The development of Islam in the U.S. dates back to the Atlantic slave
>> trade and Marable examines the growth of Islam during slavery, the
>> rise of black nationalism in the mid-1800?s, the teachings of Edward
>> Wilmot Blyden, the father of Pan-Africanism, as well as black urban
>> Islamist sects like the Noble Drew Ali?s Moorish Science Temple of
>> America. With the decline of the Garvey movement, which was the
>> largest black led movement in the early 20th century comprised of
>> cultural nationalism and black capitalism, many former Garveyites
>> became attracted to the Lost-Found Nation of Islam (NOI) under the
>> leadership of W.D. Fard and eventually, Elijah Poole, who would later
>> become Elijah Muhammad.
>>
>> The Nation of Islam spoke out against the hypocrisy of American
>> democracy, capitalism, white supremacy, and the horrid conditions
>> faced by black people since slavery. Drawing their membership from the
>> urban black working class, poor, prison population and the semi-
>> employed, NOI preached and practiced a combination of cultural Black
>> Nationalism and pro-capitalist ideals. NOI was a top-down leadership,
>> including a paramilitary wing. Theologically, NOI preached that black
>> people are the ?chosen people? to be delivered from the evil of white-
>> supremacy. It was a distinct form of black American Islam that was not
>> recognized by mainstream Sunni Islam in the Middle East. The NOI would
>> even conduct secret negotiations with George Lincoln Rockwell's
>> American Nazi party and invite George Lincoln Rockwell to speak from
>> its platform. Marable writes: ?both groups, after all, dreamed of a
>> segregated world in which interracial marriages were outlawed and the
>> races dwelled in separate states,? (p. 199).
>>
>> Marable covers Malcolm?s political association with organizations and
>> activists like the Revolutionary Action Movement, Fannie Lou Hamer,
>> and the Socialist Workers Party before and after his split from the
>> NOI. Also, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention shows Malcolm?s connection
>> to leaders of the anti-colonial movement like Julius Nyerere of
>> Tanzania and Nasser of Egypt, his meeting with Fidel Castro in Harlem
>> in 1960 and a possible meeting with Che Guevara in late 1964. All of
>> this expanded his popularity and broadened his international
>> understanding. Malcolm would frequently use in his political speeches
>> to stress the importance of the 1955 Bandung Conference of the non-
>> aligned countries of the former colonial world that were not linked to
>> U.S./Western imperialism or the Stalinist Soviet Union.
>>
>> New Material
>> Marable?s new and groundbreaking material is in the chronological
>> details of Malcolm?s 25 weeks away from the United States during his
>> hajj to Mecca. Malcolm?s trips throughout the Middle East and Africa
>> had a huge effect on his thinking on Islam and the colonial revolution
>> as he and the Muslim Mosque, Inc. attempted to gain legitimacy in the
>> mainstream Muslim world. Malcolm believed spirituality Islam could
>> play a role in the liberation struggle against racism and white
>> supremacy. Malcolm states, ?Our success in America will involve two
>> circles, black nationalism and Islam?And Islam will link us
>> spiritually to Africa, Arabia and Asia,? (p. 311-312).
>>
>> Malcolm attempted to forge links with newly-independent African
>> nations like Ghana. Despite the gains from the transfer of power in
>> 1957 from England, by the mid-60?s there were political criticisms
>> against Nkrumah and the ruling Convention People?s Party, for a lack
>> of democracy and the rise of a cult of personality. As Marable points
>> out, Malcolm surely heard the criticisms from the African-American
>> expatriates but might have turned a blind eye to it. Malcolm may have
>> also endorsed the authoritarian measures by the government. Malcolm?s
>> trips to Africa sought to gain support for his repeated calls for the
>> United Nations to condemn U.S. human rights violations,and were
>> important steps to internationalize the black freedom movement in the
>> U.S.
>>
>> Marable brings out the challenges facing Malcolm, navigating the
>> difficult geo-political dilemmas facing former colonialized countries
>> like Ghana, Nigeria, and Tanzania in a polarized world dominated by
>> imperialism and Stalinism and experimenting with hybrid ?African
>> socialist/capitalist? models. William Sales, author of From Civil
>> Rights to Black Liberation: Malcolm X and the Organization of Afro-
>> American Unity states, ?The various African socialisms and the systems
>> established on that basis in Africa have been criticized by African
>> Marxists as veiled apologies for the consolidation of various forms of
>> dependency and dependent capitalism. In some of these countries, the
>> Communist Party was either outlawed or its members harassed by the
>> government as was the case in Egypt under Nasser?? (p. 86).
>>
>> Malcolm?s political and religious relationship with Nasser's Egypt,
>> the Muslim Brotherhood, the Saudi royal family and his denunciation of
>> Israeli Zionism would pose serious questions for Malcolm?s
>> international work. Marable explains, ?This calculated view reflected
>> the broader balancing act he (Malcolm X) performed throughout his time
>> in the Middle East. Egypt?s secular government stood forcefully at
>> odds with religious groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, which had been
>> implicated in a 1954 plot to kill Nasser and subsequently banned?
