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Malcolm X: Who Is El-Haj Malik El-Shabazz?

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Who is El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz? No one knows him, but at the same time everyone does. El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz is Malcolm X and although people may know what he has generally done throughout his lifetime and the impact he made, most don’t even know one the biggest factors of Malcolm X’s political fame. Malcolm X’s relation with Islam was one of the biggest factors in regards of his political stances and views. I will refer to Malcolm X as El-Shabazz in this essay to perpetuate the reality of Malcolm X being a Muslim. However, the name Malcolm X has deep significance as well because the “X” is used to convey the fact that the last name for an African American was given by slave owners, so in a sense African Americans’ last names are really …show more content…

While in prison El-Shabazz converted/joined the NOI and around 1952 he moved to Chicago to work with the organization. At this point in El-Shabazz’s life, he did not know or learn any of the basic traditions of Islam, nor was he taught all of them appropriately by his mentor Elijah Muhammad. El-Shabazz became the spokesman for the NOI, meaning he was speaking for Elijah Muhammad. El-Shabazz himself notes that every time he spoke to a crowd, he mentioned “The honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us.” As you can see at this current moment, Islam isn’t having an influence necessarily on El-Shabazz’s politics, but it’s merely whatever Elijah Muhammad is telling him to say and teaching the NOI to advocate for. The core belief of the NOI at this moment was African superiority, separation of African Americans from white Americans, and that white racism was forever established and there was no changing white peoples racist view on colored people. The foundation of the NOI was known as “Yacub’s History,” which believed that all humans were Black in the beginning of time itself and later on throughout time an evil man who was a scientist; Mr. Yacub created an evil race of people, which were the White. The whites then ruled over countless races and enslaved Blacks, but in 1931 …show more content…

Evidently this organization was not a civil rights organization, in fact El-Shabazz made many remarks towards Dr. King’s teachings and talked down on his peaceful fight for integration. It is not clear if El-Shabazz was told to make these comments, but it is very likely the NOI had an influence on these comments because the NOI was not for integration, but for separation. Obviously El-Shabazz is his own person and chooses to make his own choices, so the point that is not trying to be made is that El-Shabazz is being forced to say certain things or cannot make decisions on his own on beliefs. The point to be made is that the NOI is having a specific influence on El-Shabazz’s beliefs and that El-Shabazz is being the voice for the NOI rather than having all his personal beliefs being told. This is one of the reasons why El-Shabazz chooses to tear away from the NOI. During the March on Washington of 1963, El-Shabazz realized how many people came and saw the influence Dr. King had, so El-Shabazz thought that the NOI should join in with the civil rights movement, though clearly the NOI was not for this. There are many factors at play for which El-Shabazz left the NOI, in the end it is obvious that El-Shabazz had different views than the NOI and dived more deeply into the ethical issues of Islam for his

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