>> Malcolm, indebted to both sides, could not afford to take positions
>> that might offend either. During his stay in Cairo, his Islamic
>> studies were directed by Sheikh Muhammad Surur al-Sabban, the
>> secretary-general of the Muslim World League. This group was financed
>> by the Saudi government and it reflected conservative political views,
>> so Malcolm had to exercise considerable tact and political
>> discretion.? (p. 368)
>>
>> One of the great questions about Malcolm?s political development has
>> to do with his statements on socialism and capitalism. As Marable and
>> Sales point out, despite Malcolm?s anti-capitalist statements and
>> favorable socialist remarks on the platform of the Socialist Workers
>> Party?s Militant Labor forums and socialism practiced in the so-called
>> third world, Malcolm was not a socialist. At the time of his
>> assassination, Malcolm was clearly moving in a new political direction
>> which could have led him to socialist conclusions or deepening his
>> revolutionary nationalist ideas. Malcolm didn?t have access to genuine
>> Marxism at home or abroad. Professor Sales states, ?Those who noted
>> Malcolm?s turn toward socialism, like George Breitman and Michael
>> Williams, consistently failed to make a distinction between the
>> Marxist-Leninist tradition of ?scientific? socialism and the socialist
>> thought of Malcolm X. There is no information available that
>> demonstrates that Malcolm X seriously studied Marxism-Leninism,? (p.
>> 86).
>>
>> Marable documents an interview Malcolm had with NY Times reporter M.S.
>> Handler, exposing Malcolm?s ambiguity to socialist ideas.
>>
>> ?I am not anti-American, un-American, seditious nor subversive. I
>> don?t buy the anti-capitalist propaganda of the communist, nor do I
>> buy the anti-communist propaganda of capitalists?I?m for whoever and
>> whatever benefits humanity (human beings) as a whole whether they are
>> capitalist, communists or socialist, all have assets as well as
>> liabilities?? (p. 369).
>>
>> The material dealing with the assassination plot in Marable?s
>> biography have been covered extensively in Karl Evanzz?s book The
>> Judas Factor: the Plot to Kill Malcolm X published in 1992, and Zak
>> Kondo, author of Conspiracy: Unraveling the Assassination of Malcolm
>> X, published in 1993.
>>
>> From his release from prison in 1952 to his public assassination,
>> Malcolm?s actions were monitored by the state authorities. The plot to
>> kill Malcolm X flowed from the governmental opposition under the
>> auspices of the Counter Intelligence Program (Cointelpro), which
>> sought to prevent the development of a unified radical movement with
>> leadership. Cointelpro used disruptive methods such as sending
>> falsified letters to organizations and leaders that would lead to
>> bloodshed in the black community. Cointelpro, developed under the
>> leadership of FBI Director, J.Edgar Hoover, was a continuation of the
>> Palmer raids of the early 1900s and the McCarthy witch-hunts of the
>> late 40s and early 50s to neutralize the movements of resistance
>> against U.S. big business at home and abroad.
>>
>> The NOI and Malcolm?s Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) and
>> Muslim Mosque, Inc. (MMI) was thoroughly infiltrated by the FBI and
>> New York City police department (BOSS unit) respectively. Marable
>> points out, ?The NYPD?s narrative about Malcolm?s murder was simple.
>> The slaying was the culmination of an almost yearlong feud between two
>> black hate groups. The NYPD had two priorities in conducting its
>> investigation: first, to protect the identities of its undercover
>> police officers and informants, like Gene Roberts; and second, to make
>> successful cases against NOI members with histories of violence. Its
>> hasty and haphazard treatment of forensic evidence at the crime scene
>> suggested that it had little interest in solving the actual
>> homicide,? (p. 451).
>>
>> Marable highlights the five assailants are from the NOI Newark, New
>> Jersey mosque. The three men convicted of killing Malcolm; Norman 3X
>> Butler, Thomas 15X Johnson, and Talmadge Hayer convicted of first
>> degree murder in 1966, were sentenced to life. Both Butler and Johnson
>> fought for their innocence in the conspiracy to kill Malcolm. Talmadge
>> Hayer was paroled in April 2010 with great protest from activists.
>> Marable makes the claim, the ?killshot? assailant Willie Bradley is
>> still alive, living in New Jersey and was never brought to justice.
>>
>> Malcolm?s internationalism and revolutionary message was a powerful
>> challenge to the American empire at home and abroad. The conspiracy to
>> kill Malcolm X was a collective effort by elements in the NOI, FBI and
>> CIA, that is still unresolved today.
>>
>> Marable deals with the controversial aspects of Malcolm?s life like
>> his hustling days as Detroit Red and his homosexual relationship with
>> a rich white man named Paul Lennon. (This topic was covered by Bruce
>> Perry in his Malcolm X: The Life of a Man Who Changed Black America,
>> published in 1991.) The stormy, strained relationship and possible
>> extramarital affairs of both Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz are also
>> covered. Rather than place these events in their political, social and
>> cultural context, in our pop, sensationalized tabloid news, these
>> ?revelations? are receiving more attention by the corporate media in
>> its attempts to discredit Malcolm X.
>>
>> In the Age of Obama
>> Marable?s most questionable conclusions are the ones in the chapter
>> ?Reflections on a Revolutionary Vision.? Here Marable attempts to draw
>> a direct historical line from Malcolm X to President Obama?s
>> presidential win in 2008. Marable exclaims, ?These aspects of
>> Malcolm?s public personality were indelibly stamped into the Black
>> Power movement; they were present in the cry, ?It?s our turn!? by
>> black proponents of Harold Washington in the Democrat?s successful
>> 1983 mayoral race in Chicago. It was partially expressed in the
>> unprecedented voter turnouts in black neighborhoods in Jesse Jackson?s
>> presidential campaigns of 1984 and 1988 and in the successful
>> electoral bid of Barack Obama in 2008. Malcolm truly anticipated that
>> the black electorate could potentially be the balance of power in a
>> divided white republic,? (p. 483).
>>
>> This sorry attempt to mollify Malcolm?s uncompromising stance against
>> the corporate two-party system of U.S. capitalism, is intended to
>> neuter the militant, independent, and revolutionary message that
>> Malcolm articulated in his April 3, 1964 speech, The Ballot or The
>> Bullet.
>>
>> ?They get all the Negro vote, and after they get it, the Negro gets
>> nothing in return. All they did when they got to Washington was give a
>> few big Negroes big jobs. Those big Negroes didn?t need big jobs, they
>> already had jobs. That?s camouflage, that?s trickery, that?s
>> treachery, window-dressing. I?m not trying to knock out the Democrats
>> for the Republicans; we?ll get them in a minute. But it is true - you
>> put the Democrats first and the Democrats put you last.?
>>
>> The best example of Malcolm?s independent electoral program for black
>> people could be seen in the 1966 Lowndes County Freedom Organization
>> in rural Lowndes County, Alabama. Organized by Stokely Carmichael and
>> SNCC, it was an all-black independent political party that fought
>> against black political disenfranchisement and white supremacy. This
>> project was spurred on by the events and lessons of the Mississippi
>> Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) and Fannie Lou Hamer protest at the
>> Democratic Party Atlantic City convention in 1964, when the Democratic
>> and Mississippi Democratic Party leadership refused to recognize the
>> MFDP delegates at the convention. The Freedom Now Party (FNP) was
>> founded in 1963 by black militants within Detroit who had close ties
>> to Malcolm, and they spoke frequently at political rallies with Rev
>> Albert B. Cleage Jr. and Milton brothers, while he was a member of
>> NOI, and then afterward. The FNP ran independent black candidates for
>> governor, congress, the state senate and the board of education in
>> 1964.
>>
>> The last two chapters of Marable?s Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention,
>> and also Peniel Joseph?s Dark Days, Bright Nights: From Black Power to
>> Barack Obama and Ta-Neshisi Coates review of Marable?s biography
>> titled "The Legacy of Malcolm X: Why his vision lives on in Barack
>> Obama" published in Atlantic Magazine are all intended to render
>> Malcolm X?s revolutionary stance against empire and racism
>> ?unnecessary? in the face of the so-called ?post-racial? U.S. society
>> and the first black president occupying the White House. These
>> apologists for this corporate war president and the capitalist system
>> have re-packaged Malcolm X as an ?outdated firebrand? who would have
>> had to check his revolutionary message at the door in today?s
>> political environment. A far more accurate description of Obama is to
>> be found in Cornell West?s statement describing Obama as ?a black
>> mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate
>> plutocrats.? West goes on to point out that Obama has now ?become head
>> of the American killing machine and is proud of it? (Chris Hedges,
>> ?The Obama Deception: Why Cornel West Went Ballistic,? Truthdig,
>> 5/16/11)
>>
>> The Meaning of Malcolm X Today
>> Marable?s Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention allows a new generation to
>> study and learn more about Malcolm. But Marable?s biography shouldn?t
>> be looked upon as the ?definitive? work because there are more aspects
>> of his life and political trajectory that demand further study and
>> research. Malcolm?s life experience and world events moved him to be
>> an active participant in the revolutionary awakening and revolt of the
>> 1950s and '60s. Malcolm?s revolutionary nationalism, pan-Africanism,
>> anti-imperialism, and anti-corporate stances inspired the birth of the
>> Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, the militancy of the Student
>> Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), militant trade unionism of
>> the League of Revolutionary Black Workers in Detroit, and other
>> radical and socialist organizations.
>>
>> Malcolm matters because the conditions that produced Malcolm still
>> exist. The abject poverty, racism, high rates of unemployment, mass
>> prison incarceration, police violence, layoffs and massive budget
>> cuts, are a byproduct of a sick capitalist system - based on
>> delivering profits for a small ruling elite. These conditions are
>> producing a new generation of revolutionaries who will be inspired by
>> the shining example of Malcolm X:
>>
>> ?I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed
>> and those who do the oppressing. I believe that there will be clash
>> between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and
>> those who want to continue the system of exploitation. I believe that
>> there will be that kind of clash??
>> --Malcolm X
>>
>> --
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